- 2 days ago
The 2026 Audi RS 3 is the last of its kind. Ben McKimm from Man of Many takes the hot hatch out for its last on-road review through tight, twisty mountain roads.
With this latest generation, Audi retained the legendary 5-cylinder turbocharged engine while others downsize. However, with European emissions laws accelerating electrification, it's not long for this world. Priced from AUD$104,800 before on-road costs, we test whether this hatch's raw performance justifies the premium tag compared to
With this latest generation, Audi retained the legendary 5-cylinder turbocharged engine while others downsize. However, with European emissions laws accelerating electrification, it's not long for this world. Priced from AUD$104,800 before on-road costs, we test whether this hatch's raw performance justifies the premium tag compared to
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00If Ferrari has their V12s and Lamborghini has their V10s or had their V10s, then Audi's special
00:07trick is the five-cylinder turbocharged engine that's under the bonnet of this RS3. It's still
00:12here, people. I know they're taking a lot of these engines away from us, but not this one.
00:39This is the 2025 Audi RS3, and if you're looking at this car or you're just interested and you want
00:45to hear it, I don't blame you because that's the main reason why you're buying this car,
00:50the five-cylinder turbocharged engine under the bonnet. So today in this video, I'm going to do
00:54a bit less of this, and I'm just going to take this car for a drive because we've found some
00:58of
00:58the best driving roads outside of Sydney and a beautiful place to shoot this car. So
01:03this is the 2025 Audi RS3, a quick exterior walk around, a quick look on the inside, but then
01:08mostly driving.
01:19So what's it like in this Audi RS3? Well, to be honest, it feels a lot like a normal A3
01:25in here.
01:25I'm not going to say that it's bad by any means, but I'm not the biggest fan of these modern
01:30Volkswagen group interiors. I'm just not. There's too many pieces of evidence of cost cutting,
01:36and I think some of these materials like up here on the door, I mean, that's soft touch because
01:40that's where your arm goes, but further down, a lot of scratchy plastic, including this door pull here,
01:45which is easy to use, but it's plastic. And if you take a look at the lock unlock, on the
01:49other side,
01:49there's a blank. So things like that, I'm just not the biggest fan of. And this sort of textured
01:55plastic material up here on the dashboard, yeah, it's soft-ish to the touch, but it really should
02:01be leather wrapped or Alcantara wrapped. This one doesn't have the interior design package that you
02:06can get for the RS3. Not the biggest fan of this sort of texture on the steering wheel either, but
02:11it
02:11does give you a bit of grip. Seats, on the other hand, these sort of RS sports seats are quite
02:18nice.
02:18I do like this hexagonal pattern. It feels very Lambo, and that stitching is really nice in red
02:24up there. It also continues down to the door trim over here. So yeah, you do get a bit of
02:30ambient
02:30lighting here on the side of the door, but overall, I'm not in love with this interior, and I think
02:35the
02:36interior of cars like the M240i, which I had not that long ago, are a notch above, and they're similarly
02:41priced. If we turn it on, so you've got just a sort of traditional start-stop button, car power's up,
02:48wireless charging pad down here, two USB-C ports. You've got two cup holders here in the middle,
02:53which are pretty decent size. Yeah, there's not actually any place to put your hand either,
02:57because they've deleted the gear selector or gear shifter. There's no way to put your hand,
03:01so don't love that either. This is sort of traditional Audi group stuff up here
03:05on the screen. So yeah, it's all pretty snappy, and it works quite well. However,
03:11it's by no means class-leading. I think BMW still wins in that regard. In front of me,
03:17you've got a pretty normal-looking steering wheel. These are sort of capacitive touch buttons,
03:21but I have to say they actually do work, including the one over here that, yeah, I mean,
03:25you can press it or slide it, but to be honest, sliding the volume control up and down like that
03:29is easy as well. Some RS modes up here, which are customizable. You can set an individual mode,
03:34which I have, and then in front of you, a digital driver's display. I've got this set up in the
03:38RS design one, so it's got a central rev counter there. There is actually a good amount of space
03:43in the back of this one. You've got a bit more space in the hatchback than you do in the
03:46sedan.
03:47I've been driven that one last year, but yeah, I can't say I love the interior of it. It doesn't
03:52necessarily feel like a car that's over $100,000, but most of the money you're paying is going into
03:57that driving experience, so I think it's about time we get on the road. So let's take this thing for
04:02a drive.
04:05So the first thing you've got to do with this car is put it into performance mode. So to do
04:10that,
04:11you hit this race button up here, and then into sport mode by pushing down again there,
04:16and then it's on manual, and it locks itself in manual. Then you're away.
04:26Revs all the way out to 7,000, which is pretty darn good for a five-cylinder engine in a
04:33hatchback.
04:34Let's not forget that. It sounds phenomenal. You constantly want to use all of the gears,
04:43and it's fast. Zero to 100 kilometers an hour in this car is marked at 3.8 seconds,
04:50but I reckon it's actually close to 3.6 seconds. You're looking at about 300 kilowatts of power,
04:56which is near as makes no difference. 400 horsepower, and that's in a car that's up to
05:01Euro 6 emissions. So 2025, this thing is surprisingly quite loud, because cars aren't loud anymore.
05:14Listen to that.
05:17It sounds so good, this car. That engine is potent, but how else does it drive? Well,
05:23it's honestly quite impressive how they've managed to make this thing drive completely different to
05:29other hatchbacks. It's not really too much like a Mark 7R. I know the Mark 7R Golf R that is
05:35now has
05:35this sort of trick rear differential, and that really helps when you're cornering through tight
05:39corners mainly. The fast, flowy stuff is not all that interesting, but the engine is what I'm
05:45interested in.
05:59It's one of these cars where you just want to be quiet and not say anything.
06:04We've picked a pretty quick road, to be honest. I think this road's probably
06:08a little bit too much for this car. It's actually really right at home on tight, more twisty roads,
06:16where you can actually really feel that rear differential, but here on these fast-flowing
06:21roads, you don't get to feel it too much. We actually spent a bit of time, and I've actually
06:27reviewed Golf R on track and on some nice tight, twisty roads, and I could speak for that rear
06:34differential in this car based on that experience, and it really helps bring that rear end through,
06:39particularly on the corner exit. When you feed the car power, it really drags itself out, not
06:43through the nose like a typical Haldex front-wheel drive-by system, but through the rear end, and you
06:49can really feel it push itself out of the corner, particularly in lower gears when you're using all
06:53of that power. That sounds like a V10, and you can't tell me otherwise. That sounds so much like
07:04a modern V10. It's not screening its way to 8 or 9,000 RPM, but it has that really throaty,
07:11sort of
07:13deep tone that ends up being quite a nice crescendo towards the higher RPMs. It's right there.
07:22It sounds fantastic. In terms of the actual sound, you don't get this sort of crazy rally-style
07:30pops and bangs that you got on the previous generation vehicle that was not withheld to
07:35such strict emissions controls, but look, I'm not too offended by the fact that this doesn't
07:41have overrun and pops and bangs, because that mid-range is just so sweet. 4,000 RPM, you're
07:48really on boost, and it's not hanging around. I actually have a corner here, so how does the
07:58steering weight up? It's bang on. Doesn't actually feel anything really like a Golf through the front
08:04end, or a Golf R, which is a pretty high benchmark. It clearly has a pretty unique tune, especially on
08:11and off-centre. It's really nice and tight on-centre. You can get a bit of the differential when you're
08:18through corners like this, and you start to feed a power on the exit. It's not dragging itself out,
08:23which is such a trait of front-wheel-drive bias vehicles, but it's just not the case here
08:27with the RS3. Steering is good. A little bit of overrun. A little bit. What about the gearbox?
08:42It's pretty quick. Yeah. It shifts as quick as you can pretty much pull the paddle, which is a
08:49trait similar, once again, to that Mark 8 Golf R, but a good one. Volkswagen Group, in general,
08:58has really figured out their dual-clutch transmissions over the years of refining and
09:01refining and refining. I think a lot of car brands went to dual-clutch because they were the more
09:06superior box, but then they switched back to a torque converter automatic, but they haven't here,
09:11and I think they're the better for it. It really is PDK-esque. I know some people in the
09:18comments section of my Golf R video were like, there's no way that thing's PDK-esque, but I'll
09:21show you something cool. So, I'm going to pull it out of manual mode. We're in sport mode.
09:28I'm cruising along at 80 kilometers an hour, and we'll see how long it takes to kick down,
09:32and we're actually in 60 now. Ready? 3, 2, 1, 4, 6 to 3rd.
09:40You can't tell me that's not PDK-esque. That is exactly what the PDK is so great at, and this
09:46car does it
09:46for a third of the price, and it has the sound. But I want to jump back into performance,
09:56grab a manual gear, and have a bit more fun in this car. I think what I'll do now is
10:04just
10:05not say anything. I'll shut up for a second. I can listen to this car.
10:36Super quick.
10:39This is a hatchback. It's not a golf platform.
10:45Wow, you can feel that rear end through there.
10:57So, what don't I like about this car?
11:00We've talked about the interior a little bit. There's a lot of scratchy plastics, and this gauge
11:04cluster. There's a piece of plastic here that is sort of making a bit of an irritating sound.
11:11The steering wheel is definitely more comfortable in hand than it sort of looks, maybe.
11:19Other than that, I'd love to see some better seats. I mean, these are great seats. They're comfortable.
11:23I can't quite get comfortable in them.
11:27Sounds so good.
11:29That's why you buy an RS3. You almost don't want to put holes in this thing, because I'm just glad
11:35that there's a five-cylinder around.
11:37Steering is great. Gearbox is great. It does feel like... Okay, so maybe the one thing you could say about
11:43this car is that if you don't absolutely love the sound of the five-cylinder engine, a golfer is giving
11:48you 85% to 90% of this experience and not far off the performance for a lot less money.
11:56Talking sort of $30,000 or $40,000. That's really the only sort of hole I can poke in the
12:02RS3. The other thing about the Golf is it doesn't have the five-cylinder engine. It's not an Audi, and
12:06it doesn't look as good as this car, so...
12:09The RS3. I think you can tell from the smile on my face that it's a pretty special thing.
12:18Let's head back to the location. I'll give you my final thoughts.
12:26You didn't go full on this, did I? I did. I did, all the way to the floor. All the
12:29way.
12:30Okay. Nice.
12:32So that's it for the 2025 Audi RS3. It's so special to be driving a car with a five-cylinder
12:39engine. As I said at the start of the video, they just want to take all these things away from
12:44us.
12:44So I'm so glad that Audi has sort of kept up the fight, so to stay, to keep this engine
12:48around, because it is a beauty.
12:50Overall, I'm really impressed with the car. I'm not absolutely in love with that interior by any means, but when
12:56you're driving the car, which is what you want to be doing in this thing, that engine is just really
13:00the star of the show, and I keep saying it over and over again.
13:03It's also a really fun car to drive. The way that the car's set up in terms of the handling,
13:07the steering, and all the inputs, it does reward you for being a driver.
13:11It's a driver's car, despite it being a quattro vehicle.
13:15Overall, I really love this Audi RS3, and if you do, let me know down in the comments section below.
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13:29Thanks for watching.
13:33Thanks for watching.