Car Review: Audi S3 Sportback

A unique blend of abilities but a tad on the expensive side – even for a ‘premium’ brand

In the frame: the chassis is refined and unobtrusive (Audi)

The Audi S3 is a family hatchback with near-supercar performance. There’s quite a few of those around nowadays, truth be told, but few share by far the best feature on the Audi S3: a small button on the steering wheel with a speaker icon and the marking NAV on it. This is the one that, with the very minimum of effort, ie a movement of your right thumb of about two centimetres, will reassure the nervous driver that they really are going where they want to be going, that they are in the right lane and that they aren’t about to be asked to make a U-turn in 200 yards. Along with Tracey Crouch, the Government’s new minister for loneliness, it is a fine innovation for modern times, and will help make the most dismal of long solitary journeys just that little bit more bearable by providing some company, like life itself I suppose. That and Charlotte Green on Classic FM of course.

Driving buddy: press NAV for company on long journeys (The Independent)

If that sounds like I’ve ungratefully overlooked the Audi’s other qualities, I have done no such thing. It has fine roadholding, for example, thanks to the brand’s long established and celebrated expertise in ‘quattro’ four-wheel drive, though it has to be admitted this S3 has a bought-in proprietary Haldex system of the kind you’ll find in some other makes. It shouldn’t bother you too much, that. The system makes the best possible use of the vast horsepower available to the owner, planting it down on the tarmac with a regal lack of fuss. It almost challenges you to try to make the wheels spin or the chassis jerk around. Even a hooligan would not be able to upset the composure of the S3.

The S3 has other virtues. As a concept, it is a variation on the VW Golf GTI theme – performance, and in this case comfort, in a compact, practical five-seater package. It has excellent out-and-out ability, most tellingly on corners. For shorthand, then, you may think of it as a primped and preened Golf GTI – or, more accurately, of the GTI’s faster sibling the Golf R. Indeed, the VW’s crowded cupboard of marques contains a performance version of the basic Golf GTI/R design for every taste, the main mechanical bits clothed in different bodywork and decorated in varying styles. Thus, there is the Skoda Octavia vRS, roomy and down-to-earth; the Seat Leon Cupras, hatch and estate, always pushing new boundaries of sheer horsepower, and with a little more brio about them than the Audi, and the VW GTI sub-brand itself, which sits somewhere around the middle of the troupe for value, comfort and performance. Plus VW offer diesel variants of most of them, for those still open-minded enough, or forgiving, to give a diesel-powered VW fair consideration.

The spec

Audi S3 Sportback   

Price: £43,510 (range starts at £35,800)
Engine capacity: two-litre petrol; seven-speed automatic
Power output (PS @ rpm): 310@6,000
Top speed (mph): 155
0-62 mph (seconds): 4.6
Fuel economy (mpg): 42.8
CO2 emissions (g/km): 149

The petrol S3, though, is the classiest and most refined of the gang, the softly-spoken one, the one in a suit and tie, if you will. Unlike some past performance Audis, the styling of this latest, slightly tweaked, S3 is low key and unobtrusive, a little less of a target for unwanted attention on the streets. It is comfortable, too, and the traditional Audi strength of cabin quality is still there, though I have to say that over the years since Audi started setting benchmarks in this area, the competition has been catching up. The big let-down is the lack of a proper iPad-style touch screen, about which VW Group really ought to do something, and the sombre plastics that no longer perhaps possess the clear premium edge over say a Toyota or Peugeot that they once did. At the same time, the Audi feels as solid as it always did. Oddly, there was quite a bit of wind noise at speed during the recent very blustery days, but in normal weather conditions it is quite serene.

On the road: quattro technology means it hugs the tarmac (Audi)

The least favourite aspect of the S3 for me is the price – some £43,510 as tested. That does put the “premium” into premium brand, doesn’t it? It is expensive when set against machinery that will deliver the same or superior performance, including the new and extremely loud and raucous Honda Civic Type R or Ford Focus RS, and you can get much the same sort of personality from the more value-driven stalemates with Skoda, Seat and VW badges. A BMW M2 is not cheap, but does possess a very special rear-drive quality rarely available these days; the Mercedes-Benz AMG A45 is a less accomplished alternative. The Audi RS3 is the brand’s option for those seeking some more raw thrills.

Cabin pressure: other premium brands are catching up on comfort (Audi)

The Audi S3, surprisingly, still has a unique blend of abilities, and thus justifies occupying a niche of its own in the premium hot-hatch sector. Or rather four niches, while it is available, as here, as a five-door Sportback; there is also a handsome three-door hatch, a (2+2) convertible and, if you really want to be different, a small four-door saloon, all with a very similar technical set up and, in the right trim level, with that all-important NAV button on the wheel. For those fortunate enough to find themselves behind that steering wheel, the Audi S3 will go precisely where you wish it to.