I’m Driving An Audi RS3 Saloon For 3 Months: What Do You Want To Know?
Just in time for the nasty (for the UK, at least) winter weather kicking in, TeamCT’s long-term test garage has gone full four-wheel drive! Alex has been running an all-wheel drive Jaguar F-Type R for the last few months, Car Throttle’s video team took delivery of a specced-up Skoda Kodiaq several weeks ago, and now I’ve said a teary goodbye to ‘our’ Mk7.5 VW Golf GTI (final report coming soon!) and replaced it with this Audi RS3.
It’s in saloon form, finished in Nardo Grey. It’ll set you back £44,700, before you start choosing options. And this particular RS3 has plenty of options. Those lovely ‘Super Sports’ front seats are £795 for instance, while the 19-inch wheels are £695. The fancier, carbon-infused engine cover will set you back £650 (you don’t really need that), the sports exhaust is £1000 (you do really need that), and the carbon ceramic brakes are a wallet-busting £4695. All told, these and quite a few other options inflate the RS3’s price to £59,475. Ouch.
Not exactly small change, but this is a car with supercar-baiting performance: its 2.5-litre inline-five turbo engine is good for 395bhp, making 0-62mph possible in 4.1 seconds.
We’ll be putting it up against key rivals in twin tests, bringing it together with fast Audis from the past and delving right down into the ins and outs of RS3 life, but as ever, we want you guys to get involve.
So, what do you want to know, and what would you like to see from the car? Get to the comments section!
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
What’s the flimsiest, crappiest button, lever, or control?
The vent surrounds are a bit cheap-feeling. Other than that though, it’s all solid and rather nice
Do you think the engine would suit a Passat or a Golf?
We already know the answer to that. WE NEED MORE 5 CYLINDERS!
Is the saloon boot better/more beneficial than the hatchback boot? From a styling and space view
Surprisingly hard to find official figures but space between the two is similar. Issue with the saloon is the opening will make it much harder to load stuff in, and you won’t have the roof height at the back to get something particularly tall in.
So it’s all down to styling really - I personally think the saloon looks more grown up, so it’s what I’d pick out of the two. A junior super saloon for £45k somehow computes better than a £45k hot hatch, even though they’re the same car…
Is the 0-60 4.1 seconds or 3.6 seconds?
Audi understates their numbers so it’s between 3.6 and 3.8 in most tests
How fast is it in reverse?
How effective is the 4 wheel drive system (Haldex?)? Maybe compare to BMW xDrive and a ‘traditional’ 4 wheel drive system.
Is it worth nearly twice the price of a Golf R, (I’m a Golf R owner looking at trading it in)
Shouldn’t work out as much as twice the price if you’re looking at comparably specced cars, but I’d say it is worth the extra. Feels more premium inside, Virtual Cockpit is way better than Active Info Display, and MY GOD that powertrain - dominates the whole experience
Does it go BWAHHHHHHHHH when you start it up like Jeremy said on TGT?
It goes ‘bwabadadah!’, and then for about 15 seconds it sounds like a bag of spanners. Go and have a look at the Instagram story I put up earlier today (@ctmatt201) and you’ll see what I mean…
Is it really as boring as Top Gear day it is?
As in Top Gear the programme or the mag? Either way ‘boring’ isn’t a word I’d use to describe it…
The most unique quirks and features pls
We’ll see what I discover. I do keep knocking the volume control with my leg, is that a quirk…?