A Weekend with the Audi S3 Saloon: A Driver's Paradise

As I stepped into the Audi S3 Saloon, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. With its sleek design and powerful engine, this car is sure to deliver an exhilarating driving experience. As I settled into the driver's seat, I took note of the various features and options that come standard with the S3. The infotainment system, for instance, boasts a large touchscreen display and a range of connectivity options, making it easy to stay connected on the go.

My first impression was with the car in economy mode, cruising down the motorway at a steady pace. While the S3 is undoubtedly a powerful vehicle, I wanted to see how well it could perform on long-distance driving. With the engine dialed back, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of comfort and refinement that the car provided. The ride was smooth and quiet, making me feel like I was gliding over the road rather than actually moving.

But as soon as I hit the twisty roads, the S3 came alive. With the manual gear shift and paddle shifters, I felt a sense of connection to the car that's hard to find in modern vehicles. The four-wheel drive system added an extra layer of confidence and traction, allowing me to push the car harder than I ever thought possible. And yet, despite the increased power, the S3 still managed to feel remarkably docile and refined.

One of the things that struck me most about the S3 was its ability to balance performance and practicality. While it's undoubtedly a driver's car at heart, it's also incredibly comfortable and capable on longer journeys. I found myself enjoying the long stretches of motorway with ease, while still being able to tackle those twisty Welsh B roads with confidence.

Of course, no discussion of the S3 would be complete without mentioning its handling and braking capabilities. The brakes were superbly sharp and responsive, allowing me to haul in the car with ease. I also appreciated the level of feedback and connection that the steering provided, making it feel like the car was genuinely engaging with my inputs.

As I continued to explore the S3's capabilities, I couldn't help but think about its value proposition. Compared to the higher-spec RS3, the S3 offers a more practical and affordable alternative for those who still want a performance-packed vehicle. And at under £40,000, it's an incredibly compelling option for anyone looking to get into a high-performance car without breaking the bank.

As my time with the S3 drew to a close, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment. But fortunately, I was able to put in some extra miles and really get to know this fantastic car. And as I looked at the odometer after a week of driving, I saw that I had covered an impressive 800 miles – more than most owners will ever do with their S3.

One final note on fuel economy: it's surprisingly good for a performance vehicle. In economy mode, I was getting high 30s and even mid-30s, which is nothing to sneeze at considering the car's 310 horsepower engine. Of course, that figure drops when you switch to dynamic or auto modes, but even then, it's still respectable.

As I reflect on my experience with the Audi S3 Saloon, I'm reminded of why this car has become such a favorite among performance enthusiasts. It's not just about raw power; it's also about the way the car feels and behaves on the road. And in terms of both contentment and cost-effectiveness, I genuinely believe that the S3 is an underrated gem.

A Handsome Package

But what really sets the S3 apart from its rivals is its handsome design. The Turbo Blue color scheme I had is particularly striking, with a beautiful brushed aluminium trim adding a touch of sophistication to the interior. And while some might say that the S3 lacks the flair and personality of the RS3, I think it's precisely this understated elegance that makes it such an attractive option.

A Cracking Car for Anyone

In conclusion, my experience with the Audi S3 Saloon has left me thoroughly impressed. It's a car that embodies the perfect balance between performance, practicality, and refinement – making it an incredibly compelling choice for anyone in the market for a high-performance vehicle without breaking the bank. Whether you're a seasoned enthusiast or just starting to explore your options, I would highly recommend giving this fantastic car a look.

And so, as I bid farewell to the S3 Saloon, I'm already looking forward to my next drive – whenever that may be.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys and welcome to petroped now behind me is a car i've actually considered buying on at least two different occasions but i've never actually driven the audi s3 well i've spent the last week driving this car i've put 800 miles on it and in this video i'm going to share with you my findings of a car that well this really surprised me so let me explain long-term followers of the channel will know i'm a little bit of an audi fanboy i've had two s4 events and loved them both and they sat alongside my mini jcw roadster but before i had the roadster in my life before youtube i actually ran an audi tts roadster and i absolutely love that car so a couple of things when i was looking to change my tts roadster i did consider two audis one was the s5 cabriolet because i wanted the soft top driving but with a little bit more practicality effectively i wanted seats in the back and the other audi in the range that did that for me was the s3 cabriolet and i originally i was never a big fan of the s3 cabriolet because before it was a hatch with a roof chopped off and i never thought it looked a very nice car but then they did the saloon format with a soft top and i thought that really was a very good looking car but i didn't go for that i ended up buying my roadster when i came to replace my roadster number one car on the list that i was really really keen on and in fact i even got offered a build slot was the rs3 now unfortunately at the time i wanted to buy one because of emissions they weren't building rs3s and the build slot was going to be quite a long way down the line and then i got nervous because it was going to be a very expensive car so i have been very close to getting one of these but i've never driven one i know you might find that amazing but i never got far enough close enough to pull in the trigger to actually go and have a test drive so when the new s3 refresh came out i got in touch with my friends out of uk and said look can i run one for a week because i'm just really keen to see what they're like and here it is and i must say this particular model in this turbo blue color i just think looks absolutely stunning i know the color is not going to be for everybody but the thing i find most interesting about this car is actually not this view that you're getting it's the rear three-quarter view because this is the saloon s3 and not the sportback and i think that that's what makes this car really special i'm going to say something quite controversial here for some of you i'm sure i think this is one of the best looking cars audi make in this saloon format and and i never ever considered it i'll put it right out there this is not a car i would buy simply because i've got two dogs and i need that hatchback format for the practicality of of where the dogs go but honestly i think this car's a good looking car the other thing i love about this a3 s3 size is it's it's not too big i think one of the challenges i have as you go up the lineup and it's not just audi it's it's bmw it's mercedes the cars get bigger and bigger and bigger and they just start to lose that everyday practicality so earlier on in the week i took this car somewhere where where the streets are really really narrow uh welcome to america now i stated in my recent s8 video that the one place i wouldn't want to bring that car was never gissy because it was huge and unlike some of its larger siblings one of the things i love about the a3 s3 format is its size but it's so good to be back in majesty i haven't been here since july and i'm here to do something very very important yes put up the christmas tree for guests that we have arriving on friday but let's take it to some of the more tight twisty bits i'm never goofy yeah this is where it starts to get interesting people who aren't used to the road start to have a bit of a baby luckily or interestingly we've actually got an a3 in front of us a bird's-eye view of just how useful it is to come here and have a slightly smaller car this car's actually a very similar footprint to my mini clubman and and it's quite interesting i think as i'm getting older maybe maybe my size of card or card choice size is getting smaller and smaller having gone from a discovery range rover sport s4 and then mini and i just start to like that slightly smaller more practical car but we're actually going to turn left here and go really tight but yeah we're going to come down here and just illustrate this is how tight never gissy can be but i also thought while we were here i'd like to show you around because here's the harbour look at that i can even see a house as well but what i need to do is get the other important thing for this video a really good thumbnail and i know just the place so yes i think one of the things that makes me really like the format of the s3 is just its size you can take it anywhere you'll find a car park space you'll get in it you can go down tight twisty roads you're not gonna have a major problem and i like that a lot look at this perfect nice and quiet nice by the perfect thumbnail yes the perfect thumbnail well i think it's safe to say i nailed the thumbnail now although it's not got the practicality of the hatch and when i was specking an rs3 it was very much the hatch i was looking for this saloon format has a really big and very usable boot space you can get a lot of stuff in there but if like i know many of my followers are if you're a cyclist you ain't gonna get a bike in there and if you've got dogs it's just really no good and that means you would have to go for the hatch but if you had a young family and wanted to get a buggy or a push chair i'm sure that would fit in there there's plenty of space but what about rear passenger leg room i have a feeling that might be slightly compromised i thought that might be the case now then first things to be said i'm a really tall chap i'm six foot three so i rarely fit in anything smaller than a big suv to be fair but um i've got a reasonable amount of headroom when you look from the outside of the profile of this car it does slow back um at the rear of the car and that does compromise headroom but i'm here uh you know my hair's rubbing on the headliner a little bit and this seat is about halfway between the forward and back position so it's not ideal for an adult but i very rarely sit in the back of the car where i do sit is in the driver's seat so the big question is what's this car like in terms of comfort on a really long journey so how comfortable is this car on a long journey well i'm on a very long journey as you can see i'm actually crossing over the bridge from england to wales i've been in the car for two and a half hours and i still have just over two hours to go on this journey and i am super comfy no sign of a number these seats are really lovely very supportive very comfortable and generally speaking you can get yourself into a really nice comfortable position in this car there's a place to rest your elbows if you want to um and yeah you can munch the miles that's for sure there's plenty of leg room as well i could actually put my seat back a little bit if i needed to um i don't feel like i'm sat quite as low down in the car as i'd like and the seat is as low as it can be but on the whole a very comfy place i can't talk about what it would be like sat in the back but then i'm not often sat in the back of a car to be honest um but yes from the driver's seat this car very comfy on a long journey anyway i'm gonna crack on what a spectacular evening we're having now i'm just about to enter wales question is i've got my passport with me so it's safe to say it's a comfy car on a long journey but what's underneath the bonnet what propels this car along now i guess many of the kind of rs3 fans will be fans because of the incredible in-line five-cylinder engine and sadly this doesn't have that that's a an in-line four-cylinder turbocharged engine but it's still producing 310 ps and 400 newton meters and this is quattro all-wheel drive so it's certainly got the performance figures to keep most people happy audi quote 4.8 seconds to 60. it's sprightly i'll talk more about the dynamic driving characteristics of the car a little bit later in the film but for now let's jump behind the steering wheel in the driver's seat and talk about the new cabin and just generally how comfortable is this car for the driver so welcome to the interior of the new s3 let me fire the car into life just to bring all the displays up and running so there are some things i absolutely love about this new interior and there are some things i'm really not very fond of if i'm honest let's start with the love first i love that i love the fact that it has a display that's actually integrated into the dash and integrated really beautifully as well there's kind of piano black either side and it just forms itself into the dash and just looks really nice for so long audi and lots of other manufacturers just pursued this horrible design language of sticking an ipad on the dash and i never understood it that is it's lovely it's not in congress it just sits there and it's part of the the dash aesthetics in front of me i've got audi's virtual cockpit say no more it's one of the best but i really like these two air vents either side it just focuses that instrument binnacle to me i've got a lovely flat bottom steering wheel i know some of you don't like that but all in all the driving position is excellent um the touch screen audi system i actually quite like it having owned a car with it for some time so i'm quite familiar with where things are i know it will drive people mad because it collects greasy fingerprints but there are some real buttons to do things like the air conditioning controls and i quite like that because often when you're driving the things you want to quickly change are things like up the temperature or put your heated seats on and there are real buttons to do that coming down things i'm not so keen on number one if you want to connect apple carplay you need to this is called a wire a cable so it doesn't have wireless apple carplay now actually on a long journey i don't mind that on a long journey i would rather connect with a cable because your wireless chargers typically overheat your phone anyway but on short journeys it means that you have to have a cable in the car and i just think it looks messy it's much nicer when you jump in a car on a short journey your phone automatically connects via wi-fi and off you go so not a big fan of that but let's address the elephant in the room shall we what is that i'm sorry but that that gear selector is just it's just i don't like it i mean it's very very similar to the porsche 911 992 gear selector and i don't like that either where's the nice kind of tactile gear stick even if it's not the standard one like used to be in the s3 even if it's like you're finding the new of four and six you know you've got a nice kind of thing you put your hand on i just it's just i don't like it at all and the other thing this car does which is really annoying is the start stop is just that little bit too aggressive and when it does stop it puts a hill assist brake on it doesn't put the full handbrake on just a hill assist brake and that means when you pull off it's just a bit a bit clunky no jokes about pull off by the way anyway so all in all it's really nice in here i just don't like the gear stick so so what about the drive modes and the the gear box and the gears what are they like well earlier on in this week i was in wales found a lovely piece of road to kind of talk you through the gears the gear selector and the drive modes okay let's talk drive mode so it's got the normal drive select that you will find in any audi and on all of the motorway cruising stuff i've done this week i've just stuck it into economy and that gives you your best fuel economy what you'll find though is if you stay in that in that eco mode on a on a b run like this the driving characteristics of the engine and the throttle really aren't pleasant at all so you just come up into auto i just stick it straight into dynamic and that gives you a much sharper peppier threat throttle in drive mode it's a little bit laggy it just has to think there's a hesitation when you put your foot down you can you can get a kick down but there's just too much hesitation for me so the first thing you can do is just pull the little gear selector back and as i've said already i really don't like that gear selector puts it into sport mode and it makes it a little bit more um sporty and a bit more intuitive it almost kind of guesses what you want the car to do but my big problem with the car with this new gear selector is normally in audis i've then got the option to push the gear selector to the left and engage the manual changing now you don't do that on this car all you do is you grab a paddle so if i grab a paddle i'm now in manual mode i'm just dropping down a couple of gears the manual changes are really really slick however i do have a bit of a problem with this because i'm now in manual mode by definition i should be the one doing the gear changes if i just give you a demonstration if i go down into second and i accelerate away i'm not going to change the paddles it's just changed for me it's just gone from second to third and i didn't touch a paddle but i'm in manual mode now what for me when you go into manual it should hang on to the gears plenty of cars do but this doesn't and i don't know what it was about the being able to push the gear stick over to the left and what you could also do with that is you could use the gear stick to change up and down as well if you didn't want to use the paddles which aren't i've never ever done but you could do that if you wanted to so for me the bit that's missing is with this new horrible gear selector is i can go into manual but then it's not really manual because the car will change up anyway it won't hang onto the gear and hit the limiter and then all i need to do if i want to go back to auto is just hold the up paddle um for a couple of seconds and it will drop into into the auto change mode now it's gone for me back into sport mode so all in all the gearbox in this car is a really nice one i still haven't got to the dynamic driving bit be patient it's coming very shortly let's just talk about the s3 and the price of this particular car so the s3 starts at just under 37 000 pounds this car has a few nice options on it the alloy wheels on this car are 19 inch now they are a 770 pound option and i think they look really lovely but having washed it this morning they are a bit fiddly to wash hashtag no sponge um but i have to say that this car is fitted with the matrix led headlamps and honestly if you're buying an audi and you don't spec matrix led headlamps you need your head testing because that is the best option that audi do it is simply brilliant and that's all i need to say and i've raved on about it on a few videos in the past and then the only other really big expensive option this car's got is it's got the bang and olson upgraded sound system uh and that's an 865 pounds option i haven't spent a great deal of time listening to music in the car even though i've been in the car a long time what have i done now 15 hours in the car just listening to the radio but it is very good and i think for resale ability i've always when i've been buying out he's always wanted the upgraded stereo so this car on the road is just under 41.5 grand which i think is very good value and now why would you then think well what about the rs3 well the rs3 i think you're going to find is a good 10 000 pounds depending on spec maybe even 15 000 pounds more expensive than that so is it worth going down the rs3 route well what we need to do to answer that question is take this car on some nice b roads and luckily in wales i found some so let's go and do some dynamic driving so what's this car like dynamically let's find out shall we so i put it on to the paddles just to give me that extra engagement with the drive and instantly this car it's very sprightly 310 ps 400 newton meters it's got plenty of go in order 60 4.8 seconds it's as quick as you kind of want really because you can use it you can exploit it the engine note for me is a little bit it just could be a little bit better but then i'm getting used to that with modern-day cars the rs3 will be much better with that five-cylinder but this isn't too bad and when you get it on a nice bit of road a nice bit of flowing b road it really does come to the fore what i like about it the most because it's got the quattro four-wheel drive system yeah its acceleration is fantastic but i've just got so much confidence in the car because of the grip the traction coming out the corners these roads are particularly grotty today it's a fairly horrible wet welsh day today and there's lots of runoff from the fields and mud on the road and it's normally in the places where you don't want it in your braking zones and traction zones and the nice thing about having that four-wheel drive system is you can really progress with pace down here over this crest into this left-hander it's got a really nice feel to it lots of nice balance and it just gives you mega mega confidence and lots of power coming out the corners the gearbox is actually very very slick up and down this car's wicked honestly i think this 300 ps maybe up to 350 ps uh power is about right for uh a kind of b road munching car in the uk you know don't get me wrong if you went up to a you know an s4 or an s6 a little bit more powerful if you go up into the rs models they are amazing to drive but you just end up going so quickly that really in most circumstances you can't you can't exploit all the power you always feel like you're driving the car at 60 percent this on the road i'm maybe up to 80 percent there's still a lot left but it means that when you get this road is fantastic i love wales some of the b roads you get in wales are just fantastic the brakes are super sharp i've got lots of trust in them i can really hang on them they the car brilliantly whoa oh no look i've got to slow down now because there's a speed limit yes the thing i love about this car is and it was the same when i had the tts last year and which is very similar performance is is for a an a to b b road destroyer this is for me the sweet spot it they are brilliant about and i've done lots of miles this week on motorways and and cruising and it's all very comfortable but when you get it on a bit of road like that and you can really open the taps and you go to the manual gear change on the paddles it's a brilliant brilliant car don't get me wrong i know some people will drive it and feel that this may be a little bit numb it lacks that driver involvement and driver engagement of a rear-wheel drive car for example but you know me by now i do love that four-wheel drive confidence it reminds me very much of my clubman and that is a big big compliment coming from me um but it's it's an absolutely mega car when you get it on a nice bit of twisty road that's for sure sort of my final impressions of the audi s3 saloon well i must say i've really enjoyed my week with it i've done 800 miles in that car would you believe just to leave you with some of the boring stuff like fuel economy very much depends on how you drive and which mode you're in but if you're in the economy mode on a long run on a dual carriageway you're going to be able to get high 30s 36 37 38 you might even if you tried really hard get it to start with a four however if you're in dynamic mode or auto mode and you're you're maybe driving more realistically i think the fuel economy you're likely to get mid to low 30 mpg so 33 34 35 that's your kind of ballpark if you find yourself a nice piece of welsh b road stick it in dynamic mode and drive more enthusiastically then it's gonna start with a two i think mid twenties as soon as you start to push on but i'm quite comfortable with that i actually think those numbers are quite good because at the end of the day you've got to get 310 ps from somewhere and you get it from burning fuel the faster and harder you drive the worse your fuel economy is going to be in terms of comfort very very comfortable car but for me the thing that really really resonates with me this week i just think it's a handsome looking car in that spec in turbo blue i'm not even a kind of chrome guy you've probably seen my channel enough de-chroming my mini but i really like those kind of brushed aluminium trim parts on the car i just think it makes the car stand out it's a very very pretty car to look at i honestly think in terms of money and bang for buck the s3 is a really good option even compared to the rs3 and i know lots of people oh you need the rs3 because it's faster it is but it's like 50 000 pounds so insurance running costs depreciation all of those things for an extra i don't know that would probably suit 85 of most people's needs in terms of speed and performance and fun to drive i honestly think the s models in audi are are underrated by performance car lovers because everybody wants an rs i love an rs but honestly the s is normally the thinking man's option and that definitely is for sub 40 000 quid that is an amazingly good value car and i think as i said it's a cracking car to look at as well anyway i hope you've enjoyed it i need to say a big thank you to our uk for letting me have the car for a weekend letting me put so many miles on it it really does give me a really good feel for the car and allow me to bring you the most honest and complete review i can but i hope you enjoyed it if you have done so please give me a thumbs up comments below are always welcome and if you haven't done so already please subscribe to prep for plenty more content to come and i'll see on the next film guys but you take care drive safe youhey guys and welcome to petroped now behind me is a car i've actually considered buying on at least two different occasions but i've never actually driven the audi s3 well i've spent the last week driving this car i've put 800 miles on it and in this video i'm going to share with you my findings of a car that well this really surprised me so let me explain long-term followers of the channel will know i'm a little bit of an audi fanboy i've had two s4 events and loved them both and they sat alongside my mini jcw roadster but before i had the roadster in my life before youtube i actually ran an audi tts roadster and i absolutely love that car so a couple of things when i was looking to change my tts roadster i did consider two audis one was the s5 cabriolet because i wanted the soft top driving but with a little bit more practicality effectively i wanted seats in the back and the other audi in the range that did that for me was the s3 cabriolet and i originally i was never a big fan of the s3 cabriolet because before it was a hatch with a roof chopped off and i never thought it looked a very nice car but then they did the saloon format with a soft top and i thought that really was a very good looking car but i didn't go for that i ended up buying my roadster when i came to replace my roadster number one car on the list that i was really really keen on and in fact i even got offered a build slot was the rs3 now unfortunately at the time i wanted to buy one because of emissions they weren't building rs3s and the build slot was going to be quite a long way down the line and then i got nervous because it was going to be a very expensive car so i have been very close to getting one of these but i've never driven one i know you might find that amazing but i never got far enough close enough to pull in the trigger to actually go and have a test drive so when the new s3 refresh came out i got in touch with my friends out of uk and said look can i run one for a week because i'm just really keen to see what they're like and here it is and i must say this particular model in this turbo blue color i just think looks absolutely stunning i know the color is not going to be for everybody but the thing i find most interesting about this car is actually not this view that you're getting it's the rear three-quarter view because this is the saloon s3 and not the sportback and i think that that's what makes this car really special i'm going to say something quite controversial here for some of you i'm sure i think this is one of the best looking cars audi make in this saloon format and and i never ever considered it i'll put it right out there this is not a car i would buy simply because i've got two dogs and i need that hatchback format for the practicality of of where the dogs go but honestly i think this car's a good looking car the other thing i love about this a3 s3 size is it's it's not too big i think one of the challenges i have as you go up the lineup and it's not just audi it's it's bmw it's mercedes the cars get bigger and bigger and bigger and they just start to lose that everyday practicality so earlier on in the week i took this car somewhere where where the streets are really really narrow uh welcome to america now i stated in my recent s8 video that the one place i wouldn't want to bring that car was never gissy because it was huge and unlike some of its larger siblings one of the things i love about the a3 s3 format is its size but it's so good to be back in majesty i haven't been here since july and i'm here to do something very very important yes put up the christmas tree for guests that we have arriving on friday but let's take it to some of the more tight twisty bits i'm never goofy yeah this is where it starts to get interesting people who aren't used to the road start to have a bit of a baby luckily or interestingly we've actually got an a3 in front of us a bird's-eye view of just how useful it is to come here and have a slightly smaller car this car's actually a very similar footprint to my mini clubman and and it's quite interesting i think as i'm getting older maybe maybe my size of card or card choice size is getting smaller and smaller having gone from a discovery range rover sport s4 and then mini and i just start to like that slightly smaller more practical car but we're actually going to turn left here and go really tight but yeah we're going to come down here and just illustrate this is how tight never gissy can be but i also thought while we were here i'd like to show you around because here's the harbour look at that i can even see a house as well but what i need to do is get the other important thing for this video a really good thumbnail and i know just the place so yes i think one of the things that makes me really like the format of the s3 is just its size you can take it anywhere you'll find a car park space you'll get in it you can go down tight twisty roads you're not gonna have a major problem and i like that a lot look at this perfect nice and quiet nice by the perfect thumbnail yes the perfect thumbnail well i think it's safe to say i nailed the thumbnail now although it's not got the practicality of the hatch and when i was specking an rs3 it was very much the hatch i was looking for this saloon format has a really big and very usable boot space you can get a lot of stuff in there but if like i know many of my followers are if you're a cyclist you ain't gonna get a bike in there and if you've got dogs it's just really no good and that means you would have to go for the hatch but if you had a young family and wanted to get a buggy or a push chair i'm sure that would fit in there there's plenty of space but what about rear passenger leg room i have a feeling that might be slightly compromised i thought that might be the case now then first things to be said i'm a really tall chap i'm six foot three so i rarely fit in anything smaller than a big suv to be fair but um i've got a reasonable amount of headroom when you look from the outside of the profile of this car it does slow back um at the rear of the car and that does compromise headroom but i'm here uh you know my hair's rubbing on the headliner a little bit and this seat is about halfway between the forward and back position so it's not ideal for an adult but i very rarely sit in the back of the car where i do sit is in the driver's seat so the big question is what's this car like in terms of comfort on a really long journey so how comfortable is this car on a long journey well i'm on a very long journey as you can see i'm actually crossing over the bridge from england to wales i've been in the car for two and a half hours and i still have just over two hours to go on this journey and i am super comfy no sign of a number these seats are really lovely very supportive very comfortable and generally speaking you can get yourself into a really nice comfortable position in this car there's a place to rest your elbows if you want to um and yeah you can munch the miles that's for sure there's plenty of leg room as well i could actually put my seat back a little bit if i needed to um i don't feel like i'm sat quite as low down in the car as i'd like and the seat is as low as it can be but on the whole a very comfy place i can't talk about what it would be like sat in the back but then i'm not often sat in the back of a car to be honest um but yes from the driver's seat this car very comfy on a long journey anyway i'm gonna crack on what a spectacular evening we're having now i'm just about to enter wales question is i've got my passport with me so it's safe to say it's a comfy car on a long journey but what's underneath the bonnet what propels this car along now i guess many of the kind of rs3 fans will be fans because of the incredible in-line five-cylinder engine and sadly this doesn't have that that's a an in-line four-cylinder turbocharged engine but it's still producing 310 ps and 400 newton meters and this is quattro all-wheel drive so it's certainly got the performance figures to keep most people happy audi quote 4.8 seconds to 60. it's sprightly i'll talk more about the dynamic driving characteristics of the car a little bit later in the film but for now let's jump behind the steering wheel in the driver's seat and talk about the new cabin and just generally how comfortable is this car for the driver so welcome to the interior of the new s3 let me fire the car into life just to bring all the displays up and running so there are some things i absolutely love about this new interior and there are some things i'm really not very fond of if i'm honest let's start with the love first i love that i love the fact that it has a display that's actually integrated into the dash and integrated really beautifully as well there's kind of piano black either side and it just forms itself into the dash and just looks really nice for so long audi and lots of other manufacturers just pursued this horrible design language of sticking an ipad on the dash and i never understood it that is it's lovely it's not in congress it just sits there and it's part of the the dash aesthetics in front of me i've got audi's virtual cockpit say no more it's one of the best but i really like these two air vents either side it just focuses that instrument binnacle to me i've got a lovely flat bottom steering wheel i know some of you don't like that but all in all the driving position is excellent um the touch screen audi system i actually quite like it having owned a car with it for some time so i'm quite familiar with where things are i know it will drive people mad because it collects greasy fingerprints but there are some real buttons to do things like the air conditioning controls and i quite like that because often when you're driving the things you want to quickly change are things like up the temperature or put your heated seats on and there are real buttons to do that coming down things i'm not so keen on number one if you want to connect apple carplay you need to this is called a wire a cable so it doesn't have wireless apple carplay now actually on a long journey i don't mind that on a long journey i would rather connect with a cable because your wireless chargers typically overheat your phone anyway but on short journeys it means that you have to have a cable in the car and i just think it looks messy it's much nicer when you jump in a car on a short journey your phone automatically connects via wi-fi and off you go so not a big fan of that but let's address the elephant in the room shall we what is that i'm sorry but that that gear selector is just it's just i don't like it i mean it's very very similar to the porsche 911 992 gear selector and i don't like that either where's the nice kind of tactile gear stick even if it's not the standard one like used to be in the s3 even if it's like you're finding the new of four and six you know you've got a nice kind of thing you put your hand on i just it's just i don't like it at all and the other thing this car does which is really annoying is the start stop is just that little bit too aggressive and when it does stop it puts a hill assist brake on it doesn't put the full handbrake on just a hill assist brake and that means when you pull off it's just a bit a bit clunky no jokes about pull off by the way anyway so all in all it's really nice in here i just don't like the gear stick so so what about the drive modes and the the gear box and the gears what are they like well earlier on in this week i was in wales found a lovely piece of road to kind of talk you through the gears the gear selector and the drive modes okay let's talk drive mode so it's got the normal drive select that you will find in any audi and on all of the motorway cruising stuff i've done this week i've just stuck it into economy and that gives you your best fuel economy what you'll find though is if you stay in that in that eco mode on a on a b run like this the driving characteristics of the engine and the throttle really aren't pleasant at all so you just come up into auto i just stick it straight into dynamic and that gives you a much sharper peppier threat throttle in drive mode it's a little bit laggy it just has to think there's a hesitation when you put your foot down you can you can get a kick down but there's just too much hesitation for me so the first thing you can do is just pull the little gear selector back and as i've said already i really don't like that gear selector puts it into sport mode and it makes it a little bit more um sporty and a bit more intuitive it almost kind of guesses what you want the car to do but my big problem with the car with this new gear selector is normally in audis i've then got the option to push the gear selector to the left and engage the manual changing now you don't do that on this car all you do is you grab a paddle so if i grab a paddle i'm now in manual mode i'm just dropping down a couple of gears the manual changes are really really slick however i do have a bit of a problem with this because i'm now in manual mode by definition i should be the one doing the gear changes if i just give you a demonstration if i go down into second and i accelerate away i'm not going to change the paddles it's just changed for me it's just gone from second to third and i didn't touch a paddle but i'm in manual mode now what for me when you go into manual it should hang on to the gears plenty of cars do but this doesn't and i don't know what it was about the being able to push the gear stick over to the left and what you could also do with that is you could use the gear stick to change up and down as well if you didn't want to use the paddles which aren't i've never ever done but you could do that if you wanted to so for me the bit that's missing is with this new horrible gear selector is i can go into manual but then it's not really manual because the car will change up anyway it won't hang onto the gear and hit the limiter and then all i need to do if i want to go back to auto is just hold the up paddle um for a couple of seconds and it will drop into into the auto change mode now it's gone for me back into sport mode so all in all the gearbox in this car is a really nice one i still haven't got to the dynamic driving bit be patient it's coming very shortly let's just talk about the s3 and the price of this particular car so the s3 starts at just under 37 000 pounds this car has a few nice options on it the alloy wheels on this car are 19 inch now they are a 770 pound option and i think they look really lovely but having washed it this morning they are a bit fiddly to wash hashtag no sponge um but i have to say that this car is fitted with the matrix led headlamps and honestly if you're buying an audi and you don't spec matrix led headlamps you need your head testing because that is the best option that audi do it is simply brilliant and that's all i need to say and i've raved on about it on a few videos in the past and then the only other really big expensive option this car's got is it's got the bang and olson upgraded sound system uh and that's an 865 pounds option i haven't spent a great deal of time listening to music in the car even though i've been in the car a long time what have i done now 15 hours in the car just listening to the radio but it is very good and i think for resale ability i've always when i've been buying out he's always wanted the upgraded stereo so this car on the road is just under 41.5 grand which i think is very good value and now why would you then think well what about the rs3 well the rs3 i think you're going to find is a good 10 000 pounds depending on spec maybe even 15 000 pounds more expensive than that so is it worth going down the rs3 route well what we need to do to answer that question is take this car on some nice b roads and luckily in wales i found some so let's go and do some dynamic driving so what's this car like dynamically let's find out shall we so i put it on to the paddles just to give me that extra engagement with the drive and instantly this car it's very sprightly 310 ps 400 newton meters it's got plenty of go in order 60 4.8 seconds it's as quick as you kind of want really because you can use it you can exploit it the engine note for me is a little bit it just could be a little bit better but then i'm getting used to that with modern-day cars the rs3 will be much better with that five-cylinder but this isn't too bad and when you get it on a nice bit of road a nice bit of flowing b road it really does come to the fore what i like about it the most because it's got the quattro four-wheel drive system yeah its acceleration is fantastic but i've just got so much confidence in the car because of the grip the traction coming out the corners these roads are particularly grotty today it's a fairly horrible wet welsh day today and there's lots of runoff from the fields and mud on the road and it's normally in the places where you don't want it in your braking zones and traction zones and the nice thing about having that four-wheel drive system is you can really progress with pace down here over this crest into this left-hander it's got a really nice feel to it lots of nice balance and it just gives you mega mega confidence and lots of power coming out the corners the gearbox is actually very very slick up and down this car's wicked honestly i think this 300 ps maybe up to 350 ps uh power is about right for uh a kind of b road munching car in the uk you know don't get me wrong if you went up to a you know an s4 or an s6 a little bit more powerful if you go up into the rs models they are amazing to drive but you just end up going so quickly that really in most circumstances you can't you can't exploit all the power you always feel like you're driving the car at 60 percent this on the road i'm maybe up to 80 percent there's still a lot left but it means that when you get this road is fantastic i love wales some of the b roads you get in wales are just fantastic the brakes are super sharp i've got lots of trust in them i can really hang on them they the car brilliantly whoa oh no look i've got to slow down now because there's a speed limit yes the thing i love about this car is and it was the same when i had the tts last year and which is very similar performance is is for a an a to b b road destroyer this is for me the sweet spot it they are brilliant about and i've done lots of miles this week on motorways and and cruising and it's all very comfortable but when you get it on a bit of road like that and you can really open the taps and you go to the manual gear change on the paddles it's a brilliant brilliant car don't get me wrong i know some people will drive it and feel that this may be a little bit numb it lacks that driver involvement and driver engagement of a rear-wheel drive car for example but you know me by now i do love that four-wheel drive confidence it reminds me very much of my clubman and that is a big big compliment coming from me um but it's it's an absolutely mega car when you get it on a nice bit of twisty road that's for sure sort of my final impressions of the audi s3 saloon well i must say i've really enjoyed my week with it i've done 800 miles in that car would you believe just to leave you with some of the boring stuff like fuel economy very much depends on how you drive and which mode you're in but if you're in the economy mode on a long run on a dual carriageway you're going to be able to get high 30s 36 37 38 you might even if you tried really hard get it to start with a four however if you're in dynamic mode or auto mode and you're you're maybe driving more realistically i think the fuel economy you're likely to get mid to low 30 mpg so 33 34 35 that's your kind of ballpark if you find yourself a nice piece of welsh b road stick it in dynamic mode and drive more enthusiastically then it's gonna start with a two i think mid twenties as soon as you start to push on but i'm quite comfortable with that i actually think those numbers are quite good because at the end of the day you've got to get 310 ps from somewhere and you get it from burning fuel the faster and harder you drive the worse your fuel economy is going to be in terms of comfort very very comfortable car but for me the thing that really really resonates with me this week i just think it's a handsome looking car in that spec in turbo blue i'm not even a kind of chrome guy you've probably seen my channel enough de-chroming my mini but i really like those kind of brushed aluminium trim parts on the car i just think it makes the car stand out it's a very very pretty car to look at i honestly think in terms of money and bang for buck the s3 is a really good option even compared to the rs3 and i know lots of people oh you need the rs3 because it's faster it is but it's like 50 000 pounds so insurance running costs depreciation all of those things for an extra i don't know that would probably suit 85 of most people's needs in terms of speed and performance and fun to drive i honestly think the s models in audi are are underrated by performance car lovers because everybody wants an rs i love an rs but honestly the s is normally the thinking man's option and that definitely is for sub 40 000 quid that is an amazingly good value car and i think as i said it's a cracking car to look at as well anyway i hope you've enjoyed it i need to say a big thank you to our uk for letting me have the car for a weekend letting me put so many miles on it it really does give me a really good feel for the car and allow me to bring you the most honest and complete review i can but i hope you enjoyed it if you have done so please give me a thumbs up comments below are always welcome and if you haven't done so already please subscribe to prep for plenty more content to come and i'll see on the next film guys but you take care drive safe you\n"