**The Audi S3: A Round and Rapid Contender**

As I settled behind the wheel of my new Audi S3, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. With its adaptive cruise control, auto steering, and lane-keeping capabilities, this car was designed to make life easier for drivers like me who value convenience above all else.

**Cruising on Autobahn**

With the adaptive cruise control engaged, I hit the open road, cruising at a leisurely 120 kilometers per hour. The S3's advanced safety features were put to the test as I kept a safe distance from the car in front of me. The auto steering system did an impressive job of keeping me on course, and I didn't have to lift a finger to adjust the wheel. But, I was keenly aware that I still needed to keep my hands on the wheel at all times.

As we cruised along, I took note of the car's fuel efficiency. According to the dashboard display, our economy was averaging 7.6 liters per 100 kilometers. With the speed limit temporarily lifted, I decided to push the S3 to its limits, and we reached a blistering 155 miles per hour on the autobahn. But, with just over two miles of acceleration required to reach this speed, it quickly became apparent that this was not the most fuel-efficient setup.

**Economy in Focus**

After a few laps around the autobahn, I had to slow down and return to more sensible speeds. As we came to a halt at 120 kilometers per hour, I took note of our economy once again. This time, it read 15.2 liters per 100 kilometers. Not bad for a car that can reach such incredible speeds! When converted to British miles per gallon (mpg), this translated to an impressive 18.22 mpg.

**Shifting into Gear**

As I navigated the twisty roads, I had the opportunity to engage the dynamic mode and switch to manual mode in the gearbox. The S3's suspension was stiffened, and its responsive handling made it a joy to drive through the turns. But, as I approached the final bend of the road, I couldn't resist the temptation to ease off on the brakes, losing some precious speed in the process.

**A British Road Adventure**

After returning to more familiar roads in England, I was eager to put the S3's abilities to the test. As I navigated through potholed streets, I had to switch to comfort mode to avoid any jarring sensations. The car handled beautifully on these roads, gliding over the bumps with ease.

**The Verdict**

As I came to the end of my journey, I couldn't help but feel that the Audi S3 was a strong contender in its class. While it might not be the most fun hot hatch out there, its rounded and refined approach to performance made it an attractive option for drivers who value comfort and practicality above all else. With its incredible speed and agility, combined with its advanced safety features and comfortable ride, I would definitely recommend the S3 to anyone in the market for a new car.

**A Parting Shot**

As I bid farewell to my old friend, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, I couldn't help but feel a sense of respect for this classic vehicle. Clearly, it had been well-maintained and cared for over the years, as its owner proudly told me that it was his "school car." Whatever that means, I'm just glad to have had the chance to drive such an iconic machine!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everyone matt watson here from car wow so i've come to a school in germany now i know what you're thinking my school didn't look anywhere near as nice as this one either anyway we are here today to learn about the new audi s3 and to do that i'm going to talk you around the design upgrades both on the outside and the inside i'm going to test its performance i'm going to take it to a place with a rude name and i'm almost going to have a massive high-speed collision on the autobahn then at the end i'm going to give you my verdict on the car now before we get into all of that please make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell icon to turn your notifications on that way you won't miss a single upload you ready good then let's go buying a new car head to car wow to get offers from the uk's top dealers car wow dot co dot uk the car buying comparison site let's start this video by talking about the design upgrades over the normal a3 so being the s3 you get that important s3 badge there also the grille is slightly different as well it's got these elements held in which looks pretty nice and the surround on this particular one is black because it's an edition one car which is fully loaded basically it's a bit like the vorsprung model as well normally the entry-level car would have a silver surround for the grill in terms of vintage that vent is fake classic audi though this one is real however if i move to the other side the corresponding one here is fake still the front bumper is deeper and more aggressive than the standard a3 and you get led headlights as standard though this one has upgraded matrix leds but all s3s have a certain signature in these leds here for the daytime running lights you get two stripes moving down the side you get 18-inch alloy wheels as standard this one has the upgraded 19s and these elements are in black here but on the entry level s3 they would be in silver got these side skirts here once again in black and this guy has the audi quattrodings which have been stuck on yeah we could probably pick some off and make it look less tacky moving around to the back you've got a bigger roof spoiler than before also you've got your s3 badging at the rear you've got more aggressive rear bumpers with an integrated diffuser which of course is fake it doesn't diffuse anything at least the exhaust aren't fakes classic s quad tail pipes which personally i prefer the look of over the oval tailpipes you get on the rs models but what do you reckon do you agree with me let me know in the comments below we'll have an argument here on the inside of the s3 the most obvious upgrade over the standard a3 are the s sport seats which are trimmed in fine nappa leather they're lovely actually you also get an s steering wheel which is round so it doesn't have a flat bottom there's also some aluminium pedals you get some s performance dials you can just have normal dolls if you prefer to toggle to those and you've got a lap timer you also get a red surround for your stop start button there's a quattro badge on there rather than just an audi badge which you get on normal ones because this one has the quattro all-wheel drive system being the s model you also get some s kick plates down there as well all cars come with a seven speed dual clutch automatic gearbox which means you get the little knob rather than the bigger knob of the manual yeah if you're a manual fan you like a bigger knob i'm afraid you can't get one with the s3 here in the back of the s3 rear passengers are also treated to some napa leather sport seats which is nice other than that it's just the same there's a decent amount of space you'll be fine in the back of this if you go for a vault spring model or this edition one you get an electrically operated tailgate on the s3 you don't really need that the boot though it's a reasonable size look as we demonstrate now with all our messy kit however the capacity is 370 liters which is 10 liters less than the standard a3 i think that's to do with the fact there's the differential for the quattro system here in the back and that's really annoying me because i need to fit in an extra 10 liters but i just can't and that brings me on to five annoying things about the audi s3 you might think that you can turn the stability control all the way off by pressing and holding the button it says it is off but actually it's still there working away in the background so you never fully let totally loose or in control the s3 may well have a sports exhaust but even its loudest mode the car in its sportiest setting doesn't sound great i mean here's a tunnel i'm gonna give it a blast yeah it's all just like yeah the integrated headrest design of the front sport seats means that people in the back don't get quite such a good view forward damn it the position of the drive mode select button is really awkward it's down here so it's hard to hit where you're driving now you can't actually configure this special button here on the steering wheel but you can't make it control the drive select which is just absolutely infuriating on a sporty car like this even if you have the car in its sportier setting and the gearbox in manual mode it will still automatically change up for you if you reach the red line look there not allowed to ping it off the limiter if i want thankfully this car has plenty of cool features to help make up for all this here's five the s3 has upgraded stiffened sport suspension which sits 15 millimeters low to the ground also if you go for one of these edition one versions or a verse sprung model then you get adaptive dampers as standard now these can actually read the road surface and react in a few thousands of a second they also provide a greater breadth of ability between comfort and sporty setting compared to the adaptive dampers on the old s3 there's upgraded performance brakes for added stopping power and look they have a nice little s logo on the camera as well the car is fitted with a special computer which controls all the key driving functions such as the stability control the quattro all-wheel drive system and the adaptive dampers if you have them fitted and it ensures that they all work in perfect harmony you can sort of consider it as being a bit like the ceo of driving dynamics the quattro all-wheel drive system has an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch just ahead of the front axle normally the car just drives along in front wheel drive mode but when you need some extra traction at the rear you can instantaneously engage those back wheels theoretically you can send 100 of the engine's power to the back wheels but the reality is in practice a maximum of about 85 percent of the path which is slightly more power than you used to be able to get sent to the rear wheels in the previous audi s3 the s3 gets progressive steering as standard that means that the steering gets more and more responsive the more you turn the wheel so if you're cruising along at high speed and you turn it a bit it means that the car doesn't move much it doesn't feel jittery yet when you go at low speeds and turn it a lot it's really maneuverable wait a minute there's a place called titting i've got to go to tetting so the advantage of the progressive steering i'll demonstrate now for low speed maneuvers because look it's dead easy to do a u-turn dead ahead to full lock in one whole turn makes the car really maneuverable perfect if you're a slightly childish motoring journalist and want to go to a place with a funny name here we come not quite was hoping for the most important change the s3 has over a normal a3 is of course its engine so it gets a two liter four cylinder turbo now it's quite similar to the engine in the old s3 that used to produce 300 horsepower though reason is it used to produce 310 horsepower but then during a facelift they had to change things for emissions and the power went down slightly to 300. now for this engine they've changed quite a lot of features on it so the power is back up to 310 horsepower got 400 newton meters of torque and he says it'll do not to 60 in 4.8 seconds which i think is a loader scheiser i'm going to see for myself using my specialist timing gear here so i'm going to launch the car i've got the car in dynamic mode gearbox and sport i've got the stability control in sport i'm going to launch it especially tommy gear ready to go i'm ready to go let's do this let's see what it actually does launch control activated come on cart there's a 60 quicker 4.4 seconds and we're going to do a quarter mile well i'm running out of road oh i was hoping to the quarter mile then i think oh i think i was just a little bit shy it's saying 13.15 seconds but i reckon i was breaking beforehand let's give it another go all right let's try that again i'm gonna be braver this time launch activated go aha better not 64.37 seconds come on now how much further to the quarter mile i'm running out of space i think i might have made it i got a 12.82 for the quarter mile the thing about the s3 is that while it can deliver impressive performance it's also super easy to live with every day so i'm testing out in town it's a german town which means that it's relatively empty and the road is super smooth so very unlike a british town oh look there's a little manhole cover there i'm gonna go over that tesla suspension seems a little bit firmer than the standard a3 but not bad isn't the one i'm gonna try and get that you actually have to actively look for bumps in germany to give you an idea of what the car might feel like when you're driving the whole time in the uk it's a little bit difficult always another one let's go over that as far as i can tell it it's fine but really these roads are too smooth for me to be fully sure relaxing easy to drive around town and the automatic gearbox is doing its thing i don't even know changing gear it is though just can't really tell it's smooth let's find out what this s3 is like for having ziffan fun fun on the autobahn i'm just cruising along at 120 kilometers an hour about 70 75 miles an hour using the adaptive cruise control so it's doing all the things like auto steering keeping me a safe distance from the car in front it's keeping it in lane i'm not taking my hands off the wheel though what kind of economy are we doing so it's averaging 7.6 liters per 100 kilometers we're just cruising at 120. so what's that ollie cameraman's got a conversion on his phone 37.17 british mpg 37.17 british mpg you heard the man that's all right for just cruising along but we're in germany we're on the autobahn we're waiting for it to become de-restricted and here's the sign come on let's do this let's see what this does for the economy whoa you can get about germany pretty plumbing quickly i can tell you that much oh my god it's spinning too quick two that forty here comes a bend i'm going to just ease it for this bend let's open it up again this thing is restricted to 250 kilometers an hour which is 155 miles an hour don't think i'm going to get quite up there we have to break in a second oh we're getting there can i push on for it there it is 250 boom on the brakes hard on the brakes hard we're losing bottles whoo that that is the thing about the auto farm even little crash warning came up on my poor cameraman if you'd like to come and work for carway just apply in the comments you might be putting your life at risk dealing with an idiot like me so what did that do to the economy well 15.2 liters per 100 kilometer come on cameraman the people want to know what's that 18.22 british mpg but that's not bad considering it's smashing along around 155 miles an hour oh and it was i'm gonna say relaxing it wasn't were you relaxed so two things we've learned one when you're cruising this car can be a decent economy two it's blooming quick and can get to 250 kilometers an hour no problem at all and three when you absolutely need to it breaks well which is important so let's see just how much fun this new s3 is then i've found a twisty road and i've got the kind dynamic mode i'm going to go into manual for the gearbox it didn't take long until the speed limit that's one of the problems but let's not slow down for the corners see if i can just go around there we go yeah it just grips really well these german roads are so smooth this one is probably a little bit worse than other ones i've been driving on but they're nowhere near as bad as british roads the suspension is now in the stiff setting because it's got the kind of dynamic and you do notice quite a difference between the comfort setting and the dynamic setting but still it's not bouncy really i'm trying to find the really worst bits in the road and it's not making the car struggle at all it feels taut feel serious i don't know whether it feels quite as involving as i'd hope there is something slightly more grown up about this s3 than a mercedes a45 and the lower power 835. they're a bit more raw and that makes them a bit more engaging whereas this is more sensible it's sharp it's responsive it's impressive but it's a little bit detached at the same time better than the old s3 and more capable but not the most fun hot hatch oh actually i found some roads which would be more like british road so i'm just going to try it out here i'm going to put the kind to comfort quickly here we go let's get into comfort because i wanted a soft setting for this come on cycle through here we go british roads yeah this is it what's it like now oh yeah comfort it's doing a good job yeah that's what it's like driving in england this is actually better there's no potholes there should be potholes to be more british yeah of course i'm joking actually i'm sort of not oh we've come to the end of the road now and here endeth the video so there was my final verdict on the new audi s3 should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should shortlist the s3 it might not be the most fun hot hatch you can buy but it's one of the most rounded and it's also blooming rapid so this guy in this old mercedes-sl he's just come back because apparently this is his school what was his school he's clearly made a success of himself hasn't he bye-bye lovely classic 300 slhi everyone matt watson here from car wow so i've come to a school in germany now i know what you're thinking my school didn't look anywhere near as nice as this one either anyway we are here today to learn about the new audi s3 and to do that i'm going to talk you around the design upgrades both on the outside and the inside i'm going to test its performance i'm going to take it to a place with a rude name and i'm almost going to have a massive high-speed collision on the autobahn then at the end i'm going to give you my verdict on the car now before we get into all of that please make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell icon to turn your notifications on that way you won't miss a single upload you ready good then let's go buying a new car head to car wow to get offers from the uk's top dealers car wow dot co dot uk the car buying comparison site let's start this video by talking about the design upgrades over the normal a3 so being the s3 you get that important s3 badge there also the grille is slightly different as well it's got these elements held in which looks pretty nice and the surround on this particular one is black because it's an edition one car which is fully loaded basically it's a bit like the vorsprung model as well normally the entry-level car would have a silver surround for the grill in terms of vintage that vent is fake classic audi though this one is real however if i move to the other side the corresponding one here is fake still the front bumper is deeper and more aggressive than the standard a3 and you get led headlights as standard though this one has upgraded matrix leds but all s3s have a certain signature in these leds here for the daytime running lights you get two stripes moving down the side you get 18-inch alloy wheels as standard this one has the upgraded 19s and these elements are in black here but on the entry level s3 they would be in silver got these side skirts here once again in black and this guy has the audi quattrodings which have been stuck on yeah we could probably pick some off and make it look less tacky moving around to the back you've got a bigger roof spoiler than before also you've got your s3 badging at the rear you've got more aggressive rear bumpers with an integrated diffuser which of course is fake it doesn't diffuse anything at least the exhaust aren't fakes classic s quad tail pipes which personally i prefer the look of over the oval tailpipes you get on the rs models but what do you reckon do you agree with me let me know in the comments below we'll have an argument here on the inside of the s3 the most obvious upgrade over the standard a3 are the s sport seats which are trimmed in fine nappa leather they're lovely actually you also get an s steering wheel which is round so it doesn't have a flat bottom there's also some aluminium pedals you get some s performance dials you can just have normal dolls if you prefer to toggle to those and you've got a lap timer you also get a red surround for your stop start button there's a quattro badge on there rather than just an audi badge which you get on normal ones because this one has the quattro all-wheel drive system being the s model you also get some s kick plates down there as well all cars come with a seven speed dual clutch automatic gearbox which means you get the little knob rather than the bigger knob of the manual yeah if you're a manual fan you like a bigger knob i'm afraid you can't get one with the s3 here in the back of the s3 rear passengers are also treated to some napa leather sport seats which is nice other than that it's just the same there's a decent amount of space you'll be fine in the back of this if you go for a vault spring model or this edition one you get an electrically operated tailgate on the s3 you don't really need that the boot though it's a reasonable size look as we demonstrate now with all our messy kit however the capacity is 370 liters which is 10 liters less than the standard a3 i think that's to do with the fact there's the differential for the quattro system here in the back and that's really annoying me because i need to fit in an extra 10 liters but i just can't and that brings me on to five annoying things about the audi s3 you might think that you can turn the stability control all the way off by pressing and holding the button it says it is off but actually it's still there working away in the background so you never fully let totally loose or in control the s3 may well have a sports exhaust but even its loudest mode the car in its sportiest setting doesn't sound great i mean here's a tunnel i'm gonna give it a blast yeah it's all just like yeah the integrated headrest design of the front sport seats means that people in the back don't get quite such a good view forward damn it the position of the drive mode select button is really awkward it's down here so it's hard to hit where you're driving now you can't actually configure this special button here on the steering wheel but you can't make it control the drive select which is just absolutely infuriating on a sporty car like this even if you have the car in its sportier setting and the gearbox in manual mode it will still automatically change up for you if you reach the red line look there not allowed to ping it off the limiter if i want thankfully this car has plenty of cool features to help make up for all this here's five the s3 has upgraded stiffened sport suspension which sits 15 millimeters low to the ground also if you go for one of these edition one versions or a verse sprung model then you get adaptive dampers as standard now these can actually read the road surface and react in a few thousands of a second they also provide a greater breadth of ability between comfort and sporty setting compared to the adaptive dampers on the old s3 there's upgraded performance brakes for added stopping power and look they have a nice little s logo on the camera as well the car is fitted with a special computer which controls all the key driving functions such as the stability control the quattro all-wheel drive system and the adaptive dampers if you have them fitted and it ensures that they all work in perfect harmony you can sort of consider it as being a bit like the ceo of driving dynamics the quattro all-wheel drive system has an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch just ahead of the front axle normally the car just drives along in front wheel drive mode but when you need some extra traction at the rear you can instantaneously engage those back wheels theoretically you can send 100 of the engine's power to the back wheels but the reality is in practice a maximum of about 85 percent of the path which is slightly more power than you used to be able to get sent to the rear wheels in the previous audi s3 the s3 gets progressive steering as standard that means that the steering gets more and more responsive the more you turn the wheel so if you're cruising along at high speed and you turn it a bit it means that the car doesn't move much it doesn't feel jittery yet when you go at low speeds and turn it a lot it's really maneuverable wait a minute there's a place called titting i've got to go to tetting so the advantage of the progressive steering i'll demonstrate now for low speed maneuvers because look it's dead easy to do a u-turn dead ahead to full lock in one whole turn makes the car really maneuverable perfect if you're a slightly childish motoring journalist and want to go to a place with a funny name here we come not quite was hoping for the most important change the s3 has over a normal a3 is of course its engine so it gets a two liter four cylinder turbo now it's quite similar to the engine in the old s3 that used to produce 300 horsepower though reason is it used to produce 310 horsepower but then during a facelift they had to change things for emissions and the power went down slightly to 300. now for this engine they've changed quite a lot of features on it so the power is back up to 310 horsepower got 400 newton meters of torque and he says it'll do not to 60 in 4.8 seconds which i think is a loader scheiser i'm going to see for myself using my specialist timing gear here so i'm going to launch the car i've got the car in dynamic mode gearbox and sport i've got the stability control in sport i'm going to launch it especially tommy gear ready to go i'm ready to go let's do this let's see what it actually does launch control activated come on cart there's a 60 quicker 4.4 seconds and we're going to do a quarter mile well i'm running out of road oh i was hoping to the quarter mile then i think oh i think i was just a little bit shy it's saying 13.15 seconds but i reckon i was breaking beforehand let's give it another go all right let's try that again i'm gonna be braver this time launch activated go aha better not 64.37 seconds come on now how much further to the quarter mile i'm running out of space i think i might have made it i got a 12.82 for the quarter mile the thing about the s3 is that while it can deliver impressive performance it's also super easy to live with every day so i'm testing out in town it's a german town which means that it's relatively empty and the road is super smooth so very unlike a british town oh look there's a little manhole cover there i'm gonna go over that tesla suspension seems a little bit firmer than the standard a3 but not bad isn't the one i'm gonna try and get that you actually have to actively look for bumps in germany to give you an idea of what the car might feel like when you're driving the whole time in the uk it's a little bit difficult always another one let's go over that as far as i can tell it it's fine but really these roads are too smooth for me to be fully sure relaxing easy to drive around town and the automatic gearbox is doing its thing i don't even know changing gear it is though just can't really tell it's smooth let's find out what this s3 is like for having ziffan fun fun on the autobahn i'm just cruising along at 120 kilometers an hour about 70 75 miles an hour using the adaptive cruise control so it's doing all the things like auto steering keeping me a safe distance from the car in front it's keeping it in lane i'm not taking my hands off the wheel though what kind of economy are we doing so it's averaging 7.6 liters per 100 kilometers we're just cruising at 120. so what's that ollie cameraman's got a conversion on his phone 37.17 british mpg 37.17 british mpg you heard the man that's all right for just cruising along but we're in germany we're on the autobahn we're waiting for it to become de-restricted and here's the sign come on let's do this let's see what this does for the economy whoa you can get about germany pretty plumbing quickly i can tell you that much oh my god it's spinning too quick two that forty here comes a bend i'm going to just ease it for this bend let's open it up again this thing is restricted to 250 kilometers an hour which is 155 miles an hour don't think i'm going to get quite up there we have to break in a second oh we're getting there can i push on for it there it is 250 boom on the brakes hard on the brakes hard we're losing bottles whoo that that is the thing about the auto farm even little crash warning came up on my poor cameraman if you'd like to come and work for carway just apply in the comments you might be putting your life at risk dealing with an idiot like me so what did that do to the economy well 15.2 liters per 100 kilometer come on cameraman the people want to know what's that 18.22 british mpg but that's not bad considering it's smashing along around 155 miles an hour oh and it was i'm gonna say relaxing it wasn't were you relaxed so two things we've learned one when you're cruising this car can be a decent economy two it's blooming quick and can get to 250 kilometers an hour no problem at all and three when you absolutely need to it breaks well which is important so let's see just how much fun this new s3 is then i've found a twisty road and i've got the kind dynamic mode i'm going to go into manual for the gearbox it didn't take long until the speed limit that's one of the problems but let's not slow down for the corners see if i can just go around there we go yeah it just grips really well these german roads are so smooth this one is probably a little bit worse than other ones i've been driving on but they're nowhere near as bad as british roads the suspension is now in the stiff setting because it's got the kind of dynamic and you do notice quite a difference between the comfort setting and the dynamic setting but still it's not bouncy really i'm trying to find the really worst bits in the road and it's not making the car struggle at all it feels taut feel serious i don't know whether it feels quite as involving as i'd hope there is something slightly more grown up about this s3 than a mercedes a45 and the lower power 835. they're a bit more raw and that makes them a bit more engaging whereas this is more sensible it's sharp it's responsive it's impressive but it's a little bit detached at the same time better than the old s3 and more capable but not the most fun hot hatch oh actually i found some roads which would be more like british road so i'm just going to try it out here i'm going to put the kind to comfort quickly here we go let's get into comfort because i wanted a soft setting for this come on cycle through here we go british roads yeah this is it what's it like now oh yeah comfort it's doing a good job yeah that's what it's like driving in england this is actually better there's no potholes there should be potholes to be more british yeah of course i'm joking actually i'm sort of not oh we've come to the end of the road now and here endeth the video so there was my final verdict on the new audi s3 should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should shortlist the s3 it might not be the most fun hot hatch you can buy but it's one of the most rounded and it's also blooming rapid so this guy in this old mercedes-sl he's just come back because apparently this is his school what was his school he's clearly made a success of himself hasn't he bye-bye lovely classic 300 sl\n"