2026 Audi RS3 Sportback review

In the animal kingdom, the term 'endling' describes the 'last survivor of its species or subspecies', the death of which means the extinction of the species.

The Audi RS3 is an endling in the car world.

It is the last new, series-production five-cylinder car on sale in Australia; an engine layout once used in everything from Ford Ranger utes to decades of Volvo wagons.

Production is scheduled to end for Europe in mid-2027, as its 2.5-litre turbocharged engine will fall foul of the next wave of emissions rules. It will live on longer for Australia and the US, but don’t expect it to survive into the next decade.

While you can also get the RS3’s engine in the Formentor VZ5 SUV from sister brand Cupra, that is a special edition limited to just 100 cars, all set to be built by the end of 2026.

If you’re interested in an RS3, and its size and price work for you: buy one. Read on to find out exactly why it is a spectacular machine – albeit one with a few compromises worth keeping in mind.

From the perspective of (Cupra twin aside) there being no hot hatch on the market like it, yes.

But the RS3 Sportback’s RRP of $104,800 plus on-road costs is a lot of money for a car based on a $60,000 A3, especially when this generation launched four years ago at $91,400, with a similar feature list.

An RS3 sedan is available for $3000 more, if you prefer that body style.

This test car is optioned with matte grey 10-spoke wheels for $1400, and a big-ticket paint finish: Daytona Grey matte from the Audi Exclusive range, which adds a whopping $11,400 to the bill.

It is hard to see the value in it, especially if you plan to park the RS3 outside on a regular basis, as only a night or two on the street will get the paint filthy. Regular gloss metallic paints are included in the price, including the bright Kyalami Green and Python Yellow.

It brings the price of this test car to $117,600 plus on-road costs, or about $131,000 drive-away in NSW – a high price, but there aren’t many direct rivals to this ultra-hot hatch.

Production of the Mercedes-AMG A45 S is about to wrap up, as its bespoke 2.0-litre engine is set to soon fall foul of European emissions rules, with the Edition R+ special variant accounting for all remaining stock on the Mercedes-Benz website, at the time of writing.

The BMW M2 offers similar performance at a higher price ($128,100 plus on-roads) in a rear-wheel-drive coupe format, while you’d be remiss not to consider the Cupra Formentor VZ5, which offers the Audi five-cylinder at $94,990 plus on-roads or $101,990 drive-away nationwide for the “fewer than” 100 examples available.

Standard features in the RS3 include a 10.1-inch touchscreen, 12.3-inch instrument display, matrix LED headlights, keyless entry and start, colour ambient lighting, heated power-adjustable front seats, a panoramic glass sunroof, head-up display, a power tailgate, wireless phone charging, 15-speaker Sonos audio, and a 360-degree camera.

It must be noted that between testing this vehicle and publishing this review, Audi has revealed an update for the RS3 that redesigns its interior to match newer models in its line-up. Australian plans for that vehicle are yet to be confirmed.

Performance hardware includes 19-inch wheels, a torque-splitting rear differential, adaptive dampers, and steel performance brake discs, with the option of carbon-ceramic front rotors.

Fuel consumption is unlikely to be a key consideration for many Audi RS3 buyers, but it should be pointed out that this isn’t a particularly frugal car.

Over a week of testing, the trip computer indicated fuel use of 11.6 litres per 100 kilometres, much higher than the 8.3L/100km claim – and cutting the range on a full tank to less than 500km.

In flowing suburban driving, I saw consumption dip closer to 10L/100km, while fuel use in traffic or more demanding conditions can surge to 15L/100km. That’s the price to pay for a unique engine with this level of performance.

The RS3 demands 98-octane premium unleaded, with no ability to take 95 – a potential issue should a rural service station run out of the most expensive blend.

The Audi RS3 is covered by the brand’s five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with a two-year extension offered for $4260.

Service intervals are set at 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first – a generous period given the bespoke performance engine.

Prices, however, are less than generous. Five scheduled services cost $4916, if you hit the time interval first, but reach distance intervals instead, and Audi charges an astronomical $6725 over 75,000km.

Prepaid service plans are available to lower the cost, quoted at $4010 for five years.

A year of comprehensive insurance coverage with a leading provider is quoted at $4458, based a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The same parameters return $6180 for a BMW M2 automatic.

The Audi RS3 does not carry a safety rating from ANCAP, and its front-end configuration – with a wider track and unique engine that are likely to interact with the frontal crash structure differently – mean it is not as simple as copying the A3’s five-star score over.

It must be noted, if you’re using the A3 score as a reference, that the regular car was reassessed under tougher 2025 protocols to maintain its five-star score first achieved in 2021.

There’s a long list of safety features available in the RS3 that, unlike so many new cars, do not annoy or intrude excessively.

Lane-keep assist will intervene on tight roads, but it is very easy to turn off with two clicks of a button on the end of the indicator stalk.

The driver distraction monitor watches steering wheel and screen input, rather than placing a camera on the steering column, so it doesn’t berate the driver for a brief look away from the road ahead. A 360-degree camera is standard, but its resolution isn’t great.

Traffic-sign recognition is fitted for Model Year 2026 (MY26) production, but it is absent from the MY25 build tested here.

The RS3 was facelifted in 2025 with an even more aggressive experience than the pre-update model, with a new front fascia that enlarges the air vents, and moves the four-ring badge up for a look that’s much like the just-revealed RS5 super wagon.

Also new is the rear bumper, vertical reflector included, and the option of the 10-spoke wheel design fitted to this test car.

An update not welcomed by long-time Audi fans is to the RS3 badge visible on the tailgate, which has dropped the traditional RS font for something more generic, and moved the ‘RS 3’ script away from the red rhombus.

The facelift also deleted the traditional ‘RS 3’ badge from the grille. Audi has reintroduced an RS logo for current production, following feedback from buyers, but this early-build test car goes without.

The RS3 in these photos may be a $130,000 drive-away car, but elements of the cabin feel little more luxurious than a $60,000 base A3.

There’s still plenty of obvious hard plastic lower down on the dashboard and centre console, the gloss black is prone to marks and scratches, and all the dashboard switchgear is shared with other variants in the A3/S3/RS3 range.

What matters more in a performance car is ergonomics, and Audi has hit the spot in that regard.

The front sports seats offer good comfort and support for fast driving, without feeling too snug or tiresome on long drives, trimmed in supple leather and equipped with plenty of adjustment, both via the power side controls and the extendable under-thigh cushion.

Heating is standard, but not ventilation, and there are no perforations in the leather to help the seats breathe better.

The steering wheel has a thin rim, is a great size, and is trimmed in a perforated leather material that feels befitting of the RS3’s price. Ample tilt and reach adjustment helps tall drivers sitting low in the car get comfortable.

Not so impressive are the touch-sensitive controls on the steering wheel, particularly the vertical sliders on either side, which are far too easy to activate accidentally. Audi has reintroduced these for newly built vehicles, which is great to see, but it has kept the equally fiddly volume control touchpad on the centre console.

Physical buttons are used elsewhere: two shortcut buttons on the wheel for RS Performance and RS Individual drive modes, a series of extra-clicky switches for adjusting the climate control, and additional shortcuts below them for the regular drive modes, parking sensors, and more.

There’s a Lamborghini-like aesthetic to the shape of the air vents, and nice materials in other places – perforated suede on the doors to let ambient lighting shine through, metal door handles, and carbon-fibre-look accents on the dashboard – feel high quality.

Unfortunately, Audi has revealed an interior update for the RS3 that restyles the cabin in line with its latest cars, deleting the cool air vents and dropping in big new screens. Read more on that update – yet to be confirmed for Australia – here.

Storage space is not exceptional – the cubby under the sliding and tilting centre armrest is small, and the door pockets are nothing special – while standard are amenities like tri-zone climate control, two USB-C ports, a 12-volt socket, and a panoramic sunroof with shade.

Space in the rear seats is on the tight side, even by hatchback standards. At 186cm (6ft 1in) tall, I fit behind my driving position, but my knees touch the seat in front, my head is a few centimetres from the sunroof frame, and toe room is not generous.

Smaller passengers will have a more pleasant time, but there is no hiding this is not a big car, and the large central tunnel means it is best used only as a four-seater. Map pockets, air vents, two USB-C ports, and the requisite child-seat anchors are also on board.

The figure more likely to limit the RS3 is its payload: just 359kg, based on its 2055kg gross vehicle mass and 1696kg unladen weight (including fuel), which is barely sufficient for four average-mass male adults (87kg each), let alone five.

If there are more than two adults on board, the fifth seatbelt may as well not be fitted, as the car will struggle to legally carry more than four people.

The boot is also not as big as you’d expect. It is rated at only 282 litres – about 25 per cent smaller than a regular A3 – and while it can fit a large suitcase, as well as plenty of smaller shopping and overnight bags, it is not huge for a small hatch.

What you see with the floor in place is essentially what you get. The space used for the battery in a four-cylinder S3 is needed for the RS3’s longer five-cylinder engine and airbox, so the 12-volt system moves under the boot floor, sucking up space.

There is also no spare wheel, only a tyre repair kit. The 40:20:40 split-folding rear seats are standard for extra room.

The 10.1-inch infotainment touchscreen in this 2026 model – again, eventually set to be replaced by a 2027 model with new screens – is not as flashy as the super-sized displays in Audi’s latest models, but it trades slick looks for, to be frank, day-to-day reliability.

The display resolution is not fantastic, the graphics are relatively basic and monotone, and processing power is good without giving your smartphone a run for its money.

But wireless Apple CarPlay worked as designed in my testing, there were no app crashes or glitches, and it simply does the job. That is not something that can always be said of newer Audi systems... but a potentially worrying sign for the updated 2027 RS3.

Wireless Android Auto is also available, plus embedded satellite navigation with Google Maps support, and AM/FM/digital radio.

The 12.3-inch instrument display is excellent. There is lots of customisation – from a full-screen map, to two circular dials, to tachometers in the shape of a hockey stick or an airport runway – and graphics are clean, without being too boring or complex.

It’s a bummer Audi has removed the central circular tachometer option previously offered on older RS3s.

The head-up display is a handy inclusion, and the new 15-speaker, 680-watt Sonos sound system packs a punch – but it is not the best stereo we’ve ever heard in a car of this size (see the Harman Kardon audio in a VW Golf R).

Connected services, partly via an Audi smartphone app, are split into two categories: Navigation and Infotainment (online traffic, Google Maps integration, fuel prices, weather data) and Security and Assistance (vehicle tracking, remote locking, roadside assistance, emergency call function, and a service reminder).

Navigation and Infotainment features are free for three years, while Security and Assistance are free for 10 years. After each period expires, a paid subscription applies.

Few modern cars are defined by their engine quite like the Audi RS3.

The 2.5-litre turbocharged five-cylinder is, undoubtedly, the star of the show.

The noise emerging from the bonnet and exhaust is like nothing else. At low revs, it has a deep, bassy grumble that could be confused for a four-pot, but it clears its throat above 4000rpm, with a fantastic snarl that embraces its cut-in-half Lamborghini V10 layout.

Power is the other piece of the puzzle. It is ferociously fast in a straight line, and there’s a sense the 294kW on the spec sheet is a conservative figure, such is the thrust it delivers at any speed.

It has a very different character to the 2.0-litre four-cylinder in the S3. The brochure suggests both engines produce peak power and torque at similar points on the tachometer, but whereas the smaller motor impresses with its broad torque curve and linearity, the five-cylinder needs revs on the dial before it feels alive.

The result is a love for chasing the redline in the RS3 that encourages you to wring its neck, especially with the exhaust valves open via the drive modes.

The flipside, however, is that it is not as docile around town. It is more responsive at low revs and speeds than an S3, and it does not pair as well with the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, with more shuddering, jolting and general ‘head toss’ in traffic.

Still, it is smoother than some other hot hatches on the market with dual-clutch transmissions – there’s not much rollback while parking – and in a performance environment, the gearbox delivers crisp, super-snappy shifts up and down.

Engaging the car’s sportiest drive mode and taking control via the metal paddles will unlock a full manual shift mode, where the car won’t automatically grab the next gear on redline.

Audi claims zero to 100km/h in 3.8 seconds; independent tests show it is a conservative figure that translates to closer to 3.5sec in reality.

The ride is firm, as you’d expect, and bumps and rough roads are keenly felt in the cabin, but in Comfort mode it is not too harsh to live with given the immense performance on offer.

On country roads, only particularly large undulations and crests will have you wanting more control in the suspension to tie the body down than what’s offered in the dampers’ Comfortable setting.

RS Performance mode firms up the dampers to Dynamic, which is too stiff and brittle for rough Australian country roads. Unlike most other performance cars, however – which lock any adjustment of drive modes into a custom setting – Audi lets you edit that all-out performance mode to soften the suspension, alongside other tweaks.

There is an RS Individual mode – ideal for selecting a soft ride and docile engine but loud exhaust for antisocial around-town driving – plus the usual Comfort, Efficiency, Auto and Dynamic settings.

This generation of RS3 introduced what’s known as the torque splitter: a clever differential that can send 100 per cent of rear-axle drive – admittedly still only 50 per cent of total engine torque – to either wheel.

In the right mode, with enough commitment on the throttle, it allows the rear of the car to help steer the RS3 out of a corner, rather than relying on the front tyres alone – and leaving the driver with a moment of understeer to control.

The resulting handling balance is fantastically neutral, and lets drivers push harder – while having more fun – than in older-generation all-wheel-drive hot hatches that are limited by the traction of their front tyres.

In a closed environment, the rear diff can spin the outside wheel to kick the car into a computer-controlled slide. RS Torque Rear in the RS3 is only happy to oblige, should safe circumstances arise.

Helping the RS3’s battle against understeer are staggered tyre widths – 265mm front and 245mm rear – which result in a noticeably wider front track that, if you’re only looking in the mirrors at the rear wheels, makes the fronts very easy to kerb when street parking.

Grip from the Bridgestone Potenza Sport rubber is excellent – sticky, but not so sticky as to prevent all oversteer or understeer – and the steering is quick, precise and well weighted, whether around town or on a country road.

The brakes deliver fantastic stopping power, with good pedal feel that’s firm and inspires confidence. Carbon-ceramic front discs are available as a $10,800 option, but I don’t think they’re necessary.

Tyre roar is always present, and requires turning up the stereo to drown it out, while wind noise is well controlled – partly a result of small side mirrors that don’t do wonders for visibility.

Find new and used Audi RS3s for sale at Drive Marketplace, while to look at a new example in the metal, locate your nearest Audi dealer at this link.

More details on pricing, specifications and updates for the RS3 can be found here.

Upgrades to the Audi S3 have made the top-dog RS3 more difficult than ever to justify.

It delivers 90 per cent of the power, handling and noise – and 99 per cent of the interior presentation, features, technology and space – at 75 per cent of the price.

But it is hard to put a price on the character and sound of the five-cylinder engine. It dominates the driving experience of this car, and is the difference between the feel of a tuned-up hatchback and a quarter-price exotic.

That’s not to mention that the RS3 will grip harder, command more presence and, to ease the sting of the price, likely hold its value better than an S3 – even before you consider this engine will cease to exist in new cars in a few years from now.

If this type of car fits your needs, and its six-figure price is within reach, the RS3 is a modern motoring great worth snapping up while you still can.