Why the New Audi S3 is the Perfect Sub-$50k Sleeper Sport Sedan - TheSmokingTire

Hey everybody, welcome to a... this is a road, this is a good, good road. This is a perfecto day. It's a good road and it's a good road matched to the good car. This is the new Audi S3 and there are some major updates. In this video, Zach and I will help you determine, is the S3 a suitable alternative if you can't afford an RS3? Is the S3 a suitable luxury car in a small size if that's what you want? Is it worth the price premium over a Golf R if you can afford a little more money? Those are the three big questions and the big answer to those questions is the car has more power, 22 more horsepower and 15 more torques. Right, we're at 328 horsepower now, 295 torque. Yep, it has a revised seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox with faster shifts and the big one, the RS3's rear torque splitter, which can send a hundred percent of the torque that goes to the rear to one side of the... Which, so it'll send 50 percent of total torque to the back and then a hundred of that will go to a side. Correct, it's a cool piece of hardware with clutch packs and all kinds of stuff going on and now you get it in the S3 which starts at $48,000, only three grand more than the Golf R. Okay. So let's get into the right mode. Right, we're going to go into dynamic but then we need dynamic plus. That's new, down here. There's a drive select button, right, then you hit the touch screen to go to dynamic and then dynamic plus and then we put the gearbox in the M in the manual. We are on new Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport tires which we will talk about in a minute, well they'll talk for themselves really. They're a chatty tire. They're a chatty tire. Yeah, so we've got 328 horsepower, 295 torques and 3549 pounds, so good for zero to 60 in 4.4 in one of the most unimpressive launch control starts you'll ever do. Very true, it's a very gentle one. It's a gentle clutch ridey start look at the watch how the car behaves through corners. Well we have brake vectoring and we have the rear diff doing the vectoring so it's overdriving the outside rear tire, it's kind of pulling back on that inside front tire and the way it corners around and on the way up here, I'm sure you'll demonstrate it again, it actually will step out in the rear a little bit. I mean it feels pretty neutral when you go down to two. It's I think the lightest car in the class, it's like 150 pounds lighter than the M235 xDrive and that's not the good, that's not the good one, that one's 3900 pounds, that's the rear rear wheel drive bias one, the M235 is the front wheel drive bias one like this car with a two liter. But the days of this sort of super understeery Audi sports car are kind of coming to an end because this car is amazingly neutral right through very aggressive airpin corners. Just coming out of that corner I punched it in second and I felt the back end push us around, not the front understeer, not the front, like it doesn't feel heavy in the front, it feels really even. We've got a quicker steering rack also, progressive rack also, so it keeps the steering really like sharp. And compared to the RS3 which uses the stupid square steering wheel, this one has the round wheel so that's actually a 0.4 even against the $20,000 more RS3. Yeah. Now the RS3 of course gets the five cylinder, it's 75 more horsepower, it is faster, it is a step up, but most of the time the differences in how they drive are less than you'd think. And for most people, most drivers, it also has a slightly different transmission right? But this guy, this has an improved seven speed but it's not the same. The transmissions frankly behave mostly the same between the two cars, but the dual clutch in the RS3 uses stronger clutch packs that will handle more torque. Right. So it's basically like if you're going to start tuning this thing to 600 horsepower that's where it maybe starts to make a difference. The interior is basically the same as RS3, buttons for your HVAC, buttons for your primary controls, USB ports and a wireless pad, good cup holders in the doors, cup holders here, good armrest, good really good seats, good storage, really good seats. We've got, I mean this is the premium package right, so it's upgraded a lot of things, but it has a thigh extension which is awesome, lumbar support, the bolstering is pretty good, it's not adjustable, but I'd say it's pretty solid. I mean overall I do feel like you're getting a lot of car. Granted this is an expensive one, we'll talk about the price in a little bit, but looking at the options list, it's mostly tech, it's not the fundamental things like the comfort or the structure or any of that stuff, and you can get the base car with the diff thing in the rear. It comes with it. Yeah it comes with it. You have to spend another, what, $1,500 for adaptive suspension. $1,100, which is a good bargain. Yeah you want that. Adaptive sport suspension. This one's fully loaded, this one is $60k, but it's as expensive as you could make one of these for, to get one equipped for fast driving, you're looking at about $54k. Then you start adding tech, and the only thing with the prestige package, which is $6,000, that I could skip all of it, but radar cruise. Damn, but the hairpins. It really takes them well, and I am really impressed with the suspension, because on the way here we're on some bumpy street, you know, whatever, stoplights and stuff, and in comfort mode it was soft enough, and then here we're in dynamic, but it's not super hard, because we've hit like cattle guards, and like right here's a perfect example. GT4, what up? GT4. It soaks that up, it doesn't jolt us around, and then you're on your way, and it settles the car really quickly. The brakes are just okay, I would say, they're not super strong, and the transmission, the downshifts, it requires a good bit of room. It's like it needs 500 rpm to redline, sorry, when you downshift, it needs you to have an allowance of 500 rpm to redline, or it won't let you have it, which is pretty good. I mean, only Porsche and some of the exotic stuff really give you the gear with zero, very true, you know, cushioning, and some of the bad ones require two or three thousand rpm. Yeah, 500 rpm is an acceptable cushion for sporty driving. I can live with that, and for the most part, the paddles listen to you, the gear changes are smooth. Very smooth. You know, I really feel like this is, and Audi didn't make the comparison, but I just drove the GR Corolla automatic, which is like mid-40s. This feels like it is worth every bit of a $10,000 premium or $15,000 premium versus that car, right? So if you take, if you go halfway between the GR Corolla at 45k and the, you know, RS3 or the M2 or whatever, this really splits that difference. Now, I'd like to have a go upwards. Oh, we might as well just start with a launch, even into a hairpin, because it doesn't matter, because you'll see. I like this car a lot, but this is not the most exciting launch. Ready? Here we go. Launching, and ride the clutches. Yeah, so not an interesting launch. That slipped the clutch like a 14-year-old learning to drive on a farm. Yeah, it's not great. It's so gentle. I mean, maybe they have to save something for the RS3, you know, that'll be coming out and, or you drove it. I drove it in Europe, yeah. Now that launch is harder, I imagine. It's harder, yeah. It still does a, you know, with the all-wheel drive cars, unless you have huge power, slipping the clutch is just how you do it. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's just sort of how that process works. I really like the steering ratio here. I like the amount of input required. You've got a really wide torque band, 2,000 to 5,000, so third gear, fourth gear, very usable. Oh man, and it really does maintain a traction path. Look at that, did you feel that? Yeah. So that was me smashing the throttle at the apex and actively rotating the rear. Watch the cattle took that so good. Just one and done. Oh, and by the way, Audi has dropped the front drive A3. So all threes are now all-wheel drive, but for essentially front drive architecture, the ability to add throttle here. Nope, I found push. Well, I think the corner was longer than you expected as well. We haven't been here in a couple of years. The weight transfer is really nice. It feels really neutral. Yeah. I think if you're really, and I am not, but I think if you're really an expert level driver, you may find this car a little impure and lacking in terms of that ultimate level of fizz. Yeah, I don't think it has a ton of steering feel. I like the speed and I like the rack, the progression of the rack, but it doesn't have a ton of feedback from the tires. You know, the shifts are smooth, but that makes you, removes you a little bit from that experience. And it's kind of quiet, especially on downshifts I noticed, which also removes me from the experience. The downshift paddle response for a car at this price point is excellent. Hit red line, no automatic upshifts there. That's very good. That was another change. They said it was going to have, it has a more dynamic red line. Dynamic. Something like that. It was something where it was basically a little bit more exciting. Yeah. It hits it. It doesn't go over. Yeah. I mean, to me, the S3 is a bit more of a balanced car. It's somebody's commuter that if you find yourself on a nice road or you want to go out and do some dynamic driving, the car is up to the task. If not ultimately optimized for you. It's a lovely thing to use. Like, I mean, we've only had it for this one day, but I could get in this car and do a thousand miles right now. No problem. Wow. It's the composure. It's so good. You can really just manage the weight transfer so nicely. Stick it. These Goodyears are screaming though, aren't they? There's their conversation. We're talking about mostly on the way up, but they are very loud tires. Screaming tires. Yeah. Like a lost kitten. But this going up is very nice. Really keep the turbo spooled. It's got a new technology in the turbo that keeps it spooled when you lift for better boost response going on and off throttle. It also has, I think, spherical bushings. They've done some strut racing stuff to make the whole chassis a bit stiffer. This road rocks. Yeah, this is great. I think this is a fantastic balance between sport, luxury, space, materials, size, price. There's so much to like about this car. You know, for essentially, you get the one you want is middle fifties. Yes. 54, 55. That's where you want to be. And you get great seats, great inputs, all the sporty stuff. I would much rather have this than the boring M235, which starts about the same price. The grand coupe, which I think just looks terrible. I think this looks pretty good. It looks like an Audi S3. The front end is a little not my favorite, but what was the other thing? Oh, Golf R is the conversation, which has the same structure, the same engine. It also has this overdrive system in the rear. But when I last drove a Golf R, I hated the interior so much. It's all capacitive. We know that about VW. They're walking it back. But this is this is the perfect amount of hard buttons. They're they're hidden. Well, they don't take up the whole interior. We have plenty of storage and you have reactive screens. Yeah, like that's that's what I would want. So I would rather have a base one of these than the loaded Golf R because they have the same power, you know, basically the same system. This is actually more rear bias. So it's actually better. And it's a lovely thing to live with if you don't need a hatchback. To me, if the money is close with this and a Golf R, this the perceived improvement here is significant. Yeah, I would rather have this than a Golf R for sure. This versus RS3, the RS3 is about almost $20,000 more out the door. And in a street driving scenario, I think the differences are less than one might think that five cylinder engine is awesome. The tunability goes beyond with the four cylinder engine here. It sounds different. It's a little more special, but it's a lot more money. And you do have that square steering wheel. It stinks. And if you were literally going to be using it as your everyday car, this gets you more than 85% of the way there for 85% of the price. Not to mention the aftermarket support for this two liter is strong and these engines have a pretty good ceiling. Yeah, I'm into it. I think this is a great little car and I think this is for enthusiasts who want an everyday practical car. This covers a lot of bases from luxury to sporty to value. So thank you to Audi for having us out today to have a go with this car in Palomar. Thanks to you guys for watching and we'll see you later. Bye. And remember, always fight your tickets on the Off The Record app available in the Android and iOS store or go to off the record.com slash TST