The 2022 Audi S3 feels eerily familiar to me. It reminds me of the VW Golf R, with which it shares much of its underpinnings—including its boosted 300+ horsepower version of the Volkswagen Group’s venerable 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder and all-wheel-drive (AWD) system. It also evokes Audi’s wonderful 2008 to 2016 Typ8K S4, with which it roughly shares powertrain and acceleration stats, with a manufacturer posted zero-to-60 time of 4.5 seconds.
But more than that, and this may seem like sacrilege from a former BMW 2002 owner, it reminds me of the late-1980s E30-series BMW 325iX sedan, Munich’s first AWD sports sedan and a classic from the era when the Bavarian brand was truly earning its Ultimate Driving Machine moniker.
Though the S3 lacks that car’s oleo-slick five-speed manual transmission—instead using a 7-speed automatic that is controlled by a silly and stubby shifter that looks and behaves, incomprehensibly, like a giant light switch—it shares a host of other traits with the now highly-prized AWD E30.
It has four doors, which make it a far more practical way to cart around passengers than BMW’s best matched competitor, the M240i xDrive coupe (which I also recently drove), the back seats of which are all but inaccessible and uninhabitable by anyone with legs.
Like that BMW, the S3 has an upright posture, flared fenders, and upsized wheels compared to its more standard brethren. And like the iX, it has all-wheel drive, a feature that’s an option on regular A3s, but comes standard even on the most basic Premium trim of the S3. (Speaking of premium, the S3 starts at $9,000 more than a similarly outfitted all-wheel-drive A3.)
But mostly, it shares a fun-to-drive quotient that makes it a willing partner in almost all circumstances.
Smooth, Sybaritic and Safe
I drove the Audi on the snow-slicked and pockmarked avenues of Manhattan, on smooth parkways and interstates leading out of the city, on winding, recently plowed rural two lanes, and on small town Main Streets crusted in the sand and ice scattered by plow trucks. Its adjustable Audi Drive Select modes—comfort, dynamic, or individual—allowed me to enjoy all of these surfaces.
Even with the upgraded sport suspension (part of the $1,100 S Sport Package) and larger 19-inch wheels (part of the $1,950 Black Optic package), I never felt like I needed traction or orthodonture after getting out of the car. Big wheels and low-profile tires typically mean bad vibes over broken pavement, but not here.
Some credit might be given to the excellent standard sport seats, which were upgraded with quilted stitching courtesy of the $1,250 Fine Nappa Leather package, as well as a memory storage function for their myriad power adjustments, a fortunate offshoot of the $2,800 Premium Plus package.
This later upsell mainly provides advanced driver assistance systems like adaptive cruise control, active lane assist, active side impact and rear cross traffic avoidance, and wireless charging, all of which I had the opportunity to test out, and all of which worked splendidly. They didn’t really intervene in my expert driving but offered a sense of protection should some other fool make a tragic error on the road.
Should an accident have occurred, ten airbags are standard, a kind of inflation I can quite literally get behind.
A Sports Sedan for All Seasons
Braking performance was not aided by the red-painted calipers that were also provided by the S Sport package, but the pedal feel was well-modulated and consistent even after projectile-like clusters of deer and then turkeys on that aforementioned back road required panic stops.
The S3’s steering is heavier than it maybe should be at higher speed and somewhat lighter than it might need be in lower speed maneuvers. Audi might call this adaptability, but it seemed too overpowered in both situations.
But there is no complaining about acceleration, particularly in Sport mode. This car feels more potent than it is rated to be—it’s quicker than its more powerful Golf R cousin—and happily cracks off spitting zero-to-60 launches as often as you can find a stop sign. (Or a place to stop.)
Its exhaust note is quite lovely for a turbo-four: not too loud, not obnoxious and lopey like the ribald turbo five-cylinder in its even more hopped-up RS3 counterpart, but clear enough to alert revving drivers of a Subaru WRX that it will give them the business.
Audi wraps all this in a lovely shape. The greenhouse is a bit small compared to that mythic E30 I mentioned earlier, but a big standard panoramic sunroof helps let the light in. The flared fenders add a bit of drama, and their slight boxiness is a heritage callback to Audi’s rally cars of the 1980s.
Inside, it has an angular, retro-futuristic horizontality, with some sharp creases and cutouts, interestingly textured metals and woods, and a generally pleasing airiness. Its 10.1-inch touchscreen and MIB 3 software can probably do all sorts of tricks, but wireless Apple CarPlay connectivity meant that I just surrendered to mirroring my familiar iPhone instead of having to learn another infotainment system.
Ditto for the standard head-up display, which obviates much of the practicality and loveliness of Audi’s best-in-class LCD instrument panel, which can display detailed Google maps right in front of the driver, already redundantly repeated in the central touchscreen’s navigation system. I’ve had enough with all these screens, personally, but they keep metastasizing and seem unlikely to cease their march of “progress” until every surface is coated.
S3 Versus GTI and Golf R
But as much as I enjoyed the S3, it felt hard to justify the nearly $56,000 price of the top-of-the-line Prestige model I tried out. It’s a delightful and practical car, and it’s right-sized for an urbanite like myself. But the existence of the VW GTI and its available manual transmission is a bit more of a siren call for performance enthusiasts; it’s nearly as quick, and it’s a lot cheaper even it lacks all-wheel-drive.
The aforementioned BMW is similarly priced, significantly quicker and sportier, and while less practical as a coupe, it is arguably better looking and has a bigger trunk to boot. And an A3 Quattro will do nearly everything this car does, except zip around quite as fast, with a $8,000 to $9,000 lower starting price at every level. Opting for the S3 Premium Plus with the $2,250 Technology package can cut the price down to around $52,000 while retaining most of the nice extras on the Prestige.
Still, for those seeking a combination of speed, performance, luxury, all-weather capability and small scale, the 2022 S3 is a compelling package. Be cautious with checking the option boxes, and it will definitely remind you of the great German cars of the past.
