2022 Audi RS3 PVOTY Review: There’s Nothing Else Like It

The RS3 is one of the most characterful Audis you can buy today, right up there with the V-10-powered R8 supercar. Where other Audi models are famously cold, executed beautifully but with a sterile detachment to their moves, the hottest A3 sedan is white-hot. This spicy little ball of spätzle ditches the turbo I-4 engines of lesser A3s for a 401-hp 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five and backs it up with a torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system and sticky tires.

It's little wonder, then, why our Performance Vehicle of the Year judges voted the 2022 RS3 as a finalist, though it entered with a few reservations. For one, its price is flat-out absurd, as if Audi poured some digits on a table and let a toddler rearrange them—presto, you end up with our lizard-green RS3 test car's $75,045 sticker. Sans $15,000 in options, the bare-bones RS3 still costs $59,995. For a subcompact luxury sedan? Is it that good?

When you first slide behind the wheel, that number will be ringing in your ears like a lingering mortar blast. And it'll keep on ringing, because when you scan the RS3's interior, you'll need to peer closely to spot anything sufficiently upscale. Although its angular design motif is interesting and the front seats are well-bolstered and comfortable, materials quality is lacking—even at the entry-level A3's $40,000 price point. In addition, the cabin is so small that average-height drivers will sit nearly behind the B-pillar, exaggerating the Lilliput syndrome. At over 70 grand? You better really like the Audi's performance.

More 2023 PVOTY: Winner | Finalists | Contenders

There isn't anything else like the RS3, though, so perhaps the price won't deter four-ring fanatics. BMW's hottest 2 Series, the M2, is a rear-wheel-drive, two-door coupe. Mercedes-AMG soon will be without its A45 or CLA45, as both small Benz sedans are going the way of the dodo. None of those, let alone any other new car for sale in America, has a five-cylinder engine.

Much like in the previous RS3, the furious five makes aggressive snorting sounds and yanks the sedan around with aplomb. Audi fits wider tires to the front of the car, an unusual concession to help tame potential torque steer and improve handling. RS3 drivers can also take advantage of a number of distinct drive modes aimed at adjusting the car's handling attitude. Sport mode is fairly standard perk-me-up stuff, while RS Performance tilts the driveline's front-to-rear torque split decisions toward the rear, helping to better vector the little car around corners under throttle. The RS3's Torque Rear mode is its de facto rear-wheel-drive setting (it can send up to 100 percent of rear-wheel torque to the outside wheel) that's best employed for hooning or on really tight tracks where some rear slip angles might help you scoot around corners better.

We were able to sample the RS3 on both its standard summer tires and optional hardcore Pirelli Trofeo R rubber, the latter of which raises the car's handling limits noticeably. If you plan to track this Audi, go for the R's; if not, enjoy the looser setup afforded by the less grippy tires at lower speeds on the street. 

No matter where you drive the RS3, though, you'll put up with the dual-clutch automatic transmission's lazy automatic mode, as well as a soggy, flaccid brake pedal; stopping power is beyond reproach, but you must step hard on the overripe avocado of a pedal to access it. As a performance machine with a clear focus on rowdy, all-wheel-drive fun, the RS3 is without peer—but mostly because nothing even similar costs so damn much.