The RS3 was always going to have a tough job on its hands to live up to “The Beast”, the mighty B7 RS4 which had to date been the best car I had ever owned and the longest at 5+ years of ownership. Coupled to a decent list of modifications on it including;
Non-res valved AAS exhaust with x-pipe
GruppeM ram air intake
Port / polished and de-flapped manifold
Carbon clean
Cold air feed
Hotchkis front and rear ARB’s
EBC Yellowstuffs
Goodridge hoses
Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas
Revolution remap
The RS4 bar a supercharger was pretty much perfect so a stock RS3 to match was a tall order, some may say an impossible one. So on the first day of collecting it went in for some minor enhancements in Milltek cat bypass pipes and a Pipercross air filter. So here is how I rate the RS3 in various categories vs. the RS4.
Styling
The 3 is aggressive but in a different way to the RS4, almost subtly aggressive. Everyone knew what the RS4 was, probably helped by the fact most could hear it coming 1/2 mile away and it got a lot more comments but also a lot more attention both from boy racers and the Rozzers With newer Audi’s coming out the B7 even for me looks a little dated at the front but it has so much presence.
The RS3 doesn’t except from the front but then I quite like that now, maybe it suits my advancing years and outlook on vanity. The family prefer the 3.
Inside is the one place the 3 doesn’t live up to the 4. The dimensions in the 3 are actually better; particularly in the rear albeit the cabin is a little narrower but the quality of plastic is not there. That’s not to say the ‘3 is not a nice place to be because it is and on long journeys it is comfortable and coming from other brands it is well built but coming from one Audi to another it has some shortfalls.
Performance
The one most people will be interested in and having had time to reflect the ‘3 and the ‘4 go about it in different ways. The ‘4’s Achilles heel was its lack of torque which was partly addressed by the modifications I had done to it but the one thing with the RS4 was that there was always a sense of occasion no matter what speed you were doing. You could be doing 30mph and it would sound epic. The ‘3 I find myself being faster to get enjoyment out of it but at the risk of points / licence. For an everyday proposition and point and shoot driving which most of our roads allow the ‘3 with its s-tronic is more usable and having been up against some RS4s just as quick as you wouldn’t notice the difference. Don’t get me wrong, the 5-pot has its moments of aural excitement but not in the way of a V8.
Pick up in the ‘3 is good but could be improved on throttle aggression but it has to be said the gearbox helps the ‘3’s 5-pot be as good as the modified ‘4. There is one area the ‘3 does fall down and that is mid to top end punch where more torque would be handy as on high speed overtakes it feels like it is running out of puff and you have to drop a couple of gears to get in the sweet spot whereas the displacement of the ‘4 meant it always felt like it had plenty of shove but a remap on the ‘3 I believe will solve that issue.
Handling
As much as many people slated the RS4’s DRC it worked on mine and was sublime. And what it shows up on the ‘3 is how hard the ride is. I suspect it would be better on 18”wheels as on my winter wheels it rides a lot better. The difference however has been minimised from changing from the supplied Continentals to Goodyear’s. I almost feel like going back to Audi and asking for a refund on the money I spent to change to Goodyears to make the ‘3 what it should have been because the Continental 5P’s were that bad. Even the Conti’s winter tyres I bought were better. Audi should never be allowed to dictate what tyres this car comes with because gone are the vague steering feel, sliding on turn in, lack of confidence and feel in the wet, harsh ride and general loud slushiness and instead you have more direct communication at all grip levels, quieter ride and a generally more alert car.
Handling has been enhanced by the inclusion of the 034 Motorsports ARB. Give 034 their dues, the mucked up by initially sending the wrong bar but made amends by sending the new one FOC and it takes out so much of the pitch and roll and under-steer on the OEM car and is the best £200 you could spend much like Hotchkis was on the ‘4 for £300. It’s still not as good as DRC because the comfort isn’t there and the 3‘s lacks the ability to absorb the bumps and potholes as well as the ‘4 but it’s nearly there, it just needs to feel a litlle more planted like the '4 and to an extent stuck to the road with glue which is what you always got in the '4. Possibly a set of PSS9’s in the future.
For those that say the ’3 is poor handling wise try these two changes to OEM and you’ll be surprised at how good it is. The fact the ‘3 is also lighter and feels a little more nimble adds to the satisfaction. Coupled to a continuation of legendary 4WD grip in all weathers albeit you can feel the difference between Haldex and Torsen but not enough in real life for it to be a significant difference.
Manual vs. s-tronic
I have always been a staunch manual man but I have to say I am converted by s-tronic. It has its moments of stupidity when in manual mode and you are looking to downshift but it selects to do so just before you do so you end up going from 4th to 1st rather than 4th to 2nd or you pull up at a junction and it momentarily pauses to select first when you wanted to get into that gap in traffic and it lurches quite horribly but the flexibility it generally shows is impressive. On my commute I leave it in ‘D’ and let it do its thing and in queuing traffic it make the journey almost enjoyable.
Manual mode is good, better now that I have some custom paddle extenders added which allow my short sausage fingers to rest just so on them that it feels intuitive to me, sport mode is good when you want to mash the throttle and just be lazy with speed but the best bit..... launch control!
Cost of ownership
To be candid this is the reason I moved to the ‘3. I had the ‘4 but ultimately had to get a commute hack in the shape of a Seta Ibiza 1.4 TDi Reference for the commute to work. Then one day I looked outside and thought it was crazy to have 2 cars sitting outside the house where I often used one on one day of the week, the other on one day of the weekend and the other 5 days both were sitting there doing nothing. The ‘3 was consolidation and at this stage it is proving to be more economical than having 2 cars and all the associated costs. MPG for the first 10k miles has been 26.1mpg, 5mpg or 25% better than the RS4. But the engine is just starting to loosen up and the longer journeys will see 30+mpg and my commute to work regularly sees 35+mpg whereas in the ‘4 I’d be lucky to see 26mpg. With more miles I’m confident the ‘3 ill be consistently near to or over 30mpg which makes it nearly 50% better than the ‘4 £200 difference in road tax each year helps and cost of insurance is about the same for a car double the value.
The 3 has not wanted a drink of oil (touch wood) since I collected it whereas by now I would have used 3 litres in the ‘4 and probably have done a 10 litre oil change at 5k miles x2.Servicing will be cheaper and the upside of brake squeal is that you get a new set of pads, discs and callipers at 9k miles FOC which would have been £400+ on the 4 just for the discs. Yes there is bigger depreciation on the ‘3 because it is new so it will probably work out around the same so I’m certainly no worse off but factor in finance, running and insurance of the SEAT on a day to day basis I am better off with less to worry about partly because of warranty, but alos a newer car whereas the ‘4 was bordering on 100k miles when I sold it and to keep doing 15k miles in it a year would have been a seriously expensive proposition. In a month I was spending around £400-450 in petrol and diesel, now it is around £320-350. The ‘3 will do 320-400 miles easily on 55-60 litres whereas I would be lucky to see 300-330 on anything but long journeys in the ‘4 on 70 litres.
Cost of modifying
On a par at present but considering my total modifying budget on the ‘4 was between £4-4.5K for all the parts and work done excluding tyres and brake discs. So far I have spent £400 on the bypass pipes and ARB. A remap will at £1k likely give me a faster, better performing car than the ’4 so the ‘3 is far more practically affordable tuning wise.
Ownership experience
So has it been worth it? My financial head says yes and the ‘3 continues to surprise. It is helped that the family prefer it, largely because it doesn’t wake up the neighbourhood at 6am when I sometimes leave for work / going away but my you can’t replace the occasion of a sweet sounding V8 in your life. That said I don’t miss the oil tops ups, the more frequent fuel stops, the disc judder pre EBC’s and the cost of 5k oil services. I’ll see how I feel after the ‘3 is remapped and had a few select bits changed internally and externally but no doubt the RS3 is a very, very good car but it isn’t quite a great car but then I have been spoiled by owning one of the greats. I genuinely believe if I had come from any other car the RS3 would be great, fantastic even. Perhaps it will be a fantastic car once the modifications are complete and I sincerely hope so. And in that I have been fortunate to have owned one of the best super saloons of all time and now driving one of the best ones available today.
Just a pity it doesn't sound like this and then it would be perfect.......
http://s18.photobucket.com/user/GSColli ... 0.mp4.html
