- The updated 2025 Audi RS3 sedan gets a $1,900 price hike, now starting at $63,400.
- Audi promises better handling with a re-tuned suspension and updated torque splitter.
- Exterior updates include sharper bumpers, larger air intakes, and fresh paint colors.
Audi just updated the RS3 for 2025 and while it costs more, it offers more too. Pricing now starts at $63,400, or $64,695 including a $1,295 destination fee. Sure, it’s more than the $62,795 final price one would pay last year, but that extra cash gets you a raft of upgrades, some of which are, apparently, rather significant.
If you’re considering a rival, the 473 hp BMW M2 might be on your radar, though it’s a two-door, rear-wheel-drive option. Not to mention, Audi managed to beat the M2’s lap time on the Nürburgring, despite the BMW’s slightly higher $65,500 price tag.
Exterior And Interior Changes Are Just The Appetizer
The most obvious changes to the RS3 come in the form of design and styling. The bumpers are more pronounced than in the past and feature RS-specific diffusers. The front air intake is larger and the grille gets a rhombus pattern and an Anthracite Audi badge. Moreover, new 19-inch wheels are available and buyers can pick from new paint colors such as Arkona White, Progressive Red Metallic, and Ascari Blue Metallic.
Read: This Crazy Audi S2 Has An R8 V10
Perhaps the most significant change for everyday driving is the addition of Matrix-design LED headlights. These can, when enabled, cut out light patterns so as to brighten as much of the road as possible even when there are other cars around. Also, like in the previous RS3, owners can pick their own DRL pattern from the infotainment system.
Audi updated the RS3’s interior as well. The new flat-bottomed steering wheel has RS Mode buttons and aluminum paddle shifters, plus there’s a multi-color ambient interior lighting and an updated shifter. Additionally, the silver cabin trim of the previous model now comes in Vanadium grey.
Less Power But Better Handling – And A New Nordschleife Record
All of these exterior changes are well and good, but what really matters is how this car drives. Audi promises that it’s better than ever thanks to re-tuned suspension bits and new logic for the RS Torque Splitter. That’s basically a fancy rear differential that we loved when it first came out. It’s hard to imagine the RS3 getting much better than when we first drove it – but we’re still eager to test the 2025 model anyway.
As we should, because the pre-production model smashed the Nurburgring record for the fastest car in the compact class set by its predecessor by more than 7 seconds. In fact, last summer, it lapped the Green Hell in a blistering 7:33.123 compared to the 7:40.748 lap time the RS3 sedan set in 2021 – and that’s despite the turbocharged five-cylinder making the same 394 hp as in the pre-facelift model in European specification.
There straight line performance remains unchanged, as the new RS3 still rockets from 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) in 3.6 seconds and can go as fast as 180 mph (289 km/h) with the Dynamic Plus package (25 mph more than the standard 155 mph/ 250 km/h top track speed).
Thus, that incredible improvement in its Ring lap time is, logically, thanks to the changes in the suspension and the RS Torque Splitter (and, possibly, an advancement in tire technology, although Audi didn’t elaborate on what rubber the record-breaking car was using).
