2026 Audi RS3: Regular Car Reviews

[00:03] fascinating cars of 2026 because it's a tangle of contradictions. It's front-heavy, but when you take a turn, you would swear this was rear-wheel drive. Audi is entrusting you with the farewell incarnation of its

[00:18] legendary 2.5 L 5-cylinder, yet it's packaged in a body style for people who blame grocery store cashiers for the prices. This thing feels like it's mated

[00:30] to the ground. It's grippy and tight like an insecure handshake, yet it's capable of psychosis-inducing acceleration that warps your perception of the entire world around you. But there's an important distinction I need

[00:45] there's an important distinction I need to make here. This car is engineered to give you a great driving experience, but it's also engineered to make you feel like a way better driver than you actually are.

[00:58] The Audi RS3 has its balls so deep in the cavernous velvet walls of Bavarian mechanical excellence that it will gaslight you into believing you're a track-level driver as you take hairpin turns in the Nürburgring of the mind,

[01:14] envisioning a checkered flag as you pull forward on the highway, miles per hour gaining on the speedometer like traitorous pounds on the doctor's scale during a follow-up visit that didn't go the way you wanted because you didn't

[01:28] YOU NEED TO GET ON MY LEVEL. I HAVE A DIFFERENT WATCH FOR EACH DAY OF the week with matching wives and modular children. I drive an RS3. Brother, I'm so loaded, my kids are going to retire without work experience. My son is so

[01:44] lazy, he doesn't get things done tomorrow, he gets them done three morrow. Now, let's walk over to the Audi while I talk your ear off about the need for flock cameras and how oil to air filters are a libertarian psyop.

[02:00] But okay, the Audi RS3 is possibly the most interesting car I've driven this year, but can it win the race to the bottom? >> Today's episode of Regular Car Reviews is sponsored once again by Factor. Our

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[03:25] factor75.com and use my code regularfb50. That gets you 50% off your first box and free breakfast for a year. They're convenient, mhm, and they're delicious. Mhm. Speaking of

[03:39] satisfying, let's go back to the Skyline. Mhm. You know, it's the red peppers that really sell this. 2026 Audi RS3. I have a desire for a Golf R overruled by my desire to spend more money. Yes,

[03:56] this is an expensive car, but I'm just going to tell you the truth right off rip, and I'm not entirely sure that people are going to like hearing it. But people are going to like hearing it. But for me, personally, it's an inarguable

[04:10] for me, personally, it's an inarguable fact. The 2026 Audi RS3 is the best car I've driven this year. But, I don't think I would ever buy this

[04:22] for the same reason just about anybody else who's reviewed this car gives. You can get options like a Golf R for a lot less money than what this costs, so that

[04:34] even while this is an excellent car, I wonder to what extent that 70,000 price tag is justified when you can get pretty close to this experience with other cars. But, I just can't look past how fun this

[04:51] is. I was sailing down the highway like a penny down a department store wishing well. This is an absolutely, positively sensational piece of business. And one of the two big reasons, and arguably the biggest,

[05:07] big reasons, and arguably the biggest, is the 2.5 L turbo five-cylinder. And while they're not the only automaker to use an inline five, they're basically use an inline five, they're basically the last one standing. This is the last

[05:20] new production five-cylinder you can enjoy straight off the factory line in the United States, and the RS3 is the car Audi is using to give that engine a proper send-off, supposedly, because there's ongoing debate about how serious

[05:36] Audi really is about getting rid of this powertrain, with executives going back and forth on whether it'll be hybridized in the future, or if it'll continue a little longer in certain markets. If nothing else, it's still going to be the

[05:50] only new five-cylinder powered passenger car sold in the United States for the time being. But either way, the five-cylinder that debuted with the 1976 Audi 100 is getting the gift of euthanasia for its 50th birthday.

[06:07] And what's fascinating about it to me is that seemingly nothing has really been done to this engine for its 50th anniversary. It's the same as it ever was because, well, if it ain't broke, the turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder

[06:23] the turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder is making 394 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque with factory-rated fuel economy of 20 miles per gallon city, 29 highway, and 23 combined. Although, my tremendous volunteer,

[06:38] William here, gets more like 15 to 20 locally and 30 on the highway. Now, this is obviously still a very young car as William has only put about 4,000 miles on her in the few months since purchase. And I do wonder how much

[06:54] of my enjoyment came from the fact that I got to experience this the way so many other actual automotive reviewers do, when it's still mechanically youthful. But then that's short-changing the car and also short-changing other auto

[07:09] mechanically youthful was enough to classify it as good, then people would have had more nice things to say about the Mitsubishi Mirage before it got put out to pasture. But irrespective of whether it was young

[07:25] or old, whatever, I was genuinely impressed by the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission here. Because this is among the few times I've enjoyed paddle shifters, which is funny because I didn't really notice the gear changes at

[07:38] first. And it's because you kind of have to get it up to high revs to even notice, but I was so fixated on the manual mode that I just never got around to driving the automatic for longer than 2 to 3 minutes. It's got a lot of torque

[07:52] for instant power delivery that feels fairly linear. Everything I was doing had an immediate effect. I didn't feel any real lag. There was no weird discontinuity between systems. It was like the automotive equivalent of the

[08:07] screenplay to Fargo. This is a masterpiece of cause and effect and it rewards customization in a weird way because you can personalize your drive because you can personalize your drive settings in really micro specific kind

[08:20] of ways, whether it's the sensitivity of the gas pedal, the heaviness of the shift speed, the firmness of the suspension. And what I found really cool is that you can pair the aggressive sport setting

[08:36] with any of the base drive modes by pushing down on the shifter while driving. So, you can do auto sport, comfort sport, dynamic sport, and all of these things feel like an intuitive extension of that base driving mode.

[08:52] Even as it shouldn't feel like something that's even really possible because how do I have dampers that are stiff enough not to cause body roll, but they're also soft enough that these Nestle Crunch surface roads suddenly feel like the

[09:06] surface of a Dove bar. Dove the chocolate or Dove the soap. It feels chocolate or Dove the soap. It feels that smooth. Now, this does have fairly low profile tires that are bigger in front than in the rear. And that does

[09:20] seem to make this more of a pothole risk than most cars I've driven lately because as William explained to me, he's already had a tire get a bubble in the 3 months he's owned this. Yet, the staggered wheel setup is part of an

[09:34] staggered wheel setup is part of an aesthetic of aerodynamic muscularity that kind of doesn't make sense until you find out the ideology behind why Audi made it this way. Now, for what it's worth, I like how it looks in a

[09:50] very carved, muscular, has very strong opinions about contrast therapy kind of way, but I also recognize that it's not too far removed from the general wide body flares and aggressive scowling front fascia of so many cars we've

[10:06] bemoaned of late. But, I don't know. It kind of works here. For me, anyway. Rather than a car that's angry for the sake of appearances, it gives me the vibe of a car whose rage comes from a deeper place, as if Audi had a chip on

[10:20] its shoulder when they were making this. Like a guy being told to grow up whenever he tries to share his genuine passions with anybody. Except, it doesn't feel like Audi just sat there moping. It feels like they actually got

[10:34] to work doing something about the things they were criticized for. Audi RS3 sponsored by vindictive improvement. The first generation RS3 debuted as an offshoot of the A3 Sportback for 2011

[10:51] and 2012 before taking a hiatus and returning for a second model generation in 2015. Two years later, as part of the second generation, the sedan was introduced and the RS3 made its North American debut. And in each of those

[11:06] first two generations, reviews were generally strong, except for one big Achilles' heel that was brought up again and again. Understeer. Even when reviews praised the surprising

[11:23] lack of turbo lag, even when the RS3 was putting in impressive lap times, the understeer was a problem. For as grippy as those front tires were, it didn't seem like they were grippy enough. And

[11:37] the handling was such that during turns, the car just wasn't turning enough. And the defense from purists was that, well, it's a skill issue. People were accused of misunderstanding the RS3 or blaming their lousy driving on Audi engineering.

[11:55] Accusations of poor roadsmanship were deployed casually, like the homophobia of a girl who just got dumped. So, when the third generation, uh technically the second for the sedan, when that third generation began in 2022, Audi took the

[12:12] understeer criticism to heart by manufacturing a car where the driver's skill was immaterial to the quality of the driving experience itself. Almost like they were saying, "We're going to solve understeer by making it harder for

[12:27] the driver to do it." Wider front tires can help mitigate understeer, and it has those here. The staggered setup of 265 30s in front and 245 35s in the rear. And it has drilled front rotors to keep those brakes cool

[12:43] while it's doing all the heavy front end work. While this generation made its US work. While this generation made its US debut for 2022, a facelift for 2025 altered its characteristics by having it sit lower, adopt a broader grill with a

[12:58] full-width splitter, a bigger rear diffuser, and project the visual language of a more confident car than you would think your standard sedan could. And the contradiction is that somehow this managed to be more

[13:12] assertive while asking less of the driver in terms of its operation. And that brings me back to how this helps fix understeer.

[13:24] The RS3 is using a torque splitter rear differential here rather than the previous Haldex setup they had before. From a mechanical standpoint, this car is still technically front biased all-wheel drive, even if the torque

[13:39] splitter allows you to send 50% of the power to the rear. But, this still power to the rear. But, this still manages to move like a fully rear-wheel drive sports car at times because of the RS's torque splitting rear, which can

[13:54] send 100% of the rear axle's available torque to the outer wheel on a turn. For lack of a better term, the RS torque rear is kind of a drift mode as the computer sends the power to that outside wheel and twists you smoothly along the

[14:10] path into your next turn with the urgent grace of a guy leaving the public library because too many people were randomly coughing and he just couldn't randomly coughing and he just couldn't concentrate. Audi RS 3,

[14:24] I'm a workaholic because the alternative is becoming addicted to Runescape. is becoming addicted to Runescape. But, okay. This is a fantastic car. But, is it a great send-off for an engine as legendary as Audi's five-cylinder with

[14:39] its 1-2-4-5-3 firing sequence like a chaotic Star Wars And I would say it is even while accepting that it isn't outfitted in the way you would suggest from the motor's rallying heritage. It's a sedan, it's

[14:55] not an actual manual transmission. The rear seat room is pretty cramped. You have to kind of pull your knees in close to be comfortable, and I'm not nearly tall enough to be having these kinds of problems. And the trunk space is a lot

[15:09] tighter than it looks. You shouldn't have issues with grocery runs, but also if you're the kind of person who likes to permanently keep tools and car supplies and various other things back here just in case you might run into a

[15:24] little trouble making grocery runs, the bigger ones anyway, because this just doesn't have that kind of room. And while I enjoy design touches like the Dinamica steering wheel, I don't know. I People love this interior layout, but it

[15:39] People love this interior layout, but it just feels simultaneously spacious and cluttered, like I'm in the cockpit of a time machine that'll only go back 2 hours. It looks fancy and futuristic, but how fancy and futuristic is it

[15:52] really? Well, I will say the air conditioning is cold as ice, and the seats are incredibly cozy, and the navigation elements are integrated into the head-up display, which I thought was really cool personally. But I'm not big

[16:06] on piano black as a trim, which is why I'm glad William replaced a lot of the console trim with a carbon fiber match. But, if I were to truly give this car a hard time about anything, it's that ultimately, it was kind of futuristic in

[16:22] the sense that it didn't feel like it needed me in order to show me a good time. The 2026 Audi RS 3 is basically an M car for people experiencing ego death on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

[16:38] I am the vessel for an enthusiast driving experience, but I am not its origin. Because I'm not overcoming anything to have that experience. I'm not perfecting manual shifts. I'm not correcting

[16:52] factory shortcomings through modification. I'm not racking up bonus points for import rarity or overcoming the exoticism of unfamiliar operation. I am driving an excellent car that deconstructs any idea I could possibly

[17:09] choose to form around it, because it's challenging the very reason I would buy challenging the very reason I would buy this excellent car in the first place to this excellent car in the first place to serve as testimony of my own excellence.

[17:24] The Audi RS3 suggests that even when a car costs $70,000, enjoyment does not require that everybody [clears throat] knows about it. On the one hand, this thing has more acceleration, responsiveness, and

[17:41] lateral grip than I could ever responsibly exploit. On the other hand, even if I could, I'm not so sure it wouldn't still go unnoticed by everyone else on the road because it has the look of manufactured aggression wrapped in

[17:58] the safe, easily stained piano black trim of a mid-roll ad sedan. This car withholds the drive-by thumbs and gesticulations of envious onlookers.

[18:10] It's a performance car with the appearance of a daily driver and the soul of a roadster because this space tells me it doesn't want me to have rear passengers, either. For every cool thing it does, like

[18:23] affixing sport mode to every other driving mode, for perfecting the craft of automated manual transmissions, for significantly reducing understeer, and giving me the cold-blooded thrills of self-endangerment

[18:38] through acceleration, it still doesn't feel like it's a car that trusts me to know how best to enjoy it. But is that really so bad? The concept of a car for ego death is

[18:51] that, well, the driver isn't the one demonstrating the skill here. It's the car itself. The driver is simply folded into a continuum of other drivers, unrecognized for their abilities or even for the car they've chosen because the

[19:06] for the car they've chosen because the car doesn't demand notice. Like Odo from Deep Space Nine, they've joined the Great Link, surrendering any sort of individuality in the name of a collective that doesn't give a warm [ __ ]

[19:19] about what they think they're proving by paying high five figures for a car with paying high five figures for a car with the reputational half-life of ibuprofen. Audi will move on from this car and for all of its manifest excellence, I find

[19:35] myself wondering if people would even remember it if it weren't for its status the potential farewell vessel for the five-cylinder. Because this is a very well-reviewed car, but and this is completely

[19:51] anecdotal, I don't really see anybody talking about it. Of course, I invite you all in the comments to tell me that that you're you've had the complete opposite experience, that you hear everybody talking about this car. But me

[20:05] personally, I just I haven't seen it. But then, looking at the big picture, why should anybody care about legacy? Why should anybody care about whether this car is popular or not? Whether it's going to become an icon or not? Yeah,

[20:20] Audi is selling this on the premise of the five-cylinder's legacy and plenty of digital ink has been spilled to frame it as a reason we should desire the RS3, but that's underselling the car. Let me put it this way.

[20:35] Let me put it this way. This car rules and here's why. By essentially nailing it right off of the factory line, Audi has created a car that strips away the need for excessive modification, the need for obsessive

[20:52] comparison between different brands and model generations. It's practical as a daily driver, but can become this fun sports car at the drop of a hat. But

[21:04] more than any of that, it rules because once you strip away all of the things that an Audi is supposed to represent, whether it's the prestige to represent, whether it's the prestige or the cost or identity construction,

[21:19] what the hell ever, it just leaves sensory fulfillment. The basis form of automotive enthusiasm. The Audi RS3 rules because it reminds me

[21:33] that first and foremost, a car's performance is not actually about performance is not actually about performance in a look at me kind of way. performance in a look at me kind of way. It's for enjoyment. And damn did I enjoy

[21:46] It's for enjoyment. And damn did I enjoy this car. I know that the Merkur XR4Ti has more character. It It was a lot a lot of fun.

[22:01] It was unique and colorful and But I'm sorry, I liked this more. That's where it goes. This is my new number one in the top five, the Audi RS3. So the

[22:14] the top five, the Audi RS3. So the bottom five remains unchanged. But for bottom five remains unchanged. But for the top five, sadly, we must say goodbye the top five, sadly, we must say goodbye to the 2007 Saab 9-5 SportCombi.

[22:27] I would like to thank William for giving of his time. I really enjoyed talking to you and just getting to talk about life, getting to talk about cars. I really had a good time on our shoot and I hope you did, too. And I appreciate you coming

[22:42] all the way over from New Jersey. I mean, I know it wasn't a really far trip, but I still appreciate any amount of mileage people want to put to come visit and have their car filmed. And if that sounds like you, if you have a car

[22:55] that you think can win the race to the bottom, or you have a car that is really unique that you think Brian would want to review, email me at regularcars the [email protected]. Specify whether the car is for RCR, race

[23:12] to the bottom, or either, and hopefully we can set something up. Please like, we can set something up. Please like, comment, subscribe, share the video, tap the bell icon, or if you want to support us in the biggest possible way to

[23:25] continue making these videos, join us on Patreon for just a dollar. Merch links are also in the description, but either way, I just want you to know that your way, I just want you to know that your viewership is enough. So, thank you so

[23:39] enjoyed the video, and to everyone watching, have an incredible watching, have an incredible rest of your week.