Yahoo Autos 2025 Audi RS3 Gets Performance Tweaks, Carbon-Fiber-Backed Seats
The 2025 Audi RS3 gets refreshed with new exterior and interior styling, which includes a fiercer face and available carbon-fiber-backed seats.
Audi also tweaked the subcompact luxury car's chassis and drivetrain to make it handle better.
We don't know how much the updated RS3 sedan will cost, but we expect its price to be slightly higher than last year, which started around $63K.
Whether racing around a track or playing its distinctive five-cylinder soundtrack, the Audi RS3 is a raucous little sports sedan. For 2025, it receives a host of updates that make it look meaner on the outside and racier on the inside. Plus, Audi makes some tweaks aimed at shrinking its lap times and upping its fun-to-drive factor.
Visually More Aggressive
With a wider and flatter grille, as well as enlarged front air intakes, the refreshed RS3 has a more aggressive appearance. Its face features a full-width front splitter and vertical elements at the ends of its front bumper that recall Audi's larger RS models. A new set of Matrix LED headlights with dynamic DRLs enhances the RS3's design, especially with the eye-catching checkered motif. The lights have three other selectable graphics too, and the car will even pretend to greet you or say goodbye with its animated lighting sequences.
The lighting renovation also appears out back, where the updated taillights now have an arrow-like design. The RS3's revised rear bumper has vertical bits that echo the front, and the large diffuser with its bazooka-like exhaust outlets now features a red reflector. Along with a standard set of 19-inch wheels, there are newly available rollers with a more intricate multispoke design. The RS3 also gets an improved set of standard tires that Audi claims are grippier without hurting the ride quality; a set of race-compound tires remains optional. The sedan's metallic paint choices expand to include Ascari Blue, Progressive Red, and matte Daytona Gray.
Carbon-Fiber-Backed Seats
Inside, the 2025 RS3 has a new "squircle" steering wheel that's flat on the top and the bottom. It comes wrapped with either leather or microsuede, and there are two new red buttons affixed to the wheel's spokes. One has a checkered flag stamped on it, presumably to activate the sportiest drive mode, and the other "RS" button provides quick access to the customizable Individual setting.
The electronic shifter on the center console has gone from a stubby toggle to a flatter switch that's proliferating across Audi's lineup. Arguably the coolest addition to the RS3's interior is the available RS bucket seats that feature a mix of leather and microsuede on the front and exposed carbon fiber on the back. While the dashboard displays look the same as before, the 12.3-inch gauge cluster has a new tachometer design, and the 10.1-inch touchscreen now includes an app store.
The RS3 Is Easier to Drift
The RS3 packs a 401-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder, which mates to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic that feeds all four wheels. For the new model year, Audi says it tinkered with the algorithm that controls everything from the car's adaptive dampers to the torque-vectoring rear differential. The changes are said to help make the RS3 more stable and more controllable during high-performance driving. And for those who want to slide the tail out, Audi says that's easier than just stomping on the gas pedal like before, as drifting is better initiated with the steering angle. With Audi's pro driver Frank Stippler behind the wheel, the company claims the updated RS3 set a new lap record for its class at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, with a time of 7:33.123 minutes.
The 2025 Audi RS3 hasn't yet reached U.S. dealerships, and we're still awaiting pricing. Meanwhile, our European friends get to enjoy the wagon-like RS3 Sportback that's not sold on our shores. When the refreshed RS3 eventually goes on sale in America, we expect its base price to be slightly higher than last year when it started at $63,395.
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