Audi A3 2025 review

Aussies love to look fast even if they mightn’t have the means — or even the want — to go fast. That, according to Audi Australia, is precisely why the newly face-lifted A3 looks almost precisely like its pricier and hotter S3 model mate.

Much like rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz, Audi has seen more and more buyers ‘sportify’ humbler options off the showroom floor to a point — beginning some time ago — that athletic vibes, in spec and styling, has become standard issue fitment. But Audi’s revamped small hatch and sedan twins really take apeing faster siblings to the next level.

Don’t shoot the messenger (or, more accurately, the vendor), says Audi. It’s purely driven by customer demand. And Ingolstadt’s local arm-Down-Under knows A3 buyers well, having offered four generations of, it’s fairly argued, the premium small hatchback originator now for over the past 28 years. Some 65,000 of them, including sedan versions that arrived in 2014, have found homes in Australia.

Exterior design changes for the A3 face-lift are nuanced. There’s a softer grille, larger vents, new ‘digital signature’ headlights (with four animated patterns), more black detailing, two-dimensional badging and the return of conspicuous S Line logos after a backpedal from the red rhombus logo. New look 18s, a “wide-stance” rear fascia…all subtly toughening impact from 20 paces.

But it’s really the cabin that Xerox’s its big brother S3 with higher resolution than what it did in the outgoing spec.

The A3’s new regular-fit S Line bucket seats are dead-ringers for the pews in the also recently face-lifted S3, and Audi Australia had both models, in both body styles, at the recent A3/S3 launch program in Cairns, Queensland, where local media got to drive mild and wilder nameplates back to back.

Risky business, perhaps, because one might imagine that there’s a magnitude lift of purpose in the 245kW/420Nm two-litre quattro S3 — now with a host of go-faster kit in face-lift guise — in direct comparison to modest 110kW/250Nm of 1.5-litre bum-dragging A3 mediocrity. Stay tuned for our review of the swifter sibling coming soon…

The A3’s ‘35’ grade powertrain is unchanged in face-lift form, save for fuel efficiency. It’s 5.3L/100km claimed for either body style, where the pre-facelift was thriftier by around four-tenths of a litre for reasons not exactly clear.

Equally murky is Audi’s old ‘mild-hybrid’ chestnut, a 48-volt belt-driven alternator/starter system which, for a long time, essentially only provided rolling stop-start functionality (and thus was not technically a hybrid at all).

This current ‘MHEV’ is said to “boost up to 9kW and 50Nm” though, without any electric motor per say, it’s a bit of head-scratcher as to actually how.

Absent from the revised line-up is the middling A3 40 grade, a now defunct recipe that blended 140kW and 320Nm with quattro drive as a missing link of sorts between the meek (A3 35) and the muscular (S3), while the properly monstrous (RS3) is yet to materialise with a refreshed face.

For the record, when the fourth-gen launched three years ago, the 40 ($52,900) wanted for a $6600 upcharge over the 35 ($46,300) in Sportback hatch form, with the sedan in either trim adding an extra $2500. But that was 2022…

What are the A3’s features and options for the price?

The 35 TFSI Sportback starts from $54,800 before on-roads, with the 35 TFSI Sedan version commanding $3000 more, at $57,800.

Why $3K more? Audi doesn’t exactly quantify, outside of a notion that the four-door body style is ‘positioned’ against the Sportback to appeal to a somewhat more mature buyer demographic.

But the alarm bells are not merely that 35 trim has risen by $8500 — same powertrain, remember — since 2022 it’s that the 110kW 1.5L front-driver is now more expensive than the 140kW 2.0L quattro option was on debut.

To be fair, the facelift changeover in 2025 money is a more modest price hike of $4200 (Sportback) and $4700 (Sedan).

Audi does make a case that the face-lifted MY25 guise brings “around $10K of added value” to the features list.

New or revised specifications include:

• Standard S Line exterior
• 18-inch wheels
• High gloss exterior package
• Space saver spare wheel
• 12.3-inch Virtual Cockpit Plus instrumentation
• Standard S Line interior
• S Line heated front seats w/ electric driver adjustment
• Cloth/leatherette trim with embossing
• S Line steering wheel
• Black headlining
• Inlays in dark aluminium
• Three-zone climate control
• Storage and luggage compartment package

Carryover features from pre-facelift include:

• LED headlights with digital DLRs
• Gesture control electric tailgate (Sedan only)
• 10.1-inch MMI Navigation plus media

Option bundles include a Style Pack ($2000) with unique black-out wheels, trim and privacy glass, and a Comfort Pack ($1700) with heated/folding mirrors, electric front seat functionality and a 360-degree surround view camera. Individual options include leather-appointed seat trim ($1100), privacy glass ($650) and a sunroof ($2000).

How does the A3 drive?

Given the broad familiarity of the Volkswagen Group MQB Evo underpinnings — VW Golf Mk8, Cupra Formentor, Skoda Octavia, et al — it’s not surprising how polished and sorted the face-lifted A3 is on road.

Unlike the hotter S3, with its raft of technical changes, A3’s oily bits underneath carry over virtually unchanged since gen-four’s 2020 global debut.

The strut front, multilink rear suspension is passively damped, with a nicely struck balance between a naturally compliant ride and assertive body control. Bar the occasional thud of dropping a low-profile 18-inch tyre into a pothole, it feels (and sounds) taut and composed.

In short, there is a premium sheen to the A3 lacking in some so-called semi-premium small offerings in our five-door Sportback tester.

The sedan, with its extra 348mm of overall length, ought to offer similarly fine ride and handling balance given it sits on an identical wheelbase (2630mm) and track widths and, at 1400kg kerb, weighs exactly the same.

The A3 is surprisingly keen in the corners, as evidenced across the wondrous mountain-climbing twisties west of Cairns, North Queensland, that slither up into the Atherton tablelands.

Even on modest 225mm Nexens, the A3 points, grips up and holds its line tenaciously. The speed-dependent power assistance of steering returns a decent amount of feel, but it’s the accuracy of the front end that does the small Audi considerable favours, making it quite a hoot to point and shoot.

There’s inherent athleticism in its dynamics and, on balance, it punches above its weight for what is an entry-level hatchback that, sporting stylings aside, is Audi’s answer to a grocery getter.

And right here is the A3’s problem. Audi’s actually stitched together a chassis worthy of the hatch’s (and sedan’s) S-like appearance and aesthetic vibe, and loaded in a mediocre engine that struggles to deliver the energy to let the rest of the package shine once the heat is turned up.

It just lacks poke: power up top, torque in middle where you usually need it most. When the chassis is just starting to flex its surprisingly able muscles, the little 1.5 turbo demands to be completely strung off its almost painfully short chain…when you’re having a decent punt, that is.

The A3’s truer colours shine brighter around town. The dual-clutch seven speed, the usually abrupt dry-type application, does a fine job of plucking the turbo four’s tractive best off the mark and with the ebbs and flow off traffic.

It’s responsive off the mark, modestly punchy on kickdown, and best served in S-for-sport mode, even down to the shops for milk. But for merging onto motorways, or overtaking at pace, the little 1.5 hits an accelerative wall all too soon. It feels about its 8.1sec 0-100km/h claim. Just.

But it is frugal. The A3 is advertised as a 5.3L/100km proposition and it’ll easily settle into the sub-sixes without sympathetic driving.

That’s pretty impressive given that it’s no hybrid…

Audi’s been peddling its so-called ‘mild hybrid’ application for around a decade now. And while some technical interpretation of this oxymoron — hybrid means two things combined, of course — do introduce an electric motor drive augmentation somewhere within the driveline, the A3’s ‘MHEV’ simply does not.

There’s no electric motor. Thus, there’s no electric drive assistance. This ‘MHEV’ system never drives on electrons alone and, sans electric motor, nor does the powertrain seems to add electric torque in parallel with internal combustion anywhere within the driveline.

Instead, MHEV shuts the engine down with stop-start functionality under very specific conditions — near flat running, Comfort drive mode, sometimes — but the A3 never moves under electric propulsion.

If the Audi did have a Benz-style EQ ‘mild hybrid’ effect, with a motor in the transmission, the A3 would benefit from the torque fattening effect the A3 clearly doesn’t have, but in many situations needs.

What is the A3’s interior and tech like?

Bury down to details and not a lot has changed to the A3 cabin in facelifted form: the centre console is redesigned — complete with sliding transmission selector — and the hexagonal air vents have been subtly restyled.

Elsewhere the updates are garnish, with illuminated door panels, and double-contrast stitching and new decor inlay for the dash fascia.

But the lathering of S Line accouterment that mints the vibe and brings the feel-good factor.

The bucket seats with integrated headrest are dead ringers for the go-fast S3 pews bar the cloth/leatherette trim that’s slightly dowdier than the big brother’s diamond-stitched Nappa leather pews. They’re comfy and racy, a neat compliment for the neat and thankfully round S Line wheel. No flat-bottoms here.

We sampled versions both with regular trim and with the leather-appointed option, and the $1000 upcharge for the latter is questionable. The four-way front-seat lumbar adjustment is ideal for fine-tuning comfort.

Add the digital instrumentation, now grown to 12.3 inches and up from pre-facelift 10.25in, and the window dressing is suitably fancy, with plenty of conspicuous tech blended together with a smattering of premium texture and details.

Still, some of the plastics are fairly mainstream — Golf-esque — in some obvious areas, such as the tops of the door cards. And the monochromatic dark grey, while suitably mature, lacks the sort of sumptuous bling found in Audi’s corporate cousin Cupra.

The cabin design is fancy to the point of overfussiness, with a strong asymmetric theme and driver-centric leaning, including the orientation of the 10.1-inch media screen.

Audi’s tech display work has had a bit of a glacial evolution and the display skins and software is starting to look a little dated despite ongoing updates to the MMi format. It’s still numbers heavy and even starting to look low-resolution compared to the finer, brighter tech coming out in Chinese vehicles.

But one key update is the introduction of Audi Apps, where buyers can now download the likes of YouTube. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as Qi-type inductive phone charging, are all accounted for, while a three-year Audi Connect Plus licence is complimentary, bundling connectivity for Google Maps, real-time traffic alerts and the like.

It’s acceptably roomy in both rows of seat, if in the rear not remarkably so. But the rear bench is quite comfy and rear passengers not only get dedicated third-zone climate controls — a proper premium touch — but a pair of USB-C ports that mirror the duo up front.

If anything, the (33mm taller) hatch feels slightly airier in row two than the sedan, though the four-door (425 litres) trumps the Sportback (380L) on boot space. However, the hatch is more practical given that its 40:20:40 split-fold seatback liberates a broader load-through space — 1200L as a two-seater — for lugging smaller pushbikes, furniture and the like.

The sedan gets gesture control standard, while it’s a $660 sting on the ($3000 more affordable) Sportback, while both fit space saver spare wheels.

Is the A3 a safe car?

The A3 carries over ANCAP’s pre-facelift five-star assessment date-stamped from 2020.

It scored 89 and 81 percent respectively for adult and child protection, with 68 for vulnerable road user protection and 73 percent for safety assist.

Features include:

• Forward AEB
• Lane departure warning
• Lane change assist
• Exit warning
• Park assist
• Turn assist
• Rear cross traffic alert
• Adaptive cruise control
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Reversing camera
• Side assist (blind spot warning)
• Exit warning system

The A3 fits six airbags, if with no front-centre airbag unit (which would impact A3’s ANCAP assessment under current 2025 protocols).

The two A3s we drove — one Sportback, one Sedan — were free of annoyance and foibles during our test. The lane keeping function arms on restart, but is easily switched off by holding down a button on the indicator stalk.

What are the A3’s ownership costs?

The A3’s demonstrated good circa 5.0L/100km fuel economy during our test.

However, the 110kW/250Nm 1.5-litre turbo engine does demand 95-octane petrol, which isn’t a good look when the likes of Hyundai offers a higher-output (132kW/264Nm) 1.6L turbo that drinks 91RON.

Audi offers a five-year service plan at a quite decent $2520, with servicing intervals of 12 months and 15,000kms.

The A3 is covered by Audi’s five-year unlimited-kilometre warranty, covered from the initial point of registration (rather than the time of purchase or delivery).

The honest verdict on the A3

Over four and half generations now, Audi has polished the humble A3 into a fine, accomplished small car, in a choice of two pleasing body styles, and in a ‘35’ powertrain trim that delivers where it needs to as an urban-centric commuter.

This facelift version is not merely one of the nicer and easiest-to-live-with small car options out there, it delivers good vibes inside and out with a sporting schtick, Audi says, so many Aussie buyers demand in 2025.

And yet, no matter how you cut it, this facelift is something of a step backwards for the A3.

The newcomer’s “$10K of added value” doesn’t really compensate for the A3 three-year $8500 price hike, mostly for stuff that used to be optional to taste but is now compulsory, whether you want that sporty schtick or not. There’s no regular A3 any more if that’s what you prefer.

The $54,800-$57,800 ask for A3 is dangerous territory for a small car that looks fast but really isn’t. That’s because it’s a slight lease adjustment away from actual hot hatches in the new Volkswagen Mk8.5 Golf GTI (195kW, $58,990) and Cupra Leon VZ (180kW, $56,990).

While lacking the badge cache, Hyundai’s 206kW i30 N Premium twins bring vastly superior performance for less (hatch at $53,500, sedan at $52k).

Despite its impressive dynamics, the A3 is patently a sheep in wolf’s clothing, playing at its price point of bona-fide wolves.

Audi had its own, if somewhat more passive, hound in the 140kW A3 40 Sportback, with S Line, quattro drive and a thriftier $52,900 price tag, that’s now absent from the line-up.

This leaves buyers who want the looks and the performance to stump up an extra $24,000 for the properly quicker — and significantly upgraded — newly face-lifted 245kW quattro-equipped S3 (from $78,800). Which, for many, is simply a fiscal lunge too far to enter the bona-fide fun zone.

But if you’re in it just for looks and handling…