2023 Audi RS3 vs 2022 Cupra Ateca

What's the difference?

After teasing us with the S3, all-wheel-drive version of its A3 sedan and hatch (Sportback in Audi-speak), Audi has finally given us the full-fat, RS3 variant of the same car. Any time you see an `R’ and an `S’ on the badge of an Audi, you know it’s the full nine yards in terms of all-wheel-drive grip and engine performance. And the RS3 is no different.

The power is enormous, the grip prodigious and the attitude is way tougher than any other A3 variant. It’s also well equipped, safe and nicely put together. But is that extra `R’ worth the added price of admission? And is this more Audi A-Series than you really need?

The other question is, given that the S3 is such a resolved package with its own shot of high-performance, do the numbers stack up for the RS3 version? How much is too much?

Meet the new Cupra Ateca. Actually, scratch that. Meet the new Cupra, the VW Group's Spanish performance brand that will be launching in Australia around the middle of this year.

Picture a pyramid, and then put VW at the top of it. Bottom left you've got Skoda, a brand that prides itself on practicality and clever features. Bottom right you've got Cupra, which promises to be the fun, sporty and energetic cousin, and to focus on performance, electrified or otherwise. But both are fed from Volkswagen.

Make sense?

The Ateca, then, is a nearly Tiguan-sized SUV that will launch in one hi-po trim level, and a significantly lower starting price than its better-known, R-badged relative.

It also promises to marry family duties with a fun-to-drive attitude. So how does it measure up?