Audi RS3 vs Toyota GR Yaris

What's the difference?

The Audi RS3 is a special hot hatch and sedan I’m so glad I experienced before its five-cylinder engine is inevitably retired due to emissions regulations. Full of character and charisma, this car is far from a rational purchase, pitched at boy racers who don’t want to grow up just yet.

From a value perspective, too, while the asking price has crossed the six-figure threshold and the option prices add thousands, it’s still much cheaper than the Mercedes-AMG A45 S. Make of that what you will.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

The GR Yaris GTS with the Aero Performance Package is a so wonderfully special with its brilliant engineering, mind-blowing dynamics and fun-to-drive nature. The new aero package makes an already angry beastie look furious, making it the perfect enhancement that's also functional.

The only lower marks here are for warranty, fuel use and practicality. But if there was a score for fun it'd be a 10/10.

Audi has made some subtle tweaks to the RS3 that has somehow made this snarling hot hatch look even angrier.

Up front there’s a new fascia featuring more open sections, which in turn improves air flow. A black styling package is now standard so it almost looks like the entire front is open and ready to eat you alive.

The matrix LED headlights now have a darkened finish which adds to the menacing look. There are new signatures, including a special chequered flag one for the RS3 which looks top notch.

Around the side it surprises me just how much wider the front is compared to the rear. Both have big, muscular haunches, but it shows this hot hatch is a bit of a bulldog. I’m a big fan.

These haunches stand out even more when you opt for the new Daytona Grey Matte exterior paint. While the extra $11,400 for the privilege makes me wince, it looks sexy on this car.

The standard 19-inch ‘Y-spoke’ alloy wheel design remains unchanged from the pre-update car, though there’s a new, optional ‘cross-spoke’ design that looks delicious (and tricky to clean).

At the back there’s still the classic RS dual exhaust tip motif which looks mean and it’s surrounded by a new black rear diffuser with a motorsport-inspired vertical red reflector in the centre.

The new LED tail-light signature with the vertical slats is so clean and neat. It looks particularly great in low-light situations or at night.

Inside, the biggest change is the new RS steering wheel with the flat top and bottom. As standard it’s wrapped in perforated leather, but with the optional RS Design package it’s wrapped in 'Dinamica' synthetic suede. I much prefer the standard leather-wrapped unit as the Dinamica likely won’t last in the long run, especially if you’ve got clammy hands.

Other changes include more interior ambient lighting on the door cards through small slits, as well as a new shift-by-wire gear selector. The digital instrument cluster and touchscreen multimedia system set-up remains unchanged which is no bad thing because they look fantastic.

It’s disappointing Audi has stuck with an extensive use of piano black on the centre console because this gets dusty and grimy very quickly, and then can get scratched easily when wiped clean. It now also features on the steering wheel buttons, which are frequent touchpoints.

The GR Yaris exists so that Toyota could go racing in the World Rally Championship. As with many racing series it required Toyota to build a road-going version of their Yaris race car, also known as a homologation vehicle. It’s a good deal, they get to race, you get a race car for the road. And so the GR Yaris was born. 

Wildly different from a regular five-door garden variety Yaris, the GR Yaris is a hand-built three-door hatch with a wider track, wider and lower body and the use of forged carbon and aluminium for lightweight construction.   

The GR Yaris already looks very angry, but the GTS Aero Performance Pack makes it look furious. It adds a huge adjustable rear wing, fender ducts that channel air, a front spoiler lip that aids stability, a giant bonnet scoop to help release air, and rear bumper ducts to reduce drag. 

The GR Yaris’s cabin was redesigned for the 2025 update and that saw the dashboard angled more to the driver much like in a race car, but it's more functional than fancy and it’s all very plain.

Still, we’re not complaining. The seats are lovely and the red stitching is a nice touch but this isn’t a Lexus. It’s supposed to favour function over form and so the design is absolutely fitting. And by function I mean dynamics and not practicality.

The RS3’s standard sport front seats are deliciously comfortable and offer plenty of electric adjustment. This means people of any size and stature should be able to find their desired seating position.

Thanks to the electric lumbar there’s also a massage function for the front seats. This is pretty cool to flick on and relax into, but I wish the massage was a little stronger.

While the new steering wheel looks cool interacting with the buttons on it can be a bit of a hassle. They’re touch-sensitive but do have a satisfying click if pressed harder.

There were moments where I accidentally clicked on the buttons during intensive track driving as my hands were at the nine and three o’clock positions. Not the best thing when you’re meant to be focussing.

The digital instrument cluster offers so much configuration you won’t know what to do with yourself. There’s even a new rev counter design especially for the RS3 which looks very cool.

Moving across, the touchscreen multimedia system is classic Audi. It’s easy to navigate around and hard to get lost in the sub-menus. There’s also wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity which is virtually a given now.

While you need to use the touchscreen for a number of features, I appreciate how Audi has retained so much physical switchgear up front. It’s particularly handy to have physical toggle switches and a small digital display that’s separate from the touchscreen for the climate control.

Another piece of physical switchgear I like up front is the rotary dial for the media controls on centre console. It’s much like an iPod, allowing you to change the volume if you rotate your finger on it like a click-wheel. Major throwback vibes.

In terms of storage up front, it’s decent but not outstanding. There are two cupholders, a wireless phone charger, a centre console box as well as a lockable glove box.

Moving to the second row, it’s clear it’s more for the sake of it, rather than having a space you’d want to use all the time. At a leggy 182cm tall, I have minimal legroom behind my own driving position.

With headroom, it’s adequate in the hatchback and not great in the lower-slung sedan. I need to kink my neck in the latter to fit, which isn’t comfortable.

The second-row bench seat is comfortable, offering enough support for short-to-medium trips. I wouldn’t want to get stuck back there for too long, however.

In terms of amenities, there are air vents mounted on the back of the centre console with a dedicated third zone of climate control, two USB-C ports, nets on the seat backs as well as a fold-down centre armrest with cupholders.

At the back there’s a power tailgate for the hatchback, however the sedan only has a power-opening boot lid. This means you need to manually shut it, which isn’t uncommon for sedans.

Boot space in the RS3 is a weak spot due to all the componentry for the all-wheel drive system and the tricky rear clutch set-up. There’s only 282L for the hatch and 321L for the sedan, which isn’t much.

In reality, however, the boot space is still usable. It’s fairly square and there’s barely any boot lip, meaning you can slide things in and out with ease.

Boot-related amenities include a netting system to keep things from sliding around, a light, some hooks and a 12V socket. There’s also a parcel cover for the hatchback.

Unfortunately there’s no spare wheel of any kind under the boot floor in the RS3 as this is where the 12V battery lives. Instead there’s a tyre repair kit. This isn’t uncommon in performance cars, though it’s disappointing if you frequently travel in the country, away from tyre repair shops.

The regular Yaris is small, the GR Yaris is smaller at 3995mm end-to-end and with two fewer doors. As a tall person (I’m 1890mm end-to-end) the space on board is adequate up front with just enough knee, head and elbow room.

The GR Yaris is a four seater with the two rear seats accessed through the front doors. There’s not much room in there for adults and not even my lanky 11-year old would be happy in there. Still if you need to carry three other people, technically you can.

Cabin storage is limited to fairly large door pockets and two cupholders between the front seats. There is a little shelf carved into the dashboard which is great and a small glovebox below it.

Boot space is tiny at 174 litres but again this is a small car with other priorities. 

The GR Yaris GTS Aero Performance Pack sits at the top of the model range with the six-speed manual version listing for $64,990 before on-road costs, while the automatic is $67,490. That’s $4500 more than the standard GTS without the aero pack

The aero pack significantly toughens up the look of the GR Yaris, and also improves its dynamics. So if you plan to use the GR Yaris as a track car and drive it hard and fast, the kit will help.

That's thanks to improved down force from the giant rear wing, air ducts in the fenders to improve steering under braking, a front splitter for stability, underbody cladding to maximise airflow and a bonnet scoop to help release hot air from the engine bay.

The rest of the high-performance equipment comes on the regular GTS including a Torsen limited slip differential, high performance suspension tune and 18-inch forged wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.

Standard features are the same as the regular GTS and include heated GR sports front seats with suede leather upholstery, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, leather-wrapped steering wheel, aluminium pedals, dual-zone climate control, proximity unlocking and push-button start.

There's also an eight-speaker, eight-inch media screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and an eight-speaker JBL sound system.

The value is actually great considering all the high-performance engineering around you in the GR Yaris, and it will save you money from being tempted to go down the aftermarket route and buy equipment that hasn't been designed for the car by the people who made the car.

There are some nice comforts, too, like the leather seats, although the media screen is small.   

The Audi RS3 is still powered by a 2.5-litre turbocharged five-cylinder petrol engine which produces an unchanged 294kW of power and 500Nm of torque.

This is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with drive sent through an all-wheel drive system.

Audi claims both versions of the RS3 can do the 0-100km/h sprint in just 3.8 seconds, which is technically 0.1 seconds faster than a Mercedes-AMG A45 S. Top speed is electronically limited to 250km/h.

It still boggles my mind how 221kW and 400Nm is extracted from a 1.6-litre three-cylinder petrol engine but here we are. The GR Yaris has this set up with this output, along with all-wheel drive. 

Thanks to lightweight materials such as forged carbon and aluminium the GR Yaris weighs nothing in car terms - just 1300kg - so acceleration from 0-100km/h is a rapid 5.1 seconds.

I’ve already detailed the juicy engineering bits the GTS Aero Package is fitted with, from the limited slip diff to the adjustable rear wing, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that not many small hatches are this gifted with this kind of genius.

Our test car has an eight-speed automatic, which is easy to drive in city traffic. However, I'd opt for the six-speed manual because if you've come this far you may as well go the whole way.

The Audi RS3 sedan is claimed to consume 8.2L/100km, whereas the RS3 hatch is claimed to consume 8.3L/100km, both on the combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle (ADR 81/02).

Both body types come with a 55L fuel tank and require a minimum of 98 RON premium unleaded petrol.

During my testing I saw an average of 9.6L/100km according to the trip computer. We did around 200km of higher speed driving heading east out of Melbourne, including some spirited sections.

Our on-test figure translates to a range of 570km on a full tank of petrol.

The GR Yaris is a hungry beastie that eats through its 50L petrol tank fairly quickly and then wants more. Toyota says you should see 9.1L/100km of 98 RON used in the automatic and 8.2L/100km with the manual over a combination of driving conditions. 

Stop-start city driving in traffic saw fuel use increase dramatically to 13.0L/100km in the auto. According to our car's trip computer, my own testing used an average of 14.5L/100km after mainly suburban driving.  

Spoiler alert, it’s a cracker.

Starting up the RS3, you’re instantly aware you’re behind the wheel of something special. Audi has made the start-up more “emotional” with this update and also “optimised” the exhaust flap control for more five-cylinder growl across a wider rev range.

When you’re on the boil, this five-cylinder sounds so fantastic. It’s the clear centrepiece of this car and I’m so happy Audi has continued to offer it.

However, thanks to the addition of a petrol particulate filter (PPF) with this latest-generation model it sounds a little muted in everyday driving. Call me a boy racer, but I want more noise.

Staying on the engine, it’s full of character and gets this small hatch and sedan moving along with ease. Even though the outputs are unchanged with this update, it’s still more than enough; 0-100km/h in 3.8 seconds shows it's more than enough.

The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission in this car keeps the acceleration feeling relentless with snappy gear changes at a moment’s notice. It’s particularly fun taking control of moving between the ratios with the paddle shifters.

In slow-moving traffic, however, the dual-clutch can get a little lost and stuttery, which is a classic characteristic of this kind of transmission.

As standard the all-wheel drive system remains neutral, keeping the front and rear balanced and in check. However, if you flick to the ‘Dynamic’ drive mode you get more rear-biased action which is fun when you exit a corner with some extra heat.

There’s also still a ‘RS torque rear’ drive mode which is essentially a drift mode. Unfortunately we didn’t get to sample this during the launch program.

Additionally, there’s an ‘Individual’ mode that allows you to choose your own destiny. You could spend hours here fine-tuning your desired drive mode which is both great to see but complete nerd-core.

Like the pre-update car, there’s an electronically controlled multi-disc clutch on the rear axle which actively splits the torque between the rear wheels. However, it’s been "optimised" to allow for quicker cornering.

While this is hard to gauge without testing the pre-update and current car back-to-back, the RS3 is so dynamic it feels like you only scratch the surface on public roads. Thankfully we got to see how far we could push it on Haunted Hills, which is a fantastically complicated hill climb circuit in eastern Victoria.

In terms of the steering, there’s a progressive rack as standard which ramps up the steering intensity the more you turn the wheel. In practice, this means the lock-to-lock ratio is very short, making it easy to link up tight corners.

It also makes it easy to navigate tighter driving scenarios, like parking, though it disguises how wide the turning circle is. Expect to do three-point turns fairly often.

For the suspension, the RS3 has adaptive dampers set-up that generally errs on the sportier and firm side. There is a ‘Comfort’ mode which irons out some bumps, but larger road imperfections still transmit harshly into the cabin.

It’s also worth noting at higher speeds there’s a considerable amount of road and tyre noise that comes into the cabin. Thankfully the Sonos sound system does a great job at drowning this out.

Lastly, the safety systems in this car are generally user-friendly, though the lane-keep assist can be a little too hands-on, especially on narrow roads with poor lane markings. Thankfully you can switch this off by pressing and holding a button on the end of the indicator stalk.

There’s been a multitude of electric cars through the test garage over the past six months and the GR Yaris is like a diamond found in a tub of Lego when it comes to driving.

So much sound. The three cylinder snarls on start up sending vibrations into the cockpit and up through the steering wheel, the transmission can be heard engaging gears, the big brakes creak as they’re released. And we’re hardly even moving yet. There’s so much theatre. It’s all real and I love it!

I even love that in the first 10 minutes of driving, a message appears on the instrument cluster asking that excessive acceleration be avoided while the engine is cool. You don’t get that beautiful inconvenience in an electric car.

But when you can excessively accelerate (on a race track of course, right?) it's wonderful and it's loud. Lift off, and the wastegate lets out a little "weeee!" in excitement.

I don't need to tell you that the GR Yaris handles better than just about anything in this price range and while the ride is firm and speed bumps feel like you’ve hit a gutter I still drove the GR Yaris every day, even to do the school run, because it is so much fun. Meanwhile my hybrid long0term test car looked lonely in the driveaway all week...

Being an automatic makes it easy to drive in traffic and the small size makes finding parking spots quick and simple.

Visibility is good, steering is excellent, the seats are big enough to accommodate me but snug enough to offer good lateral support, too.   

The GR Yaris has not been crash tested by ANCAP and the score for the regular Yaris can't be applied to the GR version.

Still the GR Yaris comes equipped with an array of advanced safety tech such as auto emergency braking (AEB), lane keeping assistance and a blind spot warning.

There are six airbags, two child seat ISOFIX points and two top tether anchor mounts in the rear row.  

Like all Audis, the RS3 is covered by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. There’s also five years of roadside assistance.

Logbook servicing is required every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

You’re able to purchase a five-year pre-paid service package for $4010. That averages out to $802 per service, which seems like a lot until you see how much Mercedes-AMG charges to service an A45 S.

RS3 owners can also purchase two-year packages to extend the warranty, roadside assistance and servicing coverage. This allows new RS3 owners to have warranty coverage for up to nine years and it’s transferable to future owners.

The GR Yaris is covered by Toyota's five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty which is lacking compared to many other mainstream manufacturers’ seven-year-plus warranties. The good news is that the engine and driveline is covered by an extra two-year warranty.

Servicing is capped at about $300 for the first six visits, although services are six months apart which means that after three years you’ll run out of capped-price servicing.

Still, Toyota’s reputation for reliability does provide some peace of mind.