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What's the difference?
Ford's small hatch, the Focus, is criminally under-bought in Australia. The latest model is one of the best hatchbacks on the road and when you chuck in the decent price, impressive equipment and absurdly powerful engine for its size, it's a winner.
But you lot? You don't buy it in nearly the kinds of numbers it deserves. Partly because there isn't a bait-and-upsell boggo model to lure you in, partly because it's got a badge that is not exciting Australians any more and partly because it's not a compact SUV.
Or is(n't) it? Because alongside the ST-Line warm hatch is the identically priced and therefore technically a co-entry level model; the Focus Active. Slightly higher, with plastic cladding, drive modes and a conspicuous L on the transmission shifter, it's a little bit SUV, right?
The moment Audi slaps an 'S' badge on any of its cars, you know you could well be looking at something a bit special. That single S has usually inferred a big jump in performance and an overall much sportier flavour than the Audi 'A' car on it's based on.
And now there’s an all-new Audi A3 coming to showrooms about now, the chance to take a deep dive into the equally new S3 was a no-brainer.
Describing the S3 as an A3 with more of everything sounds a bit trite, but it’s also accurate. And this is not new; Audi is as good as any other carmaker (and better than most) at taking a volume seller, piling on the good gear and letting it loose to appeal to a cashed-up buyer profile.
Available in both Audi’s usual Sedan and Sportback (that’s Audi-speak for a five-door hatch) the new S3 boasts more of everything from engine output, to handling, to luxury and connectivity. No surprises there, it’s pretty rare to hear of a car going backwards in any of those departments. But compared with the A3 – and this is the important bit – the S3 offers more of the attributes that appeal to buyers with more cash to splash.
While much of the car might be new, Audi fans will recognise the 2.0-litre turbocharged engine. It’s been tweaked this time around for more power and, significantly, Australia gets the full-fat, Euro-spec engine, rather than the slightly detuned 'hot-weather' specification we’ve seen in this model in the past.
Other changes over the new A3 include the usual S touches including lower, firmer suspension, bigger wheels and tyres and a more industrial braking package.
Inside, there’s more connectivity and multimedia potential than ever before, and safety has been given a leg-up with the latest driver aids.
The other significant thing about the S3, of course, is that until the even hotter RS3 turns up in showrooms sometime later this year, this car will represent peak A3-platform performance.
Ten years ago, the idea that the higher-riding version of a hatchback would be a good city car would have been laughable. The Focus Active is pitched as a kind of SUV with its different low-grip driving modes, which you'll never touch if you stick to the city.
The Ford Focus is genuinely a brilliant car, no matter where you take it. The Active takes a terrific chassis, tweaks it for comfort but, ironically, doesn't lose much of the speed.
There are plenty of historical instances where a particular model within a broader range manages to hit the absolute sweet spot even though it’s not the fastest or most expensive variant. Porsche’s GTS specification across various models is a great example of this.
And at the risk of being proven wrong when the all-new RS3 comes along later this year, this car, the S3, might just pull off that feat.
Yes, the new RS3 will be more powerful and will offer even more grip and sporty flavour, but it will also be more expensive. And we defy anybody to drive the S3 and say that it lacks dynamism in any single area.
It’s also a magnificently balanced car with the right amount of attention paid to every aspect of its trim and performance. That, in essence, is where that `balanced’ label originates and even though it’s felt most in the actual driving experience, it permeates throughout the entire vehicle.
Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.
For a fairly conservative hatchback, the Focus came under fire for what some termed its derivative styling. I quite like it, and not just because the styling work was led by an Australian. The front end is very much family Ford, as long as it's the European arm of the family, fitting in with its smaller sibling, the Fiesta. The Active scores the usual black cladding, higher ride height and smaller diameter wheels, in exchange for more compliant, higher-profile tyres. All of that takes nothing away from a design that I think looks pretty good.
The cabin is well put together, with just that oddly angled touchscreen causing me a bit of a twitch. The design is a fairly steady Ford interior with a lot of switchgear shared with the Fiesta, but it's all quite nice. The materials feel mostly pleasant and the hardwearing fabric on the seats feels right for this kind of car.
Perhaps the most striking thing about the styling of the new Audi is just how similar it looks to the old model. Okay, this is not a new thing with Audi which has made a point of not throwing a handsome design into the dumpster in pursuit of new for new’s sake.
As such, the exterior lines are taut and typically Audi clean and, with the latest LED headlights and a refinement of the Audi trapezoidal grille, the look is fresh and crisp without being a novelty act.
Inside, the virtual dash display and large, relatively flat centre console almost amount to anti-styling. Or it would if the rest of the deal wasn’t so sharply angled towards a philosophy of less is more.
Again, this is classic modern-era Audi where the game is to make a complex layout look as simple as possible. The face-level air vents also seem to have borrowed a little Lamborghini (part of the Audi family) DNA.
I particularly like the new shift-by-wire gear selector which is a nifty looking switch but works just as intuitively as a conventional shift lever. New tech meets old muscle memory, I’m calling it.
It's worth mentioning (again) just how good Audi’s customisable dashboard display is. With sharp, clear graphics and the ability for the driver to prioritise the information on display at the time, the S3’s display is still about the best in the business.
Overall, ergonomics have always been a long-suit of this brand and there’s been a clear intention to follow that tradition this time around.
The Focus is quite roomy compared to other cars in its class. The rear seat has good leg and headroom, with the feeling of space accentuated by large windows. Annoyingly, though, all that work put into making the rear a nice place to be is ruined by a lack of amenities like cupholders, USB ports or an armrest.
Front-seat passengers fare better with two cupholders, a roomy space at the base of the console for a phone and a wireless-charging pad. The front seats are very comfortable, too.
The boot starts at a fairly average 375 litres - clearly sacrificed for rear-seat space - and maxes out at 1320 litres with the seats down. While you have to lift things over the loading lip and down into the boot, it's one of the more sensibly shaped load areas, with straight up and down sides. Ironically, the smaller Puma has a noticeably larger boot.
While SUV owners are often quick to tell you that they bought their car for its interior space, the truth is sometimes different. And without the huge wheel-wells and suspension towers of a high-riding SUV, the conventional hatch or sedan often has an advantage.
Certainly, there’s no lack of room in the S3 and the hatchback version has a wide hatch opening to make loading easier. The sedan, however, is a full 150mm longer than the hatch and that extra is all behind the rear seat.
So the boot is actually very useable with a capacity of 325 litres. Audi claims the same 325 litres for the Sportback, but that figure jumps to 1145 litres with the rear seat folded flat.
The rear seat in either variant is handily split 40/20/40 and there are storage nets on the back of each front seat, luggage nets in the cargo area and 12-volt outlets in both the centre-rear and luggage compartment. Even floor mats are standard.
The Focus Active wears a $30,990 sticker but the several people I know who bought one haven't paid that much, so Ford dealers are obviously keen to do deals. Even at that price, it's got a fair bit of stuff. The Active has 17-inch wheels, a six-speaker stereo, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, auto LED headlights, LED fog lights, sat nav, auto wipers, wireless hotspot, powered and heated folding door mirrors, wireless phone charging, a big safety package and a space-saver spare.
Ford's SYNC3 comes up on the 8.0-inch screen perched on the dashboard, which weirdly feels like it's facing away from you slightly. It has wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, sat nav, DAB+ and also looks after various functions in the car.
The panoramic sunroof is a stiff $2000 and includes an annoying perforated cover rather than a solid one.
There’s only one trim level across the S3 range, so it doesn’t matter whether you choose the sedan or hatch, the level of standard kit remains the same. And extensive.
As with many performance variants of a platform, what you’re paying for in the S3 is the hardware that allows it to be a more aggressive, more involving drive. So, compared with the A3, the S3 gets much more engine performance, bigger brakes and improved suspension.
Inside, the S3 runs to S-specific trim and presentation (instrument display, steering wheel) standard heated, powered, four-way lumbar-adjustable sports seats, a black headliner and the 15-speaker Bang & Olufsen stereo that’s a $1500 option on some variants of the A3.
The interior is also home to a 10.1-inch info screen, dual-zone climate-control, an auto-dimming mirror, keyless entry and push-button start, wireless phone charging, rain-sensing wipers, park-assistance and acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Connectivity runs to Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and sat-nav.
Helping the image match the performance, the S3 also gets dark aluminium accents, alloy pedals, ambient lighting and gloss-red brake calipers to give it the visual punch the price-tag suggests.
Speaking of price, the new S3 represents a fair hike over the outgoing S3, and a sticker of $70,700 for the Sportback and $73,200 for the sedan means the new model will be tickling the $80,000-mark as a drive-away proposition.
Compared with the old model, those prices represent a leap of around $6000, not to mention a spike of around $23,000 or $24,000 over the entry-level versions of the new A3 on which it’s based.
But perhaps a more meaningful comparison is with the 40 TFSI variants of the new A3 which also feature Audi’s famous Quattro all-wheel drive system.
In that case, the price difference between the A3 and S3 is closer to $17,000; closer, but still a big tweak to the monthly lease repayment.
Given you’re starting with a premium-priced product to begin with in the A3, the extra performance and dynamics offered up by the S3 seems to be reasonably priced given the scope of their influence.
Again, you need to see it through the prism of high-end motoring, but when you do, you can see where the money has gone.
And if you have even more to outlay, there’s always the 'Premium Plus' package for the S3. That gets you a panoramic glass sunroof, head-up instrument display, 360-degree cameras, a memory function for the driver’s seat (which should be standard at this end of the market) and a memory function for the exterior mirrors. Yours for an extra $3990, which, given some makers charge that just for the sunroof, seems a pretty reasonably proposition.
Ford does an excellent range of small turbo engines. The "normal" Focus range (such as it is, now the wagon has disappeared from the market) comes with a 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine. Bucking the SUV-this-size trend (yes, I know it's not really an SUV), this punchy little unit delivers an impressive 134kW and 240Nm. They're both very decent numbers for such a small engine.
The big numbers continue with the transmission boasting eight gears, a number you don't often find in a hatchback. It's a traditional torque-converter auto, too, so those of you who have bad memories of Ford's old PowerShift twin clutches should worry no more.
Power goes to the front wheels only and you'll get from 0 to 100km/h in 8.7 seconds.
Here’s where a lot of the extra currency demanded for the S3 goes. Forget the 1.5-litre engine in the base-model A3, and instead move to the two-litre four-cylinder as seen in the A4 40 TFSI. Then, add extra turbo-boost (up to 1.8 bar thanks to an efficient intercooler) different variable valve timing protocols, and a direct fuel-injection system with a specific calibration and the potential to create injector pressures of up to 350 bar, and you have the S3’s powerplant.
Maximum power is 228kW at anywhere from 5450 to 6500rpm, and maximum torque of 400Nm produced in a broad range between 2000 and 5450rpm.
Transmission is a seven-speed dual-clutch unit driving through all four wheels as per Audi’s Quattro mantra, although it’s important to note this version of Quattro is the simpler, arguably less pure, on-demand system where the car behaves as a front-drive platform until the all-wheel-drive system is required to step in.
That said, with 228kW under its wheels, that’s a fair bit of the time. And compared with previous systems, this one takes more notice of driver inputs and wheel-speed to be less reactive and more active.
Ford's official testing for the big window sticker delivered a 6.4L/100km result on the combined cycle. In my time with the Focus, I got 7.2L/100km indicated on the dashboard, which is a pretty solid result given the Focus spent a good deal of the time on suburban or urban roads.
With its 52-litre tank, you'll cover around 800km if you manage the official figure, or just over 700km on my figures.
Audi quotes an official combined cycle fuel consumption figure of 7.4L/100km for the A3 Sportback and 7.3 litres for the sedan.
That difference is a bit of a mystery given the sedan is heavier (by just five kilograms) until you consider that the combined figure includes freeway running, at which point the sedan’s extra 150mm of length and different rear diffuser may be the aerodynamic deal-breaker.
The Sportback emits 170 grams of CO2 per kilometre (166 for the sedan) and with the 55-litre tank fitted, both variants should have a range of around 750km between fill-ups.
Despite the very mild off-road pretensions, if it's a comfortable city ride you're after, the Active is the Focus to have. While the ST-Line isn't uncomfortable - not by a long way - the Active's more compliant tyres and higher ride height (30mm at the front and 34mm at the rear) iron out the bigger bumps without sacrificing much of the sportier car's impressive dynamic prowess, even with the low-rolling-resistance tyres.
The cracking 1.5-litre turbo is responsive and well-matched to the eight-speed auto. The big torque number pushes you along the road and makes overtaking much less dramatic than a 1.5-litre three-cylinder has any right to.
Ford's trademark Euro-tuned quick steering is also along for the ride, making darting in and out of gaps a quick roll of the wrist, which has the added benefit of meaning you rarely have to take your hands off the wheel for twirling. That darting is aided and abetted by the engine and gearbox, with the turbo seemingly keeping the boost flowing with little lag. It's almost like they planned it that way.
You have good vision in all directions, which almost renders the fact that the blind-spot monitoring is optional acceptable. Almost. It's very easy to get around in, easy to park and, just as importantly, easy to get in and out of. Compared to, say, a Toyota Corolla, the rear doors are very accommodating.
Some cars take a few minutes at the wheel before they start to get chatty. Not so the S3. From the moment you grab the lovely leather tiller, haul it into gear and give the perky little turbo-motor a squeeze on the throttle, the Audi is making all the right noises and giving clear, precise feedback on its every move.
Sometimes, cars with lots of tyre, lots of all-wheel drive grip and the sort of sharp steering fitted here, can start to feed back so many responses that it becomes difficult to know which one to respond to.
Not the S3, which seems tuned to a keener driver’s priorities (as it should be, of course). As a result, the steering feedback is distinct from what the rest of the front end is doing and everything else going on is clear, quantifiable and designed to improve the experience.
That even extends to the soundtrack which, Audi told us does not use any electronics to improve it beyond amplifying the engine-bay harmonics which use the windscreen and scuttle as their 'speaker.'
Combined with the active exhaust system, this car honestly sounds like a five-cylinder engine (I opened the bonnet to count the spark plugs to make sure it wasn’t. It isn’t.)
If you’ve ever driven a five-cylinder Audi or a V10-powered R8 (two in-line fives, really) the tune will be a familiar one. Lovely, and – again - such amazing attention to detail.
The 2.0-litre engine runs fairly high boost levels, but that doesn’t seem to have affected the way it storms off the mark. Neither does the dual-clutch transmission contribute any delay, provided you haven’t managed to stand on the brake and throttle at the same time (as many left-foot brakers might).
At that point, the driveline goes into sulk mode and will force you to wait a heartbeat or two before full power is restored. This can be an issue when trying to dart across a busy intersection or merge into a traffic flow.
It’s not a new thing to Audis, but remains an annoyance to those of us who equate having two pedals with having two feet.
The driver-selectable drive modes fitted to the S3 are interesting inasmuch as they actually make a meaningful difference to the way the car operates. They alter the transmission shift points, the throttle sensitivity, steering weight and damper settings.
'Comfort' mode will be the default for most owners, and while 'Dynamic' does sharpen up the dampers ever-so-slightly beyond an acceptable day-to-day level of firmness, it also adds weight to the steering feedback.
Frankly, I don’t think it needs it and simply adding resistance feels like a token gesture. And since the steering has a (non-negotiable) variable rate in the first place, bigger inputs equal a bigger proportionate change of direction anyway.
The damping control is now the more sophisticated magnetic-hydraulic type where hydraulic pressure varies the valving rather than the simpler, previous system of energising an electro-magnet to alter the viscosity of the damping fluid.
This more finite control system has allowed more 'bandwidth' as Audi puts it, between Comfort and Dynamic damper settings.
While the auto mode is almost prescient, it’s not actually pre-emptive but rather takes into account suspension deflection, wheel-speed and driver inputs to come up with a combination of settings to make the most of the situation.
And if you really want to fiddle, you can choose 'Individual' and create an overall setting that combines bits of Comfort and Dynamic with a smattering of 'Efficiency' thrown in.
Toggle down to Dynamic and throw the S3 at some bends and it soon emerges as a pretty gripped-up piece of equipment. The front-drive bias is not really noticeable, but then neither is the transition where the computer begins to engage the rear multi-plate clutch to turn the rear axle into an active participant.
There’s certainly no lack of grip at any stage of a typical corner, and even the odd unexpected damp patch poses no awkward questions. Perhaps the biggest grumble would be the tyre roar at highway speeds, but that’s often the price of performance rubber.
The Active has six airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, forward AEB (low speed with pedestrian avoidance and highway speeds), forward collision warning, lane-departure warning, speed-sign recognition and active lane-keep assist.
Annoyingly - and I can't for the life of me work out why this is a thing - despite some advanced safety features in the base package, you have to pay $1250 extra for blind-spot monitoring, reverse cross traffic alert and reverse AEB, which are part of the Driver Assistance Pack. No, Ford is not the only company to do this.
The back seat has two ISOFIX points and three top-tether anchors.
The Focus scored five ANCAP stars in August 2019.
No surprises for guessing that Audi has this angle absolutely covered.
Some driver-assistance technologies have now filtered down from larger more expensive Audi models, and are standard fitment on the S3. Those include collision-avoidance assistance, lane-departure warning, rear cross-traffic assistance and parking assistance programs.
There’s also adaptive cruise-control, hands-on detection, traffic-jam assist, exit warning, a rear-view camera and a tyre-pressure monitoring system.
You also get the usual six air-bags including side-front bags and curtain air-bags at head height for rear-seat passengers. The S3 also gets a centre-front air-bag; a move that is likely to become a lot more widespread in the not-too-distant future and is designed to avoid head clashes between the front-seat passengers in a side impact.
Autonomous emergency braking is fitted and can also detect pedestrians and cyclists; a first for the S3.
The S3 scored a maximum five stars for safety in ANCAP testing.
Ford offers a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and a roadside-assistance package that consists of a membership to your local motoring organisation.
The first five services cost $299 each and also include a free loan car and a 12-month extension to your roadside assist membership for up to seven years.
Audi has finally had to cave in and extend its warranty to match its competition. So, any new Audi sold after January 1 this year moves up to a five-year/unlimited kilometre factory warranty; a big step up from the previous three years of cover.
S3 buyers can also opt for Audi’s five-year service plan which costs $2580. Servicing is set down for every 15,000km or 12 months.