Lotus Exige vs Audi S3
What's the difference?

Lotus Exige

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2017 price

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Audi S3

$73,980 - $98,888

2025 price

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Aston Martin Vanquish

Lamborghini Aventador

Mercedes-Benz C-Class

Mercedes-Benz C43

Mercedes-Benz C63

Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class

Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Mercedes-Benz E53

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Summary

2017 Lotus Exige

2025 Audi S3

By Stephen Corby

By Emily Agar

Safety Rating

Engine Type

Supercharged V6, 3.5L

Turbo 4, 2.0L

Fuel Type

Premium Unleaded Petrol

Fuel Efficiency

10.1L/100km (combined)

7.9L/100km (combined)

Seating

Likes

Unassisted, unadulterated steering (at speed)
Beautiful balance and stiff chassis
Gearbox

Athletic and sporty in all the right places
Improved engine outputs
Gorgeous cabin space

Dislikes

Sheer impracticality
Heavy steering (at low speeds)
Getting in and out of it

Tiny back seat
Missing some premium features
Lots of road noise

2017 Lotus Exige Summary

Driving naked is ill-advised, and possibly illegal, but taking a spin in the Lotus Exige 350 Sport is as close as you'd ever want to get. It's not so much that you feel you've left your clothes at home, but that the car has shed its accoutrements, and indeed its very flesh, leaving you with a kind of skeletal vehicle; just bare bones and muscle.

What this punishingly hard and fiercely focused machine does to your bones and flesh is best described as extreme chiropractry - in particular the stress of ingress and egress - but fortunately it makes up for the moans, bangs and bruises by fizzing your adrenal glands in a big way.

The question is whether the fun is worth the suffering, and the $138,782.85 price tag.

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2025 Audi S3 Summary

In a world where car upgrades often feel like saying, “Can I upsize that?”, it’s refreshing to hop into the updated Audi S3 Sportback.

The flagship RS 3 may still be the holy grail of hot hatch dreams, but with boosted engine outputs and upgraded tech, the S3 is stepping up.

Is the S3 Sportback the smarter pick over pricier rivals? It delivers serious performance and polish without stretching into RS 3 territory. With fierce competition in the segment, let’s see what this contender brings to the table.

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Deep dive comparison

2017 Lotus Exige 2025 Audi S3

Verdict

To say the Lotus Exige 350 Sport exists at the very pointy end of motoring is a sharp understatement. It is, in essence, a track car that you’re somehow allowed to drive on the road, which means it's hugely compromised in various ways as a vehicle for day-to-day use, yet it's not really fair to criticise it for those failings, because commuting was never its intended purpose.

While it would obviously shine in its natural environment of a race circuit, the fact is you could also enjoy it enormously between track days if you pointed it at a suitably smooth and winding bit of country blacktop.

The performance, handling, steering and stopping are all fantastic, in the right conditions, and you can see how someone might justify it to themselves as a far cheaper version of a ($327,100) Porsche 911 GT3. The difference being that a Porsche doesn't make you fold yourself up like a pocket knife every time you get in.

The Lotus, then, is a car for the extreme enthusiast, only. And possibly for nudists, too.

Verdict

The updated Audi S3 Sportback is a fun-sized dynamo with impressive outputs and athletic road manners. It’s missing a few premium features, but its compact size paired with a gutsy engine makes it a compelling option for drivers who don’t want to compromise on performance (just space).

Lotus Exige vs Audi S3 What's the difference?

Summary

Deep dive comparison

Verdict

Verdict

Lotus Exige vs Audi S3
What's the difference?