The 2025 Audi RS3 Has Stupid Capacitive Touch Buttons
Let’s get this one out of the way right now: no, the RS3’s much cooler hatchback body style is not available in North America because Audi hates you.
Perhaps this distaste is not all-encompassing, however, as the RS3 does get some meaningful updates for 2025, making Audi’s smallest (and arguably most fun) performance car even more entertaining. The most immediately noticeable of these consists of some styling tweaks, with updated bumpers and lights. Power doesn’t move, still set at 401 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque from the turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder.
Audi has changed the car’s software, and the tweaks mean drivers can expect more stability at higher speeds in-corner, and added confidence in getting on the gas again sooner. Audi says its tweaks will also induce a little more oversteer, should you put in some steering angle. Rounding off mechanical updates is a newly standard tire, though Audi doesn’t specify what it is.
Inside, Audi fits a new steering wheel with *gags* capacitive touch buttons. Clearly having learned nothing from VW’s troubles with the wheel in the GTI, Audi thinks that its buyers want change for the sake of change, though only time will tell. Other updates include a new rev counter with a circular, central layout. Order books open at the end of this month.
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Chase is an automotive journalist with years of experience in the industry. He writes for outlets like Edmunds and AutoGuide, among many others. When not writing, Chase is in front of the camera over at The Overrun, his YouTube channel run alongside his friend and co-host Jobe Teehan. If he's not writing reviews of the latest in cars or producing industry coverage, Chase is at home in the driver's seat of his own (usually German) sports cars.
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