The 2025 Audi A3 sedan and its high-performance S3 cousin won’t look dramatically different than 2024 versions of the cars. Except, that is, for the headlights. Those can look different every day if owners feel it.
Audi hasn’t released details on the ultra-high-performance RS 3 version for 2025.
Minor Style Update
Car designers are playing with big grilles this year, even on the smallest cars. Audi’s subcompact sedan gets a larger grille and larger air vents flanking it, all filled with larger mesh. It’s a playful look, emphasizing the cars’ small size with larger features. However, the changes are limited to the front fascia. The rest of the car stays the same on A3 models. S3 versions get a reshaped rear bumper and diffuser.
Inside, the shifter and air vents have been reshaped. “A new blade design running the width of the dash is finished in chrome on the outer surface and makes the air vents appear thinner, further emphasizing the width of the cockpit,” Audi explains.
A 10.25-inch digital gauge cluster is now standard on even the base model.
Audi has partnered with Sonos for a new sound system. New standard ambient lighting backlights fabric door panels and adjusts to any of 30 colors.
Customizable Headlights
The exterior lighting, however, may be the A3’s best new trick.
Buyers can choose from standard LED and optional matrix headlights (newly legal in the U.S., these work like permanent high beams but reshape their light to avoid blinding oncoming traffic).
The daytime running lights built with either are constructed from rows of pixels. A new customization system lets drivers activate different patterns of pixels, changing the car’s lighting signature.
More Power, S3 Chassis Upgrades
Audi’s quattro all-wheel-drive (AWD) system will be standard on every A3 and S3 for 2025. The cars use the same turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine as last year, but the version in the A3 gains torque. Horsepower is unchanged at 201, but torque jumps by 15 lb-ft to 236.
S3 models get more horsepower – 328 instead of 306.
The S3 also borrows a few parts from the RS 3. “The addition of a new standard rear torque splitter and swivel bearing suspension are designed to improve lateral dynamics, traction, and dynamic stability, along with steering response and performance behavior,” Audi says.
New electronic stability control and stiffer suspension wishbones should allow more precise steering at the limit for those who take their S3 to the track.
2025 Audi A3, S3 Pricing
All prices include a mandatory $1,295 destination charge. The 2025 Audi A3 and S3 will be available in the fourth quarter of this year.
| Trim Level | MSRP + Destination |
| A3 Premium | $39,495 |
| A3 Premium Plus | $42,095 |
| S3 Premium | $49,995 |
| S3 Premium Plus | $52,395 |
| S3 Prestige | $56,195 |
