Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/10/02/review_audi_s3_car/
A £30,000, 295bhp 4G MODEM?!? Must be the Audi S3 Quattro, then
The fastest Wi-Fi hotspot on four wheels ... possibly
Posted in Personal Tech, 2nd October 2013 09:23 GMT
Review Network-connected cars are nothing to get overly excited about these days and, to be honest, neither are fast hatchbacks.
But the chance to a drive an unusually hot hatch with 4G connectivity was more than enough to stir El Reg’s auto desk out of its customary torpor. That’s how I found myself behind the wheel of Audi’s new S3 Quattro.
Audi S3 ... thoroughly modem modern motoring
The idea of a car hooked up to the internet over a cellular network is, again, nothing new. These days you can buy a mid-spec Renault Clio that can perform that trick, but Audi has been rather canny in that the system is entirely unlocked. Just buy your SIM with a mobile data package from any telco, pop it into the unit that takes up most of the space in the glove box and - bingo - you are connected to the great worldwide web at speeds of 20Mb/s or thereabouts.
I should point out before I go any further that I didn’t actually manage to find a 4G signal with the S3. Having arrived at the hotel near Ascot early with a mind to kick back in the new spa for a few hours, I got shanghaied by the Audi press team, stuffed into an S3 and told to drive into London and see if I could pick up a Vodafone 4G signal.
Two hours later I was in Hammersmith waiting in vain for the 3G icon on the screen to turn to a 4. So I did what any hack would do in that position and headed out of town and spanked the S3 back around the M25.
Eventually that will read ‘4G’ not ‘3’
Assuming you can find a Vodafone LTE signal or that you have a 4G SIM from EE or O2 in your wallet, then you can rummage around in the S3’s settings menu and create a secured WLAN to channel the interwebs to your tablet, laptop or phone.
There’s more to it than that, though. The S3 and A3 Saloon are the launch models for the latest incarnation of Audi’s Connect platform, which lets you access Twitter, Facebook, email and texts while you are on the go, as well as spicing up the navigation system with extra Googleness.
Text communication has to be done through your mobile - no surprise there; you want your messages to reflect your regular phone number - but your Twitter and Facebook accounts are plugged directly into the car. Not so email, which has to be, like SMS, routed through your phone. In these days of IMAP servers, I’m not sure that’s necessary.
Buy racer pedals
Families can set up multiple social networking accounts via the MyAudi service. Once a customer signs up, they assign their chassis number to their account. Their partner or whoever can then do the same. MyAudi will assign a different PIN to each registered user. Once the PIN is entered when that person gets in the car, the S3 will download all of their presets for Facebook, Twitter and any other personalised online settings.
Thankfully, any incoming social missives are read out to you by the satnav voice so you don’t need to take your eyes off the road and fix them on the admittedly rather fine 5.8-inch display that pops up out of the dashboard. Maybe it’s the Luddite in me poking his head up over the parapet here, but is anything that takes the driver’s attention away from the small patch of tarmac in front of the bonnet, even a vocal alert that someone you know has just bought broccoli, really a good idea? Especially in a car this fast.
Vroom
How fast? Well, the S3 can sprint to 62mph in 4.8 seconds and charge on to a limited top speed of 155mph. That’s thanks to an all-new 2.0-litre 295bhp turbocharged four pot engine, a permanent four-wheel drive Quattro drivetrain and a six-speed S-tronic gearbox. Lesser Audi S-tronics have seven speeds but I’m guessing the monumental torque generated by the S3’s engine - 380Nm between 1800 and 5500rpm - renders the extra ratio irrelevant.
Facetwit updates at high speed
The new S3’s sprightliness also comes courtesy of the diet it has been put on: it weighs a substantial 60kg less than the old model thanks in no small part to the bonnet and wings now being made of aluminium rather than steel. The chassis is apparently made from hot-shaped, hi-tech steels. The engine is 5kg lighter than the old S3’s lump.
‘Boost’ - always a good word to see on a dashboard
On the open road or track, the S3 feels savagely fast and thanks to the Quattro AWD system it is a very hard car to get out of shape. Not matter how clumsy or ham-fisted you are, the drivetrain moves the power around the four wheels to keep you from making any unintended visits to Saint Peter. In wet or slick conditions, the four-wheel drive really pays dividends.
All that speed hasn’t been dialed in at the expense of refinement. With a couple of rotating balancer shafts in the engine and the option to change the car’s settings from Dynamic to Comfort, which reins in the aggressiveness of gear changes and throttle response, it is possible to go quickly in some degree of, yes, comfort. If all you want to do is pootle down to the shops, the S3 is no more difficult to drive than any other member of the A3 clan.
The exterior is smart rather than exciting
Each time I drive an Audi or a VW with an S-tronic ‘box I come away more and more impressed. Be it on the open road or pottering around town, the gear changes are now almost as seamless as with a good automatic transmission. I only reached for the flappy-paddles to prove they worked, after that they were an irrelevance. The only downside is a rather aggressive creep while idling. You soon learn to slip it into neutral or keep your foot on the brake at lights.
One thing I could have lived without is the exhaust sound flap and the “electromechanical sound actuator”, which combine to generate a pseudo wastegate dump woofle when you put your foot down, alerting PC Plod of your passing to one side, I’m really not sure this sort of silliness - which I presume is designed to give the impression you are driving an early 1980s Group B Quattro through a Welsh forest - will appeal to your average Audi buyer. Dig into the car's settings and you can reduce the sound effect, but you can’t switch the thing off.
The ‘e’ suffix to the model number means a Quattro drivetrain
Assuming that you can afford to buy and insure an S3 in the first place, the running costs shouldn’t be too onerous. Driven with a modicum of restraint, you’ll get around 40mpg. Emissions are pegged at a not unreasonable 159g/km. You probably won’t be driving the S3 with much restraint, of course - that would rather defeat the point of the purchase. Either way, being an Audi the residuals will likely be better than average.
Being a press car, the one I drove was laden to the gunwales with all the extra-cost toys, including adaptive cruise control, lane and park assist, and more radars than a US Navy destroyer. Those put the price up quite dramatically but at least the entry model, which will set you back just north of 30 grand, comes with smart 18-inch alloys, part-leather seats, the aforementioned 5.8-inch display and the SIM card slot. You’d expect a top-end Audi to be built like a brick privy inside and out, and you’d be right to do so. Build quality looked and felt faultless.
A standard big Audi grill
The Reg Verdict
There’s little negative I can think to say about the new S3 as a driver’s car. It’s fast, forgiving, handsome, spacious, well made and extremely easy to live with. It’s not cheap, I grant you, but I think it represents solid enough value especially in bog-standard form without all the bells and whistles you probably don’t actually need.
As for the unlocked 4G modem, I like the idea of being able to set up a wireless network in the car. It should prove very useful if you have a Wi-Fi-only tablet, or you work on the go. As for the Facebook and Twitter clients, well, I rather like driving as a way to get away from all that social network cobblers so they are not must-have features in my book. Of course, if I lived with them for a month or two I may end up singing a different song. ®