The Audi RS3 is smarter, the BMW M2 is wilder—so, which one wins?
They’re very different cars reflecting different car-making philosophies, but the M2 and RS3 still have a lot in common.are very different cars. The BMW is a coupe, the Audi a sedan. The BMW is rear-wheel drive, the Audi all-wheel drive with a transverse-mounted engine.
The BMW has a manual transmission, the Audi a dual-clutch automatic. The BMW has six cylinders, the Audi five. What are we even doing here? Like German sausage, they have a lot more in common than you might realize.Obviously, both are German. Both Bavarian, even. Each is a compact, two-row sports car, regardless of how you get to the back seats. They’re priced within $5,000 of each other to start and within $4,000 of each other as tested. Both are fresh off a minor midcycle update. They’re also, as we’ll see, nearly identical in terms of performance. Yes, they look and drive differently, but they’re simply two different means of achieving the same result.by a small margin: new front and rear bumpers, a new squared-off steering wheel, an optional RS Sport Exhaust, and a faster powertrain control module, which allows for finer control of the torque-vectoring, twin-clutch rear axle. Power remains the same at 394 hp and 369 lb-ft.but equally noteworthy. A 20-horsepower increase finally puts it on par with the larger, heavier M3 and M4. Automatic transmission models also get a 37-lb-ft boost in torque. All told, it now makes 473 hp and either 406 or 443 lb-ft. It, too, gets a new steering wheel , along with a new curved widescreen display running the latest iDrive 8.5 software, a sharper head-up display, and a remapped throttle pedal. Oh, and now you can get it in wild colors like Twisted Purple. We’re not kidding about the performance. Despite their wildly different powertrains, the RS3 and M2 are right on top of each other in our instrumented testing. The Audi is slightly better in a straight line, the BMW better in corners. The Audi, with its all-wheel-drive launch and hyper-responsive dual-clutch gearbox, is quicker in a straight line. The BMW has more power, and despite weighing more with a better weight-to-power ratio, it can’t overcome the Audi’s superior launch and faster shifts. That said, you can get an M2 with an eight-speed automatic, and were you to do so, it would negate the RS3’s advantage. The last M2 automatic we tested was dead even with the Audi at 3.5 seconds to 60 mph and 0.3 second quicker through the quarter mile, and it had less power and torque than the new model. Stopping, though, is the Audi’s domain. Massive carbon-ceramic brakes up front and at least the third performance tire we’ve tested on an RS3 in as many years returned a clear-winner 98-foot stop from 60 mph. This M2 needed an extra 3 feet, and the closest we’ve seen one come to the Audi still took an extra 2 feet. Put ’em in a corner, though, and the BMW surges ahead. A teensy bit higher lateral g in steady-state cornering on the skidpad quickly turns into a figure-eight lap time that’s 0.3 second better than the Audi. Part of this is grip, but it also illustrates how much more powerful the BMW is. The RS3 pulls hard, but the BMW pulls harder, especially from a roll. Like we said, the Audi’s straight-line advantage is in the launch.The differentiator that matters is how they drive. They may deliver nearly the same performance, but they go about it quite differently.of making the car feel like it has a rear-biased all-wheel drive when the rear torque distribution maxes out at 50 percent. There’s a hint of 2009 Nissan GT-R in how the RS3 puts its power down exiting corners, which is more than enough to invalidate any arguments about engine placement and orientation. The way adding power pulls the nose out of a corner rather than pushing it wide is found in precious few cars. The BMW, by contrast, is old school. It’s on you to make the grip work with the rear-drive power. Done correctly, you can induce a perfect rotation on the way out of every corner with the right application of power. The front end has more than enough grip, so you’re in more danger of overdoing the rotation than pushing the nose out. Neither car will squeal its tires on a public road without truly reckless driving, but the BMW floods your brain with a bigger dopamine hit you nail a corner.It's more work, though, and we’re not just talking about the manual transmission. The BMW’s steering feels jittery and high-strung at times until you adapt to it. Slow hands are the order of the day. Your inputs have to be very small, precise, and immediate. It’s super easy to overdo it, but once you get a feel for it, the M2 comes alive. The throttle and brake pedals are similarly sensitive and require the same careful modulation. You have options with the power, though. Leave it a gear high, and you can use the prodigious turbo lag to your advantage, getting on the throttle right at the apex knowing you’ll have the steering wheel nearly straight when the turbo hits. Or drop a gear and use the top-end power to rotate the car on the way out. Dealer’s choice. All that sensitivity to inputs is exacerbated on rough roads. The Audi, meanwhile, is rock solid. It’s not fazed by anything. It’s so hooked up, in fact, it can feel like it isn’t even trying. The transmission is perfect on its own, so you can drop the mental load of choosing gears and just work the brakes and steering. Any racing driver will tell you less work behind the wheel is a good thing. Yes, the RS3 is confident, mature, and supremely well mannered by comparison, but the effort it takes to drive the BMW right pays out substantially better. The Audi does everything right, but like a toxic relationship, we find ourselves. No small part of that is outright horsepower, because while the Audi takes off like a rocket from a roll, the BMW takes off like a rocket in a slingshot. It’s addicting, and it’s part of the reason the BMW drains its tank 50 percent quicker. More stuff plus inflation equals higher prices. The Audi is the relative bargain here, starting at $64,695 to the BMW’s $69,375 after the latest round of price hikes. The RS3 takes to options like Germans to pretzels, piling on $11,000 worth for a total price of $77,045. Still, the BMW remains more expensive with a build price of $80,625. Value, though, is more than just the final sticker. Sitting in the Audi, you understand it’s been built from a much cheaper car. The quality of its materials is underwhelming for the price, and the software is outdated. It feels like a $40,000 A3 with green paint and a funky squircle steering wheel. Don’t get us wrong, we love the green, and carrying it over to the interior trim and stitching is just the right amount of ostentatious, but it doesn’t make the car feel nearly twice as expensive. The BMW, on the other hand, feels like it started life as a more premium, more expensive car. The materials are nicer across the board, and the new software looks contemporary and is easier to use than before. All the M three-bar logos and color-matched stitching are equally ostentatious but smartly done. Yes, it’s more expensive, but it feels like it should be. The Audi gains back some value in its road manners, though. The tires of both cars are loud over bad pavement, but the BMW’s are considerably louder. Both cars settle down nicely at low speeds and are easy to drive around town, with the BMW riding just a bit stiffer. Doing normal car stuff, the RS3’s rear seats are certainly easier to get into but are just as small and uncomfortable as the M2’s are, so it’s kind of a wash.It's a similar case with features. The M2 is missing a few things you’d expect at this price point, like adaptive cruise control and effective lane keeping. The Audi covers those bases, though it does it through an older interface with odd choices of its own. Namely, it doesn’t have a permanent gas gauge. Instead, there’s a distance to empty readout always displayed, but the gas gauge itself is buried in an instrument cluster menu. Who thought that was a good idea? Thank goodness BMW didn’t, because the M2 gets way worse fuel economy, and if it were an EV we’d ding it for its EPA-rated range of just 260 miles. Driven like an M2, you struggle to get 200 miles out of a tank, but man, you'll have fun.As is the case when tasting Bavarian sausages, if you bought either of these cars without test-driving the other, you’d never regret it. You’d have a great car you’d love driving and never know what you were missing, and that would be just fine. Drive both, though, and suddenly you’ll have strong thoughts. You'll have more of them about the BMW. Sure, it’s a little more money, but for that you get a car that’s more powerful, is capable of posting better numbers in almost every category, is a nicer car inside, gives you the option of a manual transmission, and is even more fun and rewarding to drive. An RS3 owner can rightfully claim every dollar went to performance and only performance, but it won’t put as big a smile on their face as driving the M2.The sensible, logical, safe choice you won’t regret, but it won’t deliver quite as much dopamine on demand.F: struts, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll barF: struts, coil springs, adj shocks, anti-roll barR: 12.2 x 0.9-in vented disc, 1-piston sliding caliperF: 9.0 x 19 in, R: 8.0 x 19 in, forged aluminumWere you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins , I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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