Category: Hot Hatchbacks 
Price Range: £27,470 to £27,470
Quick, holds the road well, high level of comfort.
Pricey, not as involving a drive as it should be.
A very good hot hatch, but not quite as good as the high price suggests.
What's wrong with this picture?
Audi's latest S3 hot hatch, tweaked and updated to see out the life of its current iteration, now comes in a five-door Sportback version, has a wonderfully comfortable cabin, is as quick as a Lotus Elise, has Audi's four-wheel-drive Quattro system and costs a shade over 27 grand.
Yep, the very large elephant in the room is that price tag. Can a hot hatch, albeit one from a premium manufacturer such as Audi, ever be worth that much money? After all, the hot hatch was first devised to be a faster, more nimble variant of the standard family small car.
This kind of makes sense when Ford or VW ask us to part with £20,000 or so for the Focus ST or Golf GTI: these are both very good cars, supplying highly satisfying driving experiences without totally breaking the bank.
So is the S3 really good enough to justify spending another £7,000?
