Despite the decades my body keeps collecting, I can’t help but continue to look at cars through an enthusiast lens. I still get giddy when a see a perfectly slammed Civic. And still daydream about one day owning an old Group B car. And despite having been granted the permission to take home some very fast, very expensive machines, I still find myself drawn toward the more practical rides.

I’ve always been a fan of Audi’s “3” line of cars—the A3, S3 and RS3. No matter the choice between hot, hotter and hottest, Audi’s small sedan always seemed to lie in that sweet spot of being “just right,” offering great power, handling and refinement in a right-sized package. It had been a minute since I’d been in any Audi product, so I was especially delighted when the company welcomed me back into its fleet with a shiny new S3. And at its core, it remains the sedan I first fell in love with all those years ago.

Introduced for the 2022 model year, this third-gen Audi S3 doesn’t look too radically different from the models that came before it. Sure, it gets some fancy LED lights, a honeycomb grille and some additional creased character lines, but its looks are classic Audi: clean, if not understated. The S3’s design progression has been more evolutionary versus revolutionary, and when you look at the monstrosities coming out of (metaphorical) cross-town rival BMW, it’s safe to say Audi’s restraint here is a good thing.

Inside, things get a bit more interesting, with a decidedly polygonal design language. Multi-layered surfaces get tucked in, or jut out, all comprised of razor-straight lines and sharp angles. It’s a design that should be busy, but as it’s all finished in a very Germanic black-on-black, with accents of gray, the result again is very subdued.

Despite it technically being a small sedan, the S3 offers plenty of room inside. Lots of adjustability makes it easy to find that just-right driving position, and even back-seat passengers don’t feel like they’re in a penalty box. But it’s the stuff for the driver that, if I may continue to over-use the phrase, feels just right. The front buckets offer the right amount of comfort and support, with semi-aggressive side bolsters that hold one in place, yet don’t require a whole lot of weird contortions to get in and out. The steering wheel offers a thin, precise rim; it feels perfect in the hand, its tactility alone making the S3 feel like a substantial machine. And the gear shift…

Oh wait. There’s no gear shift.

Not saying that the S3 is offered in automatic only, though it is. What I mean is that the typical gear shift lever has been replaced by a toggle switch. It looks fine, and functionally is way better than something like a gear-select dial. But in a car like this—especially a sedan with sporting pretensions—it would be great to have a big ol’ lever to slam things into gear.

Not that the drive suffers for it. Gear stick or no, this is still an S3. And the things that have always made the S3 fun to drive are still present and accounted for.

Power comes from a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder rated at 306 horsepower and 296 lb-ft of torque. Transmission is a 7-speed S-tronic auto, and quattro (keep it lowercase, kids) all-wheel drive is standard. Audi claims that this package is good for a 4.5-second rip from 0-60, and an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph. No matter how you slice it, this is one quick car.

The drive is what one would expect from Audi, which is to say it’s sublime. Engine response is generally good, and the steering is light and accurate. Toggling between sport and dynamic modes, of course, can add sharpness to all inputs, but at the cost of holding onto gears for way too long—at least as far as street driving is concerned. For me, keeping the S3 in Comfort still delivers the overall levels of response I expect from a sports sedan.

It's hard to find flaw with the Audi S3—it’s just one of those vehicles that does everything well, with no real weak points. It looks great. It drives nice. Its exterior dimensions are perfect for city driving, yet its cabin can hold four adults comfortably. And for those who care about this sort of thing, it’s immensely tunable. As much as I hate to close things out by re-using the phrase “just right” yet again, I can’t think of a better way to describe the Audi S3.

Finding perfection in the Audi S3