Audi S3 — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 246 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Air bags (restraint system)98 (39.8%)Official recall records for this system: 12, covering model years 2015–2022.
• Electrical system22 (8.9%)
• Fuel system20 (8.1%)
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)20 (8.1%)
• Seats16 (6.5%)
• Seat belts14 (5.7%)Official recall records for this system: 4, covering model years 2022.

Other / uncategorized: 12 classifications (4.9%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (176 records, model years 2015–2024) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), electrical system and fuel system.
• Manufacturer communications (7,887 records, model years 2015–2026) are most frequently classified under: equipment & accessories, electrical system and engine.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 76reports included a mileage
• 47,023average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 2015 728 records for 2015 728
2. 2016 633 records for 2016 633
3. 2017 614 records for 2017 614
4. 2018 643 records for 2018 643
5. 2019 641 records for 2019 641
6. 2020 619 records for 2020 619
7. 2022 755 records for 2022 755
8. 2023 689 records for 2023 689
9. 2024 595 records for 2024 595
10. 2025 422 records for 2025 422
11. 2026 142 records for 2026 142

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 2mention a crash
• 4mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 30
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 7,887
• Investigations NHTSA 7
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 27
• Owner complaints NHTSA 176

Explore the underlying evidence records