Guide

Audi RS or BMW M — which should you lease?

Updated September 2026 6 min read Performance & Prestige

Every Audi RS we lease drives all four wheels, which makes the range the more effortless choice in British weather. BMW M still splits: the M2 and M3 Competition are rear-driven, the M4 Competition xDrive and M5 are not. RS offers an estate; M offers a coupé and a grand tourer. Criteria and deposits are comparable across both.

What is the real difference between them?

Attitude, and it shows up in the drivetrain before anything else.

Audi's RS range as we list it is quattro throughout — every RS car in the catalogue drives all four wheels. The character that produces is one of composure: enormous ability deployed without drama, on a wet roundabout as readily as on a dry one.

BMW's M range keeps a rear-driven core and is deliberately less tidy about it. The M2 and the M3 Competition we list are rear-driven; the M4 Competition xDrive, the M5, the M5 Competition and the M8 Competition drive all four.

Neither approach is better. One asks less of you and one gives more back when you are in the mood, and over a term that difference is felt on ordinary roads rather than on special ones.

Does that matter over a British winter?

Enough to be worth weighing if your term runs through it.

Four-wheel drive helps you set off and helps you hold a line in the wet. It does not shorten a braking distance and it does not raise cornering grip meaningfully on a cold road, so it is a traction aid rather than a safety system — and tyres matter more than either.

What it does change, day to day, is how often the car feels like hard work. A rear-driven M car pulling out of a wet junction with a cold engine and cold tyres asks for a measured right foot; the equivalent RS car mostly does not.

If that is a live question for you, four-wheel drive against rear-wheel drive in a British winter goes through what actually helps.

The start date is the part to weigh first. An agreement that runs through the summer barely raises the question at all, and one that runs through the winter raises it every week.

What body shapes can you get on each side?

This is where the ranges genuinely diverge, and it decides more enquiries than the drivetrain does.

RS gives you formats M does not: a hot hatch in the RS 3 Sportback, a fast estate in the RS 4 Avant, four-door fastbacks in the RS 5 Sportback and the RS 7 Sportback performance, a large SUV in the RS Q8 performance and an electric four-door in the RS e-tron GT.

M gives you a proper coupé in the M2 and the M4 Competition, a saloon in the M3 Competition and the M5s, a grand tourer in the M8 Competition and a fast SUV in the X5 M Competition.

If you want an estate, the answer is Audi. If you want a two-door, the answer is BMW.

Which is easier to qualify for?

They are closer than people expect, and both ranges start gently.

The RS 3 Sportback and the RS 7 Sportback performance ask 25 with three years of full licence held, as do the M2, the M3 Competition, the M4 Competition xDrive and both M5s. Six penalty points are tolerated across the group.

The requirements climb with the car rather than the badge. The M8 Competition asks 30 and five years, and so does our own X5 M Competition. The RS e-tron GT asks 30 and five years on the Audi side.

For a younger driver, both ranges are among the most accessible fast cars in the catalogue, and that is genuinely unusual at this level of performance.

What do they cost to run over the term?

Deposits sit in the same band. The RS 3 Sportback and the M5 Competition both start at £2,000, with £2,500 on the RS 4 Avant, the RS 5 Sportback, the M2, the M3 Competition and the M4 Competition. The excess matches the deposit on every car we list.

Excess mileage is where a small gap opens. Most of both ranges sits at £1.50 a mile beyond the 1,000 miles a month every agreement includes. The M5 Competition is the outlier at 95p, which is the gentlest rate in the whole catalogue, and our own X5 M Competition sits at £2.00.

If you cover real distance, that single row is worth more attention than anything else on this page.

Which of them is ours?

One: the BMW X5 M Competition. We own it, prepare it and deliver it, on the three-month minimum term — one month up front, then one a month, with 1,000 miles a month included — and we carry the risk on it rather than passing it along.

Every other car on both sides of this comparison is arranged through a vetted partner, so the specific vehicle is confirmed before we commit to a date on it. Every car in both ranges is quoted on request.

That is not a reason to take the X5. It is a reason to ask early if your start date is tight, because a confirmed answer on a sourced car takes a step we do not control. What sourced means in practice covers the rest.

So which should you lease?

Take the RS if you want the car to be effortless — a fast estate, a four-door that carries five, or an SUV that never makes a fuss about weather. It is the range that asks less of you on an ordinary day.

Take the M if you want to be involved, and particularly if you want two doors. The M2 is the most characterful thing either make makes at this level and it is leasable on the gentlest criteria in the group.

If you are choosing between these two, it is also worth putting Mercedes-AMG beside them — AMG against RS covers a range that goes further in both directions than either of these does.

Common questions

Are all Audi RS cars four-wheel drive?

Every Audi RS car in our catalogue drives all four wheels, from the RS 3 Sportback through to the RS e-tron GT. That consistency is much of the range’s appeal in British conditions, and it is the clearest single difference from the BMW M line-up.

Which BMW M cars are rear-wheel drive?

Of the ones we list, the M2 and the M3 Competition. The M4 Competition xDrive, the M5, the M5 Competition, the M8 Competition and the X5 M Competition all drive four wheels. Check the specific car rather than the badge — the split does not follow model numbers.

Is there an estate in either range?

On the Audi side, yes — the RS 4 Avant. We do not list an M estate, so if a fast car that swallows luggage is the brief, the RS 4 Avant and the RS 7 Sportback performance are the two to look at first.

Can a 25-year-old lease an RS or an M car?

Several of both, yes, with three years of full licence held — the RS 3 Sportback and RS 7 Sportback performance on one side, the M2, M3 Competition, M4 Competition and M5s on the other. The cars asking 30 in both ranges are the larger and faster ones.

Do you own any RS or M cars?

The BMW X5 M Competition is ours — we own it, prepare it and deliver it, on the three-month minimum term, and it holds a £5,000 deposit against a matching excess with £2.00 a mile beyond the allowance. Everything else across both ranges is arranged through a vetted partner. Every car in both ranges is quoted on request.