I have to comment on this, having owned Audis previously & test drove the Q3 a few months before the CX3 even existed in the US. It was a nice ride, I think it was slightly bigger & had a nice moonroof. I won't get into any issues I had with the Audis because one of them was a fluke .. but I had Quattro sporty coupes & they drove like SUVs in the snow, all season sport tires & all. Snow hills in the road from the plow? Right through them. I'm actually a bit nervous that my CX3 might slip more or not handle as well as the Audis so if we actually get snow this year in NY (NYC suburbs) I'll find out. I'm hoping this AWD technology in the Mazda holds true & impresses me.
I had to add air to the CX3 tires last week, it was 60 degrees one day and 30 the next. Never with the Audis. I had to laugh bc one thing I missed was when the Audi told you which tire it was! Silly little extras the luxury cars have that you take for granted!
I would've got that Q3 in a heartbeat but reality is, I needed a small SUV, I wanted as many bells & whistles as possible incl Sunroof, leather, Nav..,and my budget just doesn't allow for an Audi right now. The Q3 I wanted would've been well over $10k more. Probably closer to $15k more. Getting the GT was cheap coming off an expensive car & I didn't have to make TOO many sacrifices. Yes Audi holds decent value but I'm saving so much on service, gas(no premium anymore!) and payments it's ridiculous!
It's kind of apples to oranges to compare them in some ways. miss Quattro, turbo, among other little things but the CX3 does the job and then some so far...for now...& of course is so much sportier looking I Really enjoy it.
...But that doesn't mean I don't see a Q3 or Q5 in my future...
Good luck, I think either way (if price isn't an issue) you will be happy.