RE: Mercedes-AMG A35: Driven

[Barga]

Ares said:

Yes because most A-Classes are driven by Ali-G lookalikes


Mercs 20yrs ago were, on the whole, dull. Modern Mercs are not, hence why their market share has rocketed.

Do you think that’s the reason!

[ocrx8]

1974foggy said:

Still one of the worst face lifts ever to my eyes. The yellow isnt helping.

Not a facelift.

[E36GUY]

Vocht said:

I for one think the interior is fantastic. It's the first car that's managed to integrate large screens well into the flow of the dash rather than plonk one up top. Very smart and modern imo!

Here here. Best in class by miles.

[anonymous-user]

Barga said:

Do you think that’s the reason!

I smell what you’re cooking GF

[Never you mind]

Andy20vt said:

Never you mind said:

Andy20vt said:

alexrogers92 said:

Andy20vt said:

alexrogers92 said:

Lovely little car. I bet it's a great every day B road tool.

I bet it's too heavy, wide, too firmly sprung and with too many visibility blind spots to ever take on your average B road round here. Perfect for cruzing through the city centre though.

There will be plenty of mechanical grip and power for the road along with an abundance of tech. Hence my use of the phrase 'every day car'.

Yes but if you can't see where you're going due to poor outward visibility and the car is too wide then you'll be unlikely to be able to use all of that power. Plus with those alloys/tyres you'll simply spend all your time looking out for potholes. Clio 182 (or similar) would run rings round this on a tight twisting B road.

Tosh! Have you driven one? I struggled to keep up with my wife while she was driving her A45 thats "too big, too heavy insert some other random nonsense" and I was in a RWD Gallardo and we live in N.Yorks which has plenty of tight twisty country roads. . My little Fiat 595 didn't fair much better.

A Gallardo is not the ideal car for a tight twisting B road is it? Either your wife is a demon driver or . . . .

Queen of the late brakers is my Mrs. Taught her everything she knows

Probably not but it's not as big or as wide as you think (the Gallardo and the A45). I drive the A45 a fair bit at the moment as the Abarth is knackered and it really does fly through those twisty tight roads where I live. It's a seriously quick hatchback that handles superbly. probably due to the chav wing on the back of it

BTW the Gallardo is good on tight twisty roads. It's just the pot holes and tractors you have to worry about and the fact that the wing mirrors are 2K each.

[Fast Bug]

Andy20vt said:

Yes but if you can't see where you're going due to poor outward visibility and the car is too wide then you'll be unlikely to be able to use all of that power. Plus with those alloys/tyres you'll simply spend all your time looking out for potholes. Clio 182 (or similar) would run rings round this on a tight twisting B road.

I had an A45 and it was pretty damn good on a B road. Visibility is good, the suspension isn't that firm when in comfort and I didn't damage any wheels in potholes. The Clio 182 is great fun (I've driven a fair few), but it wouldn't be able to keep with an A45 for long. It's also only 10ms wider than the Clio, which isn't a huge amount!

[Never you mind]

Fast Bug said:

Andy20vt said:

Yes but if you can't see where you're going due to poor outward visibility and the car is too wide then you'll be unlikely to be able to use all of that power. Plus with those alloys/tyres you'll simply spend all your time looking out for potholes. Clio 182 (or similar) would run rings round this on a tight twisting B road.

I had an A45 and it was pretty damn good on a B road. Visibility is good, the suspension isn't that firm when in comfort and I didn't damage any wheels in potholes. The Clio 182 is great fun (I've driven a fair few), but it wouldn't be able to keep with an A45 for long. It's also only 10ms wider than the Clio, which isn't a huge amount!

I've owned an Elise which is very very good on tight twisty roads and I would say, with confidence, that the elise wouldn't see which way the A45 went. I've also owned a 996 turbo and between the 2 (the 911 and A45) they are about the same on tight twisty roads. It really is a very capable car.

[J4CKO]

Vocht said:

I for one think the interior is fantastic. It's the first car that's managed to integrate large screens well into the flow of the dash rather than plonk one up top. Very smart and modern imo!

I do, my sons mate has just got a diesel one and was having a nosey last night when he arrived, its really very nice, the dash looks great, thats how things are going, it doesnt look like an "Ipad Glued on", it looks to me like a logical evolution of how car instrumentation and interiors are changing.

The screens do everything traditional instruments did and loads more, I am guessing here but they are possibly lighter, takes less space and will be cheaper to produce, I think they look pretty good as well, they dont look like they have been crowbarred in.

And guess what, some people like tech in cars, I love being able to play Spotify, no fannying round carrying CD's, I like having Sat Nav that isnt suckered to the window and I like being able to make the occasional telephone call without having to stop, find a place where I wont get nicked and dig my phone out.

The "Hey Mercedes" thing works better than any voice automation I have seen so far, I have seen my wife, who will attest, that she doesnt have a lot of patience for technology trying to argue with the Ford version on our old Galaxy "Sorree, I do not know what a fking ing thing is" (I am using license there but you get the idea, this seemed spookily similar, remember Knight Rider, well its kind of here, it just isnt all that camp.

[anonymous-user]

Never you mind said:

I've owned an Elise which is very very good on tight twisty roads and I would say, with confidence, that the elise wouldn't see which way the A45 went. I've also owned a 996 turbo and between the 2 (the 911 and A45) they are about the same on tight twisty roads. It really is a very capable car.

This

Spent a week in Scotlland with a mix of cars from McLarens, Huracan, the full spread of 911s to M2s and an A45. The latter was consistently very svery quick across the ground.

[Onehp]

J4CKO said:

Vocht said:

And guess what, some people like tech in cars, I love being able to play Spotify, no fannying round carrying CD's, I like having Sat Nav that isnt suckered to the window and I like being able to make the occasional telephone call without having to stop, find a place where I wont get nicked and dig my phone out.

The "Hey Mercedes" thing works better than any voice automation I have seen so far, I have seen my wife, who will attest, that she doesnt have a lot of patience for technology trying to argue with the Ford version on our old Galaxy "Sorree, I do not know what a fking ing thing is" (I am using license there but you get the idea, this seemed spookily similar, remember Knight Rider, well its kind of here, it just isnt all that camp.

Any car with Android auto will do Spotify, Google Maps or/and Waze navigation, and google assistant. On my Leon, all at a press of a button via voice command. But if you like the A(35), by all means but I would not want to pay whatever premium for just the native Merc tech...

[Foundthecure]

Limpet said:

The interior is awful. Rest of it is pretty good.
What does this offer that a Golf R or S3 doesn't?

A Mercedes badge, and a release from the grip of VW

[tril]

Never you mind said:

Gandahar said:

Great interior but with the Audi having that 2.5 litre which sounds great and can do 500 bhp and the BMW M2 competion which sounds ok and is 3.0 it does make you wonder how AMG can get a 2 litre to out do them in 2019 in the A45????

My first fast AMG was a C43. Apart from the blemish of a 3.2 V6 they went up to 5.5 and then 6.2 before settling down to a mere 5.5 turbo.

Now this mundane 2 litre 4 pot... hmmmm

That interior still looks good though.

Read somewhere the new A45 will be a hybrid but can't see that really either way it's over 400BHP, reported 0 - 60 time is less than 4 seconds, so quicker than the RS3 and M2. Should be a fun car when it arrives as the current one is a complete blast and I will be placing an order as soon as Merc let me.

The Merc would need to do 3.5 in the real world to be faster than the RS3, because Audi drastically under-report their 0-60 times. Would be hilarious if the brand new A45 was still slower than the current RS3.

[anonymous-user]

petrolhead4 said:

Brooking10 said:

This

Spent a week in Scotlland with a mix of cars from McLarens, Huracan, the full spread of 911s to M2s and an A45. The latter was consistently very svery quick across the ground.

I should add that this A45 in particular had a Renntech remap to somewhere around 450HP. It was a rocket ship.

And a tasty driver

His mate in the Golf R was rather handy too.

[J4CKO]

tril said:

Never you mind said:

Gandahar said:

Great interior but with the Audi having that 2.5 litre which sounds great and can do 500 bhp and the BMW M2 competion which sounds ok and is 3.0 it does make you wonder how AMG can get a 2 litre to out do them in 2019 in the A45????

My first fast AMG was a C43. Apart from the blemish of a 3.2 V6 they went up to 5.5 and then 6.2 before settling down to a mere 5.5 turbo.

Now this mundane 2 litre 4 pot... hmmmm

That interior still looks good though.

Read somewhere the new A45 will be a hybrid but can't see that really either way it's over 400BHP, reported 0 - 60 time is less than 4 seconds, so quicker than the RS3 and M2. Should be a fun car when it arrives as the current one is a complete blast and I will be placing an order as soon as Merc let me.

The Merc would need to do 3.5 in the real world to be faster than the RS3, because Audi drastically under-report their 0-60 times. Would be hilarious if the brand new A45 was still slower than the current RS3.

We await BMW's move, the M135i/M140i is a nice piece of kit but its very out of step with the class, I am very pleased with mine but its a bit scrappy when it gets cold and wet, sometimes I like that, sometimes I just want it to grip.

Will be very interesting what BMW bring to the 4WD lunatic hatchback party, the outgoing M140i has 340 bhp and they have always had more power than the other stuff at the price point in the the class, but the S/GTI/AMG/M/m/RS lines are a bit blurred, power wise the M140 fits neatly between this and the A45, the S3 and the RS3, plus its different to them all being six cylinder and RWD, the new one wont be so different based on what I have heard on here.

I bet BMW Split the difference again, 350/360 bhp, leaving a gap to the proper M models seeing as the M2 has now gone over 400 bhp, am no fanboy but that will be the one to wait for if you have 30 odd grand to spend.

[tril]

J4CKO said:

We await BMW's move, the M135i/M140i is a nice piece of kit but its very out of step with the class, I am very pleased with mine but its a bit scrappy when it gets cold and wet, sometimes I like that, sometimes I just want it to grip.

Will be very interesting what BMW bring to the 4WD lunatic hatchback party, the outgoing M140i has 340 bhp and they have always had more power than the other stuff at the price point in the the class, but the S/GTI/AMG/M/m/RS lines are a bit blurred, power wise the M140 fits neatly between this and the A45, the S3 and the RS3, plus its different to them all being six cylinder and RWD, the new one wont be so different based on what I have heard on here.

I bet BMW Split the difference again, 350/360 bhp, leaving a gap to the proper M models seeing as the M2 has now gone over 400 bhp, am no fanboy but that will be the one to wait for if you have 30 odd grand to spend.

Agreed. M140i is the best dynamically but realistically will get left for dead by an A45 and especially RS3, although it probably competes more with the S3 which will probably also show it a clean rear end in anything other than perfect conditions.

petrolhead4 said:

tril said:

The Merc would need to do 3.5 in the real world to be faster than the RS3, because Audi drastically under-report their 0-60 times. Would be hilarious if the brand new A45 was still slower than the current RS3.

I don't think the new A45 will be faster than the RS3.

The Audi makes 394bhp between 5850 and 7000RPM and 354lb-ft between 1700 and 5850RPM. The current A45 doesn't make it's 370HP until 6000RPM and the 350lb-ft is available between 2250 and 5000PM.

In short, the Audi makes more power and more torque over more of the rev range than the A45. Unless Mercedes can do something special with the new A45 this will remain the case for the next generation of cars.

Again, agreed. The 2.5 is a powerhouse and has a much fatter powerband. Also helps that quattro is better than 4Matic and the S-tronic DQ-500 is better than whatever is in the Merc. It's overall just a much faster and well-rounded car. Hopefully the new one will challenge the RS3 properly.

[Alex_225]

To be fair, I don't mind it. I suspect that it'll be an extremely good car and would have to be to compete with the hot hatch market that we have now.

Looks wise, I think in the right colour the outside looks smart enough. Although ironic people have commented unfavourable on the colour when to my eyes it looks very very similar to RenaultSports liquid yellow which many people love. Personal preference I know.

I quite like the interior. It's certainly busy but it looks modern, sharp and pretty high end. Rather than the more common, quite bland interiors of many cars.

I think for me the only gripe I have is purely from an AMG snobbery perspective. To me the proper, AMG badged models should be the fastest, top end model. So despite the A35, C43, CLS53 no doubt being very good cars, it feels as though they're watered down to make them sell more, which they inevitably do.

I know the whole AMG/M/RS badge thing has been done to death on here and let's face it, people refer to their diesel CLA as 'the AMG' so I suppose the A35 isn't as bad as that! haha

[J4CKO]

I would say the later S3 is easily a match for an M135i, maybe an M140i in a straight line in the dry, the older model wasnt as quick and the M135i wasnt far off the RS3, but the newer models are quite a bit quicker. The journos seem to prefer the BMW on track but in the real world, for average drivers the 4wd is just so effective.

Doesnt matter of course, they are all plenty quick enough, and then some, plus so many are modified and then its down to how much of an idiot you are prepared to be.

[mrbarnett]

The amazing thing is, this new A35 is probably faster than the mental concept A190 Twin. Doesn't make it more interesting, though...

[anonymous-user]

petrolhead4 said:

Brooking10 said:

And a tasty driver

His mate in the Golf R was rather handy too.

I still can't believe the E63S. In fact, I'd argue it was more impressive than the 570. I still think about that little circuit we did with Pete and Dan that afternoon at Tongue!

All the best Brooking10!

And to you

And apologies for forgetting the very rapid S1 !!

[Resolutionary]

Andy20vt said:

Wow, so a small hot hatchback with a tiny 2.0l engine that's actually 15kg heavier than the first generation Audi A8 executive saloon with it's 2.8l engine and roomy leather clad interior?

That's not progress! It's like adding roller blades to the fat kid at school who refuses to eliminate doughnuts from his training regime to make sure he still podiums in the 100m race come sports day.

Great comparison / anecdote!