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      07-03-2013, 05:54 AM   #1
TMP
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Lightbulb A45 AMG Test drive and compared to my M135i

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Ok, so had a good 25 min A/B road test in the A45 AMG. I went into this with an open mind, having had the M135i for 9 months and was actually expecting to want to buy one at the end of the drive!

I was wrong, in summary I was underwhelmed and bizarrely (based on my expectations from the recent reviews) it felt slower than the M135i.

I am only going to cover the key differences in my view, and some of those could be more generic Merc vs BMW as well.




HANDLING - Winner: Draw

I drove the car quite fast for the roads, but got nowhere near the limit. It's well balanced and enjoyable, even with a firmer standard set-up than the M135i . I think the M135i in sport (adaptive) mode is better dampered though as the A45 did seem a bit jittery.

The steering (which I think is electric as well) felt good (I must be getting used to the electric set-up now), but perhaps could have done with more feel/communication.

The brakes seems very responsive as well and seemed more sensitive than the M135i.

I like 4WD, and being able to use all the power, even when it was raining, was refreshing and reminded me of my old Scooby.

Overall though, when pushing on normal roads, both cars are great!


ENGINE - Winner M135i

First the engine sound - not too keen on this at all (see cold start vid). I think this is the weakest link on the £40k car. It's a good engine, but does sound a bit boomey and lacks character. I actually cringed (with windows down) when holding onto revs at 4.5k in 2nd gear around a series of tight corners …that is not good for a performance car.



There is a lot less rear sound insulation, so you can hear all the pops and overruns which is great. as we know the exhaust sound could be louder on the M135i.

Also can't believe the rev limiter kicks in at 6.5k revs! Several times I ran into it, due to the shorter range compared to the 7k red line / 7.2k limiter in the Mlite. Of course this also shows the A45 is very free revving and gets to the red line quickly (once the turbo kicks in).

It's a good 4 cylinder engine, but just doesn't have the character of the banshee 6 cylinder M135i unit.


PERFORMANCE - Winner …???

This one I can only judge on what I felt. I was surprised about the lack of torque low down, really not much pull between 1.5-3k e.g the M135i pulls strongly in 4th at 2k revs, the A45 is very sluggish - I assume this is the trade-off for the big turbo, smaller 2L size.

When you do get in the zone, working the auto, it's of course rapid quick but I never felt "wow, this is amazing." It just didn't seem to push me back into the seat as it should.

The 7 speed DCT auto is good, and on hard acceleration is nice and savage on the upshifts (with the accompanying Brp/bang noises :-) ) I still preferred the BMW 8 Speed auto though, as a couple of times the A45 box did lag as mentioned in the reviews.

So overall, it felt slower than my M135i - and this just cannot be right if the stats are 4.1s to 60mph. Was i expecting too much here….hence my "???" on the winner.


LOOKS - Winner A45

The A45 does look pretty special and has lots of AMG details (e.g. front splitter) and nice touches to separate it from lesser A's. Overall, I think it has the edge and looks more special than the M135i.


INTERIOR - Winner M135i

I am not the biggest fan of the M135i interior, but compared to the A45 it's a step above in my view. Fake carbon trim, red seat belts and air vents surround just look a bit, well…..out of place on a £40k AMG.



The worse feature is the 'stuck on' Sat Nav screen which is not angled towards the driver, like in the M135i.. In fact, the whole dash did not feel quite as driver oriented as it should. However, if you like Mercs I think you would find the interior layout fine. I personally struggled with the rev counter - the needle starts at a low position, so 1k revs is at position 7 o'clock (if that makes sense).





The saving grace for the A45 are the amazing bucket seats, now they do make you feel like you are in a £40k AMG!

Rear and boot space is a lot smaller than the 1 series.


OVERALL

So the A45 is a good car, and perhaps if I didn't have an M135i already it would have impressed me. But I walked away totally convinced my M135i, with its (imminent) M Performance exhaust is the better car for me.

I think the C63 is a better option from the Merc range, as that has the drama you do expect from AMG. Then there is the price, no current discount the A45 in the dealer finance pack, yet the line below it has the C63 with a high discount resulting in at only £100 more a month on PCP.

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Last edited by TMP; 07-03-2013 at 06:52 AM..
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