[///M-pressed]

The A45 is obviously a brilliant car and they will sell like hotcakes because Mercedes has realised there is potential in this market segment. They realise that manuals are dying, and people do not care as much about driver focussed cars any more whereby you actually need to know how to drive.

Here's my point: Anyone who buys an AMG A45 or CLA or whatever, each and every single owner can use launch control, have AWD grip and hit an amazing
0-62mph (or 0-100km/h depending on where you live) and you don't have to be a skilled driver to do so. Kudos to Mercedes, but I guess I am one of the few people that wants to be rewarded when I drive and hone my driving skills (I'm an enthusiast right?) Try launching a RWD manual car and getting consistent acceleration figures.

But this is the direction the world is heading to and Mercedes will sell this car like mad because this is what people want. I will always choose a BMW so long as they offer a manual transmission with a RWD set-up.

But again, clever move by Mercedes. Will be interesting to see how BMW respond.