There is a new way into AMG ownership and it’s called the A35. Easy car to understand, easy car to like.
The A-Class of 2012 was the best idea Mercedes have had this century. It was not a great car, but it was the right car at the right time, giving the people exactly what they wanted, a compact family car with a prestigious badge for all those out there who needed a Golf but wanted a Mercedes-Benz.
And so the A-Class gave Mercedes the upper hand against BMW and Audi – the expansion of the model line included the CLA, CLA Shooting Brake and GLA – but also gave them a big problem to solve: how to replace it with something equally appealing at a time when the market is changing much, much faster than ever before.
The new A-Class arrived last year and, unlike its predecessor, not only is it the right car again, it is a great one finally. Looks absolutely fabulous (in the right spec), drives really well and is as, if not more, technologically advanced as the majestic S-Class.
Of course, interest in the model must be kept alive at all times, so now they are starting to roll down the AMG versions. And I say versions because there will be, for the first time, two of them, the A35 and the A45.
The A45 is going to be the ultimate hot-hatch, with 420 horse power and more speed than you will ever be able to use on the public road. It is being developed to smoke the Audi RS3 and whatever BMW comes up with next. It will be here until the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the boys in Affalterbach, the house of AMG, have given us a new entrance point to their world in the form of the A35, a complete novelty for the model and an option that is built to lure clients away from things like the Volkswagen Golf R.
Because the A35 is not an extreme car like the A45, it is aimed at a different type of driver. One that wants all the refinement of a normal A-Class and cares a lot about the techy elements of the car, but still craves for that extra performance. In this sense, the A35 is spot on.
I drove it around for four days and it just suited my everyday life perfectly. I took the kids to school, I did the supermarket run, I ran a trillion errands and I parked and unparked it a million times without any kind of problems. It was comfortable, practical, spacious, I loved the quality and the gadgets, and I always looked twice after leaving it – always that sign that a car makes you feel good. To own, the A35 is really a no-brainer.
However, the 2-litre engine, the 306 horsepower and the seven-speed automatic gearbox never seemed like the most exciting powertrain in the world. It’s not that the A35 felt slow but it didn’t feel AMG fast. The red line arrives too soon and, even in its sportier settings, the car felt a bit lacking in drama. I wanted a bit more of everything, I guess: speed, noise, attitude.
Having said that, the real problem lies not in the car, but in myself. I am absolutely sure about that because, as I have written here, the A35 nails the brief it was given. This is not a car for frustrated wannabe racing drivers; this is a go-faster A-Class with a sprinkle of AMG magic. And, be in no doubt, the magic is there. I just kept thinking “if the A35 is like this, how will the A45 be like?” – but that is mainly a consequence of driving a lot of different cars and a lot of different AMGs.
Ask me what car you should buy in the A-Class segment and my answer is A-Class every time. This means that if you want to spend €62,500 in one with a respectable amount of power and the engineering prowess of AMG behind it, I will not try to stop you. It will be a great car to live with and I am sure that owning one would be a great experience.
Nevertheless, if you love driving above the gizmos and the gadgets and the screens and the comfort and the fuel efficiency, I have to command you to wait for the A45. It will be a hooligan of a car and a closer embodiment of what AMG stands for. The two are not the same thing and I applaud Mercedes for putting so much air between them that we really can understand what they are all about.
Living: A35. Driving: A45. Simple as that.
By Guilherme Marques
