Mercedes-AMG A45 S: Super-hatch with a price tag to match

[SOUND] I really like this car [LAUGH]. [MUSIC] And judging by the reaction on my Instagram, that will come as quite a surprise to some of you. True I didn't like either of the previous iterations of the a 45 but this one is rather different. [SOUND] [SOUND] What you probably already know about the a 45 S is that it costs an awful lot of money. And it's extremely powerful. Meaning it'll do nought to 62 miles an hour in just 3 point 9 seconds. But the reason I like this car is not really because of what it will do in a straight line. It's how it gets through the corner. As brilliant as soon as you get into this the staring just feels wonderfully accurate. But also loosing the zone looseness to the whole chassis of fluidity, I suppose. The way it gets down a piece of road that works particularly well. In the UK, on the average B road, just lets you get into a stride and flow with the road. Even in its firmest suspension setting, because it's got the adaptive dampers, you still got a lot more amount of rolls. Through the corners so you can really use the weight balance, feel the weight transfer through corners. And that means that when you're driving quickly, not flat out, but just even when you're just cruising along, you can actually get into a really nice rhythm with a car feel aware move through the road. Through a corner, and then when you are driving quickly, it just gives you that much more ability to change the attitude of the car. It feels more mobile straightaway. This being an AMG, there are of course many settings and a plethora of ways to adjust those settings. As with other MGS, I found the easiest thing to do is set the individual mode your preference. So manual gearbox, dynamic engine, loud exhaust, suspension, soft etc. And then you can simply toggle back and forth between max attack and comfort. There is however, one particular setting that I should probably talk about, and that is the drift mode. We've seen drift modes in emojis before but this is not like the E63 where it renders the front driveshafts redundant This cars drift mode is more akin to the Focus RS, because there are a couple of clutch packs on the rear axle of this which can then shift the torque across that and in the drift mode will shift all the torque to the outside wheel, is not as artificial as the focus. So ,this is much more Natural failing so you can actually just feel like you can use the rare virus in the car, find it has naturally through a corner. The nice thing is you don't actually need the drift mode for this a 45 s to be fun and feel rear biassed. Whereas the previous generations always felt nose LED and rather flat footed. This is a very different beast. Yes, it's heavy with a curb weight of over 1600 kilos, but certainly on the road doesn't run like a heavy car got fit, which is pretty comfortable. There's quite a lot of road noise in this car which comes from obviously the suspension but also I think potentially the Michelin tires Notice missionaries in the past can have quite a bit of road noise. So that might be a reason for somebody from the road noise. The interior is a very nice place to be. It is a a tech Fest, I suppose. It certainly does feel very premium here. I love the big screen across here. Some probably won't. And I do I like the fact you can also change the screen here. I wonder why more people don't do that. Given all the digital screens that are out there these days, some do obviously change, particularly change through modes. But this one you can pretty much configure how you would like, so you can have two dials or I've got it with the central dial moments and the big gay indicator in the middle because that seems the most appropriate. [SOUND] [MUSIC] Ofcourse much as I like the tech, sometimes it can feel a little intrusive. [SOUND] Could you repeat you input please? No way. [SOUND] What can I do for you? Nothing. [SOUND] Anyway, let's talk about some of the technology that is unique to this car. The stuff under the bonnet. This is the first four cylinder to get the AMG one person one engine treatment, but what makes it so special? So the previous 845 had an M 133 engine, this is total uses the M 139. Which is derived from the M 260 numbers for you. Sure. So that mt 60 engine which is Mercedes standard four cylinder turbocharged engine. What they've done is they've switched it through 180 degrees. So now you've got the intakes this size you've got a much more direct path into the engine for the app needs to turbochargers back which obviously Creates certain problems potentially around heat because it's between there and the bulkhead out here. The heat management is pretty phenomenal. Aside from all the silver shielding, which you can see, there is water, oil, and air cooling, with the cabin aircon even stepping in to help, if necessary. One more details. Well the single twin scroll turbo produces up to 2.1 bar of boost. The waste gate is electronically controlled and the cylinders aligned with friction reducing nano slide something which has been lifted from Helton and processes weekend cars. We've got twin injection so it's pair to direct injection most of the time then at high revs, we've got port injection, as well just to increase the fuel flow into the engine and really get that high specific output. And it is extraordinary, so this is putting out 415 by horsepower in the AES and from an engine that's 1,991 cc. So you do the calculation and that gives a specific output 208 brake horsepower per liter. Now, just to give that some sort of context, a 488 pista, 711 brake horsepower, but only 182 brake horsepower per liter, a seller Well, yeah, it's a bit more, but it's up to 197 brake horsepower per liter. So this is really, really extraordinary bits of kit. Perhaps most incredible of all is that despite all its performance, this car recorded over 39 MPG on a motorway run But what does it feel like when you've got the wick turned up? [SOUND] Absolutely Robin, they massage the torque curve in this quite cleverly so you only get maximum torque between 5000 and 5250. 50 off, which is pretty high off compared to what we're used to, in turbocharged engines where we used to coming in sort of a low 2000 RPM really. And then having very flat talker, this is much more like the Ferrari where things where it builds and builds to give you a more progressive feel to it more like a naturally aspirated. engine. And I think it works really well. It's also one of those cards where I feel like actually having paddles makes sense. Grip through the gears and you're always on top of it always changing gears. The whole car he reminds me a bit of another frantic turbocharged two liter all wheel drive practical car with a big wing and a seating position. That is a touch too high. There's a clue in the T shirt. The Mitsubishi Evo know this AMG doesn't have quite the freakish agility nor homologation pedigree of an EVO. But its average cross country pace and rear biased all wheel drive attitude does conjure up some of the same feelings. Perhaps the main reason that this isn't like a Mitsubishi though Is the cost. This car in this back is over 56,000 pounds. It's just over 50,000 pounds is a base a 45s. And that is an awful lot of money. I think it takes it out of hothouse territory by quite a low margin. You wouldn't Probably comparing it to that except that then of course, what do you compare it to? [SOUND] Roughly the same money a BMW M2 competition is purer. Or if you want really pure, you can have a full on sports car like a Cayman S or an Alpine A110S. But none of them are as practical, this is got a Huge boot, obviously proper rear seats. Of course there are swift premium SUVs like Porsche's Macan GTS, but they're SUVs. Audi's RS3 would be the obvious competitor, except we're between generations at the moment. I hope Ingolstadt has taken note of what R Fatterbach has done. Actually reminds me of another car that's much more expensive. To the everyday supercar, the 911 turbo. This is even got a turbo badge on it. So there we are a hatchback incarnation of a 911 turbo, sort of. I'm not going to claim it's perfect. But with its stonking engine, subtle suspension and ability to engage you as it covers ground All wrapped up in a practical body. It feels like quite the package. So I'll say it again. I really, really like this car.