High Mercs
NEW AMG’S MILDER BUT STILL SPICY LITTLE RIDE
USING the international curry scale for hot hatchbacks, the new Mercedes-AMG A35 rates as a jalfrezi.
This places it under the outgoing AMG, which was a madras.
To put all this into more conventional terms, the A35 has a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine producing 306bhp.
This car, like the previous A45, is the cheapest Merc you can buy that’s a proper AMG, as opposed to a version that’s in AMG-Line trim or has AMG-branded floor mats.
The old AMG A45 also had a 2.0-litre turbo motor, but in that car it produced 355bhp.
Before the year is out there will be a new Mercedes-AMG A45 as well. Although we don’t know exact details, it is rumoured to have over 400bhp and feature some sort of electrification or hybridisation.
That’ll rate as a vindaloo, although this car is hardly a sluggard. Top speed is limited to
155mph, and 0-62mph takes 4.7 secs. Fourwheel drive is standard, as is Merc’s sevenspeed double-clutch automatic gearbox.
All this will cost you £35,580 with plenty of opportunities to crank that up with options.
Mercedes will sort you out with finance that will put an A35 on your drive for a £5,500 deposit, with 48 monthly payments of £399.
Trust me, you will be sorely tempted to add goodies to this car. Even in standard spec the
A35 is pretty special, its interior a cut above the opposition. Order an Executive equipment pack (at £1,395) and you get a huge
10.25in screen instead of the 7.0in standard one. Irritatingly, you have to buy this option before you can add the £495 Android Auto/Apple CarPlay. That’s annoying and a bit of a con.
Rivals can’t match the A35 for the classiness of its interior, and neither can they match the technology on offer. You could spend your first month with this car sitting on your drive, working your way through all the systems and different modes on offer.
Then another month working out which settings you might prefer.
Seriously, it’s worth spending some time sorting this out at rest because you don’t want to be fiddling with buttons and touchpads while driving.
There are multiple ways to change dampers, automatic gearbox modes and a host of other things. You can use the rotary knobs on the special AMG steering wheel, or touchpads on the wheel’s spokes.
The latter are a nuisance because it’s easy to brush them with a thumb and accidentally change a setting. And then there are loads of buttons on the centre console to fiddle with. You could just jump in the A35, fire it up and go for a drive using the default settings.
You won’t be disappointed. The AMG A35 isn’t the most exciting and involving hot hatch I’ve driven, but it is very fast and supremely competent, especially when the going is tricky.
Sport+ setting will give you some theatrical pops and bangs, but otherwise the A35 goes about its business very quickly and without much drama.
There’s a huge amount of grip and traction available, even on the most slippery surfaces. The AMG A35 is almost too straightforward to drive – too point and squirt.
You don’t get the same level of thrill and drama driving the A35 that you do in Honda’s Civic Type-R.
There are also cars that have a lot less power and are much cheaper – the Ford Fiesta ST being a cracking example.
But neither of those cars gives you the solid and reassuring feel of the Merc, and neither has an instrument panel that at night makes the advertising signs in London’s Piccadilly Circus look a bit dull.