Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG - This baby Merc is A Runner (Part 2)

Quite how special the A45 is in such company will have to wait a while. For now, my first steer is from a Welsh hilltop that is too shrouded in cloud for photography to a small circuit called Llandow, near Cardiff. It’s an hour-long, mostly well surfaced jaunt in mid-morning traffic, and if it tells me anything, it’s that the A45 does something else that most AMGs do, which is sit at cruising speed both amiably and quietly.

If anything, the engine lacks a little sparkle. That said, it’s an in-line four, and a turbocharged one at that, and it spins to only 6500rpm (that 355bhp peak is at 6000rpm, with maximum torque of 332lb ft from 2500rpm). It also returns a claimed 40.9mpg combined and 161g/km of CO2. To expect too much is unreasonable, but a bit of induction-pipework trickery wouldn’t go amiss. No such drama on the overrun, though; there are a few pops and burbles and a quiet waste-gate chirrup on lift-off.

The A45’s AMG’s steering is sharp but lacks feel; the ride is firm but not inexcusably so

For all its specific power, though, this is a far more civilized lump than you’d find in, say, Mitsubishi’s Evo X FQ-360. There’s lag, of course. You can’t expect 178bhp per liter without it, even with twin-scroll turbos and all the ignition trickery you like. Accelerate at 1500rpm and you’ll be greeted by, well, not a great deal. By 2000rpm the A45 has woken up a bit, and by 2500-3000rpm it’s delivering a strong mid-range. Only at 4500rpm, though, does it begin to feel like the 4.6sec to 62mph car it’s claimed to be, in a short and heady rush from there to the 6500rpm red line. We don’t usually feel the need to rev out turbos, but the final 500rpm from peak power to the limiter passes pretty quickly.

Strange how, sometimes, you don’t even think to ask if there will be a manual option these days. A transverse, front-led AMG is one thing, but let’s not be silly. The A45’s seven-speed auto is a decent enough thing, making upshifts quickly and with pleasing metal paddles behind the wheel for manual selection. It matches revs on downshifts well, too, but it’s still a Mercedes unit that isn’t as responsive as that of some rivals.

On these pages in the next couple of weeks, you’ll be able to see how the A45 fares against some rivals. I trust I’m not stealing any thunder by revealing that, sometimes when you ask for a downshift in the A45, you aren’t given it, while you would be in the others. It’s as if Mercedes thinks it knows best. “For sure, we could give you a downshift to 6000rpm in second, but you’d be quicker staying in third.” I don’t care. Stop it.

In its fully automated modes – Comfort or Sport – in regular driving the A45 bumbles along nicely. I’d happily leave it in Sport all the time were it not reluctant to shift to seventh once cruising. But if you’re pressing on, manual is really the way to go.

There are vertical body movements, sure, small and quick, but the A45 rolls and floats barely noticeably

And after a bit of snapping and some more mooching around, finally I get the chance, briefly on the circuit and then on some remote roads, to give the A45 its all. And you know what? It’s good, this. I’d like to give it a full workout at MIRA proving ground, but I think it’s really good.

That purposeful ride? It has its benefits when things get harder. We often say that a decent ride isn’t alien to making a great driver’s car (see the Lotus Evora and current Focus ST, for example). But I’m disinclined to feel badly towards the A45 in the same way I’m disinclined to think badly of the Nissan GT-R or recently departed Ford Focus RS. It feels nailed down.

There are vertical body movements, sure, small and quick, but the A45 rolls and floats barely noticeably. Pushing hard on the brakes hauls it up sharp with no dive or pitch, just supreme stopping power and excellent pedal feel. It turns keenly, too. There’s no great amount of feel through the rim, but the wheel is part-Alcantara wrapped, which always makes the steering feel better. And it’s grippy and fun. No question.

There are vertical body movements, sure, small and quick, but the A45 rolls and floats barely noticeably.

But? There is a ‘but’, though a very small one. I just wish it was a bit more adjustable – that there was a bit more mid-corner life to it.

The A45 goes, stops, steers and grips supremely well, but at its core it feels like the stable, front-biased car it is. When it pushes its power to the rear, it helps traction, but it can’t be used to trim the cornering line as it can in a genuine 4WD car. And the AMG doesn’t have the lift-off, trailed-brake adjustability of, say, a Fiesta ST.

It’s endearing, efficient and brutally fast, but on this evidence the A45 lacks that final degree of chassis playfulness – which is ironic, given that it’s the calling card of all other AMGs – that stands between being extremely good and being superb. I say ‘current evidence’. Fact is, I want another go, which is kind of the point, isn’t it?