[CAR ENGINE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
AMG has made a hot hatchback.
It's called the A45, and it is extremely expensive.
But then its specification is quite special.
It has a lot of power, and it's four-wheel drive.
It's natural rival is the BMW M135i, a cheaper car that's
less powerful, but which is rear-wheel drive and
potentially even more fun.
So seconds out, round one on the road,
round two on the track.
Let's find a winner!
[CAR ENGINE REVVING]
The first time you even sit in the A45 and you experience it
accelerate in second and third gear, you will say [BLEEP]
me.
That's a fast car.
It's quite a confusing machine to start with.
I'm starting to deconstruct it and understand it
a bit better now.
But I have to say, to start with, I thought
what's this all about?
First up, it is magnificently, splendidly fast.
And it's got that kind of point-to-point performance
that we associate with Evos and Imprezas.
But it's got a Mercedes badge on it.
So first of all, you think is this a Mercedes-Benz at all?
Because it doesn't really square with any of the brand
values you expect.
It's small, with short overhangs, quite a long wheel
base related to its overall size.
It's agile, and it just extracts performance from the
road surface in a way that you don't expect.
It's remarkable just how fast it is.
And then you try and think about what's going on.
Because for nearly 40,000 pounds, you've got this
turbocharged four-cylinder engine.
And it doesn't make the best noise in the world, if I'm
honest with you.
But on up-shifts--
oh, here we go.
First to second, second to third, here we go--
bang.
You get these massive cracks on the up-shift,
which are so exciting.
It's a mechanical noise.
It's a great noise.
Is it a 40,000 noise?
I'm not so sure.
Other things that surprise about it.
Well, first off I thought, the ride's too harsh.
The right is just a bit too firm for me.
And it is firm, but the faster you go, the more you
appreciate the fact there's some real quality damping
behind that firmness.
So I'll go back from harsh and say it's firm.
It's about as far as I want the car to be.
But actually the harder you push, the better it gets.
And that's interesting in the context of the BMW, which
we'll come to afterwards.
There's not much life to the steering really, not much to
be enjoyed there.
There's quite a lot to be enjoyed in
the gearbox, though.
This is Mercedes' own double-clutch unit and it's
fast on up-shifts, very fast on up-shifts, a slight delay
on the paddle.
It's more responsive to the paddle on down shifts.
But in any case, it's a fast gearbox.
And in combination with this engine, you suddenly feel like
you're in a four-cylinder racing car or something.
It's quite Touring car in feel--
Rev it out, pull on a paddle--
BANG!
Shift, move again.
Brake pedal firm, brakes fantastic on the road.
We'll find out more when we do some circuit work later on.
Interestingly, the engine doesn't just produce a slab of
torque low down.
Yes, it's pulling hard from anything
above about 1,800 rpm.
But there's this real kick point at about 5 and 1/2 into
about 6 and 1/2, which I hadn't expected.
So in that respect, it does feel a bit
revvier than the BMW.
Hm.
Is it a 40,000 car?
Can this car justify being more than a Porsche Boxter?
In some ways, I don't think it can.
I mean, there are bits of the cabin that just
don't justify the price.
This plastic down the center console is hard and brittle
and will scratch.
However, above kind of testicle height, the rest of
the cabin--
pretty pleasing to me.
I don't know.
I shouldn't be the judge of aesthetics.
But it doesn't look like they've scrimped too much.
It feels pretty high quality.
I like the compact size.
What is so surprising is the way it covers ground is
mind-blowing.
If you're in an M3 or in a C63 on any kind of B-road in the
UK, don't even attempt to stay with an A45, because
you will fall off.
Now we mustn't forget that the A45 AMG is a full-house
bespoked performance model, but the M135i
isn't a proper M car.
Still, as tested, the Merc cost 42,525 pounds, with some
eye-popping prices for the carbon bits.
These body trimmings are 2,550 pounds, and the
carbon mirrors are--
wait for it--
1,230 pounds.
Power is rated at 360 horsepower, torque at 332.
The curb weight is 1,555 kilograms.
The 135i has just become a little more expensive in the
UK, but not much.
Its basic price, as a three-door, is 30,570 pounds,
still over 7,000 less than the Merc is standard .
However, once you've opted for the amazing 8-speed auto, the
adaptive dampers and, well, some other trinkets, you end
up with a car which doesn't feel that well specified and
which costs a nip under 38,000.
It's a little down on power with 320, but matches the 332
foot-pounds of the A45.
And the 135 is 55 kilograms lighter.
Is BMW, with its rather wonderful M135i, playing the
marketing headlines game a bit too cutely?
I don't think it is, but these are the facts as they stand.
Yes, you can buy the car for under 30,000 pounds.
But if you add the gearbox, the wonderful 8-speed ZF
automatic gearbox, that's another 3,000 pounds.
If you add the adaptive damping, it's another xxxx.
We can go on.
So let's think of this as a 34,000-pound car, and not a
29,000-pound car, to keep everyone on the
forums happy, OK?
I'm thinking of it as a 34,000-pound car.
Well, to my eyes, it's a compact, incredibly capable,
very fast, very exciting,
beautiful-sounding package for 34,000.
I still think it's the bargain of the century.
And I still think it makes the Mercedes look expensive.
This engine--
wow!
Well, Mercedes has done some incredible work to extract all
that usable power and performance from its
4-cylinder motor and its double-clutch gearbox.
But I hate to say it, to live with, this BMW 6 has a more
pleasant engine.
It's got a bit more torque.
To me, it revs a bit more sweetly.
It makes the most lovely, lovely classic BMW
straight-six noise.
I know it's a little bit synthesized in places.
So what's wrong with the M135i?
Well, I've discovered something today.
I've been driving it over some really, really
tough, bumpy roads.
And I don't mean kind of a bit bumpy.
I mean very harsh.
And I think I found the point at which the suspension says,
nope, I've had enough.
I had it in comfort mode, and it felt a bit loose.
I put it into sport mode, and it felt like the back axle
wasn't that well located into the body, like all the
bushings were a bit too soft.
And where the Mercedes got better and better as I pushed
it over those hard roads, well, the BMW, I found its
limits a bit.
But that was fast driving, a kind of 7 and 8/10, which in
this car means you're covering ground at an indecent speed.
This car is lovely.
It's got this quite fast steering rack.
It's agile.
It makes that lovely noise.
It has that transmission.
You do think to yourself, what more could I want?
And it's in a compact body as well, so it's wieldy.
It's quite small.
You can use that performance.
Is the rear-wheel drive thing a bonus?
To me, yes, because you can make it do these little
squiggles coming out of corners.
Neil, put a squiggle in now.
Good, you've seen a squiggle.
And I rather enjoy those.
I know they're not very good for some people, but the car
does feel rear-driven when you get up there.
And I quite like that.
You get to make the odd correction.
You do get some understeer in the Mercedes.
We'll find that again on track later on how they differ, but
on the road, on balance, I quite like the rear-wheel
drive thing.
So I don't know how to judge that.
What about how I feel inside the car
compared to the Mercedes?
Well, just like the Merc, you can pick a few holes.
There's some hard plastics down here.
Again, it's another car that's being stretched into a bigger
price category because of its performance.
And you can pick holes.
Fundamentally, it's a good cabin, though.
It's probably, to more people, the more
pleasant place to sit.
But who am I to judge that?
I think the instrumentation is very clear, but so do I in the
Mercedes-Benz.
No, I find it very difficult to find much
wrong with this car.
But yeah, bumpy roads, maybe not its favorite thing if
you're going absolutely flat out.
This ZF gearbox is a triumph, though.
It shifts so fast.
It's so good in automatic mode.
I know Mercedes has spent lots of time and money--
specifically AMG Mercedes--
on making that double clutch as good as it is.
But in some respects, it can't quite match the sheer
smoothness and speed of this unit.
Before we start in the A45 at the wonderful little Landau
circuit, let's look at whether we've got any
buttons to play with.
Interestingly, there are not many buttons to play with.
I'm got an off button, which turns all the traction off.
Naturally, I've done that, so no stability, no traction.
Gearbox just goes to manual, so I can do paddles myself and
it will hold a gear.
Other than that, there are no buttons.
As someone who doesn't really like gimmicky buttons, I feel
that's very refreshing.
But oddly, I'm now sitting here thinking there's nothing
to play with.
There's no pleasing some people, is there?
Out.
Onto the circuit.
Gear shift.
Fast.
Steering.
Good weighting.
As you'd expect, pretty sensational traction, and then
you let it go over 5 and 1/2.
It just strolls along.
It keeps pulling.
Very smooth for a 4-cylinder.
And I love those cracks on the up-shift.
They are just fantastic.
Great over the curves.
And the brake pedal for me, it's a stand-out
point of the car.
I hadn't expected it, but the brake pedal is just so
reassuring.
From a high speed, you hit it with real confidence.
And the brakes themselves-- superb.
I mean, again, I didn't expect it to be such a stand-out
feature of the car.
Down shifts?
Good, but it needs a car that you've got to overstop,
because you think you can catch the next
gear, and it won't.
And you'll think it's not changed down fast enough.
It's because you were traveling too
fast to get the gear.
Haldex--
well, we all know about the evils of the Haldex 4-wheel
drive system.
This car slightly exposes the Volkswagen-Audi group, because
Mercedes has done a much better job with this.
Ultimately, the car does understeer, but it's nothing
like that horrible terminal understeer you get in an RS3.
Give it full power on the exit of a fast turn, and it will
begin to neutralize.
And the slower stuff?
Yeah, it never feels like the back wheels are doing an awful
lot of driving in the dry.
But god, it's not getting in the way of me having fun.
And it's massively fast.
I mean, massively fast.
The car just turns.
As for lap times, well, we'll discuss those in a minute.
Can I make this car oversteer?
In the dry, I'm afraid I can't.
What I can do now and again is being a bit brutal with the
direction change.
I can throw the car in.
And the car will just begin to neutralize.
The back axle will step out.
But no, it's not a car that I can just play with a la Evo.
A little bit of brake helps bring it around as well.
But I'm surprised at how much I enjoy its neutrality.
I keep coming back to how fast it is, though.
This power tranny is just--
immense.
It's so immense.
It feels like a special car.
And it's fast.
And the more I drive it, the more I like this quite sort of
hard-edged, 4-cylinder noise.
And the exhaust fan tops, I really like those.
Steering?
Hmm.
They've done a great job here.
We've got really nice weighting.
I'm enjoying it.
In fact, I prefer the controls to this car much more than I
do the BMW's.
I think the brake pedal and the steering especially really
do give you a confidence that in the BMW you haven't got.
Of course, if you spend a bit more time in the BMW, it comes
to meet you.
Let's go and have a go in that one.
[ENGINE ROARING]
It can be so interesting, but also so dangerous to jump from
a car like the A45 straight into the 135i, because
initially, the car feels very, very numb.
The steering wheel feels too big and squishy.
The brake pedal feels like it's not responsive.
The whole car feels quite loose and lazy in a way that
the Mercedes doesn't.
And then you spend a bit of time in this car-- just do
three or four laps of Landau-- and suddenly, you realize that
you have to work with it a little bit.
It's rear-wheel drive.
It doesn't want to attack the apex in quite the same manner.
The steering, yes, it is strange because it's so fast.
But you adapt to the speed of the steering.
And then suddenly, you feel like you can place the car
exactly where you wants to.
And then you turn the traction control off, and you realize
that BMW have always been onto something with this rear-wheel
drive lark.
The engine-- ho, ho, ho, ho.
It's a bit of a kind of baby super car in some respects.
Because this, to me, feels like a monumental powertrain
wedged into this slightly gawky body.
And all the time, the engine dominates, this incredible
noise you're hearing, the induction noise.
It's just fantastic.
And it revs out.
It just loves to rev. It doesn't actually go as well as
the Mercedes at the very top end.
But you kind of hang on to this just to enjoy the noise.
Brake pedal, even when you get used to it, doesn't have that
massive reassurance the AMG does.
So, yeah, in some respects, this doesn't feel like the
pucker performance product.
And in fairness, it isn't, is it?
Because it's not an M-car.
It's an M135i, whereas the AMG is a full AMG-spec car.
Grip?
Well, it's interesting.
We're on Michelin Pilot Super Sports on this car, whereas
that just on Pilot 3's, that A45 AMG.
So it should have a big advantage in
terms of lap time.
But it doesn't, even on normal surface the AMG is quicker
round this very technical little circuit.
There's just something to be said for being able to do
that, though, isn't there?
I'm always going to enjoy it.
I know it's not in any way relevant to the ownership
prospects of this M135i, because people don't go out
and do oversteer.
But on the road, I still love feeling that the rear end is
doing all the work.
But the A45 is going to have an enormous advantage in terms
of all-weather performance.
In the winter in the UK, that's the car you're going to
want to be in to be fast and safe.
But this is the car you want to be in to have fun.
Open differential, though.
I wish you could tick a box that said LSD, because even
though I can make it do things round here, I'm having to
excite the back of the car a bit more than
perhaps I'd like to.
I love the noise.
I love the package.
I love the vocabulary of this new style of hot hatchback.
It's a totally new thing, isn't it?
You get in it and the power trains of both cars are so
impressive, you just stick them in drive and off you go.
And then you just pull a couple of paddles.
Strangely, I feel less robbed in a car like this by not
having manual gearbox than I do in something like a GT3.
It seems to suit the immediacy, the lovely clever
packaging of a car of this type.
Maybe I'm being too kind on this type of car, but wow.
The performance available--
mind-blowing.
So what do they do in a straight line?
The 135 does 60 in 4.5 seconds and 100 in an
impressive 10.9 seconds.
But the AMG is on another level altogether.
4.2 seconds to 60 in a hatchback and 10 dead to 100.
That is nuts.
Lap times were set at a completely dry track.
Remember, the BMW has the distinct advantage of a set of
sticky Michelin Super Sport tires, and it managed a 47.7.
The A45, using normal rubber, went even quicker, I'm afraid.
It did a 47.5, leaving us with the question, what would it do
on cup tires?
This is very hard to call.
The 135 remains the bargain of 2013, so long as you go easy
with the options, have the autobox and the adaptive
dampers, leave the rest.
But the A45 drives with real precision.
It's so fast, so usable.
And even though it doesn't look quite special enough,
it's a lovely little object.
If I had the extra cash, I'd take the AMG.
If I didn't, I'd drive around in an M135i, smug that I had
so much for so little.
[SQUEALING TIRES]