There’s no doubt that the Mercedes-AMG A45 is going to beat its smaller brother, the A35, on a drag race any day of the week and twice on Sundays. The point here is to see if the range-topping A-Class can justify its significant price premium over the next best thing.
Mercedes will charge 8,200 euros more ($10,000 in current exchange rates) for an AMG A45 over the A35 in Germany (55,650 euros over the A35’s 47,432 euros) and that will arguably get you one of the quickest and most well-rounded hyper hatches in the market – and one of the most expensive, too.
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The price gap is of course even bigger when you compare the AMG A35 to the A45 S, with the difference between them being 13,670 euros ($16,670). You could buy a small city car for that in Germany.
The more affordable Mercedes-AMG A35 comes with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that pumps out 301 HP (306 PS) and 295 lb-ft (400 Nm) of torque, sent to all four wheels via a seven-speed DCT gearbox. 0-62 mph (100 km/h) comes in a very respectable 4.7 seconds while top speed is limited to 155 mph (250 km/h).
However, the changes between the A35 and the A45 S are not limited to a simple power increase and a slightly stiffer suspension setup. AMG has further reinforced the body shell of the A45 with extra plates, braces and diagonal struts, while the all-wheel-drive system features their trick Torque Control System that also has a Drift mode.
In addition, the Mercedes-AMG A45 S comes with a hand-built turbocharged 2.0-liter engine that puts out 415 HP (421 PS) and 368 lb-ft (500 Nm) of torque and is paired to an eight-speed DCT gearbox. Mercedes claims that the AMG A45 S is capable of a 0-62 mph (100 km/h) in just 3.9 seconds, before topping out at an electronically limited 167 mph (270 km/h).
If the numbers don’t paint a clear enough picture to you, then Carwow is going to show you why the AMG A45 S is so much more expensive over the A35.