According to William H. Land, the most important thing about power is making sure you don?t have to use it. But when there is so much of it on offer, can you really resist" We spent a week with the Mercedes-AMG A45 to test our resolve.
Question. What?s bright red, has 376hp and does 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds" If your answer was a Ferrari F355, you?d be wrong, as the Maranello machine actually takes 4.7 seconds to hit 62mph. Yes, welcome to 2016, where you can buy a family hatchback with greater performance than a 1990s mid-engined supercar. But one with the benefits of better fuel economy, lower emissions, and far greater practicality ? such is the pace of development in the past two decades. The A45 is the apex predator in the evolutionary process, as the most well-endowed mega hatch on sale at present.That adds a big chunk of gravitas, and expectation, that the A45 needs to live up to. For Mercedes this needs to be the gateway drug to AMG ownership ? it?s selling a lifestyle choice just as much as it?s selling a car here. The first part of that sales pitch is making it look distinctive and, despite the number of AMG-kitted lesser A-Class models on the road, the A45 manages to look genuinely tough. In Jupiter Red, adorned with the optional AMG Aerodynamic Package, our test car was anything but subtle. It also had the aural bark to match the visual bite, courtesy of the performance exhaust system. It?s loud ? properly loud ? and perhaps not an option to pick if you?r...