AMG's New "Mini" Weapon...A45

[Micks]

There quick but very ugly!

[Drizt]

I like the front, but the back is pretty meh.

[Wonky]

Actually, I don't mind the look.

[mjrandom]

There was one on display at Natita terminal last week. It didn't look too bad though I didn't take that much notice because we usually don't get the goodies. Looked a bit "don't **** with me".

[185iboy]

I spent some time in a regular A-something in Stuttgart in Jan. Comfy place to sit in there but it feels a bit claustrophobic the way the roof comes over you. You can't see a lot out of the small windows. You don't need to be small to drive it though..shame the rears ugly as hell.

[Pickles]

Saw an A250 for the 1st time in the flesh last week. Wifey has booked a test drive in an A250 this afternoon, but that is not what she's after...she is after the A45 which is in another world in all respects. Still, the A250 will give her a bit of an idea of interior room/vision etc......but it's light years away from 360HP, 450NM, & AWD!
We were talking to a salesman at a relatively small M.B. Dealership, where 14 orders (with deposits) have already been received for the A45....he said that by the time the little beast is released (end of the year?), the waiting time for delivery could be up to two years! Not keen on that at all. I remember a couple of years ago we were looking at a Golf R, & the wait for that car was 1 year.
Still haven't seen anything official on pricing....a mate said he'd heard $76990, but with a long option list, that doesn't mean much at all.
Cheers, Pickles.

[Hi Octane]

It looks like a nike spec running shoe.

[vyssbeast]

That pricing makes sense as i was reading an article about the top of the range A250 being quoted around the 55K mark so i wouldn't expect the AMG to warrant more than 10-15K on top so with options that 76k figure sounds pretty accurate.

Saw an A250 for the 1st time in the flesh last week. Wifey has booked a test drive in an A250 this afternoon, but that is not what she's after...she is after the A45 which is in another world in all respects. Still, the A250 will give her a bit of an idea of interior room/vision etc......but it's light years away from 360HP, 450NM, & AWD!
We were talking to a salesman at a relatively small M.B. Dealership, where 14 orders (with deposits) have already been received for the A45....he said that by the time the little beast is released (end of the year?), the waiting time for delivery could be up to two years! Not keen on that at all. I remember a couple of years ago we were looking at a Golf R, & the wait for that car was 1 year.
Still haven't seen anything official on pricing....a mate said he'd heard $76990, but with a long option list, that doesn't mean much at all.
Cheers, Pickles.

[Pickles]

Examined the A250, & wifey drove it.....nice car, but underwhelming to what we were expecting. Not saying that it wasn't better than our Astra SRI 2.2L Hatch, but not greatly so, so we wouldn't buy an A250 over what we have now.
But, like I've said, the A45 is expected to be a completely different animal, so we'll rest our case until we can assess it, which is expected to be in the 3rd quarter.....the word is that there will be one at the Melbourne Motor Show (in June?).
Cheers, Pickles.

[Micks]

Examined the A250, & wifey drove it.....nice car, but underwhelming to what we were expecting. Not saying that it wasn't better than our Astra SRI 2.2L Hatch, but not greatly so, so we wouldn't buy an A250 over what we have now.
But, like I've said, the A45 is expected to be a completely different animal, so we'll rest our case until we can assess it, which is expected to be in the 3rd quarter.....the word is that there will be one at the Melbourne Motor Show (in June?).
Cheers, Pickles.

Said exactly the same to mine last night as well! Whaddya know great minds!

[Marco]

A250 came last in a hot hatch compare in this month's Wheels - Megane, Astra OPC and Golf GTI all superior (in that order).

[Pickles]

A250 came last in a hot hatch compare in this month's Wheels - Megane, Astra OPC and Golf GTI all superior (in that order).

Yeah, well refer my above post.....I've got the magazine, but haven't read the article yet, but based on yesterday's experience, I'm not surprised.
Dealer says A45 is $75K & O.R.C........plus "extras".......no details on optional "extras" yet......I would expect it to be LOTS better than the A250.
Cheers, Pickles.

[idiotsavant]

one would hope amg might not follow in the rs3's footprints, although given there seems to be a market for impossibly quick but numb hatchbacks, who knows. in the UK the new awd e63 is getting very strong reviews (and dips below 4 sec for 0-100) even back to back with the rear drive model. maybe some of these positive dynamics will transfer to the a45.

[Vulture]

Just put a deposit on one of these (the sedan version, the CLA45 AMG). Will let you guys know when more details emerge on them as not all that much is known about exact specs and options etc. Think it is going to an absolute weapon. Alternative for me is a VF HSV (A very different beast, of course, being a much bigger car) but I'm reaching the stage where I am after a little more refinement in something fast that doesn't chew through fuel and needs mods to be genuinely quick in all conditions. I think this thing will offer that, plus it will probably be tunable, how much extra power could be expected is debatable given that it seems wound up pretty high already given its outputs from just 2.0L. If guys like me are tempted by the little Merc are HSV in trouble? I'll reserve my final decision until I see the new HSVs, however. I'm certain demand for the CLA45 AMG is going to be high and resale likely reasonable. Why HSV don't offer some sort of guaranteed value/buyback I will never know.

[Vulture]

A250 came last in a hot hatch compare in this month's Wheels - Megane, Astra OPC and Golf GTI all superior (in that order).

The CLA45 AMG is in a *whole* other ballpark to the A250 and those others, with AWD, 265KW and 450nm...(at 2250rpm)