A45 S v A35 Dragparison: Race, sound comparison, 1/4 mile, brake test & styling review Mercedes-AMG

G'day, I'm Paul. Behind me are two very yellow cars. That one over there has the world's most powerful series production four-cylinder engine ever created. And that one over there is $23,000 cheaper. We are, of course, talking about the Mercedes-AMG A45 S and the Mercedes-AMG A35. Today, I'm going to take you through a styling comparison, an exhaust sound check, acceleration test, drag race, and a brake test as well. If you don't want my amazing lesson, you can jump ahead to other parts of this review using the time codes up there, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and press on the links. And if you haven't done so already, I would love it if you could please subscribe to the channel and also hit the bell icon so we can tell you every time we drive a new yellow car, or red car, or any coloured car. Let's talk styling, and you're going to notice some massive differences when these cars are up close together. In the pictures, I didn't really notice much of a difference between the A45 and the A35, but you can see right here that this looks a whole lot meatier. It's like it's been working out at the gym and it's got big muscles. This still looks good, but it isn't quite as out there or as aggressive. So, have a look at this grille over here. This is what Mercedes-Benz calls the Panamericana grille. It's a 12-slat grille. It's used on more high-end Mercedes-Benz products like the AMG GT, and it wears that Mercedes-Benz emblem very proudly. And if you've seen our other videos, you'll know that that is there for some of the safety systems such as radar cruise control. Now what about the radiators? You'll see here in the A35 that they're completely closed off, those air vents. It only has a little bypass here that kicks out just in front of the wheel. This on the other hand has a radiator nestled in over here. There's no air bypasses there. The other side is completely blanked out. So they're the main differences down that lower end. Have a look at this bonnet. This uses what they call a power bump. Instead of being flat like it is on the A35, it's got a little chisel on it. This is kind of like another pectoral... I think that's an arm muscle. So it's kind of like an extra muscle you've got there. Then with the aero pack, you're getting these little extra bits here. It gives it a bit more of an aggressive look and lets people know that you mean business. This is my favourite part. Check out those wheel arches. They kick down 27mm wide on each side. The actual track, which is the width of these wheels apart from each other, is an extra 24mm compared to the A35. So this has a really chiselled look when you look at it from front on. You can see that pumped out compared to the A35. And you're also going to notice this. While the A35 gets pretty meaty looking brakes, this is the business end of the AMG set. This is a 6-piston caliper. It's a 360mm diameter rotor. They are some serious brakes for such a small car. Remember that this is marginally heavier than the outgoing A45. So it needs a big set of stoppers to make sure it pulls up in time. Right, let's have a look at the back styling. But before we get there, the tyres. 245mm wide on the A45. 235mm wide on the A35. So you're getting a little bit of extra traction here for that all-wheel drive system. The styling around the back continues for that aero package. You're getting this big wing on the rear, the lower diffuser, and that's on both cars. You can get these cars without the aero package. This also has the Edition 1 pack. So you're getting the decals on the side. What about the interiors? Well, they're actually pretty similar. So you're not really losing out on much if you go the A35. You still get that awesome-looking steering wheel, which has the LCD switch for the drive modes. The Edition 1 also picks up pinstriping inside, stitching, and then there's decal on the dashboard as well, and edition on the steering wheel. So what about exhaust sound? Let's start here with the A35. Fire it up, Scott. Give it a rev. Sounds okay, but it's not making an absolute racket like you'd expect from an AMG car. So what about the A45? Two more exhausts. Is it louder? Scott, fire it up. Not quite. Like, it is louder, but it's not cracking and popping like I was expecting it to. And by the way, we have warmed up both cars, so they are running warm. So it is a little bit disappointing that we're not hearing more emotion from them from standstill. There is one secret here, though, and it's called Emotion Start. So when you're turning the car on, you hold one of the paddles and then switch it on, and it makes this sound here. It does a little bit of a burble. So if you're in an underground car park, at least people are going to hear that you're driving the 45S. Okay, acceleration. First up, let's see how quick the A35 is. We've rolled up to the drag strip. I've got the V-Box running. Launch control is pretty easy to do. Just foot on the brake, foot on the throttle. It comes up saying race start, release brake to start. Flashing lights. Here we go. Oh, that feels quick. All right. There's 100 kph. Whoa, felt really quick. What are we? 4.8 seconds. Okay, that is pretty impressive there. It backfires a little bit for the A35 AMG. Okay, we're in the A45S now, but just for fun, I'm going to do 0 to 100 here without launch control, just so we can see how quick it is. So I'm in Sport. I'll put it in Sport Plus. I'm just going to hit the throttle and we'll see what happens. Here we go. Oh, that feels slow. There's 100 there. Five seconds dead. That's interesting. So unless you use launch control, this is actually a little bit slower than the A35 with launch control. Okay, time to do this again, this time with launch control. Got it in Sport Plus. Foot on the brake and the throttle. That'll activate it and then we let go. There it is. Here we go. Oh, man. Oh, it's spitting the wheels. It was just doing a four-wheel drive burnout. Holy crap, that is quick. Okay, so 4.1 seconds, but I think there's actually more in it. I'm not even kidding you. We hit second there and then it started squirming a little bit. This thing is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Okay, we're going to do this again with launch control, except this time I'm going to put this into Sport Handling Mode, which will limit stability control. I reckon there's a bit more in this, so let's give that a shot. That's all set up. Here we go. Oh, man. It's squirming. Oh, man, there's 100. That is bloody quick. Okay, that time around, 4.1 seconds. So we're not able to get any lower than that, either with or without traction control, but I can definitely feel the wheels spinning as it flicks through those gears. That is how much power and torque this engine has. Okay, it is time for us to drag race the A45S against the A35. Pretty confident this one is going to win, but I could stand corrected, so we'll see how we go. So in the car next to me, I have Scott, my colleague. He's going to jet off at the same time. We're going to use launch control in both cars, and we're going to go over a quarter mile, and then Eagle, the video man, is going to stop it at 100 k's an hour so you can see which one is quicker at that point. And then once again, we will reconvene at the end of the quarter mile, and we'll see what happens. You ready, Scott? Let's do it. Three, two, one, go. All right. This thing is unbelievably quick. Okay, we're about halfway through. 160 k's an hour, 170, and bang, there's the quarter mile. Man, this thing is absolutely astonishingly quick. Okay, 12.2 second quarter mile at 185.9 k's an hour. Scott, how'd you go? What was your quarter mile time? That was a 13.3 at 168.8 k's an hour. Okay, so this is over a second quicker over the quarter mile, which is bloody impressive, and then zero to 100 in four seconds dead flat. That is some seriously impressive stuff from this car. I love the way it hooks up and then the way it scrambles to get going. It is an absolute missile. Okay, next test, stopping from 100 to zero. Let's give this a shot. So we'll accelerate up to 100 now, and then we're going to slam the brakes on. Here we go, getting up to 100. There's 100 right there. Ready, set. Just stopped behind him there. Maybe a metre or so, which is pretty impressive, I reckon. Okay, so stopping from 100 k's an hour, the A45 did it in 36.1 metres. The A35 did it in 37 and a half. So almost a metre and a half difference between these two. That's going to come down to tyres and also the bigger brakes on this car. So there it is, A45 SV, A35. A little comparison to give you an idea of how fast they are. Are you going to save yourself 23 grand and get the A35, or are you going to get the muscles out and do some flexing and go straight for the A45S? Let me know in the comments below. Also, let me know, have you bought either of these? What colour did you go for? And do you reckon the Edition 1 is worth the extra money? If you haven't done so already, please hit like on the video if you found it useful, and subscribe to our channel. Press the bell icon as well so we can keep bringing you these fun comparisons. Until next time, take it easy.