They say design makes a luxury car these days. In the case of the AMG brand, Mercedes has to figure out how to set the A35 hot hatch apart from its A45 hyper hatch relative. After all, one probably costs at least €15,000 less than the other.
And wouldn't you know it, both cars in the same video? Not side by, of course, that would be way too convenient. But we can still make our the differences.
As expected, the new Mercedes-AMG range is helping us figure things out. The A35 is an entry-level model, so it gets the same kind of grille as the CLS 53. Two horizontal chrome bars fill the middle of the grille. The side air intakes are mostly fake, but a small portions channel air around the body.
Previous spy videos showed the exhaust too. You'll get two round pipes in the middle of oval bumper sections. Check it out!
While we initially put the car at around 300 horsepower, recent reports suggest it's closer to 335 HP. There's a good chance that both cars will have an EQ Boost system.
Of course, Mercedes won't put the good stuff on the baby AMG, not when they're also working on a high-string A45 replacement with 400 horsepower or more.
As you can see from the video, the more powerful model is the only A-Class to have a Panamericana grille design, which sticks out further. Also, it will feature more aggressive intakes, a diffuser and trunk lid spoiler. Four perfectly round exhaust tips remind us of the Golf R and Audi S3.
Somehow, it doesn't look as exciting as the original 360 HP monster was back in 2013. This could be down to it being an early prototype, but Mercedes has dropped the ball when it comes to aggressive design. Who knows, maybe BMW will mess its 1 Series up too, and everything will be alright.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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