Let's get one thing straight right up front: Despite its model name,
the 2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA45 AMG--soon to be a Mercedes-AMG GLA45--is no
GL-like utility vehicle.
It may have all-wheel drive, but the high-performance sibling of the
far more common 2015 GLA250 model sits far closer to the ground, at 4.5
inches of ground clearance against the regular GLA's 8 inches. Chalk
that one up to U.S. regulatory tricks: with more ground clearance,
Mercedes can deem the GLA250 a "light truck" under various government
rules.
2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA 45 AMG, Vermont, Oct 2014
In
Europe the regular GLA rides closer to the ground than in North
America, but thankfully the in-house hot-rod team at AMG had no
intention of making their smallest-yet Mercedes into any kind of truck,
so they kept the European ride height. It's all to the good, and riding
on standard 19-inch wheels and tires, the compact five-door looks low,
purposeful, and beefy, just like any hot hatch should.
Wait, what?
2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA 45 AMG, Vermont, Oct 2014
Yes,
it turns out Mercedes has gone and built itself a hot hatch that
competes, dimensionally and performance-wise, with the old Subaru WRX
STI, the Mitsubishi Evo (OK, a sedan, but still), and the VW Golf R32.
Like any Mercedes, however, it's breathtakingly more expensive: The
starting price is $48,300--more than half again as much as the
GLA250--and you can easily kick that past the mid-$50Ks mark with
options, making the GLA45 AMG possibly the priciest hot hatch ever.
Mercedes says only 5 to 6 percent of the GLAs it sells in the U.S. will
be the AMG model.
At the drive event in Vermont last month, the company said it set out
to build "a Subaru WRX for grownups," presumably fairly wealthy ones.
And that's exactly what Mercedes has done. In fact, having driven the
latest 2015 Subaru WRX (though admittedly it wasn't an STI, and it's no
longer a hatchback), we'd say the GLA45 AMG is actually closer to the
raw character of the old one.
Driving
the GLA45 AMG is a distinctly different experience than the standard
GLA250, and--naturally--far more fun. As well as those 19-inch wheels
and tires, the suspension has been heavily retuned. But it's the engine
that really makes this car, a 355-horsepower turbocharged and
direct-injected 2.0-liter four that puts out 332 lb-ft of torque.
Compared to the 208-hp turbo four in the standard GLA, the AMG's
engine is heavily reworked. Most of the internals have been strengthened
and reinforced to allow it to put out what would have been race
car-like power levels just a few years ago. Although it’s not built at
Affalterbach--the traditional home of AMG, the performance sub-brand of
Mercedes--each GLA45 AMG engine is still assembled by a single worker at
the engine plant, and the finished item bears a plaque with his name on
it.
2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA 45 AMG, Vermont, Oct 2014
With
up to 26 psi of turbo boost, the GLA45 AMG starts out quick and gets a
lot quicker. Mercedes quotes a 0-to-60-mph time of just 4.8 seconds for
the 355-hp AMG engine.
Behind the wheel, the seats are better-bolstered and simply more
comfortable, though they're not meant for the broad of beam. Even the
thicker steering wheel has flattened top and bottom arcs to increase
cockpit space just a bit. The ride is significantly harder and harsher
than the standard GLA's, exacerbated by the very low-profile tires, but
this is not a car for those who care about ride quality.
2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA 45 AMG, Vermont, Oct 2014
In
our brief 90-minute drive through scenic rural Vermont, we blasted down
country lanes and stormed up hills feeling rather like world rally
drivers. While it's possible to drive the GLA45 AMG in a sedate,
around-town mode, it's not clear why anyone would.
While the shift lever has moved from a column stalk onto the console,
it's the paddle shifters behind the wheel that enable fast shifting,
especially on twisty roads. We relished the amplified exhaust burble on
every upshift, even while we found we could hang the tail out in the
esses of an uphill mountain road with surprisingly little effort.
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