SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get at home.

Unlike most car reports, what you read in these pages will not be a faithful reproduction, albeit slightly reworded, of what appeared in the manufacturer's press release. We look for background material, user experience and whatever else we can find that's beyond the obvious. Our guiding rule is that you will be able to tell that the car was actually driven.

*To read one of our archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.

*Pre-owned: Our tests go back quite a few years, so if you are looking for something pre-owned, you might well find a report on it in here.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted are those ruling at the time the reports were written.


This is a launch report. In other words, it's simply a new model announcement. The driving experience was limited to a short drive over a prepared course chosen to make the product look good. We can therefore not tell you what it will be like to live with over an extended period, how economical it is, or how reliable it will be. A very brief first impression is all we can give you until such time as we get an actual test unit for trial. Thank you for your patience.


We do track and trail time with the 2014 Mercedes-Benz GLA A45 AMG 4Matic

Feel the music

Posted 11 September 2014

AMG 45: The most powerful series-production, four-cylinder, internal combustion engine known to mankind. Put differently, it might be seen as the embodiment of every young man’s most primal fantasy - or possibly the perceived ticket to getting there.

Whatever the case, this M133 twin-scroll turbocharged, two-litre engine pumps out 265 kilowatts and 450 Newton-metres. That translates to a power density (fancy talk for units of power per litre) of 133 kW which is pretty potent. When your pop was a pup, the Holy Grail was 100 BHP per litre. That’s a mere 75 kW; in other words, rather boring. Putting it in perspective, the AMG-GLA rockets to 100 km/h in 4,8 seconds, although the presumably lighter A45 does it in 4,6. That was Aston-Martin territory five years ago.

Like its two A-sisters, GLA 45 uses the proven combination of 4Matic all-wheel drive and Speedshift DCT-7 transmission to deal out gears and keep the power distributed equitably. And like its sizzling siblings, GLA-AMG serves a particular niche in a market for youthful, but thinly disguised, track weapons intended for road use. This one is the pocket SUV with aggritude.

To show that the car can cross over to the rough edges of your average camping site without embarrassing itself, the M-B off-road team dug some holes out in the bush surrounding the old Roy Hesketh track in Pietermaritzburg, scooped out a steep-sided embankment then led us through the course. Despite some rather interesting cross-axle antics with two wheels off the ground and a slope that made occupants lean instinctively toward the high side, everyone got through without hanging up or falling over. The trail organisers put it like this: “It isn’t intended as a substitute for your GL but it is decently capable.”

With dust still falling off the sidewalls, it was a case of changing settings to every Sport mode one could find, then waiting for a gap in traffic and hitting the track. This is where the GLA 45 AMG truly belongs. Race-bred sport suspension, much too harsh for camping sites, is right at home on smooth(ish) asphalt. Closed for competitive racing because of the noise factor and its tyre-eating surface, the shortened Roy Hesketh circuit now serves as a venue for functions and for launches such as this.

It’s reasonably tight and “interesting” but to dampen undue enthusiasm, chicanes were introduced before the three major bends. Said enthusiasm is also the reason no road test vehicles have been allocated for press fleets; most people’s egos exceed actual talent. Besides that, other manufacturers have learned the same expensive lesson in years gone by.

It’s unfortunate because we won’t be able to give you a balanced view of what it’s like to live with for a while, check out the various “road” settings, see how economical one might expect it to be in real life or how it behaves in the (mostly) urban environment. Oh, well.

Duly reined in, everyone put in a few laps within his or her personal capabilities but, fast or not, it was all about sensations. The speed, the tunnel vision, the gut-clenching G-forces as the car hung on beyond limits of commonsense and the giant fists that clamp around it to haul off speed as you brake for the orange cones at the ends of each straightaway; all of these boggle. But more than that, it’s the music.

There is a sound box, there is a special flap in the exhaust system and the gearbox is set up to do something sexy and technical, but that double-tap of raucous exhaust note accompanying each enthusiastic change is more than just beautiful noise. You feel it; in your mind, in your ears and in the way it thumps your chest bone like a crashing blow from a big right hand. You have to be there; either inside the car or standing within 50 metres or so.

It’s not only extremes. It’s also built to be safe with ESP, ABS brakes with EBA, acceleration skid control, seven airbags, hill start assist, flashing adaptive brake lights, headlamp assist, tyre pressure monitoring, attention assist, five belts with tensioners and force limiters, pre-safe and collision prevention assistance.

But the basics have to be right too. AMG sports suspension (McPherson/multilink) with stiffer fittings, rigid connections and improved elastokinematics, specially tuned spring and damper units and bigger anti-roll bars plays its part. But if you want more, an AMG performance suspension setup with firmer springs and damping is available optionally. To put a stop to it all, vented and cross-drilled disc brakes serve both ends.

Inside, sports seats upholstered in Artico artificial leather and Dynamica microfibre, an abundance of red stitching, red seat belts, multifunction three-spoke nappa leather wheel with flattened bottom section, shift paddles, special instruments including a race timer, and brushed metal trim provide the essential AMG ambience.

But don’t let me bore you - to find out more and to experience the car interactively, go to:     www.mercedes-amg.com/webspecial/gla45

Information gathered at a manufacturer-sponsored press event

The numbers
Price: R745 743 including CO2 tax
Engine: 1991 cc, 16-valve, four-cylinder, turbo petrol
Power: 265 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 450 Nm between 2250 and 5000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 4,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 250 km/h (governed)
Average fuel consumption (claimed): 7,5 l/100 km
Tank: 56 litres including 8 reserve
Luggage space: 421-836 litres
Warranty/maintenance plan: On request

Our "street" review of the GLA45 AMG 4Matic is here

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously.