SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

My most recent drive is on the home page. Archived reviews and opinion pieces are in the active menu down the left side. Hover your cursor over a heading or manufacturer's name and follow the drop-down.


Conflicting needs duke it out in the 2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA45 AMG

I want to need it?

Posted: 4 October 2015

Engine builder's signature pic by author

The numbers
Base price: R790 535 including CO2 tax
Engine: 1991 cc, 16-valve, four-cylinder turbo petrol
Powertrain: On-demand awd with fwd bias
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)
Real life fuel consumption: About 10.2 l/100 km
Tank: 56 litres
Luggage: 421 – 836 litres
Warranty and maintenance: 6 years / 100 000 km

About a year ago we accepted the idea that we’d never get a GLA45 AMG for home trial. Too quick, they said. Journalists are irresponsible cowboys, they said. It’s a barely street-legal race car, they said. But then “they” relented and released a few anyway. We gave you dirt and track impressions in our launch report last November, so here’s the civilian review.

Our test unit was painted Orient Brown; an odd colour that’s almost black while the sky wears its thunderous cloak, but an attractive glistery, dark bronzey colour when the sun smiles down on it. It was loaded with R130 400-worth of extras; some fun, some useful and others that were just there because you can have ‘em if you want ‘em.

Useful kit included Distronic Plus that automatically maintains a safe distance from the vehicle in front by braking when necessary and accelerating again when possible, lane tracking, and the Comand online navigation and connectivity package. Appearance items consisted of 20” AMG wheels with 40-profile tyres to replace the original 19-inch and 45-profile versions, AMG Exclusive and Night packages, and an AMG roof spoiler.

Take it-or leave-it stuff included a panoramic sunroof and Mercedes-typical electrically adjustable chairs with memory. But die-hard fans will demand the ultimate; Recaro-AMG performance seats (item 555) at R19 500.

More to the point, seeing you’re laying out R790 535 on the basic car anyway, might be items U 21, the R7500 performance exhaust system and 492, the Performance Chassis at R9500.

To put these in perspective, the exhaust system does not “free flow,” lose a chamber or make the car go faster. It simply retunes the sonic sound effects and adds wicked little rasps and barks to accompany the rhythmic pulsations of your right foot. Similarly, the suspension upgrade does not add, isolate, realign or subtract anything – it’s just stiffer – but it does make handling that little bit flatter, tighter and more predictable.

Let’s understand a few things. Ninety-nine percent of car enthusiasts will listen politely as you tell them about the mouth-watering numbers; 265 kilowatts, 450 Newton metres, zero to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds, electronically governed to 250 clicks. And the sights, sensations and sounds that make it special. Then they’ll ask about fuel economy.

You can quote, straight-faced, the manufacturer’s lab-test average of 7.5 litres per hundred. Some will look disappointed because they’d somehow expected it to return the same figure their grandmother’s little shopping cart does. Or you could tell them what you get in real life with traffic, hills, weather and whatever else. Fact is, this is a car with power; that’s not only there to be enjoyed but takes fuel to unleash.

We averaged 10.2 l/100 km over a week's-worth of city, freeway and country roads – some a little wild, but mostly quite tame. If, after seeking out this car in order to use the bulked-up muscle available, you still quibble about fuel economy, we suggest that your expectations may need remapping.

It was brilliant to drive with the 7G-DCT gearbox always in total control – providing the right ratio quicker than you could choose it yourself - yet allowing the option of full manual intervention during your manic moments. The suspension wasn’t unduly harsh despite being built for performance – it soaked up some fairly big speed humps without rattling our fillings. And the sound effects were addictive.

Our only misgivings concerned some ergonomic details. The back seat area, although roomier than in the CLA, was still too confined for this tester's comfort. We also feel that its overwhelming black-on-black ambience, with dazzling array of control buttons and knobs, is too much like Grandpa’s idea of what a Mercedes should be. A Gen-Xer’s car needs a Gen-Z interface. Our final concern is about the brake pedal. It’s too wide. Big feet in running shoes or beach sandals get tangled between brake and accelerator.

Mercedes-Benz placed the R-N-D gear paddle, with tab selector for P, on the central console where it belongs, so that was okay. Manual gear changing is done with regular steering wheel winglets. The tab for the electrically powered parking brake is on the lower dash next to the steering column. It neither sets nor releases itself.

For buyers with families, the boot opens and closes automatically to reveal a useable rectangular space with a light, four lashing rings and a first aid kit behind a panel on the left wall. The lip is about 70 cm above ground level and it’s only 11 cm deep. The cavity under the floor board hides the owner’s manual, triangle, tools and hi-fi amplifier. There's no spare; Mercedes fits runflats across all sedan ranges.

Much as we enjoyed our time with the GLA45 AMG, we aren’t sure we could live with one as full time daily transport. It’s too intense, too much of a racecar in civilian guise, too (dare we say it?) noisy and it seems to have lost sight of its original vision - that of being a young persons' SUV.  Further, its "A"-Class twin is significantly cheaper, looks like essentially the same thing, specification-wise, and is two-tenths of a second quicker.

It becomes a question of: “Do I need this, or do I want to need it?” so unless you simply must have the fastest two-litre crossover on the block and don’t mind what it costs to get it, you could probably find a more mainstream alternative.

Test car from MBSA press fleet

Our first drive in the GLA45 AMG is here
Our first drive in the GLA is here

Our review of the GLA 220 diesel is here

Our test car's engine was hand-built by Master Mechanic Dirk Reichmann

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 completely disagree with what I say? If you want advice or have a genuine concern, I will be happy to hear from you. All I ask is that you write something in the subject line so I know which vehicle you're talking about.