What's new?
Mercedes-AMG has revealed its new baby AMG saloon, the four-door version of the A 35 4Matic. It's pretty much identical to the hatchback except for, you know, a boot lid and three-box profile.
Tasty, what's new in the design?
In standard guise, the new A 35 Saloon could slip by unnoticed if finished in a subtle paint colour such as that pictured, though we anoraks know what to look for. Up front, there's the AMG-branded double-louvre radiator grille and deeper apron with specific detailing for the A 35. The standard wheels are 18-inch items, too, though we'd expect many to upgrade to the 19-inch rims shown here. The rear end gives the game away with a slip of a boot spoiler and a new bumper styled to look like a diffuser, with a large round exhaust outlet on each side. Buyers can ramp up the A 35's presence by paying extra for the Aerodynamics Package or Night Package.
Ok, and inside?
Red and black is the standard colour scheme for an AMG interior and it's present and correct in the A 35 Saloon, depending on how you specify it of course. There's leather (ok, man-made leather, called Artico) and Dinamica (man-made suede) upholstery, red seat belts and even red air vents if you so desire. Thankfully, your gaze will be averted from them by the impressive-looking widescreen MBUX dashboard. It comes with three AMG-specific instrument styles and lots of extra driving information, too, plus the option of AMG Track Pace, described as a 'virtual race engineer' for track use that records some 80 different pieces of data and can display it in real time in comparison to previous laps. The MBUX Augmented Reality feature can even show the ideal line around stored tracks.
That's a busy looking steering wheel...
The wheel in the pictures is the optional AMG Performance item. It's flat-bottomed like the regular wheel, which also gets the fab thumbpads on the spokes and the gearchange paddles behind, but the upgraded wheel has extra controls. On the right is a rotary switch to quickly access the drive modes (Slippery, Comfort, Sport, Sport+ or Individual). In the middle of that is a small screen showing the selected setting. Meanwhile the two extra buttons under the left spoke of the wheel are configurable by the driver - and they also get dainty little black screens to display the selected function.
Remind us what's under the bonnet.
That would be a turbocharged four-cylinder engine of 2.0-litre capacity. Peak power is 306hp at 5,800rpm, while maximum torque of 400Nm is on tap between 3,000rpm and 4,000rpm. AMG's seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox is standard, as is 4Matic four-wheel drive. This is a variable system, though a maximum of 50 per cent of the engine output can be sent to the rear wheels (and up to 100 per cent to the front). Thanks to that traction, however, the A 35 Saloon can put in a 0-62mph time of just 4.8 seconds - on its way to a limited 155mph.
Shane O' Donoghue - 26 Mar 2019
