2021 Mercedes AMG GLA 45 S 4Matic+ REVIEW by AutoTopNL

As I step into the A45 AMG and adjust my seat to accommodate the aggressive sport seats, I can feel the tension building up inside me. The seat belt is stiff, hitting me with each movement, but I'm not here to enjoy a relaxing drive. I'm in race mode, and I need to push this car to its limits.

I turn on the ESP and switch it to Sport Mode, feeling a surge of adrenaline as the car comes alive under my feet. The four-mag plus system kicks in, providing a unique driving experience that's both exhilarating and intimidating. As I hit the accelerator, the rear wheels start to rotate, giving me a taste of the power that this AMG is capable of. But it's not just about raw speed; the front axle claws onto the road, ensuring that the car doesn't oversteer or understeer.

The A45 GLA weighs 140 kilos more than its A-Class counterpart, and it shows in its performance. The A45 is a formidable force on the road, but this heavier variant feels noticeably less agile. Still, it's a far cry from being slow, and I find myself accelerating with ease through the corners. The exhaust notes are music to my ears, but unfortunately, due to EU regulations, they're somewhat muted.

As I continue to drive, I appreciate the precision of this car. It's designed for performance, not just speed. I can feel the engine pulling me forward, its aggression evident in every gear shift. But this is also a reminder that this car needs to be driven carefully; it's not as forgiving as some other models.

I take a glance at the AMG configurator and see that the A45 and CLA 45 have been dubbed "drift modes" for older drivers, but these cars have since ditched drift mode. I don't think this is a problem for enthusiasts like myself; we're not here for convenience or comfort, but for raw driving pleasure.

As I accelerate out of the corner, I'm struck by the sheer force of this engine. With 2.1 bars of turbo pressure, it's an incredible force that makes every gear shift feel like a revelation. When I drive aggressively, the car responds eagerly, but in more subdued conditions, I can sense the nervousness of the drive train. It needs to change gears frequently and has a tendency to surge forward.

But this is where the A45 shines; when driven with passion, it's a force to be reckoned with. The suspension does its job admirably on this wet road, smoothing out the ride as I hit every bump. Even though it wasn't able to hit its claimed 0-100 km/h time of 4.3 seconds, I'm impressed by its acceleration and responsiveness.

I switch to Non-Sport Mode for a moment, feeling the familiar thrill of launching from standstill with just enough braking to initiate launch control. The car takes off like a shot, accelerating swiftly as the rear wheels hit the road. When it shifts gears, the sound is almost musical – I prefer interior sounds in cars, where they can be more immersive.

In contrast to its predecessor, the A45 has undergone significant changes; it's now designed for drivers rather than just being loud and flashy. The GLB X would have been an excellent option with this engine, as I found myself loving that car immensely. However, I still can't shake off the feeling that the A45 is somewhat stuck between its sporty ambitions and its SUV-like personality.

As I bring the car to a stop after my test drive, I realize that this car's identity crisis is both its strength and weakness. It doesn't excel in one area or another; it's always working on something else. But what does excite me about this A45 AMG is how much fun it can be when pushed hard – even if I wouldn't take it for a daily driver.

But the weather gods have other plans, and I'm left with no choice but to go back inside and review my autobahn footage instead. I did get to test the car's top speed recently, and let me tell you, it's an incredible feeling – but that'll have to wait for another article.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the amg for the elderly because look at that massive turbo right there fake carbon fiber and the fakest of fake carbon fiber here we go what's up guys welcome to this pov review by auto top and l my name is martin and today i'm taking a look at this all new mercedes amg gla 45s 4matic plus are you still with me i'm glad okay this is the amg for the elderly because hey this is the third 45 s of the new gen we had the a45 the cla-45 and this gla-45 is the latest edition these are like brothers because the a45 is like i'm the sporty brother and i'm the fastest and cla is like i'm the the handsome brother that goes to business school and this is the somewhat boring fat brother i think what's the purpose of this car that's for me to find out today okay so yes it's a bit more spacious it's more high up it's better suited for children as you can see rear space is not that bad actually can we fit some stuff in there yes we can we've got a trunk we've got our tripod all good so far so yeah it does offer a bit more space and practicality than it's to sportier brothers um so let's talk about the recipe the gla it's let's be honest the gla is for people who have always liked mercedes now have a bit of money maybe have stopped working and have some money to spend and these people are the ones that go for the gla now this amg version is that for the same kind of people um i'm not too sure maybe this is for like young families with a sporty dad but hey you could also go for the cla shooting brake 45s because it offers that practicality as well i don't think it looks cool or funky or aggressive it's a bit of a letdown to me because the previous the previous gla 4g5 i actually quite liked you see them driving around with that big ass wrc spoiler um you can get that spoiler for this car as well but hey mercedes decided not to fit it on this demo car but i'll show you what it looks like let's have a look at those wheels because these are can you believe it 21 inch wheels on a gla amg wheels massive brake set behind that amg calipers in red thankfully they decided not to put a fake centerlock cap on here oh man they are starting to listen at amg thankfully now let's have a look at the engine because that's something really really special the most powerful four-cylinder engine in the world in this gla now look at that massive turbo right there this is the m139 two liter turbo now this is a full-blown amg engine built in a falter bark it's actually hand crafted by stefan heikenvelder now stefan has done a great job because if you go for one of the 35 amg's that's not an amg engine that's a 250 that has been tuned a bit by amg so reason enough to go for this because this is quite special the gla 45 has 387 horsepower and 480 newton meters from a two liter turbo can you believe it i mean the previous one had 360 horsepower at launch then it got 381 at the update and now we're at 389 but this is the s version and then you get even more power 421 horsepower and that's because that turbo in non aspect is doing 1.9 bars which is absolutely insanely high for a stock engine but the s version 2.1 bars that thing is running at 2.1 bars that's an insane amount of boost for this engine it does come with the with its downsides but we'll talk about that with the driving let's close this up and let me know guys what do you think about this gla 45 do you like the inconspicuous look or do you think it should have been a bit more muscular by the way if you like cool stuff like this amg go check out ignitioncollection.com for some awesome limited edition swiss made watches and they are much more affordable than you think use code auto top and l for a 10 discount okay let's get in and let's have a look at the interior now we've got a beautiful amg steering wheel i mean this thing let me start it up looks awesome just have a look at those aluminium accents this mandatino right here can't call it that you can switch to all between all the different driving modes and if you push it you go to individual mode now you have these two hotkeys to change the transmission to manual or the traction control to sport mode or completely off but it can also go for start stop amg dynamics the suspension the exhaust this is so cool and so nice to use while driving because even though you're in sport mode or in race mode you want to switch between different esp modes and gearbox settings so that's really convenient we've got an alcantara finishing for the steering wheel and a 12 o'clock marker in yellow now we have the typical a-class cla interior it's not that different from those other cars but that's not a big issue because it looks absolutely gorgeous except for the fact that and this is really hard for me to tell you guys we've got fake carbon fiber and the fakest of fake carbon fiber this is absolutely unacceptable in an amg come on guys what are you thinking we've got fake exhaust at mercedes we've got fake center caps at amg and now we also have fake carbon fiber at amg that should be unacceptable oh i'm sorry about that really i had to do that now you might think why is that seat belt in there is it for his imaginary friend no it's because i'll show you why let's get driving got a nice road so i'm going to race mode and turn the esp into sport mode sporty mode hey that's annoying this seat belt the metal of the seat belt keeps hitting the special amg sport seats and they have like a very hard sidewall got a great bang from the exhaust oh you can really feel the four magic plus system pulling you through the corners uh giving you some rear wheel biased power when you're exiting the corner and the front axle claws onto the road making sure you don't really over or understeer now the gla is 140 kilos heavier than the a-class and you do notice that because the a-45s is a weapon on a road like this but this is noticeably more less capable it is very capable and very fast but okay that's that's going to drive you mad if you buy one of these maybe not go for these amg super sporty seats because they are super expensive as well just have a look at the amg configurator now when i say a45 and cla-45 it takes about five minutes before people started start talking about drift mode now this being the amg for the elderly they ditched drift mode so they don't this doesn't have drift mode now is that a problem nah i don't think so no one who's interested in this particular car uh will be interested in drift mode i think now when you're on it this drive train is really really incredible you can really feel the aggression of it i mean this thing as i said 2.1 bars of turbo pressure that makes for such an aggressive engine and when you run it like i am now that's absolutely delicious but when you're just driving around town this drive train can feel a bit nervous i have to admit it always needs to change gear it always needs a bit of a moment to boost that that turbo but hey this being the amgs let's focus on this stuff because my god it's good at doing this it's a bit wet it's a bit springy with some wet leaves on the road but this thing just copes with it like nothing else i mean this is the first time i'm driving on a road like this with this car and i am sort of liking it more than i did like 20 minutes ago because jesus christ the performance is really strong even though i could not hit the claimed zero to a hundred time of 4.3 seconds the non-s does 4.4 i got 4.6 so that's a bit disappointing you do get a very entertaining and aggressive launch control just put the car into non-manual for the gearbox i like esp to be in sport mode and just floor it with some braking with some leftover braking here we go oh that up shift man that's fast now the sound from the outside it's not all that impressive because yeah we've got all these eu regulations nowadays and they won't let amg do their magic so you do get a nice sound on the up shift uh inside the car and i always think interior sound it's more important than exterior sound because you can have a lot of fun without people calling the police and i mean this car is about the occupant not about the people on the side of the road maybe the older amgs were more for the audience than the participant but that has changed quite a lot amg's have become much more driver involved cars and much less about the hooligan smoke sound and i have to admit this 45 drive train is super super impressive i would have liked it to be in the glb x as well though because we have driven the glb 35 but they don't offer a 45 or 45 s in the glb and i loved the glb absolutely loved it much more than i do the gla but i wish they put this engine in that then i would totally go for a glb-45 i really would because that car knows what it is it's a mini gls and it does everything to like mimic one and it has the same kind of suspension setup it offers comfort it wants to be a big lumpy suv and it looks like it now this thing wants to be a super sporty nurburgring killer and a mini suv as well and it's like stuck in between somewhere and that's the problem i have with this car it's not super good at anything and not really bad at anything it's quite hard to praise it for a specific quality so unfortunately the weather gods have decided for me that we are not going to do autobahn stuff today in the review thankfully i recorded my autobahn footage before this review so go and watch this video if you want to see this car hit the ultrabot and it's true top speed and go watch this pov review playlist if you want to see more reviews and subscribe by clicking here thanks guysthis is the amg for the elderly because look at that massive turbo right there fake carbon fiber and the fakest of fake carbon fiber here we go what's up guys welcome to this pov review by auto top and l my name is martin and today i'm taking a look at this all new mercedes amg gla 45s 4matic plus are you still with me i'm glad okay this is the amg for the elderly because hey this is the third 45 s of the new gen we had the a45 the cla-45 and this gla-45 is the latest edition these are like brothers because the a45 is like i'm the sporty brother and i'm the fastest and cla is like i'm the the handsome brother that goes to business school and this is the somewhat boring fat brother i think what's the purpose of this car that's for me to find out today okay so yes it's a bit more spacious it's more high up it's better suited for children as you can see rear space is not that bad actually can we fit some stuff in there yes we can we've got a trunk we've got our tripod all good so far so yeah it does offer a bit more space and practicality than it's to sportier brothers um so let's talk about the recipe the gla it's let's be honest the gla is for people who have always liked mercedes now have a bit of money maybe have stopped working and have some money to spend and these people are the ones that go for the gla now this amg version is that for the same kind of people um i'm not too sure maybe this is for like young families with a sporty dad but hey you could also go for the cla shooting brake 45s because it offers that practicality as well i don't think it looks cool or funky or aggressive it's a bit of a letdown to me because the previous the previous gla 4g5 i actually quite liked you see them driving around with that big ass wrc spoiler um you can get that spoiler for this car as well but hey mercedes decided not to fit it on this demo car but i'll show you what it looks like let's have a look at those wheels because these are can you believe it 21 inch wheels on a gla amg wheels massive brake set behind that amg calipers in red thankfully they decided not to put a fake centerlock cap on here oh man they are starting to listen at amg thankfully now let's have a look at the engine because that's something really really special the most powerful four-cylinder engine in the world in this gla now look at that massive turbo right there this is the m139 two liter turbo now this is a full-blown amg engine built in a falter bark it's actually hand crafted by stefan heikenvelder now stefan has done a great job because if you go for one of the 35 amg's that's not an amg engine that's a 250 that has been tuned a bit by amg so reason enough to go for this because this is quite special the gla 45 has 387 horsepower and 480 newton meters from a two liter turbo can you believe it i mean the previous one had 360 horsepower at launch then it got 381 at the update and now we're at 389 but this is the s version and then you get even more power 421 horsepower and that's because that turbo in non aspect is doing 1.9 bars which is absolutely insanely high for a stock engine but the s version 2.1 bars that thing is running at 2.1 bars that's an insane amount of boost for this engine it does come with the with its downsides but we'll talk about that with the driving let's close this up and let me know guys what do you think about this gla 45 do you like the inconspicuous look or do you think it should have been a bit more muscular by the way if you like cool stuff like this amg go check out ignitioncollection.com for some awesome limited edition swiss made watches and they are much more affordable than you think use code auto top and l for a 10 discount okay let's get in and let's have a look at the interior now we've got a beautiful amg steering wheel i mean this thing let me start it up looks awesome just have a look at those aluminium accents this mandatino right here can't call it that you can switch to all between all the different driving modes and if you push it you go to individual mode now you have these two hotkeys to change the transmission to manual or the traction control to sport mode or completely off but it can also go for start stop amg dynamics the suspension the exhaust this is so cool and so nice to use while driving because even though you're in sport mode or in race mode you want to switch between different esp modes and gearbox settings so that's really convenient we've got an alcantara finishing for the steering wheel and a 12 o'clock marker in yellow now we have the typical a-class cla interior it's not that different from those other cars but that's not a big issue because it looks absolutely gorgeous except for the fact that and this is really hard for me to tell you guys we've got fake carbon fiber and the fakest of fake carbon fiber this is absolutely unacceptable in an amg come on guys what are you thinking we've got fake exhaust at mercedes we've got fake center caps at amg and now we also have fake carbon fiber at amg that should be unacceptable oh i'm sorry about that really i had to do that now you might think why is that seat belt in there is it for his imaginary friend no it's because i'll show you why let's get driving got a nice road so i'm going to race mode and turn the esp into sport mode sporty mode hey that's annoying this seat belt the metal of the seat belt keeps hitting the special amg sport seats and they have like a very hard sidewall got a great bang from the exhaust oh you can really feel the four magic plus system pulling you through the corners uh giving you some rear wheel biased power when you're exiting the corner and the front axle claws onto the road making sure you don't really over or understeer now the gla is 140 kilos heavier than the a-class and you do notice that because the a-45s is a weapon on a road like this but this is noticeably more less capable it is very capable and very fast but okay that's that's going to drive you mad if you buy one of these maybe not go for these amg super sporty seats because they are super expensive as well just have a look at the amg configurator now when i say a45 and cla-45 it takes about five minutes before people started start talking about drift mode now this being the amg for the elderly they ditched drift mode so they don't this doesn't have drift mode now is that a problem nah i don't think so no one who's interested in this particular car uh will be interested in drift mode i think now when you're on it this drive train is really really incredible you can really feel the aggression of it i mean this thing as i said 2.1 bars of turbo pressure that makes for such an aggressive engine and when you run it like i am now that's absolutely delicious but when you're just driving around town this drive train can feel a bit nervous i have to admit it always needs to change gear it always needs a bit of a moment to boost that that turbo but hey this being the amgs let's focus on this stuff because my god it's good at doing this it's a bit wet it's a bit springy with some wet leaves on the road but this thing just copes with it like nothing else i mean this is the first time i'm driving on a road like this with this car and i am sort of liking it more than i did like 20 minutes ago because jesus christ the performance is really strong even though i could not hit the claimed zero to a hundred time of 4.3 seconds the non-s does 4.4 i got 4.6 so that's a bit disappointing you do get a very entertaining and aggressive launch control just put the car into non-manual for the gearbox i like esp to be in sport mode and just floor it with some braking with some leftover braking here we go oh that up shift man that's fast now the sound from the outside it's not all that impressive because yeah we've got all these eu regulations nowadays and they won't let amg do their magic so you do get a nice sound on the up shift uh inside the car and i always think interior sound it's more important than exterior sound because you can have a lot of fun without people calling the police and i mean this car is about the occupant not about the people on the side of the road maybe the older amgs were more for the audience than the participant but that has changed quite a lot amg's have become much more driver involved cars and much less about the hooligan smoke sound and i have to admit this 45 drive train is super super impressive i would have liked it to be in the glb x as well though because we have driven the glb 35 but they don't offer a 45 or 45 s in the glb and i loved the glb absolutely loved it much more than i do the gla but i wish they put this engine in that then i would totally go for a glb-45 i really would because that car knows what it is it's a mini gls and it does everything to like mimic one and it has the same kind of suspension setup it offers comfort it wants to be a big lumpy suv and it looks like it now this thing wants to be a super sporty nurburgring killer and a mini suv as well and it's like stuck in between somewhere and that's the problem i have with this car it's not super good at anything and not really bad at anything it's quite hard to praise it for a specific quality so unfortunately the weather gods have decided for me that we are not going to do autobahn stuff today in the review thankfully i recorded my autobahn footage before this review so go and watch this video if you want to see this car hit the ultrabot and it's true top speed and go watch this pov review playlist if you want to see more reviews and subscribe by clicking here thanks guys\n"