Mercedes-Benz AMG A45 review

The inside of the A45 has been tarted up with a bit of stitched leather and some aluminium-effect accents, but the sports seats aside there’s little else you don't get in the standard hatch. The microfibre material on the chunky steering wheel rim is a nice touch, mind.

It’s also a very complex environment to be in, which probably isn’t the best thing for a car that requires your every attention on the move.

That’s a lot of screen, isn’t it? 

This isn’t an AMG-specific problem, but rather with the wider A-Class range. The panoramic digital dash and infotainment (two 10.25in screens) now come as standard in every A-Class, and they don't feel very well integrated. It’s like it’s been hacked out of a normal dash and angled in; there’s not a great deal of panache to the design and other carmakers manage this sort of thing much better.

Worse is that the controls are so fiddly and unintuitive to use – you can stretch to the touchscreen (not great on the move) or use the touch controls on the steering wheel. You’ll want to spend some time with the manual, because it’s not always particularly intuitive.

We couldn’t work out how to skip to the next music track without having to sift endlessly through touchscreen menus, for instance, but there is a steering wheel button to make the exhaust sound fartier. Perhaps AMG doesn’t think you need to listen to any of your music.

What’s the space like?

There’s plenty of room up front, and the electrically adjustable sports seats are easy to get comfortable in. You’ve also got the benefit of the base car’s practicality, with some decent little cubbies and places to stash things. 

The back of the A45 is not a particularly forgiving place to be – the seats are comfortable and there’s decent enough legroom if the folks up front aren’t too tall, but it’s hard to squeeze your feet under the seat in front and the transmission tunnel is greedy for space. The back of any performance car is a miserable place to be though, to be fair. In the boot you’ve got 370 litres of space with the seats up, which increases to 1,210 litres with them folded down.