With close to 400 horses under the hood right out of the factory, the Mercedes-AMG GLA 45 is without a doubt, among the most powerful “everyday” cars we have out there.
And guess what, the 2021 version is officially here and it is even more powerful than it was, but before we get to that, let us get the boring bits out of the way first.
On the exterior, the new GLA 45 now looks more like a full-blown SUV, sporting a curvy silhouette that is complemented by a long bonnet with bulging powerdomes, an AMG-specific radiator grille with vertical slats, LED High Performance headlamps, a front splitter in silver chrome, 19-inch light-alloy wheels (S-Model 20-inch wheels), as well as twin tailpipes.
The GLA 45 4MATIC S on the other hand, gets a pair of larger, oval exhaust tailpipes with a diameter of 90 mm, which feature internal fluting and AMG lettering.
Inside, we have the usual suspects like the MBUX infotainment system, black Artico man-made leather and Dinamica microfiber upholstery, AMG highlights with double topstitching in red, red seatbelts, as well as AMG carbon fibre-look trim element in the dashboard support. The chromed air vents are likewise upgraded with a red ring.
In the S model, we have yellow highlights throughout the interior, AMG Performance steering wheel with a yellow 12 o’clock marking, AMG steering wheel buttons, an AMG logo, plus ambient lighting.
Also standard is the centre console in piano-lacquer look with a touchpad as standard has a further control array with additional switches for controlling the 3-stage ESP, the manual transmission mode, the adaptive damping system AMG Ride Control.
Now, the juicy bits – as revealed earlier, there will be two variants; the GLA 45 4MATIC+ and GLA 45 S 4MATIC+, which come with the most powerful mass-produced 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine in the world.
While the base model delivers 387 hp, the S‑variant kicks out a massive 421 hp. Both come with the AMG Speedshift DCT 8G Dual Clutch gearbox, and the active, fully-variable AMG Performance 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive system that distributes power to the rear axle wheel-selectively by AMG Torque Control. Maximum torque has also increased from 475 to as much as 500 newton metres.
How the AMG Torque Control feature works is that it distributes power to the left and right rear wheels flexibly and at different ratios, according to the given driving situation – resulting in optimum traction, whatever the road surface conditions and whatever course the route takes.
Thanks to the package, the GLA 45 does the century sprint in 4.4 seconds, while the GLA 45 S does it in 4.3 seconds. Both models come with a factory limited speed limit of 270 km/h.
There are six AMG DYNAMIC SELECT drive programs to choose from – “Slippery”, “Comfort”, “Sport”, “Sport+”, “Individual” and “RACE” (standard for S-Model, included in the optional AMG DYNAMIC PLUS package for the base model) which allow a wide spread of vehicle characteristics, from comfortable to highly dynamic, where numerous relevant parameters are modified:
The AMG developers have also extensively reinforced the body shell, increasing the torsional rigidity at the vehicle’s front end. In addition, diagonal struts at the front and rear of the underbody further improve rigidity.
That being said, we can expect the new GLA 45 AMG to arrive here by the end of next year or even earlier, but it will definitely be coming here, looking at how successful the existing version is.
