Any A45S owners ?
Discussion
I'm looking around at what to swap my 2018 RS3 for while the residuals on it are very strong, even WBAC value it at 37k today , Jan 2018 reg with 20k miles. I keep coming back to the A45S so I'm curious to know how people find ownership to date, in particular reliability, I've had a number of VW/Audi cars with no issue, with the 45s being so recent and the power unit so 'highly strung' I'm keen to learn as much as possible before making a change.
I picked one up last March to replace a Mk7 Golf R (manual) which I'd fettled with an ABT package to around 380bhp plus a few other goodies to support the mod.
Took me a while to gel with the Merc in all honesty. First auto to get used to and I've always loved the involvement of having a manual. But after a while it came together and I started enjoying the car a lot more, at least on roads that allowed you to get her moving and changing direction.
Of course, as you would have read, it's an absolute weapon but it's not a blunt tool or a 'one trick pony' and it feels n/a, rather than forced induction in its power delivery, which is a compliment. It's a little soft in the chassis and there's more body roll than you'd expect, even in the firmest damper settings but, as the steering is a little mute, the set up works well and there's plenty of communication to be had in the seat and down the side of the car. Grip levels are utterly ridiculous and I swear it's on rails at times. The twin clutch pack arrangement is very trick. Very stable in the wet as well.
Kudos to those who have them mapped because, to me at least, it's plenty quick enough stock and I've heard from my dealer that 420bhp might be a bit conservative anyway. In Sports+ it just needs the slightest of prods on the loud pedal to be moving in excess of legal speeds anyway and from there on, the horizon approaches fast. I shudder to think what happens when 500+ ponies are fully unleashed.
Cockpit-wise it's a quality place to be, has all the toys, (although annoyingly no HUD, which you get in Europe) and in an age when switch gear seems to be fast disapearing and moving towards gesture control, it's reassuring to having some solid and tactile buttons and dials to hand to cover off the most important requirements, although I do find the steering wheel overly fussy. (Complete contrast to my Cayman GT4 wheel which has zero clutter to get in the way) The MBUX is excellent although I probably haven't used 70% of what's available. Once set up to my tastes, I left well alone.
Only issue I've had so far is a low coolant warning sensor go off a few times and I needed a couple of dealer visits to sort it. Main coolant tank looked fully topped up to me but there's another one hidden away under the engine cover apparently and Merc advised me not to drive the car until investigated. All good now though.
Price is of course 'the stick' that the A45S is beaten with but I do think that's a little unfair based on the overall package and what the car is capable of and how easy it is to live with. (Although she's thirsty which is to be expected) You can spec a Mk8 Golf R to north of £50k now, if you felt so inclined and no doubt the same will apply to the next RS3. Plus the CLA45S doesn't get the same criticism, despite being the booted version.
You pays yer money, you take yer chances!
.
Took me a while to gel with the Merc in all honesty. First auto to get used to and I've always loved the involvement of having a manual. But after a while it came together and I started enjoying the car a lot more, at least on roads that allowed you to get her moving and changing direction.
Of course, as you would have read, it's an absolute weapon but it's not a blunt tool or a 'one trick pony' and it feels n/a, rather than forced induction in its power delivery, which is a compliment. It's a little soft in the chassis and there's more body roll than you'd expect, even in the firmest damper settings but, as the steering is a little mute, the set up works well and there's plenty of communication to be had in the seat and down the side of the car. Grip levels are utterly ridiculous and I swear it's on rails at times. The twin clutch pack arrangement is very trick. Very stable in the wet as well.
Kudos to those who have them mapped because, to me at least, it's plenty quick enough stock and I've heard from my dealer that 420bhp might be a bit conservative anyway. In Sports+ it just needs the slightest of prods on the loud pedal to be moving in excess of legal speeds anyway and from there on, the horizon approaches fast. I shudder to think what happens when 500+ ponies are fully unleashed.
Cockpit-wise it's a quality place to be, has all the toys, (although annoyingly no HUD, which you get in Europe) and in an age when switch gear seems to be fast disapearing and moving towards gesture control, it's reassuring to having some solid and tactile buttons and dials to hand to cover off the most important requirements, although I do find the steering wheel overly fussy. (Complete contrast to my Cayman GT4 wheel which has zero clutter to get in the way) The MBUX is excellent although I probably haven't used 70% of what's available. Once set up to my tastes, I left well alone.
Only issue I've had so far is a low coolant warning sensor go off a few times and I needed a couple of dealer visits to sort it. Main coolant tank looked fully topped up to me but there's another one hidden away under the engine cover apparently and Merc advised me not to drive the car until investigated. All good now though.
Price is of course 'the stick' that the A45S is beaten with but I do think that's a little unfair based on the overall package and what the car is capable of and how easy it is to live with. (Although she's thirsty which is to be expected) You can spec a Mk8 Golf R to north of £50k now, if you felt so inclined and no doubt the same will apply to the next RS3. Plus the CLA45S doesn't get the same criticism, despite being the booted version.
You pays yer money, you take yer chances!
.
Black AMG45s][url said:
|https://thumbsnap.com/2cYyBsdS[/url][url]
|https:
I have had mine since last September and had it remapped by DMS a month ago
I would go for test drive
It is not highly strung and I have found it easy to live with and great fun to drive
I do find it hugely impressive and a testiment to modern engineering they can extract so much power reliabily from a relatively small CC 4-cylinder unit,just out of curiosity what boost pressure is it running to achieve 500bhp?
Reigniting this thread rather than create a new one, i'm looking at the A45s Plus model as my next hack. Is anyone able to advise which dealers are doing the best offers, I got told zero discount by my local dealer which is a MB Retail place, and getting close to zero on Carwow but I've seen offers of 6-8% elsewhere on some of the car discount websites.
Wonder if anyone has a dealer they can recommend? I'm in E.London but really not fussed about distance.
Wonder if anyone has a dealer they can recommend? I'm in E.London but really not fussed about distance.
Edited by Jefferson Steelflex on Friday 30th July 17:09
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