Can A Four-Wheel Drive, Four-Cylinder Crossover Really Be A Proper AMG?

If I said ‘AMG’ to you, what sort of Mercedes would you have in mind? My bet is that it’d be something with a big engine, and probably with rear-wheel drive. However, the coming of the A45 and CLA 45 turned the idea of what an AMG could be completely on its head with its use of turbocharged four-cylinder engines and four-wheel drive.

Does such a car really deserve to wear Affalterbach’s famous three letter combo? And now, the potential sacrilege has been upped further by the arrival of the GLA 45, using the same engine and chassis combo, but dressed up in the ‘SUV’ body of the GLA. I spent a week behind the wheel to see if this curious beast can really be considered a ‘proper’ AMG.

First off, you really don’t need to be worrying about performance. Because the GLA 45 is stupidly quick. The 2.0-litre twin-scroll turbocharged four-banger offers up exactly the same grunt as the other 45 AMGs - 355bhp and 332lb ft of torque. With little extra weight compared to the A45 it’s a little slower - but only marginally. 0-62mph takes 4.8 seconds, just a couple of tenths off its hatchback brother.

There’s a slight delay before the boost really kicks in, but that just makes the savage power delivery all the more exciting. Get it over 3000rpm, and things get rather punchy, with an unrefined but gloriously angry four-pot growl as your soundtrack. The twin-clutch automatic gearbox isn’t the best, with shifts being just a bit too hesitant for my liking, but the metal paddles are a nice touch, as are the childishly entertaining barks that are hurled out of the exhaust pipes on every change.

‘I’d happily recommend one over an A45, but there’s one thing stopping me’

You don’t need to be concerned about it flopping over when you get to a bend, either. Yes, as a crossover (despite Merc’s attempts to describe it as an SUV, it really isn’t) there’s a tad more roll, but you can still hurl it about and it’ll stay nicely tidy. And, you can lean on that four-wheel drive system rather heavily before you lose traction. Push really hard and you do get a whiff of understeer, but you have to be driving really hard to make that happen.

I’m a fan of the looks. It’s slightly frustrating that the ‘AMG Line’ kitted GLAs look damn near identical to this full-fat version, but there are some nice touches, like the five-twin-spoke 19-inch alloy wheels, and the red brake callipers behind them.

All sounds rather promising, doesn’t it? I’d happily recommend one over an A45, too, as although GLAs aren’t a huge amount of use over tough terrain, that extra ride height and suspension travel makes for a much more comfortable and manageable car on our pot-holed, speed bump-infested roads. Oh, and the boot’s bigger than the A-Class’. But there’s one thing stopping me from offering that recommendation: the price.

The on-the-road price for the GLA 45 is a scarcely believable £44,595. The A45 - already a rather pricey thing - is £38,195. And that big price is rather hard to stomach when some of the interior materials aren’t really befitting of such an expensive car. That, and the fact that you’re still lumbered with an irritating stick-on infotainment tablet that Mercedes seems to be fitting to most of its cars these days.

However, I can’t help but like the GLA 45, despite the fact that it’s too expensive. There’s something faintly silly about giving a dinky crossover 355bhp, and it’s that silliness that brings me back to the whole ‘is it a proper AMG?’ thing. Most AMG Mercs, if you think about it, come with an endearing sense of madness, and this AMG GLA has that mania in spades.

With a small turbocharged engine sending its power to all four wheels, it might not be a ‘traditional’ AMG as we’ve known them, but it’s plenty fast enough - it’ll match a base Porsche 911 to 62mph, after all - has blistering all-weather cross country pace matched by few other cars, and is delightfully bonkers. So yes, the GLA 45 more than deserves that famous badge on its rump.