New A35...

[D0C]

Unlike the RS3, I think the A35 will damage A45 sales. There is nothing special about the A45 except extra power, but its still a 4 cylinder engine at the end of the day

I disagree. That's like saying there's nothing different about the RS3 over the S3, which I see many S3 owners actually argue! Ok, we have the 5cyl engine. But I reckon the A45 will be a very good car (minus an ordinary engine/exhaust sound. Let's not knock it till we've tried it.

 

[royalsteve68]

I disagree. That's like saying there's nothing different about the RS3 over the S3, which I see many S3 owners actually argue! Ok, we have the 5cyl engine. But I reckon the A45 will be a very good car (minus an ordinary engine/exhaust sound. Let's not knock it till we've tried it.

Thats exactly my point the RS3 has a totally different engine than the s3, a different suspension and braking setup and drives totally differently to the S3; i should know i currently have both.

Whereas the A45 and A35 both have a 2 litre engine....awful interiors (stupid stuck on screen - wtf) and stupid spoilers

As an aside, you have to hand it to BMW, the m2 upgrade, m2 competition is superb, if expensive. Great car but useless for 90% of the time on UK roads - id love to see one of these so called idiot reviewers live with one for 2 years....then i will bet theyll change their mind after a few spins in the wet and sheer furstration that for 90% of the time you cant use any of the power as this country is too wet/icy....still its good on the track....cue face palm....sure, are you REALLY gonna take and thrash a £50K car around a track.....for a car that the reviewer has paid for....thought not!

 

[D0C]

Thats exactly my point the RS3 has a totally different engine than the s3, a different suspension and braking setup and drives totally differently to the S3; i should know i currently have both.

Whereas the A45 and A35 both have a 2 litre engine....awful interiors (stupid stuck on screen - wtf) and stupid spoilers

As an aside, you have to hand it to BMW, the m2 upgrade, m2 competition is superb, if expensive. Great car but useless for 90% of the time on UK roads - id love to see one of these so called idiot reviewers live with one for 2 years....then i will bet theyll change their mind after a few spins in the wet and sheer furstration that for 90% of the time you cant use any of the power as this country is too wet/icy....still its good on the track....cue face palm....sure, are you REALLY gonna take and thrash a £50K car around a track.....for a car that the reviewer has paid for....thought not!

They might both have a 2l engine but it is likely quite different internally. I can't believe it's just software that will liberate an extra 100hp+.

Anyway, I'm not denying that the engine will be a let down next to an RS3. But as a package, I'm sure it will be very compelling. Let's wait and see!

 

[Slowracer]

The gearbox issues I think were mainly for the PFL A45 and were mostly fixed with the FL A45. The main reason I say the gearbox and 4Matic system is that the FL A45 still lost to the PFL RS3 in a drag race (and rolling starts too) even though it had more power and people were blaming those 2 things on why it loses. The FL RS3 then made the lead even bigger. The A45 always was the better handling car compared to the RS3 but the A35 is competing with Golf R, Civic Type R, Focus RS, BMW M140i etc, and there are some great handling cars there. I'm unsure what you mean by the tech being more effective in the A45, I had a 2017 C class for a week and found the tech to be 1 or 2 generations behind the S3 in terms of design and capability.

From my experience A45 lost to pre FL rs3 off the mark because the AWD system was too FW biased and slow to move the power to back wheels. Add to this the pre FL rs3 (with the smaller turbo) had a healthy dose of torque from about 1800 rpm. while the a45 needed to wind up more before it was on song.

My reference to tech was all the functionality I use in both cars, and mine aren’t daily drivers so I probably don’t use a lot of it. But thanks for giving me a chance to have a whinge.

Drive Modes - the a45 has 4 drive modes, eco, sports, sport + and race (plus individual, the custom mode). You have them at the turn of a wheel on the console. In addition suspension and exhaust could be activated by addional buttons on the dash. Very quick and easy to pick a mode that suits your mood and driving conditions.

The rs3 effectively has 2 modes the economy and sport. I live inner city, so in sports mode my car never gets past 3rd gear. The fact that you have the cycle through a menu every time is a pain. I’m not even sure what happens in the AUTO mode.

The a45 will remember Your driving functions settings for 4 hours. So if you’re in and out of the car you don’t need to reset everything and remember turn off stop/start off.

When you set your radio favourites in the Merc, it just displayed the favourites, not so in the rs3 where you need to go back to menu to call them up.

The rs3 navigation system is laggier

Another useful ‘tech feature’ I used in the a45. You could display large gearbox and engine Temp gauges on the MMI screen. As well as giving temp they changed colour when they were up to temp, so easy to see at a glance.

Whinge over!

 

[infernox]

Unlike the RS3, I think the A35 will damage A45 sales. There is nothing special about the A45 except extra power, but its still a 4 cylinder engine at the end of the day

That's why I think the A45 will need to have the 4Matic + system which can switch between 4WD and RWD like the E63S.

In terms of drive modes, I haven't seen the RS3 ones yet but the S3 has Eco, Comfort, Auto, Dynamic and Individual. Do you not have comfort mode? You can switch driving modes from the steering wheel button '*' although it does have moments where it doesn't work. Also theres the drive mode button on the dashboard. You don't have to wait for the menu to appear, just keep pressing that button and changes, you can see it on the virtual cockpit. I agree that it should have buttons specifically for suspension and exhaust, there enough room for them in the dashboard. I guess they should only add them if you have Mag Ride and Sports Exhaust.

I also agree with the annoyance of having to cycle modes and turn stop/start off again. I think it's not meant to do that, not sure if the PFL had that problem. They should show more info in the virtual cockpit too, its annoying enough that it always has water temperature shown on the light bar with petrol instead of the oil temp.