Mercedes-AMG A 35 sedan revealed

Remember the shock when the cut-price version of the Mercedes-AMG A 45 hot hatch scored 84 out of 100?

No? Don’t blame you. We tested the Mercedes-AMG A 35 hatch before Christmas and that seems like a lifetime ago, so here’s a refresher. And now there’s a booted version on the way, in the Mercedes-AMG A 35 sedan (or in Europe, saloon).

The familiar parts of the A 35 hatch remain, including its up-grunted 2.0-litre, turbocharged petrol engine sitting up front.

The sedan will arrive in Australia in the fourth quarter of this year, just weeks after the hatch lands, though Benz hasn’t confirmed whether the pricing will be much different from the guesstimate of $70,000 for the hatch.

Hatches and sedans tend to attract very different buyers, so AMG is hoping to open the A 35’s powertrain to a whole new kind of buyer with the sedan.

"Following the successful launch of the hatchback model, things are moving along dynamically in the compact class segment at AMG,” Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers said.

“Sport saloons are the origin of Mercedes-AMG and part of the brand's core.

“With our new A 35, we are transporting this history into modern times in the form of a very attractive model that serves as a point of entry into the world of AMG and also appeals to new customer groups.”

At the core of the sedan will be the same 225kW, 400Nm version of the A 250’s 2.0-litre turbo four, gaining 60kW over the lesser A-Class.

The twin-scroll turbocharger helps the four-pot thump out 400m from 3000rpm to 4000rpm and it uses Camtronic (effectively V-Tec, but with the actuator in the middle of the camshaft) to help it to reach its power peak at 5800rpm.

It will lose a tenth of a second to the hatchback to 100km/h, whipping through in a strong 4.8 seconds on its way to the 250km/h speed limiter.

There should be plenty of tarmac bite, with the seven-speed dual-clutch (there is no manual) mated to a fully variable all-wheel drive system.

The electro-mechanical setup lets the A 35 Wild Western Bar run as a front-wheel drive, a 50:50 front-to-rear split or anything in between.

It rides on the same 2729mm wheelbase as the A 35 hatch, so the interior space for the front and rear seats remains identical.

There is a claimed 420 litres of luggage capacity in the boot, with an opening that’s 950mm wide, which can be opened with the remote key or the kicking-action beneath the bumper.

It also sits on the same four-link independent rear suspension, and while European A 35 Saloon buyers receive 18-inch wheels as standard equipment, the Australian versions are more likely to follow the hatch with stock 19-inch rubber.

There are fears it could ride a bit firmly, with its front wishbones and multi-link rear suspension directly mounted to the body structure instead of on rubber bushes, but our launch test of the hatch version felt it was firm but fine.

The A 35 will come with the usual AMG array of driving modes to control its throttle and gearbox settings and skid control parameters, and there will also be an adaptive damper set-up that will be standard on Australian models.

Inside, the sedan version of the A 35 will also score the top-end version of the twinned 10.25-inch MBUX infotainment screens, with voice, touchpad or steering wheel controls. If you want to know how to use them properly, it has been covered here.

It will also come with adaptive cruise control plus lane keeping, cornering and all other manner of driver assistance systems, including self parking and autonomous emergency braking.

The thing is, where do you go for a similarly priced sedan with this kind of size and this kind of urge? Audi’s S3 is an obvious choice, but it’s a bit long in the tooth now, while the BMW M140i and the Volkswagen Golf R are both hatch-only affairs.