Mercedes says their 2021 AMG GLA 45 has the most powerful 4-cylinder engine in production. Paired with such a small vehicle, the power is exhilarating.
Welcome to your 2021 mercedes amg gla 45 mercedes canada’s website says it has the most powerful four-cylinder engine in production and it sure feels like that so under the hood it’s a two liter inline four turbo engine 382 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque all run through an eight-speed automatic transmission and this it’s got their formatting system this
Is really surprisingly astoundingly bonkers it is just how they’ve put so much power into their smallest crossover and still made it livable day-to-day is absolutely wonderful this is just lightning fast in for a taller vehicle with a higher center of gravity it handles just as well as a sedan does there’s so many factors that the jla-45 has going for it let’s
Do the actual driving impressions first and then we’ll kind of branch off uh and do some other things related to driving so i’m gonna try and do an audio test right now so pulled over i’m stopped as you can see there’s nothing moving in the window i’m in comfort mode and i’m hoping the microphone will pick this up so off for the automatic start stop um okay come
On i’m trying to do a thing here mercedes okay so i’m in comfort mode and i’m gonna go into sport plus let’s i’ll be quiet just take a listen hopefully you can hear it things are revving a little higher uh resting rpms looks like 950 975 as opposed to the 750 which is what i’m at in comfort mode and let me just get past this stop sign that’s coming up and i
Will do a very quick acceleration test it’s yeah i think the smile says it all like it’s nearly 400 horsepower anyways um just make sure nobody’s around no one’s in my way oh yeah here is the comfort in um comfort mode and just a quick kick test okay so you saw the hesitation you saw the turbo spool up and there’s just a bit of a delay there so we’re gonna
Do it again but this time i’m gonna go all the way to the top uh with sport plus so good uh come on all right sport plus so things are louder immediately audibly and the steering wheel is just not vibrating at a little rougher but you can feel it in the wheel anyways dead stop let’s go okay well there’s that you’re gonna dial it back into comfort mode um i’m
Hoping you heard the pops of the exhaust come through um i heard it i felt it so there’s still a little bit of a lag as the turbo spools up in sport plus mode but it is not nearly as long as it was in comfort mode i can see this thing easily turning head to the track no i didn’t track it i don’t track any of my vehicles um a manufacturers don’t allow it uh and b
It just it’s not my thing but i can and do absolutely appreciate a good high performance vehicle so i’ve done a city drive for a regular day-to-day things i’ve done highway driving i’ve done some backwards driving with the taller windows visibility is really really strong whether i’m backing into a parking spot at a mall or a store or whatever or we’re just kind
Of navigating regular city traffic and just checking blind spots and seeing what’s around me all the time visibility is really good and as far as the driving at lower speeds it’s not too bad it’s a little on the rougher side you feel a lot of the potholes a lot of the imperfections in the road i’m just the car is tuned so so tightly and the ride is it’s it’s a
Rigid ride it’s a rough ride so it can be a rough ride but the the chassis is very rigid um but that’s part of the trade-off that you’re gonna have when you get something again with nearly 400 horsepower that’s an amg hobby driving it’s so smooth once you get up to your highway speeds which take hardly any time at all uh the gla45 just loves to be driven and it
Gets a little noisy with noise reverberation harshness uh not the end of the world uh and definitely would not be a deterrent for me if i was looking at this cornering handling i touched on it a little while ago but it’s it’s done surprisingly well for a vehicle that is sorry the vehicle that has a higher center of gravity so the short version is it’s fast it’s
Accurate it’s precise with the acceleration it corners and handles very well but the ride is rigid it can be a little rough even in comfort mode you’re feeling a lot of the bumps sport sport plus mode an individual depending on how you tune it in uh can amplify that and the ice slash snow slippery is for winter conditions all right taking a look at the outside
It has the unmistakable signature grille which has a bit of a menacing look to it and it looks not an insult not an insult at all but it looks a little cute because it’s on such a small vehicle and i just had the e53 amg or amg e53 and that had that looks just again very aggressive very athletic very really menacing because it’s lower to the ground but seeing
That on the gla just it’s kind of got a cute look to it but it’s a you know i look cute but i will completely annihilate you when a race stands to it and kind of going around the side still has the same shape you’re on the rear you get your quad tail pipes and leds all over the place and it it casts a really nice stance and when i first saw it i took a couple
Of looks i’m like well it’s it’s really tall and stout and i don’t know how i feel about having the amg treatment with this but that was i think maybe 50 60 feet away as i was walking up to the vehicle and the closer i got the more attractive it looked starting with the grille and then kind of doing a quick walk around it still has a gla shape just with the
Amg treatment to it final touch on the exterior this does have the paid upgrade for 21 inch wheels and there are amgs and i find it looks really sharp it fills out the wheelballs nicely the rooms are okay they’re not great for me i’m more for traditionalist it’s made your classic five spoke rooms eight days a week and i’m a happy guy but these rooms do look good
Uh paired with this i believe the color is digital white and i don’t like light colored cars regardless of manufacture i’m more of a it could be a black car or something really really dark or completely colorful like the the yellow bends i had that was the cla a couple of weeks ago moving on to the interior you’ll notice right away and i’m sure you have noticed
Since the beginning of the video uh that this has the red and black leather uh treatment to it and it really pops and it looks so sharp um so there’s right on the inside of the door inserts you’ll probably forward a touch you can see red in the seats really really classy and sporty color combination here i would probably spec it the same way i like the way
Mercedes has put this vehicle together for the canadian press fleet so as far as the color scheme full marks get the open pour wood just in front of your passenger you got the two two piece one part screen full digital dash and the digital infotainment system still don’t like the thumb controls for the pads on the steering wheel just i’m always overshooting your
Undershooting and it’s a lot of precision and it can be a little distracting same thing with the touch pad trackpad i hope they do away with it over the next few years maybe the next big generational change for mercedes and i just don’t like it at night this beautiful beautiful gla-45 shines because it has the mercedes treatment of having the vents be lit up
It’s got the uh ambient lighting along the lines of the dashboard and it just looks so good sunroofs one for the front passengers one for the rear or front occupants i should say you shouldn’t have a driver as a passenger uh for the front occupants and uh for the rear as well nice frameless rear view mirror yeah and it looks good feels good uh the steering wheel
Itself it is the three flat side i took the flat bottom flat left flat right and you have the natural arch at the top the black center line i don’t recall which mercedes it was that i had might have been the cla amg that had the center line in red but i think there’s enough red in the vehicle as it is i think having the center line be red would just be a little
Much and it’s such a small minor detail but as the driver you’re always looking at it’s touched on fuel consumption before we wrap things up so on a 51 liter tank of premium fuel in liters per hundred kilometers we are at 11.6 on the city streets that dips down to 8.8 on the highway and our blended total comes out to 10.4 which really isn’t that bad for a vehicle
That has the most powerful four-cylinder in production so lots of power it’s not as bad on at least for per national resources canada so it can still be a great daily driver it can be a little rough but it has tons of performance potential and capabilities so if you do want to have that extra bit of fun you know with dialing sport or sport plus overall it’s
I don’t know if i would take this as a daily driver it’d be a great fun car to have and you know it’s got i think 1400 plus liters of cargo space with the seats down and a little over 400 with the seats up so there’s function to be had here uh rear seats are pretty good you can fit so i could fit behind myself comfortably i don’t know if that middle person would
Be completely thrilled with you after a five hour road trip but you can get the stuffed things and people in the gla-45 and still have a good sense of functionality that’s going to wrap it up for the 2021 mercedes amg gl845 if you’ve got any questions on the vehicle let me know in the comments and i’ll do my best to get you answers as soon as possible thank you
So much for watching i really do appreciate the support and feel free to subscribe and feel free to suggest the channel to somebody who you think might be interested in what it is that i do until i see you again be well be healthy be safe
Transcribed from video
Perks, Quirks & Irks – 2021 Mercedes AMG GLA 45 – The little engine that could and did By Modern Mississauga Media
