Mercedes-AMG A35 reveals its wing in new teaser

TopSpeed

By Michael Fira

Published Sep 18, 2018

The big debut is coming, folks

Mercedes-Benz seems to enjoy playing mind games with their fans and customers, testing their ability to wait for their upcoming releases while putting out a number of revealing sneak peeks. This is the case with their new A35 AMG which will be shown off to the public for the first time at the Paris Motor Show that kicks off on October 4th.

With each new Mercedes-AMG launch, you really have to take a moment to soak in all the details in order to appreciate the job done by the people in Affalterbach. That’s why each new image that Mercedes-Benz leaks out of their new hot hatch, the buzzing A35 AMG, keeps the hype alive as we look forward to a peek inside.

In the latest couple of images released by the German automaker, we can feast our eyes with both rear-end view and a view of the nose, albeit only half of each – hopefully they don’t have a good half and a bad half! What we get is what we’ve been expecting with Mercedes beefing up the body kit of their current A-Class with bigger air inlets and a host of purposeful winglets on either side. It’s the same story at the rear where we get dual exhausts, a diffuser for underbody aerodynamics and a generously-sized wing almost identical to that on the outgoing A45.

Mercedes will also unveil a new A45 early next year but, until then, we have to contend with its little brother who’s looking to scare away its neighbors: the likes of Audi’s S3, BMW’s M140i or Volkswagen’s Golf R. Granted, you’ll have a hard time telling the two apart if you don’t glimpse of their front ends, since the A45 will feature the Panamerica grille while the A35 is stuck with this twin-blade design we’ve become familiar with on lower-tier Mercedes models.

Keep reading to find out more of what we know about the A35 AMG.

The already – oh, how fast time flies! – old A45 AMG was Mercedes-Benz’s first entry in the hot hatch world, but it didn’t seem that way. No, it looked as if Mercedes has been doing it for well over a decade considering that car, with its 2.0-liter turbo that made it a class-topper. Now, the new generation A-Class AMGs are set to follow in its footsteps, and the A35 is the first to be launched, being slated to hit markets as early as next month.

What we know

The A35 AMG will be the easiest way to get your hands on a Mercedes-AMG model. This doesn’t mean, however, that you aren’t getting a bang for your buck – quite the opposite. The new hot hatch, which will make its public debut at next month’s Paris Motor Show, will be powered by the M260, 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-pot that’s basically a relative of the M270 engine in the more mundane A-Class while also sharing a host of elements with the engine under the hood of the A45, as well as the same bore and stroke. The cylinder head and crankcase are new, and Mercedes will make sure that, with power in the region of 300 horsepower, it will outrun the Golf R, thanks also to its dual-clutch automatic transmission.

It will most likely also come with adjustable dampers, although you should expect the upper market A45 to be the better handling – and more powerful – of the two when it hits the shelves, otherwise the two wouldn’t really make sense in this already crowded world of hot hatches. You will get, in any case, a car that can get from 0 to 62 mph in under 5 seconds which should be enough to keep up with entry-level Porsches and whatnot. You may also get an electric compressor that’s meant to keep the turbo alive at low rpm, let’s keep our fingers crossed for that!

The only bad news in all of the above is that, if you haven’t already picked up on it from our list of over 21 hot hatches you will never see Stateside, the A35 won’t be available in the US as a hatch, only as a sedan. But the added trunk shouldn’t make the car any less spirited, we think.

What we know

Further reading