Let’s begin at the end, because, for those with a keen eye for vehicles will know, the main point of difference between this glorious looking A35 Sedan and the A35 Hatch, is the boot.
That’s right my Sedan loving friends, the A35 comes with a good ‘Ol fashioned boot.
And not just any old boot either, it’s a class-leading 419L of ‘luggage-loving’ kind of boot. In fact, it has almost 50L of additional boot or luggage space over the hatchback, which equates to around seven basketballs or 85 large takeaway coffees, depending on what lights your fire.
Then there’s the shape. Rather than having a hatchback design that tends to come to an abrupt end at the rear, the A35 Sedan presents a more visually appealing flow to its silhouette, I guess you can tell I’m fond of it. The rest of the A35 Sedan’s rear includes LED tail lights, two exhaust pipes and a cute but functional boot lip spoiler.
For review purposes, Mercedes-Benz NZ gave me an Iridium silver metallic clothed model to play with, it came with lots of black accents, 19-inch AMG black alloys and 4Matic all-wheel drive. Let the games begin.
Inside, my A35’s cabin came in titanium grey pearl two-tone Lugano leather, comfort seats (as opposed to buckets) and the new MBUX user interface. It’s an excellent mix of upmarket and technologically advanced ‘Mercedesness’ with a practical yet sporty theme. Surprisingly, even with its sloping Sedan roofline, the rear passenger space (head and knee room) is equal to that of the hatch.
My time spent with the A35 Sedan was a mixture of (family) business and pleasure. The ‘delightful’ chores of shopping and ferrying my son to his football practice, intermingled with enthusiastic rural and coastal solo drives (purely for review purposes of course).
Under the A35 Sedan’s bonnet is a rather grunty 2L turbocharged engine that happily delivers 225kWs of power and 400Nm of torque at the push of the accelerator, something I did as often as I could during my time with the car, and quite frankly, it never got old, while the 4Matic ensured I had plenty of confidence to enjoy the curves.
The suspension, even in ‘Comfort’ drive mode, is firm, however, I must admit that I spent most of my time in ‘Dynamic’, it seemed a more suitable place for this AMG to live. The steering and throttle response is quick and responsive, the dampers feel solid and the AMG DCT 7-speed transmission moves up and down the box with vigour – it is a little lumpy at low revs though.
A week with this powerful and handsome Sedan was enough to whet my appetite, but it left me wanting more, and that’s a good thing. For the size of family I have, it offers plenty of space and refinement and that 2L turbocharged engine gave me heaps of ‘smile-inducing’ vroom.
As the PR guy from Mercedes says, ‘the A35 Sedan is all you’ll need’ and to all intents and purposes, in this size vehicle he’s quite right. 0-100km/h comes to you in just 4.7s and it goes through fuel at a rate of 7.4L/100km, but, and there is a but, on the horizon is an AMG A45 that offers considerably more grunt, so although the 35 is all you really NEED, there may be a voice in your head that WANTS an A45. Best I called Mercedes for the keys to the 45 so I can make up my own mind.
