DRIVEN: A BMW M135i Owner Compares His Pride And Joy To The All-New Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

If you live in Europe right now, two of what I would consider some of the hottest products right now are doing a battle. And, only one can claim victory. Our two contestants are the BMW M135i and Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG.

They're both "hot hatches," that, frankly, cost too much BUT I will say the amount of power and technology featured in both is downright staggering. On paper it seems like an easy win for the Mercedes with its dual-clutch 'box, all-wheel drivetrain and 350 some-odd horsepower but there's more to a vehicle than numbers on a piece of paper.

So when I saw that a M135i owner abroad recently got behind the wheel, I was intrigued to see what he had to say.

While we know owners can be bias, more often than not they reveal some particularly interesting things about their own cars and competitors. After all, these folks are LIVING with their cars on a day-to-day basis.

Check out this guy's review as he compares his M135i against the all-new A45 AMG in the following categories:

- Looks
- Handling
- Engine
- Performance
- Interior
- Overall

Ok, so had a good 25 min A/B road test in the A45 AMG. I went into this with an open mind, having had the M135i for 9 months and was actually expecting to want to buy one at the end of the drive!

I was wrong, in summary I was underwhelmed and bizarrely (based on my expectations from the recent reviews) it felt slower than the M135i.

I am only going to cover the key differences in my view, and some of those could be more generic Merc vs BMW as well.

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Satriani1 - 7/10/2013 4:13:17 PM

+1 Boost

LOL, your article comes from the fansite bimmerpost.com, which is "an enthusiast site dedicated to BMW fans around the world" -- the link f20.1addicts.com is the bimmerpost forum for the BMW 1 Series (F20/F21 generation). The posters are mostly BMW addicts and salespeople.

Are you seriously trusting a post on a Bimmer addicts website from a biased Bimmer owner, addict or salesman to give an impartial assessment of both cars? At worst, the poster is a BMW salesman or BMW employee who is planting a story.

Most serious expert reviews rated the A45 AMG the more sporty, dynamic and agile car compared to the M135, even more so on winding, curvier roads.

German car mag Auto Motor und Sport comparison test using their expert German car drivers:
1st place: Audi S3 2.0 TFSI 506 points
2nd place: BMW M135i x-Drive 486 points
http://tinyurl.com/dxsshtc

Auto Motor und Sport gave the Audi S3 sedan a five star review.
Conclusion: "At a price less than 40 000 Euros, the new Audi S3 provides a blend of sports car dynamics, high efficiency and practicality."
http://tinyurl.com/kpx83h7

Largest German car mag Autobild's driving report of the S3
"This car is a blast... Thanks to lightning fast and barely noticeable shifting S tronic transmission (1,900 euro option), the driver can concentrate on fast cornering and leave the appropriate gear selection to the electronics... pressing a button changes the the curves for the accelerator, steering and gear. In the "dynamic", the S3 drives sharp and aggressive."
http://tinyurl.com/bs5dgfv

merc07 - 7/10/2013 5:19:51 PM

+3 Boost

Agents need to stop getting so butt hurt every time BMW loses a comparison test. This article would have never been posted had BMW won. Fact is the real reviews are out and the results are all the same the amg won. Always an excuse for BMW. So I guess to make you BMW fanboys feel better, you go on a BMW forum of all places to get a totally subjective bs review of a BMW 135i owner compairing his "pride and joy" to the AMG and he concludes that his car is better. Oh you don't say. This site is getting worse as the years go by.

merc07 - 7/10/2013 6:00:24 PM

+2 Boost

There seems to be another article that was posted in the same BMW forum. Only this review wasn't written by your around the way BMW fan boy, rather a world renowned auto journalist by the name of Chris Harris. It's funny how when the mercedes was reviewed by someone other than a biased BMW owner the AMG all of a sudden becomes more favorable. Funny how the BMW fanboy though the A45 was underwhelming however, Chris who drives everything from Pagani's to Ferrari seems to be quite blown away by the AMG. Here is the artile. Read for yourself.

THE PISTONHEADS REVIEW BY CHRIS HARRIS

Well, they certainly stuck to their guns. Almost exactly a year ago I watched a heavily disguised A45 AMG fire its way up a Swabian hillside and couldn’t quite believe how loud the exhaust bangs were on each upshift. Several months later I asked the man from AMG whether these would make it into the full production specification, assuming that they would not. He insisted they would.

OK, it's not V8 noise but it is noise, and lots of itGiven the company’s recent track record of vehicular noise, and the quality thereof, I really shouldn’t have ever doubted them. I would like to say that the A45, driven with the automatic gearbox in manual mode and using all the available engine revs, sounds like a racing car. But given the increasingly stringent race-track noise limits in the UK I think that the comparison is unfair. The A45 sounds better than any BTCC machine.
Enter 'that' BMW
It’s probably a good deal faster in a straight line too. With 360hp and 332lb ft pulling 1,555kg it always feels very potent, but the power delivery is something of a surprise. Peak torque arrives at 2,250rpm and plateaus until 5,000rpm, but peak power isn’t produced until 6,000rpm. On the road this equates to vast, low effort performance for overtaking, but leaves a delicious kick at the top end. The way the motor revs beyond 5,000rpm and delivers a decisive extra surge that moves it into a performance category beyond even the RS3 and M135i is unexpected. It’s urgent, free-revving and at those high engine speeds doesn’t feel in any way turbocharged.

It's not AMG as we've known it but it is impressiveThe noise is unspectacular when you’re not trying, but it’s never harsh. Mechanical refinement is good, but you get the feeling that AMG felt the need to allow a low-level fizz to be transmitted from the engine block to the bodyshell. Curiously, and much like the best Honda VTEC installations, the A45’s powertrain is smoother and much more musical further up the rev range.
Against the flow
The gearbox is an all-new AMG developed seven-speed double clutch unit and, like the motor it has been tested to destruction by machine and engineers. AMG always seems to be completely out of sync with the rest of the world when it comes to transmissions. Five years ago when the world was going dotty for dual clutch systems, AMG gave us a seven-speed wet clutch automatic, which was rather impressive.

Yonder7 - 7/11/2013 7:47:42 AM

+1 Boost

Hey is free world, if bimmer fans like to cultivate illusions , so be it...