Fresh Air

Dean Bousfield’s bright-red GLA45 AMG packs more horsepower than a Testarossa, and rolls as deep as the Mariana Trench. The mums on the school run had better play nice. This is one SUV that’ll rip your heart right out…

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In the writing-about-cars game, we sometimes get to drive some pretty cool stuff. Sure, it’s mostly just late nights, low wages and panic attacks about misspelled words or typos. But every now and then you get tossed the keys to something like a brand new Mercedes-Benz GLA45 AMG and suddenly the world is all sunshine and roses for a bit.

Imagine a slightly scaled-up version of the revered and utterly manic A45 AMG. You get the same engine and 4WD system along with a bit more legroom in the back and a bigger boot. It has a hand-built 2.0-litre turbo motor producing a frankly rather silly 360bhp as standard, which is mated to a paddle-shift seven-speed DCT ’box. The optional AMG exhaust – which you can spot by its central vertical divider on either tailpipe – is probably the best box you can tick on the options list. Full-bore flat upshifts are rewarded with a hilarious crackle that sounds (to wheel out a hackneyed but entirely appropriate cliché) like rapid artillery fire. The handling is utterly sublime, the 4Matic system shifting the oodles of torque around with pocketfuls of witchcraft and sorcery, so that even greasy roads plastered with wet leaves offer no impediment to supersonic progress. And those AMG bucket seats? Just wonderful. All cars should have these.