MERCEDES-AMG A35

Refreshed go-faster A-Class waves a flag for the dying hot hatch breed

- RICHARD LANE

TESTED 19.7.23, BEDFORDSHIRE ON SALE NOW

Remember straightforward hot hatchbacks of asphalt-sniffing stance and turbo brawn? It's a R sad sign of the times that such cars now feel like a novelty. Hot hatches are dying out, with most in a final evolutionary stage and quite expensive. Fifty-grand Honda Civic Type R, anyone?

Among the stalwarts is Mercedes-AMG's A35, which ticks both boxes. As with all of the A-Class range, it's been refreshed until an EV successor arrives. It inherits the grille and bulging bonnet of the hardcore A45, with Mercedes' roundel swapped for Affalterbach's.

I suppose the message is that the A35 is a proper AMG. But is it really? Doubts linger. As the most 'accessible' AMG, it has always used a modified version of a mainline A-Class motor, not something bespoke to AMG, so questions of authenticity arise. Yet the new C63 has only four cylinders where before you got an earth-shaking V8, so what is authenticity anyway?