Can the AMG A 45 Be Fuel-efficient Without Sacrificing Fun?
YouTuber takes on MPG challenge with one of the hottest hatches around, but has to hold back on all the hooning.
Hatchbacks are usually the domain of those who can’t afford much and need the most car they can get for what they do have in their bank accounts. They’re great for hauling luggage and boxes, saving fuel and not much else.
A hot hatch, on the other hand, adds plenty of firepower under the hood for maximum excitement. But would you drive it like it was an ordinary hatch? That’s what Stefano Villaverde of YouTube channel Stef ABtv set out to do with Mercedes-AMG’s take on the A-Class, the A 45.
“The A 45 AMG and MPG are probably things that you probably shouldn’t associate together,” says Villaverde. “In fact, the reality is you shouldn’t associate them together because it’s a quite well-known fact [the A 45 is] a very juicy car.”
However, Villaverde thought it would be “a good idea” to attempt an MPG challenge in the A 45 for an entire week on a full tank of gas, which cost him around $82, driving the hot hatch “like an absolute granny.”
“It’s probably worthwhile me adding that by about day two, it was so difficult not to want to put my foot down in that car,” Villaverde said. “I mean, it’s so quick and it just sounds so great, particularly with the Remus exhaust that Motech had done for me. Driving it so slow was so painful.”
On the first day of the challenge, Villaverde averaged 29.7 mpg at an average speed of 24 mph and a distance of 42 miles traveled after using a quarter of his 13-gallon fuel tank. A half-tank later, his average increases to 30.3 mpg after traveling 165 total miles at an average rate of 28 mph.
At the end of the challenge, Villaverde’s A 45 average 28.8 mpg at an average speed of 24 mpg over 11 hours and 42 minutes of time, 276 miles traveled, and with less than a quarter-tank left. That is an impressive feat, though more for Villaverde (who really wanted to flog it) than for the hot hatch itself.
“This has been a completely pointless exercise,” Villaverde says. “There is no point doing it. However, I guarantee you I know that some of you will be watching this video, because you’re thinking about buying an A 45, and you’re thinking, ‘Can it be driven economically?'”
Villaverde says that it can be driven economically, but doing so will make you “want to pull your teeth out by by the end of it.” He adds that if you want to save fuel in a Mercedes, you may as well buy an A 180, “and just drive that, because you buy an A 45 because you want to drive it hard.”
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