Audi RS3 v Mercedes-AMG A45 S: Which is best?

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Which is the best german compact performance car is it mercedes mg a45s or the new audi rs3 well in this video i’m going to find out by comparing their engines the noise they make how well they stop i’m going to compare their exteriors their interiors how practical they are and of course what they like to drive i’m also going to see which is the quickest from north

To 60 miles an hour because i’m at watson and you’re watching car wow buy sell car wow let’s start this video by talking about the prices so the audi rs3 starts from 55 000 pounds for the hatchback it’s an extra thousand pounds for this saloon version now the mercedes it starts from 59 000 pounds but it comes with more kit as standard for instance it gets adaptive

Dampers whereas they’re an option on this they’ll fit to this car but they’re a thousand pound extra and when you compare spec for spec and match them up they roughly come to about the same price now if you’re thinking about changing your car you need to do some research you want to make sure that you’re paying a fair price and want to see if there’s any discounts

Available click on the pop-out banner up there for the link in the description below to get a car wash you can also sell your current car through car wire as well to find out how much it’s really worth you just upload some photos then our dealers will bid on your car and you can just pick the best offer it’s completely free if you want to do that at a later date

Simply google help me carlo and me and my team will help you these cars may seem pretty expensive considering their size but we paying for are the engines so here in the audi you’ve got a beautiful 2.5 liter five cylinder single turbo petrol that puts out 400 horsepower and 500 newton meters it drives all four wheels via a seven speed dual clutch automatic gearbox

With launch control audi says it’ll do not succeed in 3.8 seconds and we’ll find out a bit later in this video when i launch it top speed is limited to 155 miles an hour but you can pay added some extra money and take it all the way up to 180 miles an hour the mercedes mg has a two liter four-cylinder turbo petrol and that means it’s down a cylinder compared to the

Audi but it doesn’t matter it’s got more power 421 horsepower in fact this is the most powerful two liter 4 cylinder production engine in the world and it’s been hand assembled in our filter back by a man called michael schumann you don’t have such kind of rippery on the audi also the talk of that is the same as the id 500 newton meters and it drives all four wheels

For an eight-speed dual clutch automatic gearbox with launch control now mercedes mg says that this car did not succeed in 3.7 seconds so in theory it’s quicker than the audi but is it in reality well we’re going to find out later on top speed is slower than the audi though 170 miles an hour maximum however unlike with the audi you don’t have to pay mercedes mg some

Extra cash in order to get the maximum top speed let’s compare how these engines sound i’m going to start with the audi because five cylinders it should be the best right go on start at the audi it’s got the optional sports exhaust on it so you don’t get on the entry level car you have to move up the range to get it so go and rev it up all right there we go audi soft

Limiter brilliant let’s see if a four-cylinder engine sounds better go on start the mercedes at least he hasn’t got a soft limit and you do get the odd party bits at the top end of the rev range still neither sounds brilliant let me know your thoughts put a pink comment in the video vote which of these cars sounds the least crap let’s move on to the brakes the

A45s has 360 millimeter disc up front 330s at the rear and the front calipers have six pistons in them the ones at the back only one let’s see how strong they are when it comes to stopping okay emergency stopped then from 60 miles an hour in the a45 what’s going to do it stopped in 33 meters that’s pretty decent the audi rs3 has 375 millimeter disc up front grip

By six piston calipers and only 310 millimeter discs at the back grip by single piston color but you can actually upgrade to carbon ceramics like you can on the mercedes amg then you get 380 millimeter discs up front they’re not cheap though four and a half thousand pounds now before we break test this car i just want to show you something the rs3 comes on pirelli

P0 tires the mercedes has michelin pilot sport 4s tires now will that affect the braking let’s find out okay let’s break test this audi what we’re going to do here we go 60 miles an hour full emergency stop now oh okay so it’s stopped from 60 miles an hour 32 meters that’s really good and it beat the mercedes let’s compare the designs of these cars so obviously

This is the saloon version of the rs3 which does look better than the hatchback but the hatchback is still a good looking car i really like the slight flariness of the front wheel arches and those vents they are real they’re not fake overall it looks sporty but quite understated bit expensive looking actually the mg is much more overtly a performance car it is not

Ashamed as to what it is in fact he likes to flaunt it check out the arrow here at the front and the big wing at the back also it’s got quad tail pipes though they’re a little bit of a light if you look beyond those tips you’ll see that two tips actually have just one normal real exhaust behind them compare that to the addi which has two big oval pipes but if you

Look inside those you’ll see that they’re just tips and inside each tip is actually two real exhausts now i’m confused and if you haven’t subscribed to this channel already you’re probably confused so make sure you do it and hit the bell icon to turn your notifications on that way you won’t miss any of that kind of insightful motoring journalism that no one else

Picks up on the interior design of the a45 is a work of art i love this dash design the infotainment system is really good as well it’s easy to use and connectivity is faultless with your apple carplay or android auto also i like the shiny bits it just lifts the cabin makes it feel special though some of the quality is a bit superficial yeah anyway i like this

Sporty steering wheel with the alcantara on it and the bucket seats which really grab you nice and firmly after the a45 the interior of the rs3 is a little bit bland and old what’s with the air vents up here it’s a little bit dark as well but quality a bit better than the mercedes there’s no rattle there but i found one here in fact audi’s quality used to be way

Above their key competitors but now the gap is really narrow they just don’t feel as well built as they used to do to show the truth the sporty steering wheel is all right but it’s lacking alcantara like in the mercedes the seats don’t feel quite as sporty as in the amg either they’re a bit more like arm chairs and don’t hold you quite so tightly then there’s the

Infotainment system it’s pretty decent though not quite as good as in the mercedes and sometimes when you’re trying to connect your phone to apple cobbler android auto wirelessly it doesn’t always work the rs3 rides 25 millimeters low to the ground than a normal a3 and 10 millimeters low and even an s3 also has a rated springs dampers and anti-roll bars the track

At the front has been widened for the rs3 as well and it’s been given more negative camber all this is designed to improve front end buys in fact the front tyres actually slightly wider than the rear tyres the quattro wheel drive system can send 50 of the engine’s power to the rear wheels when the front start to slip also it’s got a clever electronically controlled

Rear differential which can send a hundred percent of that 50 percent of power that’s gone to the rear to either of the rear tyres depending on which one has the most grip the idea being that when you’re turning into a corner that way you can over speed the outside rear wheel to really get you turning in fact it can even allow you to drift this car because it has

A drift mode and this is me drifting an rs3 in addition to that clever rear differential the rs3 also has a limited slip differential at the front the a45s is pretty much the same setup so you’ve got load suspension compared to an a-class by 28 millimeters it’s also got rated anti-roll bars springs dampers obviously the dampers on this are adaptive as standard

And like with the air do we have to pay extra for them you’ve got a haldex 4-wheel drive system which can send fifty percent the engine’s power to the rear wheels if the front starts to slip and you’ve got a clever electronically controlled rear differential again which works just like the out is the mercedes actually came up with theirs first so no no no no anyway

Here’s me drifting a mercedes mda45s just like the aud the a45s has a limited slip differential on the front axle as well now if you’d like to see me put one of these a45s up against a toyota gr yaris and a honda civic type r in a range of track challenges click on the pop-up button up there for the link in the description below the rs3 used to be a straight line

Only kind of car bit of an understeery mess in the bends this new one though is a different story entirely the front just bites way better than it ever used to and then you’ve got that clever diff on the rear axle just helping over speed the outside rear tire it just gets you turning around the corner so much better it feels really natural as well not electronic

Or artificial they did a good job with that the suspension is pretty decent as well i’m actually in the firmware setting for the adaptive dampers that are fitted to this car as an option i’m going to put it into my own preferred settings for the car which is everything on maximum performance but the suspension softer and it’s better for our bumpy british roads the

Car doesn’t lean too much in the beds even when you have it in the softer setting so that is much better for covering ground quickly it also means that you just got more grip well i’m not so keen on the steering just feels a bit light and artificial even when you have it in its heaviest setting it’s all right when you’re just pooping about round time but when you

Wanna have some fun you need a bit more weight to the steering really one thing i’m not going to complain about though is the engine it’s as juicy and as fruity as ever however it does need to be spun quite high to get the most out of it and because the gearbox isn’t the slickest you sometimes just end up in two lower gear and then you’re in the turbo-like zone

And it’s not really providing the fireworks that you’d expect so you do have to work at this engine one thing i do remember about the rs3 is that as a daily driver it’s always been good and this one is even better overall though this new rs3 is better on a twisted road than it ever was before and like the previous generation car it’s still a great all-rounder so

Compared to some of its competitors it’s pretty quiet when you’re just cruising on the motorway and while these seats aren’t ideal for hooting down the back row because they don’t quite hold you in place as well as you might like on a longer journey they’re very very relaxing mercedes mg a45s what you got right from the get-go this feels like a crazy little angry

Sporty lively little thing everything about it is just more responsive than the audi and it’s more fun let’s talk about the steering it’s just got a bit more weight to it the car turns in sharper also that diff it seems a little bit more aggressive on this one thing you do notice though is that the four wheel drive system itself doesn’t feel as sophisticated so you

Can feel like this is a front-wheel drive car and then it’s all i need to send back to the back and then it does then it goes well i need to oversteer the outside rear wheel then it does so it’s not quite as progressive as the audi but it does just somehow feel more fun i’m more alert and more alive the engine as well this is the big surprise for me who’d have

Thought that a two liter four cylinder is better than a 2.5 cylinder but here in the case of this a45s it is also the gearbox in this a45s is better matched to its engine than the gearbox in the rs3 is it just always seems to be the right gear you don’t seem to be like left floundering in a hole of turbo lag if you haven’t chosen the right gear because somehow

You just automatically have and the way this engine just gets you to really rev it all the way out and the power builds and builds and builds and the noise builds and builds and builds it’s got more drama also the brakes just seem a little bit more on it as well the pedal feel and the response you get from them is just sharper it just makes the car feel more

Aggressive more like it’s been designed solely with the purpose of fun in mind and that brings me onto the suspension you see it’s noticeably firmer than the audis in fact in comfort setting it’s not really that much softer than the audi in its sportiest setting don’t mind too much though because it’s not terrible and the car is just so flat through the turns when

I’m driving i actually have the suspension in the comfort setting and everything else in maximum attack also when you’re in manual mode it just seems to respond quicker to both changing down and changing up it’s just seamless you probably know quicker actually than you are in the audi it just feels it although they always have to be good for cruising don’t they

And this is not as good dailying as the audi seats for starters they’re both holding you in place when you go around corners quickly but they’re quite firm so over a longer journey bob does get tired also the car is just noisier on the motorway just to get a bit more road noise it’s not quite as relaxing but i can put up with that just because this car feels more

Entertaining and that’s sort of the whole point of buying a hot hatch in the first place right hot hatches aren’t just about performance and having fun they also need to be practical and there is enough room in the back of this a45 look headroom’s all right knee rooms are all right there’s not much foot space but i can live with that i just want to say a thank

You to the chap who lent us this car to review the tag will be popping up on screen now go head over to his account and say thanks for lending car wow your car it helps us get more cars in the back of the aid there’s about the same amount of knee room foot space is a little bit better but headroom is tighter than the amg though it is better in the rs3 sportback

Than this saloon also just feels a bit darker in here than the mercedes bizarrely the saline is actually more practical than the hatchback when it comes to beat capacity you see this saloon has 321 liters but the rs3 hatchback only has 281 liters of big capacity which is odd now this mercedes though 370 liters of space now i’ve actually found a deal on one of

These cars through car wow if you want to find out which car it is and what the deal is click on the pop-up bar up there for the link in the description below anyway enough of that let’s launch these cars okay now i’m going to launch the little mercedes amg a45s what’s it gonna do the way this sets off is mental the gear changes are brilliant whoa 3.83 seconds

Wow time for the audi can it beat the mercedes launch control oh there we go there’s a 60. 3.9 seconds dead so the mercedes just beat it however i have had quicker times out of both these cars and this is what i got out of the audi oh sweet launch nord 63.6 seconds and this is what i got out of the mercedes that’s 16 3.65 seconds and if you want to find out

Exactly what i mean click on the pop-out button up there for the link in the description below to watch my drag race video between the new audi rs3 and the mercedes mg a45s plus some other cars so then what’s my final verdict well the audi rs3 is really good so it’s easy to live with every day it looks great especially in this saloon body style it’s fast and

It’s fun however it’s not as much fun as the mercedes amg yes it’s a little bit harder to live with but it’s doable and it’ll put a bigger smile on your face when you send it down a country road and really that’s what these cars are all about and that’s why the mercedes mg wins this test i hope you’ll enjoy the video if you did give it a like let me know what you

Think of my verdict in the comments below click on those windows there for some more videos and on that box there to see how much your car is worth all you have to do is upload some photos and ideas will bid on your car and you can choose to sell it to the highest offer if you wanna it’s completely free

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Audi RS3 v Mercedes-AMG A45 S: Which is best? By carwow