Mercedes Benz’s facelifted A45 is fashionably powerful

The world of luxury runs across many spectrums. Be it cars, fashion, real estate or jewellery. Often times people who enjoy a certain type of luxury also enjoy another. For instance, someone who is a fan of sports cars could possibly be a fan of luxury watches or bespoke tailoring. Some brands have known this for some time now and as a result they have managed to merge the various interests of their consumers. By so doing they have been able take their brand from being perceived as a brand specialising in one thing, to a brand known for its lifestyle attributes.

At the end of the month, the Mercedes Benz fashion week will commence. This week will consist of some of South Africa’s most talented designers. Names such as Craig Native, Adriaan Kuiters and David Tlale will all showcase their work at the MBFW. Being a fashion designer is not an easy job, as glamorous as it seems, making sure your products are viewed as some of the best means a tremendous amount of hard work behind the scenes. Sourcing the right quality materials and using the best manufacturing methods, whilst incorporating creative designs is part of the process of being a great fashion designer. Marketing your products and measuring up to international standards is another aspect of the business. Those international standards are not child’s play, that is why the competition is so tough and you need to be always adapting to stay in the game.

Similarly, developing an engine that creates 280kW of power and 475Nm of torque from a 2.0litre turbo is not simply a case of turning up the boost. The thing is that when Mercedes Benz offers so much power from a small engine to its clients, that engine needs to last. Reliability is of key importance, so when the A45 had its recent power update in the facelift, Mercedes needed to make sure that it is also reliable enough too. That is why Mercedes had to fit a new valve assembly, shorten the gear ratios and change how the turbo boosts. In the performance hatch world, the standards keep getting raised very often. They hyper hatch segment is at its most competitive, with the likes of Audi releasing their RS3 soon. BMW is also developing their M2 and even though it is not a hatch, it will be thrown into the ring with the Mercedes and the Audi for a fight till the death. Who will be victorious? Only time will tell, for now if your’e looking into purchasing a Mercedes Benz A45, you’ll have a fitter machine to choose. According to Mercedes, the car will average 6.9l per 100km too, which most Mercedes A45 clients won’t see because when you buy an A45 you don’t buy it for its fuel consumption. That figure is simply a nice thing to know.

So as different as fashion and motoring are, there are many synergies between the two. Both are high pressure industries driven by trends and the power of the consumer. Little wonder why Mercedes has chosen to be part of one of the most well known fashion shows in the country. Mercedes is showing us that they’re not only interested in selling you a car, they’re interested in selling you a lifestyle. In the new Mercedes A45 you’ll definitely be fashionably powerful and there’s no harm in looking good and going fast.