A45 AMG to M235i some questions

Hi guys



Currently owning a 2014 A45 AMG, which I will discuss a bit below. Before always owned BMW cars (1 series), and I would say we kind of are a BMW family at home (father receiving his 435d in a month), stepmom owning a 1 series as well. I was always looking forward to the 2 series (years ago), but then Mercedes made the A45 AMG and I really liked it…

Anyway, now that I went to the Autosalon in Brussels, I saw a M235i in white with all the performance parts installed and now I’m torn apart between keeping the A45 AMG or going back to BMW and buying a (second hand) M235i.



Obviously opinions on this forum will tend to be more positive towards the M235i, because otherwise you guys wouldn’t have bought it, but I hope you could help me with some of the questions I have, as objectively as possible :D .



First I’ll ‘review’ my A45 a bit so that you know what I like and dislike about my current car. If you don’t like to hear about it, just skip this part :D :



Likes/Pro’s:

- The 19’ Black AMG wheels with silver lining, I absolutely love those

- The exhaust sound, especially on downshifts or when releasing the throttle

- The interior in general (seats, dashboard, …)

- Grip on the road (however it is completely different than RWD BMWs, the overall grip is good because of the AWD (pitty only 50% power to the rear wheels))

- The brakes are stunning

- Nice acceleration

- Beautiful pano roof on a white A45

- Could be easily tuned to 400-450 hp



Dislikes/Cons:

- The car is really really stiff. It should have been less stiff with option buttons to make it stiffer.

- A lot of rattles. It started with the passenger door, the center console and now (probably because of the coldness in the winter) the pano roof also started to rattle.

- Gearbox isn’t that good. Once running it’s beautiful, but there is quite a bit of take off lag and taking a 3 point turn takes forever. (Not a big issue though)

- Engine sound, but I wasn’t expecting a nice engine sound. It’s quite obvious when buying a 4 cilinder 2 liter engine car.

- Overall view from inside of the car is less than with my previous 1 series, but something you get used to.





Now concerning my questions, if you could give me some opinions about the car in general, that would be great.



Also I haven’t found any (ECU-)tuned acceleration video’s or times. I think the A45 AMG can do 200km/h in around 14 seconds tuned completely by Rebellion. Does anyone have 0-100 km/h or 0-200 km/h times of the M235i (tuned)?



Now should I be changing, there is the choice between the RWD M235i or the M235i xDrive. I’d be tempting to take the xDrive version, but this one’s around 8k euro more expensive, so are there any opinions on this matter? I remember that with my 200hp 1 series it was hard getting nice traction when taking off when it had rained. How’s the traction in both versions wet and dry? Other pro’s and cons of both versions?



The last (minor) thing I was worrying about was the fuel consumption. With the A45 I’m currently averaging 11l/100km with spirited driving. On the A45 AMG forum this is about the average of most of the drivers. Normal driving would be around 9,5-10,5l, highway driving is around 7-8l while keeping to the speed limit, while very spirited drives can go up to 16l-18l/100km. Could anyone have a go at the average fuel consumption of the M235i?



I’ve been thinking about this car ‘issue’ for 2 weeks now and I hope you guys could help me a little.



Thank you in advance



(Oh and is there a facebook page somewhere for m235i owners?)