Mercedes A 45 AMG goes off-road in the Desert (video)

The Mercedes A 45 AMG is a proper little pocket rocket for the road, but Mercedes has taken the A 45 AMG off-road in the desert to show its prowess.

The Mercedes A 45 AMG struts its stuff in the desert

The Mercedes A 45 AMG is now starting to appear in small numbers on UK roads after buyers have been tempted to shell out nearly £40k for the quickest Mercedes A-Class there’s ever been.

But it seems Mercedes don’t want us to think of the A 45 AMG as just a very hot hatch for the roads, but as a little hot hatch with some proper off-road pretensions.

So they’ve taken the A 45 AMG off to West Africa to show it at play on the dirt tracks and sand dunes, and we have to say that Mercedes 4MATIC four wheel drive does seem to make a decent fist of coping with what’s thrown at it.

We’ve no doubt the A 45 AMG’s 4WD will help it make short work of unmade roads and surfaces that are less than perfect, but we’re not enhtirely sure just how brilliant it will be on sand dunes, notoriously difficult to keep going on.

But in the footage Mercedes shows of the A 45 AMG, with its 4WD and 355bhp of grunt, certainly seems to have enough power and traction to keep everything on the move.

We doubt many buyers of the A45 AMG have bought it for anything other than its on-road prowess, but we’re sure they’ll be reassured that if they do decide to find a sand dune to play on they’ve at least got a fighting chance.