Truly the best drive of the year, the A 45 AMG finds itself right up there with the legends of the past year. There is much to love about the little Merc but we're just surprised how much performance Stuttgart managed to pack into this little hatch. Century sprint time of 4.6s, top speed of 270kmh and all that from a little 2.0-litre four cylinder engine.

For all its conservative dimensions, the A 45 AMG has the performance envelope of a larger car with an exhaust sound to match. Every upshift is met with a thunderous crack that pierces the air. It is a supercar packed into a small car body.

And it isn't all show either. An intelligent 4MATIC all-wheel drive system ensures that your face will be properly warped around the bends before it lets go.

We honour the A 45 AMG as our top pick for the year for delivering supercar performance in a humble hatch.

Well done AMG and thank you to Herr Axel Kürschner for building the brilliant engine in our test car.