IT COULD be argued that the addition of all-wheel-drive to the facelifted Mercedes-Benz A250 Sport has moved this little A45 AMG lookalike even closer to its weapons-grade sibling from the Affalterbach skunkworks.

Sure, all the traction in the world could never help it match the A45’s record-breaking powerhouse of an engine, but for those not venturing to a race track or willing to risk their license on the public road, even the pre-facelift, front-drive A250 packed enough punch to make respectable back-road progress.

So is the A250 Sport 4Matic now a cut-price A45 alternative for the public road? We drove one back-to-back with the also-updated AMG variant to see exactly how close you can get while saving the $24,400 premium – enough to buy a base-spec VW Golf – commanded by the enigmatic uber-hatch.

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