I know this is something you never wanted to hear but it looks like some regulation changes in Europe will make exhausts of all cars quieter in the near future. The news comes from Australian magazine Motoring, quoting a Mercedes-AMG official. As we all know, AMG cars have some of the best sounds on the market today, most of the time providing a better aural experience than an equivalent BMW M car, but that’s all about to change.
It looks like the regulators want to test cars in their loudest setting from now on which means manufacturers will have to take steps to make them quieter overall. The first cars to be hit by these new rules are the Mercedes-AMG A45 and A45 S models, which are noticeably toned down compared to their predecessors. Now, I know what you’re thinking: just make the European models quieter and let us enjoy more sound in other parts of the world. Accountants might have a saying in that though.
As per the head of product planning for Mercedes-AMG compact cars, Bastian Bogenschutz, speaking to Motoring, that’s not a viable choice as it may be too expensive to implement: “We can [design specific exhausts] but it’s too expensive for every market to do it, it’s pretty difficult.” Thus, since these high-performance cars are mostly made in Europe, including BMW M models, chances are we will get less noise out of our exhausts from now on.
What that also means is that, in order to convey the feeling of speed to the driver more accurately, car makers will rely more on solutions such as Active Sound Design, which is dreaded by the BMW community. Basically, we’ll get more engine sound pumped through the speakers inside the cabin.
