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.
George Orwell was right…..!
Screw the stupid regulations. Why make them quieter? Part of the soul in a performance car is the sound, the other is the way it drives, handles, etc.
Couldn’t agree more!
Don’t worry aftermarket exhaust will easily rectify this problem. They don’t need to be crazy loud, just turn the volume up one notch.
yeah sure and then youre fckd when the police pulls you over
Not necessarily. Not all aftermarket exhausts are crazy loud. For example you could just get a more free flowing backbox which will only be a few decibels louder, that will be enough to make it more enjoyable but not attract unwanted attention.
Europe is a fuc&ed up place!
Sir, your prune juice cocktail is ready.
Civilized, living together for centuries. How many Americans just died?
Civilized? Yep, right. Migrants throwing off people in front of the trains. Migrants raping the local girls. Migrants abusing the country people… Indeed, a place you desire to live in.
So you don’t know where BMW come from. For over a century. Clever.
Are you quoting the white nationalist murderers manifesto?
Wow you little Nazi sympathizer mods delete criticism of this little fascist?
Go fuck yourselves you useless little shitbags
This is a good thing in my opinion. Too many times I get woken up by loud exhausts and boy racers tearing up the neighbourhood.
You know what? You do have a point. I too don’t want to be woken up many people with loud, riced out exhausts tearing it up in the neighborhood, but also at the end of the day, many of us car guys appreciate a fantastic sounding masterpieces and engineering.
What are you doing on a BMW blog??? Clearly you’re not a car person.
I like the i3, I’m mainly here for the leccy car coverage.
There are only two markets: restricted quiet markets and unrestricted louder markets.
Therefore there need to be only two exhuast designs. How they are marketed is a manufacturers decision.
The whole discussion is flawed. Muting down a nice B58 or an AMG v8 is pointless when the real yobos with their A45 or Hurracan can terrorize whole city blocks with 100% legal exhausts.
Exactly, it makes no sense at all. You can’t make something like a Hurracan sound quiet, then why should an A45 AMG or any M Car or any AMG for that matter be this muted?? This does explain why the new A45S sound so much worse than the outgoing model.
Horrible evolution. So modern cars will lose even more of their souls. Sad. :(