Like Steve Austin’s doctors, Mercedes-Benz engineers realized they had the technology to make the brand’s four-cylinder engines better than they were before. Better, stronger…smaller.
As the automaker prepares to expand its lineup of compact, front-wheel-drive offerings to eight models, new powerplants are the order of the day. Designed to propel vehicles using the next-generation MFA2 platform, the new engine family comes in a variety of flavors, one of which will likely appear stateside.
According to Autocar, the M282 engines, developed in partnership with Renault-Nissan, will displace 1.2 and 1.4 liters. This represents a serious effort to squeeze power out of as little cylinder volume as possible. While 1.2 liters has “overseas only” written all over it, American carbuyers are now used to seeing 1.4-liter mills in Chevrolets and Volkswagens.
As the first application of the new engine family won’t come until this time next year — the next-generation A-Class — power figures remain unknown. Certainly, even low-end Mercedes vehicles require a measure of competitiveness.
After appearing in the newly enlarged A-Class (which Mercedes plans to offer in the U.S.), M282 engines will then appear in other front-drive models, including the B-Class, CLA and GLA. In an odd move, the A-Class will slot between the CLA and C-Class as an Audi A3 fighter.
Another model reportedly approved for a U.S. launch is the GLB compact utility vehicle, which will share the same MFA2 platform.
While the M282 engines are all-new, they won’t be the only new four-cylinders in the lineup. A premium nameplate requires an option for more displacement. As such, the automaker plans to offer a heavily revamped M274 engine it has dubbed the M260. That engine will arrive with 1.6 and 2.0 liters of displacement, no doubt serving as the go-to mill for the brand’s U.S. front-drive lineup.
An extremely hot turbocharged variant of the 2.0-liter should appear in AMG-badged vehicles, potentially passing the 400-horsepower mark.
[Image: Mercedes-Benz]
Great, more four-cylinder, FWD stuff from Mercedes-Benz. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Having driven a 5-cylinder RWD Mercedes, I can’t pretend an A-class with a 1.6 and FWD would be in any way inferior.
Nice looking Mercedes Ghibli.
As long as the star lights up, that’s all I need.
Careful. The PR bots can’t smell sarcasm.
My predictions: next generation C-class and its CUV variants will share a FWD platform with Nissan/Renault. And since they are sharing so many platforms and engines, the beancounters and corporate strategists will announce that a merger of equals is to take place between M-B and Nissan/Renault which will offer lots of “back-office” economies, but brand distinctions will be maintained. Then the E-Class and S-Class will be announced as FWD platform offshoots because it will provide more passenger space for the self-driving variants, since customers don’t care about performance anymore anyway…
Moar leasing. Moaaaarrrrr.
Well, yeah, you lease, or you end up with a $900/mo car payment (assuming zero percent interest) on a five year buy on a $55,000 car, and you’re upside down before you wheel the thing into Starbucks on the way home from the dealer. F**k that.
Leasing is ***the*** way to go with luxury brands.
Or buy used
Even with CPO, it’s a crapshoot with German brands. Used Lexus, maybe.
CarMax + Extended Warranty?
I’d rather lease, personally.
Ask for the DDM Special!
There’s nothing wrong with buying a German premium brand car and having a $900/month payment as long as you can afford it.
However, there IS something wrong with buying a 1.6l German luxury car under any circumstances.
And calling a car with 4cyl an AMG is just silly, no matter how much HP they manage to wring out of that little thing.
Some engines are a science experiment, and that is OK, provided my tenure equals the warranty. I’ve said a lot about depreciation being the price of warranty, but for some of these cars, that is a fair deal. I’ve replaced enough $8 and $50 parts on my german cars….buried under three hours of labor.
…….. I wonder what my lease payment could be. If its under $325, and I can put the down payment on my Visa……. Look out office parking lot, she got her self a new Mercedes Benz! I know it only allows me to drive 100 miles per month, I wonder how much Uber is going to cost?
I want just one maker to create a two-liter displacement tax engine that has six cylinders instead of four. If a decent product were around that engine, its maker would have a very good chance of liberating some lease payments from me.
2.0L V6? I dunno about this. What was the last 2.0L V6? The Mazda K engine in the 90s? I know they had a 2.0L and a 1.8L V6.
2 ltr inline 6 – that at least would be smooooooooth.
There are a good number of 80s-90s Nissans (and some 1G-powered X80 Toyotas) floating around in the US now.
That tiny Mazda V-6 was a great engine in search of a decent looking car to put it in. As it was, they put it in the MX-3, which was just awful looking.
Reminds me of the Ford 2.5L/3.0L Duratec V6. The sexiest thing the 2.5L was in was the Contour SVT or Mercury Cougar. It would have been nice to see another generation of the Probe with the 3.0L V6.
Nissan’s RB-series inline sixes, which included the vaunted 2.6L RB26DETT, included a 2.0L normally aspirated variant.
Nobody seems to have nice things to say about the 2.5 liter v6 in the Lexus IS, dal.
Has been done before… some 1991-2002 Alfa Romeos came with a “Busso” 2.0l turbo V6 with 200-ish hp. I think it was a 3.0 block sleeved down to hell.
Two things about this.
1) Haven’t we recently been reading that a number of OEMs (I remember Ford and VW, maybe) were beginning to move away from ultra-low displacement engines on grounds that they pollute like a MF’er? Like, way, way out of bounds given their displacement?
2) 400 hp from a very hot 2.0L I-4? Gonna be so reliable in 30 years. they’ll call it “bulletproof” on the grounds that it explodes before you have a chance to shoot it.
Yes, but it will be a few more years before those engines are ready for production.
Well, MB already gets 375hp out of the CLA/GLA AMG 2.0T, so it wouldnt be that much of a stretch.
Supposedly due to the giant turbo its one of those On/Off engines though, so it wouldnt be my first choice to getting 400hp in a car.
1.4 and 1.6l are not ultra-low displacement at all. Ultra-low would be (sub-) 1 liter.
Yawn. Saw an AMG CLA yesterday…what a royal waste of money. The internet does not have enough space for a list of more worthy cars at that price point.
More fours ? A 400 hp four ? While I’m impressed by the specific output as a geek, I’m not impressed enough to actually send them money for it.
A four is NOT a luxury class engine. Period. Not in an E Class or 5 series. Not in a CTS or CT6. I’m unhappy that the current Porsches have a 4 at that price point. Until gas goes to $10/gal like Europe (of course, we’d have to get the perfect roads, mass transit, and social health care too) a four has no business being in anything other than FWD-type small cars…topping out at GTi.
What’s your specific objection to 4 cylinders in luxury cars? NVH, power delivery, reliability, image?
It seems overly reductive to me to rule out engines entirely due to the number of jugs or they manner in which they are arranged.
I’m very car and powertrain-aware and have been in several modern rentals where I couldn’t tell whether it had the 4 or 6 without checking underhood.
Part of what you’re buying with a luxury car is status. Until the volume brands are sporting twins and triples, you don’t have status with a 4. For me personally, a four or a triple in a sports car is a different story. Wouldn’t bother me at all. For example, I’d be fine with the triple in the i8. In a luxury car, if I couldn’t hear or feel that it was a four it wouldn’t bother me either – mainly because I don’t give a crap about what other people think. Now, other people might have an issue with status.
NVH and reliability. (Though even with a Deutsche six, those traits could be mutually exclusive anyway.)
When will they bring that nice-looking inline-6 over here to the States in the E-Class? That seems like it would be a perfect combo.