Merc to revive straight six, plus 4cyl and smaller V8s

Mercedes has just signed off a new engine family which will see most full-sized Mercs in future run four-cylinders, downsized V8s and… straight sixes.

A friendly Mercedes engineer recently met CAR to disclose the engine plans for future models, including the surprise disclosure that Merc plans to switch to straight sixes, like its rivals over in Munich. 

It's fair to say I almost choked on my breakfast croissant when I found out the details of the next MB engine generation which has just been signed off for release in 2015.

Again, there will be a family of new low-cost fours, and the big-bore V8s will be replaced by a series of downsized turbocharged 4.0-litre units.

So far, so good. But who would have expected that the V6 is on its way out, both in diesel and petrol form?

Instead, Mercedes-Benz is going to revive the in-line six for use in its larger cars. Our source at Daimler suggests it will be available in single and twin-turbo guise.

What with the engines flowing from the Renault-Nissan empire after the alliance – with three- and four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines bound for future Smart and smaller Mercs – it sounds like tomorrow's Mercedes models will have quite a different feel to today's.

By Georg Kacher