According to an Automotive News Europe report yesterday, Mercedes is set to have an entirely turbocharged automobile lineup by 2010-2011. You might have noticed that while the "big boys" blogged it immediately, we at TTAC did not. The story, which was originally published in Europe based on a European presentation, was just too many steps removed from Dieter Zetsche to race to press – and a little too wild. Rather than pull an Autoblog on the CTS-V/Europe (rush to report, then recant ), we held off until getting confirmation from the author of the original news story, James Franey. Well it turns out that the madness, in this case, is true – until Mercedes changes its mind. In the meantime, the plan is to go all turbocharged, aside from perhaps the hybrid models set to debut in the coming years. You can see in the attached PDF that Daimler is defecating a brick over the upcoming European emissions regulations and their very European fines for noncompliance. Everything will end up with some kind of marketing-lover name – Bluetec, BlueEfficiency, and DiesOtto. The latter is the most exciting from an enthusiast point of view, with the concept DiesOtto engine delivering 238 hp, 294 lb ft of torque, and 40 US MPG from a 1.8 liter gasoline engine in an S-Class. And from Zetsche's presentation, it looks like it'll be happening. Oh yeah, and everything will get turbos, too.
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Great find on YouTube!! Hilarious.
Will the brand snobs be satisfied with a 1.8 in their S-classes?
@factotum:
Absolutely not. but think of the mpgs it’ll get in the C-Class and even E-Classes.
The 1.8 was just a tech showcase anyway for the DiesOtto process. Diesel engine method, gasoline as fuel. I’m no engineer but it sounds like cool stuff.
Would I want to drive any car with a 1.8 boosted to nearly 240hp? Sure, that could be fun.
Would I want to drive ” in a 4500 lbs luxury sedan? Hell no.
I’ll be happy to take your big, inefficient V-12s off your hands for a small fee. After all, you can’t sell a 10-15mpg car in todays market, so I’ll be doing you a favour. I’ll take a W140 600SEC in black, please.
Ah… nice to see Pumpish’s 300E turbo. interesting thing is that the internals are factory on that M103 SOHC 3-litre six.