It appears that horsepower – and performance – are not everything, even to people who crave both. There are other, intangible, things that matter at least as much. Such as the sound made by a six or an eight rather than a four – and never mind the absence of any sound worth listening to emanating from a battery and electric motors.
It “failed to resonate” – an anonymous source within Mercedes Benz told a reporter from the UK car publication Autocar.
He was referring to the sound made by MB’s 2.0 liter four cylinder engine, which – via the miracle of turbocharging – manages to produce as much as 671 horsepower and 752 ft.-lbs. of torque in ultra-performance MB models such as the C63 AMG, which used to come with a less powerful V8. Mercedes kept the name but changed what it meant. At one time – about ten years ago – the C63 AMG came with a 6.3 liter V8 , just as once upon a time other Mercedes models were designated by their class and what was under the hood. The E350 sedan was an E Class sedan that had a 3.5 liter V6 under its hood.
Today, the “E350” comes standard with a . . . 2.0 liter four.
It fails to resonate, too – as anyone who has driven one will tell you. The car accelerates snappily but the sound is wrong – because fours are not sixes and fours sound wrong in cars that cost almost $60,000 to start. They sound even worse in $86,050 ultra-performance cars such as the four-cylinder-powered 2025 C63 AMG, irrespective of their performance. The sound of 2.0 liters doesn’t resonate. Probably for essentially the same reason that a highly nutritious compressed square of cricket protein doesn’t resonate, either – even if it has more protein than a nice ribeye.
Mercedes management people were struck dumb by the sales failure of the four cylinder-powered “C63.” Just as the people running Dodge after upper management – Carols Tavares – who pulled the V8 out of the Charger and turned it into a battery powered device were shocked to discover almost no one was interested in buying one.
It did not matter that the device had more power and was quicker than the V8-powered Charger.
It failed to resonate.
That is why – after it became apparent that the battery-powered Charger was as unwanted by people who loved the V8-powered Charger as cricket patties are unwanted by people who love meat – Dodge management pulled up the parking brake handle and did a 180. The V8 is coming back, even though it may already be too late.
Mercedes is doing the same – and maybe just in time. It is heave-ho’ing the 2.0 liter four altogether and replacing it, in performance models, with inline sixes and V8s, which are sure to resonate with performance car buyers.
“Technically, the four-cylinder is one of the most advanced drivetrains available in a production car. It’s also right up there on performance. But despite this, it failed to resonate with our traditional customers,” said the MB source, who just had to slap MB’s “traditional” customers. This shows MB still doesn’t get it. They think the problem is essentially a failure to appreciate the wonderfulness of 2.0 liter fours that make nearly 700 horsepower and more than 700 ft.-lbs. of torque. Put bluntly, MB management apparently thinks the problem is that “traditional” MB performance car buyers are foot-dragging troglodytes who are too stupid to appreciate the miracle that is the 2.0 liter four cylinder engine. That’s a not-smart thing to tell your customers, who aren’t stupid in the least.
They are discerning. They want something more under the hood of their $80k-plus exotic than the same thing – just less powerful – that is under the hood of $28,000 VWs. It was stupid – of Mercedes – to fail to understand that. It is astounding that MB does not understand that and appears to be bringing back sixes and V8s only begrudgingly. Letting the “traditionals” – sigh – have what they want. Rather than understanding why they want it and why that want is legitimate.
More so now than ever – because even sixes have become near-exotic in that it is no longer possible to find more than a 2.0 liter four in anything that doesn’t cost at least $40,000 or more. The V6 engines that for decades were optional in affordably priced family cars such as the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Mazda6 are all gone now, replaced by . . . little fours. Some have been enhanced by turbocharging and hybridizing and some make as much or even more power than the V6s engines they’ve supplanted. But it still feels cheap somehow, even in a $35,000 car. And it feels like a gyp in a $50,000 car.
Never mind an $85,000 car.
So, good on Mercedes for bringing back the sixxes and eights – even if it’s not for exactly the right reason.
. . .
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“failed to resonate” Awesome extrapolation. Never buying an $80,000 Dollar mule, liked your recent bit about what to buy, sans The Robot in the machine.
\..Do more. If you would. Buying, the-way-back-machine.
…So tempted by a rust-free 95′ Mercury Cougar for 10-Grand & an equally rust-free ’86 S-10 Blazer for 20 Grand. …That’s, ‘The Best’ America has to offer today. In, ‘The Heartland’.
…Sad, but True.
I wonder what the service schedule is on that / warranty options for that 4cyl…
4bangers have their time and place; I got a GR86 that’s 4banger suits its light weight and still pulls easily in 6th on the highway, and my old A4 was ahead of the curve when a 4banger in a Lux vehicle was more of a novelty than ubiquitous, plus it was FBO basically sans injectors.
Still, if I’m gonna spend big money on a car, I want big engines, regardless of the power. No one wants to spend $60k for a 4banger, regardless of the badge, esp a hybridized one. The only exception is a Turbo Diesel, and they sadly don’t offer those in anything outside of a Truck
Turbocharged means burns up faster. Whether its a car engine or an overclocked CPU. Burns up faster means you have to buy a new one sooner. That’s the game.
That engine is insane. It should totally be in a motorcycle. A luxury MB should have a v12 like the S600 and SL 600 of the past
It sounds wrong, and feels wrong. Kid’s Mazda 6 is a great car to buzz around in – nice interior, the small peasant seats reasonably comfortable and of course great steering and brakes.
Buzz is the “buzzword” here though. A muffled 4 banger just sounds weak. You can motor mount and balance all you want it still won’t idle like a proper 6 or better, a V8.
Cold start warmup phase there is a certain high idle rpm point it just isn’t smooth and with an auto trans in gear the steering wheel shakes a bit. I’d be royally po’d paying luxury price for a peasant car experience.
A couple weekends ago I saw a Packard tooling along on the tollway. It had a V12. Now that’s an engine!
Oh wow! No CAD CAM manufacturing back then either. Smart people figured it out built some beautiful things 90 years ago.
Packards were luxury cars, but still.
Mercedes Benz: Because you suck and we hate you.
Are they owned by the same people as Heckler & Koch?
“Fake and gay” really boils down to “fake is gay”. Many manufacturers are piping fake exhaust harmonies into the stereo systems. They, all the performance car manufacturers are doing it because then they can keep sound emissions down while making making the driver “resonate” with the motor.
The Ford Mustang GT coyote has a suboptimal Firing Order: 1-5-4-8-6-3-7-2, the same as the Ford Flathead V8, in order to achieve a certain “resonance”.
I would therefore submit in the name of design purity that the Coyote is therefore “gay”.
I also think that the Abarth/Fiat 500 sounds beautiful, so you don’t have to have a v12 Ferrari, or even a Shelby GT500 to have beautiful sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la6MupCrodU
The problem Mercedes has is that your snobby neighbor will know that you only have 4 cylinders. I refuse to live my life caring about what snobby neighbors think.
Most automakers websites, at least I have noticed, bury information about their engines. Even to the point you have to look around to find out what is even under the hood of a model.
At one time, even in the age of websites, engine info would be front and center.
Now all the front info is about technology and screens and other nonsense like “safety” crap.
And then they wonder why people yawn and keep the car they have?
And they think we are dumb for not thinking new is better?
How stupid are they?
Eric “Put bluntly, MB management apparently thinks the problem is that “traditional” MB performance car buyers are foot-dragging troglodytes who are too stupid to appreciate the miracle that is the 2.0 liter four cylinder engine. ”
Mercedes is engaged in wishful group-thinking that everyone thinks just like them. Well as Tommy Norris said in the series “Landman”: “you can wish in one hand and sh’t in the other and see which one fills up first.”
Speaking of the frickin’ krauts, they’re polishing their jackboots again:
‘On Wednesday morning at 6 a.m., a large-scale police operation was launched across Germany, targeting hundreds of individuals suspected of insulting politicians or spreading “hate and incitement” online.
‘The massive crackdown saw police launch morning raids against 170 individuals, which saw police seize computers, cell phones, and tablets, and conduct searches in multiple locations across the country.
‘The action, which was conducted by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), uses the new Criminal Code Paragraph 188 to target individuals accused of raaaaacism and haaaate speech.
“Digital arsonists must not be able to hide behind their cell phones or computers,” said Herbert Reul, Interior Minister of North Rhime-Westphalia. His state conducted 14 of the approximately 130 nationwide cases in a “day of action” against so-called hate postings.’
https://rmx.news/article/german-police-launch-nationwide-house-raids-against-170-citizens-over-hate-speech-and-insults-against-politicians/
No doubt a stint in a concentration kamp will augment the mental hygiene of these haters, trolls and shit-posters.
Arbeit macht frei, bitchez.
Politicians IMHO are not openly mocked and scorned enough.
Trying to make their critics into “criminals” are in themselves a criminal act.
Remember. In Germany, it’s the people who DON’T want to invade Poland, redo Operation Barbarossa, and put people in camps who are the Nazis.
‘MB’s 2.0 liter four cylinder engine, which – via the miracle of turbocharging – manages to produce as much as 671 horsepower and 752 ft.-lbs. of torque.’ — eric
Whereas a 4.0 liter V8, with milder boost, could produce the same power figures with much more satisfying driveability and vroom, vroom noises.
But it is difficult to convince a German* of the simplest fact, without a pressure-treated 2×4 learning aid to whack his skull. Dummkopf!
*even one not named Trump, and not cognitively crippled with raging NPD.
That’s what I always say, do all those things to V8’s. Imagine cars with over 1000 horsepower!!
Perhaps one reason MB customers balked at paying $86,050 for a four cylinder engine no matter how powerful it is that they know long term durability would be lower than in an 8 cylinder engine. Even though they will trade it in before the engine fails they know that a reputation of engine failures will kill their cars resale value.