M282

The 1.6-liter M270 needed replacing, and Daimler did not do it alone: the M282 was engineered with the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi alliance, which sells the identical engine as the Renault H5Ht and the Nissan HR13DDT. Renault supplies the long block; MDC Power assembles it at Kölleda in Thuringia. Ordered with the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, it became the first Mercedes-Benz four to shut cylinders down — valve-lift adjustment holds the inlet and exhaust valves of cylinders two and three closed under part load between 1,250 and 3,800 rpm.

It arrived in the W 177 A-Class in 2018 with a particulate filter as standard and, in the A 200, a quarter more power per liter than the 1.6 it displaced. From there it spread across everything Mercedes-Benz builds with the engine mounted transversely: A-Class hatch and saloon, B-Class, CLA, GLA, GLB, and the A 250 e and CLA 250 e plug-in hybrids. Three states of tune cover the entire entry range from A 160 to A 200 — downsizing reduced to a single engine doing every job.