Mercedes to bring back the inline-six engine in 2016 E-class and 2017 C-Class

Mercedes Benz is working on the return of the straight-six engine which was phased out in the mid-90s. According to reports from Autocar, the 2016 E-class would be the first one to get this engine followed by the 2017 C-class getting one, amongst the family of engines developed on the same lines.

Apart from this spec, one amongst the family of advanced engines, the three-cylinder and four-cylinder engines, later will receive a similar treatment based on that architecture.

The inline-six engine will be seen in 2016 in the carmaker’s E-class codenamed W213. Also the revamped C-class is in the final stage of the development process and is expected to get the new three-cylinder engine from the new family of modular engines in 2017. Mercedes expects this car’s engine to be refined enough to maintain the good standards of the automaker’s cars.

Apart from the new engines the next gen E-class and C-class cars are also speculated to be having the ‘Autobahn Pilot’ system which helps the driver overtake cars in cruise control. It would be interesting to see the arrival of the straight-six engines coupled with modern technology as they have been missing for about a decade now on the mid-size executive cars from Mercedes Benz.