Some people question how “low” Mercedes can go in terms of the vehicles offered to the U.S. market.

That is, there is a general notion of what “a Mercedes” is so far as most people are concerned, and it is something that is in the “luxury” category, and “luxury” generally signifies something that is a solid sedan or a seriously sporty coupe.

smart forjeremy

Although smart falls under the Daimler umbrella, there is still a significant arms-length between Mercedes products and those that are offered by the quirky producer of diminutive vehicles that appear to belong as much at an amusement park as on highways—maybe more for the former than the latter.

Mercedes CLA

There is the forthcoming CLA, which starts at $29,900, which strike some as low would like to image a Mercedes retailing for in order to maintain its luxury image. After all, the 2014 Kia Cadenza has a starting price of $35,100. The point here is not that the Kia is priced too high (we haven’t driven it yet, but will next month, but given the size and content, it seems not out of line), but that Mercedes might be going too low.

However, this is simply a culturally based perception, because in other parts of the world, such as its home base in Germany, one is as likely to see a Mercedes taxi and one would see a Crown Victoria in New York. And there are smaller variants of Mercedes cars too, such as the A Class and the B Class.

Mercedes A Class

What’s more, there is this, the 2013 Kids’ Bike, designed for children between three and six. It is priced at €299.90. Who would have imagined a new, bona fide Mercedes vehicle for about $400?

Yes, a real Mercedes

Although Volvo isn’t exactly selling cars in the U.S. with great vigor—according to Autodata, through March it sold 15,107 vehicles in the U.S., giving it a 0.4% market share—Volvo Car Group is still working hard to develop new and innovative technology, presumably understanding that there are other parts of the world where the company might do better—to say nothing of the fact that it is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, based in Hangzhou, China.

The company has announced something called “i-ART” technology for its diesel engines. Essentially, the i-ART system is based on using sensors for each fuel injector rather than a single pressure sensor for the entire common rail system. Explains Derek Crabb, Powertrain Engineering vice president at Volvo Car Group, “Each injector has a small computer on top, which monitors injection pressure. Using this information, the self-adapting i-ART system makes sure that the ideal amount of fuel is injected during each combustion cycle.”

It is also worth noting that they’re performing injections at 2,500 bar.

Volvo has developed what it’s named “Volvo Engine Architecture.” It is the basis of a line of gasoline and diesel engines that will be introduced in the market this fall. This modular engine line will use direct injection. Turbocharging will be deployed. In some cases they’ll boost performance via electrification. Volvo has also developed an eight-speed automatic.

Crabb: “We will create smaller, more intelligent engines with so much power that they will turn V8s into dinosaurs.”

Volvo’s Derek Crabb

While many OEMs have said that the days of the V8 may be waning, this is the first time we’ve had someone come out with a Cretaceous reference.

Crabb went on to say, “Our four-cylinder engines will offer higher performance than today’s six-cylinder units and lower fuel consumption than the current four-cylinder generation. On top of that, electrification will bring us up to power figures in today’s V8 territory.”

The engines will be manufactured at the Volvo plant in Skövde, Sweden.

Here’s hoping that Volvo is able to emerged from the Land of the Lost sales-wise so these new powertains will have a chance to prove their evolutionary advances.

Catch a wave. . .

Nick Malachowski, a designer in the Chrysler Advanced studio, told me that he’d driven a Jeep Wrangler for a couple of years. “There was one thing that always surprised me. When I’d pass by another Wrangler driver, they’d wave,” he said.

A few days later, I was behind the wheel of a 2013 Jeep Wrangler Moab, a limited edition model based on the Wrangler Sahara model (i.e., it is a $5,200 package on top of the base price for the Wrangler Unlimited Sahara). Evidently they have a thing for Jeep-like destinations in Auburn Hills.

And sure enough, a Wrangler and a wave. A Wrangler and a wave. Grand Cherokee? Nothing. Patriot? Nope. Compass? Please. Liberty. Not even.

I parked the Jeep in the deck at the McNamara Terminal in Detroit. When I came back from the trip I found a Wrangler—a two-door, not a four like the Moab—parked next to the Jeep. While that neighboring Wrangler was not a Moab, the owner evidentially spent more than a few bucks adding mods to the vehicle.

Clearly, there is a brother- and sister-hood among Wrangler owners. I suspect this has a lot to do with the fact that they all have an affinity for owning vehicles that are machines built to take whatever can be thrown at them—and still have the capacity to take even more.

Yes, as a modern, 21^st century vehicle the Moab has a certain amount of refinement compared to, say, a late 20^th century Wrangler.

But when all is said and done, the Jeep Wrangler Moab is more of a machine than a living room, more like a hammer than a TV remote.

It is solid engineering in its essential form.

While I didn’t have the opportunity to climb mountains, cross glaciers, ford rivers, and do what Wrangler owners do whenever they have the slightest chance, I have had the white-knuckled pleasure (?) to drive a four-door Wrangler in Moab. With professionals providing suggestions, recommendations, and other tips that undoubtedly saved my skin. So I am confident that the Wrangler Moab can do all of those things and then some.

“Regular” vehicles with four doors are generally designed and engineered to go to the grocery store and mall, to work and the country club. They are built for comfort and style. The Wrangler Moab can go to the grocery store and the country club, especially if either of those places have a desert between you and it. The Wrangler Moab is not built for comfort and style in a conventional sense, but in the sense that if you are in need of top-level performance vis-à-vis traction, ground clearance, maneuverability, articulation, and water fording (the five fundamentals of what “Trail Rated” means in Jeep nomenclature).

From the hooks on the front to the tail lamp guards on the back and the heavy-gauge steel rock rails along the side, this vehicle means business—but not in the buttoned-down sense of that word. Of course, maybe your workaday world necessitates the Dana 44 rear axle and the available electronic locker, so it does mean business.

There’s something about a Wrangler. I don’t know exactly what that thing is, but I do know that the Wrangler Moab is one solid bit of engineering that’s well worth a wave.

Selected specs

Engine: 3.6-liter, DOHC V6

Material: Aluminum block and heads

Horsepower: 285 @ 6,400 rpm

Torque: 260 lb-ft @ 4,800 rpm

Transmission: Five-speed automatic

Wheelbase: 116 in.

Length: 173.4 in.

Width (w/o mirrors): 73.9 in.

Height: 70.8 in.

Curb weight: 4,394 lb.

Passenger volume: 151.8-cubic feet

Base MSRP : $31,295 (for Wrangler Unlimited Sahara 4x4)

EPA: 16/20/18 city/highway/combined mpg

Last week Ford and General Motors made a big announcement. The two cross-town rivals have agreed that they’ll be collaborating on the development of an “all-new generation of advanced technology 9- and 10-speed automatic transmissions for cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks.” These transmissions will be for both front- and rear-drive applications.

“The goal,” explained Craig Renneker, Ford’s chief engineer, Transmission & Driveline Components & Pre-Program Engineering, “is to keep hardware identical in the Ford and GM transmissions. This will maximize parts commonality and give both companies economies of scale.”

Given that the two companies are going to have a greater array of clever powertrain engineers working on the development of these transmissions, the investments that the companies will be making will be significantly less than if they were each going it alone.

GM six-speed FWD transmission

The two companies have some experience in this type of collaboration in that the six-speed automatics in vehicles from the Ford Fusion to the Chevy Malibu, from the Ford Escape to the Chevy Equinox are a result of a collaboration between the two companies.

So does this mean that when the 9- and 10-speeds come to Ford and GM vehicles that they’ll be one in the same? No. That’s because, as Renneker explains, “We will each use our own control software to ensure that each transmission is carefully matched to the individual brand-specific vehicle DNA for each company.”

The software settings will be the differentiator. The components will otherwise be as common as they can possibly be. And it should be noted that each of the companies will be making the transmissions in their own plants.

Last week there was another transmission-related announcement, though this one was entirely of a different nature. It was an announcement by BMW related to the BMW 328 sports car.

BMW 328 transmission

BMW, working with transmission supplier ZF, is making transmissions for the 328.

Which may not sound all that astonishing—unless you know that the BMW 328 was produced between 1936 and 1940, and only 464 of them were produced.

BMW Group Classic is having ZF produce exact replicas of the original Hurth gearbox for the 328.

While GM and Ford are going to be making hundreds of thousands of their new gearboxes, ZF will be making 55 versions of the tranny for the 328.

Do you remember the Junkers Jumo 205 engine? Unless you’re an aircraft aficionado or familiar with San Diego-based Achates Power, probably not, because the heyday of the Junkers Jumo 205, a two-stroke diesel engine used for aircraft, was in the 1930s.

According to David Johnson, president and CEO of Achates Power, back in 2004 some people started thinking about the potential of opposed-piston, two-stroke diesel engines, and figured that they could take the highly efficient basic design used way back when in Germany and provide contemporary technology to it and consequently achieve an engine that would better the fuel efficiency of even a state-of-the-art automotive diesel by 20%.

And so that’s what Achates has been doing. One cylinder. Two opposed pistons moving toward each other on the compression stroke. Moving back on combustion. An engine, Johnson says, is simpler and less expensive to manufacture (no valves; no cylinder head), yet can be manufactured with existing production equipment (a tooling change is necessary, of course, but unlike, say, manufacturing motors for a hybrid vehicle, it is pretty much straight forward).

He’s not talking about one cylinder engines, but a six cylinder engine would be a three, an eight a four.

The whys and whats and hows of this technology is what Johnson talks to John McElroy of “Autoline,” Peter DeLorenzo of Autoextremist, and Gary Vasilash of, well, this, on the latest episode of “Autoline After Hours.”

And as is the case always on the program, there is a lively discussion of various topical items—ranging from management changes at Chrysler and Nissan to the collaborative efforts on transmissions by Ford and GM—prior to the guest coming on the show.

You can see it all here: