Why not? It's a great engine in the Nissan Note, one of the best small diesels out there.

You seem to forget, M-B's smallest diesel is an utter donkey, soon to be extinct.

I'm more suprised that M-B didnt do a deal on the new Renault-Nissan R9M 1.6 chain cam diesel engine, recently fitted to the Qashqai and Megane. Now that's a fantastic engine - no DPF issues and 119g/km CO2, even on a big lump like the Qashqai. Even HJ likes this particular diesel - no mean feat!

MB's engines have been behind the curve for a while. Have the 'Kompressor' engines finally expired yet?

Unless you've got a Ssangyong - then even the old MB engines are fantastic.

It's a scheduled expense at (I think) 72,000 miles. So a single belt change is good for 140,000 miles-probably the lifetime of a lot of cars.

The extra cost of a chain engine would be passed on to the customer in one way or another-and if starts rattling, you've got a major unscheduled expense.

Belts/chains each have their own strengths and weaknesses and manufacturers can't quite make their mind up which to use. If one was clearly better then it would dominate the market.