With technologies like direct injection, cylinder on demand and seven-speed gear boxes, "you don't have to sacrifice, " says Mr. Hoch.

WSJ: Car Makers Pitch Power as the Ultimate Luxury

Folz has maintained the joint ventures formed by his predecessor with Fiat in light trucks and with Renault in engines, gear boxes and industrial vehicles.

FORBES: Businessman of the Year

It also runs a foundry and makes industrial gear boxes.

FORBES: GE Will Purchase Lufkin Industries For $3.3B. So What Exactly Is It Buying?

He also standardized the guts of LCDs, navigational gear, black boxes, instrument landing systems and weather radar, sharing technologies and components.

FORBES: Top Gun

With the right gear in their tackle-boxes, small businesses are poised to deliver the growth our economy needs to get us back to pre-recession levels.

FORBES: How Information Security Drives SMB Growth Partnerships

The company actually makes its own boxes so that the gear arrives in perfect condition.

ECONOMIST: How Germany weathered the recession

Last week Broadcom, which produces the brains for set-top boxes and other online gear, was listed on the Nasdaq, the tech-heavy American stockmarket.

ECONOMIST: Not your average IPO

But on some older sections of track in Germany they slow to a crawl, and they must carry seven boxes of expensive signalling gear.

FORBES: Standardization: Important Lessons for the Cloud

He said investigators have found dozens of ammunition boxes, military and survival gear and medical supplies at McLendon's Kinston home.

CNN: Gunman in Alabama slayings was briefly a police officer