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The price of demanding big sedans and SUV in US
Wander about almost any forum where people from US post their comments on Japanese cars, most of them will say that 4-cylinder cars are just too underpowered, or how a 2.0 litre engine in a car is kind of ‘lacking in power.’
Now, European and Japanese car makers all promote fuel efficient cars and make engines enough to power their vehicles according to their segment. You find 50-100hp power in the budget range, right up to 500hp+ super cars (Nissan GTR). That doesn’t mean that they look down upon smaller engines? What do Americans buy? I’m not saying that everyone in US likes big 6-cylinder and V8 engines. It’s the sale figures that are speaking.
Ford F-series Raptor from Wikimedia Commons
Speaking of sale figures, wouldn’t that explain the big problem of the American car makers. The big 3 GM, Ford and Chrysler all spend big in making large vehicles and mid-size cars (that’s larger than many european family cars). If only these were smaller and available with smaller than the 2.4L minimum that they’re sold with… Those sleeping stock in dealers around the continent could be salvaged…
Oh yes, they’re very much into buying hybrids now… I don’t blame car manufacturers for making 2.4L to 4.0L hybrids. Market demands… 1.4-1.5L hybrids have started to become popular with the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight. But US people are still buying 2.4-4.0L machines. That trend is going down with more people buying sedans (saloons) than SUV/Pickups since a couple of years (can’t remember the source for this…). There’s a long way to go…
European makers who sell in US have started to sell economical modern diesel engines. And the once hated diesel engine is not becoming a hero of fuel economy… The ‘small’ 2.0L turbo Audi TT has shown that it can give the same power as a 3L V6 and even more torque than it, despite having only 4-cylinders – and being much lighter. That’s the efficiency of turbos in engines… But that’s another story…
