Ask The Best And Brightest: Whither The Six Cylinder?

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Detroit’s auto critics are a funny bunch. For decades they’ve been mocking the idea that Americans could ever love Europe’s small, underpowered, overpriced cars, as Detroit gorged itself on SUV profits. Now that Ford and GM have announced they’re bringing small cars like the Fiesta and Spark to the US, you’re starting to see the pendulum swing twice as hard in the opposite direction. “Yes, there will be a couple of mega-powerful V-8 asphalt eaters at the Detroit show, including the 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe and the 2011 Ford Mustang GT 5.0,” writes Scott Burgess in a Detroit News piece entitled “ V-6 engines begin long fade into history.” “But, it turns out, destiny has determined that the meek four-banger will inherit the earth.” Burgess’s theory follows Ford’s Ecoboost playbook fairly closely: thanks to direct injection and turbocharging, smaller engines can produce more power. And when you consider that electric hybrids can restore some of the lost poke of a large-displacement engine, the prediction seems all the more likely. Eventually. But just because the new Sonata and Regal aren’t being offered with a V6, doesn’t mean the six-banger is ready for automotive Valhalla just yet. Even Burgess admits that “it may take 10 years or even more.” When do you, TTAC’s Best and Brightest, reckon the six-cylinder option on cars like the Camry, Altima or Impala will fall by the wayside? When will we see the death of the six-cylinder popular sportscar alá the Nissan Z?

Oh, and Burgess? Can we please stop calling all six-cylinder engines “V-6” now? It confuses the civilians, and everyone’s sick of correcting people when they say their car has a “V-4” even though it’s clearly not a classic Ford Taunus (etc).

Thanks, The Management

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Ronman Ronman on Jan 11, 2010

    Turbocharged D.F.I V6s are the New V8s... but a Turbo+Supercharged I4 with DFI, VVT, should be what all manufacturers aim at in the near internal combustive future.

  • Bruce from DC Bruce from DC on Jan 11, 2010

    Having owned a 250-hp turbo'ed 4 (in a Saab) for 8 years, I can certainly say that, in transverse-mounted FWD applications, a 4 will get the job done for any reasonably-sized car. And the auto tranny in the Saab coupled with the engine management software means that about 85% of the time, you don't catch the turbo napping. In fact, when we shopped that car in '02, we test-drove the light-pressure turbo 200 hp 3-liter V-6, which drove inferior to the base model 185 hp turbo 4. That said, the Saab engine (which has a balance shaft) is pretty rough and gruff over 5,000 rpm. The fact is, however, that you never spend any time in that rpm range with that engine, and even at supra-legal (but sane) US highway cruising speeds, engine rpms are less than 2500, and abundant torque is available very quickly. I was fortunate enough to own for 10 years a car with the best V-6 ever, the 3 liter Yamaha SHO engine. The SHO was rated at less output than the Saab 4 and loved (needed) to rev. To be sure, it was smoother than the Saab 4, but the need to spool up to hit the power and torque, somewhat negated that advantage. In a RWD car, I don't see much of an argument for a V-6. The 3-liter BMW I-6 (which I now own in a Z3) is leagues ahead of either engine in smoothness and power delivery. Obviously, a transverse-mounted 3 liter I-6 has packaging problems. I think FWD (and AWD) has been greatly oversold, for mid-size and larger cars. And, as others have pointed out (and the Saab demonstrates vigorously, the SHO less so) torque steer is a significant issue with high power FWD applications (which is why Audi developed the "Quattro" AWD system in the first place. With traction and stability control systems being ubiquitous, the "advantages" of FWD in low-traction situations fade. So, I could imagine a future with 4-cylinder engines for FWD applications (with some sort of forced induction) and I-6 engines for RWD applications, with or without forced induction. As BWM's 300 hp, 3 liter twin-turbo'ed 6 demonstrates, it seems to me that the big V-8 is more questionable, except in supercars. In the historical curiousity department, recall that Porsche developed a 3-liter 4 cylinder engine for the RWD 944 car, later adding a multivalve head and ultimately a turbo, IIRC. That engine had a balance shaft. Never drove that car, but don't recall complaints about significant roughness, etc.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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