I've not said anything about a small three cylinder engine powering a puddle jumper like a Daihatsu Charade or C1, my point is about using a 1.0 engine to power much larger cars such as for instance a C-Max, far heavier and larger so greater wind resistance where by definition the engine will be worked far harder in simple everyday use, never mind the turbo's, how many head gaskets will such an engine get through after 5+ years use? Hence why I personally think it prudent to reserve judgement and allow time for these engines to prove themselves, surely that's a far wiser approach than jumping in head first?Mandrake wrote:I'm old enough (and I'm guessing you are too) to remember the days when a mid sized car that today has a 2 litre engine as standard would come with 1300cc or 1600cc if you were very lucky. Carburettor too. Somehow we got by in those days with those "tiny" engines installed in mid sized cars...DickieG wrote:My point is that these small engines are not just being used to power small car's, they are being used in quite sizeable cars such as C-Max's and the like where previously a 2.0 would have been the norm
Throw some actual modern technology at those 1300 cc'ish sizes such as modern materials and lubricants, fuel injection, VVT, modern turbos etc and I see no reason why they can't perform well and still last. For 1.2 litre you don't need 4 cylinders either. For anything below about 1.2 litre 3 larger cylinders performs better and is more robust than 4 smaller cylinders of the same total cc. Daihatsu knew that 30 years ago when they developed their 3 cylinder 1 and then later 1.2 litre engines and continued to develop them for decades.
Even those early 80's 3 cylinder Daihatsu engines were very robust and did huge mileages - the turbo was a bit iffy I'll admit and I did destroy a turbo in mine (albeit the car was already 13 years old and high mileage when I bought it) but the non turbo version of those 3 cylinders (of which I knew several friends who owned them) went on forever without problems. It can be done.
Yes cars many year ago did have smaller engines but I don't recall many selling many new Cortina's in the 70's and 80's with an engine smaller than 1300cc where the engine producing around 55 bhp, even the smallest Escort engine was 1100cc and produced around 45 bhp. These engine's were pulling car's built like a biscuit tin and weighing as much yet both of them still accelerated like a slug, by comparison the Ecoboost produces 123 bhp from 995cc which in my books means that the engine must be rather stressed to say the least.
Ah bit of an issue you've missed out there, namely particulates, if you think they are exclusively a diesel problem then think again as for quite a few years now there has been a number of unanswered questions being banded about as which is worse, diesel particulates which are generally sized as PM10 or petrol engine particulates sized PM2.5? Diesel has been the easy target as the larger particulates are clearly visible but the big question which AFAIK remains unanswered is could the much smaller petrol particulates actually be far worse as they are more easily absorbed into the body? So whilst today Petrol is the new champion will that be the case in the future?Mandrake wrote:ever stricter emissions regulations are on the horizon it still seems to me that Diesel is the wrong horse to back. Eventually the stuff hanging off the engine to meet the emissions is going to become ridiculously burdensome... some would even say we've already reached that point.DickieG wrote:When it comes to emissions what appears to be the way to go today, in a few years time becomes the devil, hence why I'm reserving judgment on these small petrol engines until they have been properly proven in service.
Compare that to a petrol where a modern fuel injection system and 3 way cat can achieve extremely low emissions with little difficulty. Treated well the cat can last the lifetime of the car without maintenance, unlike a DPF that requires maintenance or replacement if not regularly regenerated.
Maybe now you will acknowledge why I'm reserving judgement on the long term benefit of these small engines?