The point of american cars?

Guy:Incognito

Whats the point of american cars having such big cc engines without having huge hp?

The ex is just back from Florida and I had a look on the Chrysler site at the people carrier they rented. It was a 3.3ltr but only outputted 180bhp. wtf? Is it purposely done just to waste petrol?

Taking a similar sized european car (renault Grand Espace) in a 2.0ltr petrol. It outputs 170 hp, which isnt great for a 2.0 but it's a people carrier so it's not going to be tuned for massive output. The closest I can think without digging is the 3.5 ltr espace available in england has the engine from the nissan 350z. I'm going to assume that outputs a lot more than 180 bhp. So why the big difference in a 3.0ltr + engine here and in the states?

colm_mcm

It's nice to have an engine that's torquey and doesn't have to rev high.

Guy:Incognito

colm_mcm wrote:

It's nice to have an engine that's torquey and doesn't have to rev high.

I assume they dont like diesel so?

comanche

Stekelly wrote:

I assume they dont like diesel so?

funnily enough am in CA at the moment and have spotted a few TDIs mostly VW's nearly crashed when I saw em - couldn't believe it. But nope they don't like diesels.

The reason they like big engines is because they drive so much. 100k miles is nothing to a 3L v8 or even a v6, the engine is less stressed over the milage so lasts longer... where as in ire if a car has 100k miles its considered close to end of life.

mike65

Bang-on. Diesel is for trucks and trains over there except for the few crazy guys driving old Mercs!

Mike.

colm_mcm

Some cities don't allow diesels?

Owen

As a previous poster stated, a v8 Hemi is good for 600+ Bhp, but if you only run it at 250, then it's extremely reliable for it's life.

comanche

colm_mcm wrote:

Some cities don't allow diesels?

yeah heard something about that, infact maybe even some states, don't know how true it is though... but I think because of way that they refine diesel... its somewhat rough!

Gatster

"Everything's bigger in Texas" as they say, but there is a huge difference between last year and this year with (Texans) regard to fuel. Last year, it was still blatantly apparent to me that no one gave a crap about petrol consumption, but there has been a definite shift this year. Quite a few guys I know have taken to using motorbikes for day to day transport, a few who have replaced their trucks have gone for diesel (as well as more gas stations selling diesel).
Nearly every car ad on Tv mentions fuel consumption, even if it's to say that the 6 litre engine acts like a 3 litre when around town/not towing...

I like American cars (in America), they suit the general driving style but there was a 2nd gen Dodge Ram with an 8' bed parked on my road (belonged to some gardening firm) last week and it just looked daft.

maidhc

comanche wrote:

where as in ire if a car has 100k miles its considered close to end of life.

Ah now, any engine should see 300k with ease. Most cars in Ireland die because of general neglect rather than the engine dying on an immaculate car.

I think most of the reason they use large capacity engines is:
a) Small margin on cars over there, ford still sell the Mk1 focus for this reason
b) Cheap fuel.. who cares how big the engine is
c) Poorer lower octane fuel. A big block will run on russian firewater.
d) Tradition of large capacity engines, the opposite is true here.

Diesel was banned in CA, but I think it was overruled by the Courts there. There is still a lot of crap talked about diesels, both here and in especially in the US... e.g. the Greens were complaining about Dialup Dempsey asking for a E class diesel instead of a Toyota Pious.

unkel

colm_mcm wrote:

It's nice to have an engine that's torquey and doesn't have to rev high.

Exactly. As they say over there: "there's no replacement for displacement"