Americans buying more 4-cyl cars

[Pangloss]

Interesting story in the New York Times today looking at the auto industry's renewed shift to 4-cylinder engines. According to JD Power data cited in the article, 47% of all new cars sold in the US thus far in 2010 have 4-cylinder engines. This is up from just 30% in 2005 -- a very dramatic trend. Only 16% of new cars sold this year have had 8-cylinder engines in them.

 

Some of this has to do with the "new normal" of gasoline -- stabilized at 2-3 bucks a gallon instead of the dollar or so many families were looking at when they made their previous car choices. But it matches a downward trend in SUV sizes (focus on "crossover" style rather than full-size) and an increase in 4-cylinder power that comes from various engineering improvements, including gasoline-direct injection, increased use of turbochargers, and improvements in electronic control over engines and transmissions.

 

The kicker here is that today's 4-cylinder engines not only get better gas mileage, they also produce excellent horsepower. Just a few years ago it was unusual to see a 4-cylinder engine that produced 200 horsepower; today's it's common. My GM vehicle is a good example, producing 260 horsepower off a 2.0-liter four. Not long ago you'd have need a full eight cylinders to get that kind of power. And I still get 31 mpg on the freeway.

 

Another factor in play is the gradually rising mileage requirements from the government. Some enthusiasts are complaining about that, but I think they're missing a key point: The fuel efficiency standards are averages. So long as most people are buying fuel-efficient cars, manufacturers will happily continue to make sports cars that look good in their advertising and suit the minority of buyers who really want them.

 

Anyway, here's a link to the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/automobiles/15FOUR.html?pagewanted=1

[CharonY]

Similar trends were started in Europe maybe a decade (or a bit longer than that?) when the taxes for fuel were increased. People got more interested in fuel efficiency, did not require the big cars (average family size was already pretty low) but sill needed acceptable performance (autobahn without sufficient horse powers can be quite a challenge). So industry rolled out fuel efficient cars. Essentially the technology was already there, only the market conditions were not right yet. The increase in taxes was a move to change that.

However the average horsepower also decreased as the goal was to create a niche (and then expand it) for small (roughly Yaris sized) cars with a mileage of around 40 mpg.

Edited August 18, 2010 by CharonY