US engine sizes are just insane!

Deleted User 234324

Deleted User 234324

Deleted User 234324

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Just been chatting with the old man who lives in Cambridge MD, telling him about the new car im after, which will be a 2.5 litre turbo and he just laughed!

His work van (GMC Savana AWD) is a 5.4 Litre V8 with a shocking MPG of 10! or 17 on highways.

No wonder US fuel prices are so low, if they were the same sort of prices they are through out europe and the uk, it would bankrupt most of the country!
 
Maybe the engines have to be that big over there in order to offer any kind of speed or torque when the mainly flabby Americans are driving them? :p

But yeah, agreed on the fuel prices! I wish we were still on 80 pence a litre :(
 
Possibly true, old man is the same size as me though, 15 stone, 6ft ish.

The van in question is about 300bhp and 320lb-ft of torque, pretty hefty, although the van weights nearly 5 tonnes.

Compaired to the car im after which is ~220bhp, ~240lb-ft and weights only 1.5 tonnes.
 
The size of the US makes a difference. Engines must last much longer than they do over here. Over there they need the big lazy engines to get many more miles out of them.
 
peterattheboro said:
The size of the US makes a difference. Engines must last much longer than they do over here. Over there they need the big lazy engines to get many more miles out of them.
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That's not really all that true. While it's bigger here, typically, people seem to do similar miles to us in the UK.

US engines are big because it's what the consumer demands. The car wars that built bigger and bigger cars, forced the requirement for bigger and bigger engines to move them at a reasonable pace. Combine that with a generally relaxed driving style, induced by long straight roads with many stop lights, and it becomes apparent that large engine + smooth automatic is a nice combination. With uninhibiting fuel prices, there's just no need for them to downsize.
 
Also worth considering that most US fuel is pretty crap compared to over here. Their "Premium" petrol works out at about the same octane rating as our standard unleaded (yes I've taken into account the fact that the US record octane using PON, not RON) and in some parts of the US the best you can get is 87 octane (I've heard of some areas where you can only get 83!)

So it's not really feasible to run small highly strung turbo cars, and even if you make such a car you can't tune it for the same sort of efficiency we have over here. This is why so many Americans believe "there's no replacement for displacement" and why superchargers (which, ironically are a replacement for displacement) are preferred over turbochargers.
 
I think it's also due to the huge warrenty they get with new cars over there, something mad like 10 years/100k miles, so a big engine that is under virtually no strain means one less thing to fail.
 
SB118 said:
I think it's also due to the huge warrenty they get with new cars over there, something mad like 10 years/100k miles, so a big engine that is under virtually no strain means one less thing to fail.
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Accept they do, the best of the American cars arent even up the the worst of the Japanese cars in terms of reliability in a survey I saw a while back. I think the bonus of the large American engine is that its relatively simple and has a longer servicable life because as you say, its virtually under any strain.
 
Just came back from holiday in Canada where we hired a people carrier which had a 4.0l V6 engine in it. I thought oooh this should be fun, only to find it was just about the slowest vehicle I've driven for years!

Also, their petrol has a much lower RON rating than ours.

All in all, American cars generally suck which is why we don't buy them!
 
ive always wondered why the american mentality demands large engines. if theyre anything like over here 98% of people just potter about doing day to day things, but here we do it in a 1.6 focus, there they need 4.0.
 
Matt82 said:
ive always wondered why the american mentality demands large engines. if theyre anything like over here 98% of people just potter about doing day to day things, but here we do it in a 1.6 focus, there they need 4.0.
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The post above yours answers that pretty well. For those who aren't used to modern European and Asian cars, the thought of driving around in something with a meagre 2 litre engine just sounds terrible.

On one of the America-centric car forums I'm on, and 18yr old kid persuaded his granddad to buy him an Impreza WRX STi on the grounds that it was such a small engine he couldn't possibly drive like an idiot and kill himself in it. While gramps wasn't keen on the styling he agreed with the safety argument and decided that overall it was a good safe first car, and bought it!
 
they strike me as more and more stupid all the time

a 2.0 lump is small in the grand scheme of things but they still perform a function, they last and theyre not totally wasteful
 
The V8 in my old mans van though isnt exactly thrilling, sure its 300bhp and kicks out 320 ft lbs of torque but the van weights 5000kg's so its an effective 60 bhp/tonne. Most US trucks with be the same, huge engines with lots of torque but they are very slow.

Cars are very similar unless you go for the muscle. Even though our muscle > theirs!

It's ~$2.4 for a gallon of petrol in the US, bare in mind a US gallon is only 3.5 litres instead of our 4.5, but thats still £1.46 for a Gallon of fuel!

Nearly as cheap to buy a gallon in america as it is for us to buy a litre!
 
MadMossy said:
The V8 in my old mans van though isnt exactly thrilling, sure its 300bhp and kicks out 320 ft lbs of torque but the van weights 5000kg's so its an effective 60 bhp/tonne.
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It can't be 5,000kg surely?

/looks up kerb weight

One site reckons it is around 5,000lb which is about 2.3 tonne, giving a power/weight of about 128hp/tonne which is pretty damn respectable for a van considering what we get over here. In fact if the letstorque performance calculator is anything to go by it should be good for an 8.5s 0-60! Amazing to think the Americans have vans that out-accelerate the majority of hatchbacks in this country!
 
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