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Hmmm, a quick look at cars sold here in the US show a pretty good selection of engines. In trucks alone, manufacturers offer diesel, 4 cyl, V6 and V8 engines or various displacements. Many cars are available with either 4 cyl or V6 engines. Mercedes as engines from 4 to 8 cyl both normally aspirated and turbocharged and in American brands, some engines are available as normal aspiration, turbo or supercharged. Then we have hybrids and even the Chevy Volt as an also ran who knows what?
If you can't find a good selection of cars with a variety of engine configurations, you probably aren't looking.
As for bigger being better and the American mentality, notice that the most popular truck is going to be offered with a rather small 4 cylinder engine? So much for stereotypes but they die hard.
How about the Ford Taurus? Enough engine choices to make you sweat. The Mustang? Same thing.
About the lack of different engines in cars here in the USA...
Different pollution standards and many more small cars in Europe = small engines
Add to it that over 50% engines are diesel in Europe, while Americans still have to understand that diesel is a better choice...
It basically boils down to the fact that Europeans are taxed like crazy on both vehicles and fuel while Americans really aren't. When I visited Europe 20+ times over the span of a decade, I got to know some of the laws and regulations. One that stuck out was the fact that any vehicle with an engine larger than 2.0L was essentially taxed exponentially as the engine size increased. A colleague in Italy told me that his 3.0L V6 cost him 20% more in taxes than the vehicle with a smaller engine. That is not even close to true in the US.
Diesel is a "better" fuel in that it is a much longer HC chain than gasoline and, therefore, has more potential chemical energy. It is a "worse" fuel in that it takes more energy to produce (nearly double that of gasoline) and its refining process is more complex. In the US, diesel and other heavy fuel oils are used where they are best suited as gasoline is impractical to use in large trucks, planes, and other heavy equipment. The gasoline "leftover" is used in smaller engines. Actually, this is one of the primary reasons why gasoline was initially used as it was deemed a nuisance by-product after keorsene was "cracked" out of crude in a column still. Distilled crude is about 40-45% gasoline to begin with. Today, the other products/by-products are chemically processed to produce what is in demand at the time. It's a complex situation, but there is some pretty solid logic behind why gasoline remains the primary fuel for vehicles.
The hire car point couldn't be more valid. The very same car is sold in Europe.
In the US it has a 170bhp engine and won't do more than 22mpg
In Europe it has a 170bhp engine with waaay more torque and will do 100% more mpg. It also emits far less co2 and has a particulate filter so emits very little of anything else either.
For the most part, American cars are dinosaurs. That's why the rest of the world doesn't buy them. In fact, the rest of the world laughs at American cars. If they were any good, we'd want them.
My '95 Lincoln Town Car, with a 210 bhp engine, has given as much as 24.3 mpg. Other owners of Town Cars of the same era have reported as much as 28 mpg.
My '95 Lincoln Town Car, with a 210 bhp engine, has given as much as 24.3 mpg. Other owners of Town Cars of the same era have reported as much as 28 mpg.
And my Audi A4 TDi did 50+ mpg Imperial (37.5 mpg US), 0-60 in 5.9 secs and a reported top speed of 155 mph. I'd love to be able to get something similar in the US. At the moment I'm stuck with an Infiniti G37 that struggling to get 15 mpg.
And my Audi A4 TDi did 50+ mpg Imperial (37.5 mpg US), 0-60 in 5.9 secs and a reported top speed of 155 mph. I'd love to be able to get something similar in the US. At the moment I'm stuck with an Infiniti G37 that struggling to get 15 mpg.
And my Audi A4 TDi did 50+ mpg Imperial (37.5 mpg US), 0-60 in 5.9 secs and a reported top speed of 155 mph. I'd love to be able to get something similar in the US. At the moment I'm stuck with an Infiniti G37 that struggling to get 15 mpg.
But your Audi was not 218.9" (18.2 feet) long and could not seat 6 people.
In the 80s GM had a 1.8L & 2.0L turbo 4 for the Pontiac Sunbird GT & Buick Skyhawk T-Type Turbo. Ford had a turbo 4 SVO Mustang and a turbo Escort. Chrysler had a 2.2L turbo 4 used in many FWD cars including the Omni GLH, Charger, Rampage, and the Spirit ES. Their mistake was not continuing development. Oh what could have been.
What could have been indeed, but by the late 80s/early 90s DOHC valvetrains became the preferred (read: cheaper, more reliable, and mechanically less complex) way to get more power from small motors. Don't forget those early turbo motors were still mostly pushrod.
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