Four cylinders
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There was a time when most car buyers looked on small capacity four-cylinder engines with distain. To them, unless an engine had 6-cylinders or more, it was over-stressed, underpowered and only fit for use in small European or Japanese economy cars. Nowadays, increases in gas prices, combined with a drive towards cleaner, greener engines has meant that more consumers than ever are choosing to buy cars with four-cylinder, small-capacity engines. And it's not confined to small economy cars either. Even some mid-size cars are now offered with four-cylinder engines. Now industry analyst IHS...
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Volkswagen’s New Engine Turns Off Cylinders To Save You GasYou may not know this, but internal combustion engines are only efficient during a tiny part of their total operating range. And that means when driving at lower speeds when demand on the car’s engine isn’t large, your car might not get the gas mileage you’d expect. But...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
American Exceptionalism: 2.4-Liter Four Is Only 'Tiny' In U.S.
There's been a fair amount of commentary in politics of late about "American exceptionalism," the notion that the U.S. is qualitatively different from any other country in the world. It is occasionally interpreted to mean "We're the best, damnit, and if you don't say that a whole lot on the...
John Voelcker -
2012 Mercedes-Benz C-Class: Half of Sales To Be High-MPG Fours
Mercedes-Benz likes to launch technologies and lead trends, but sometimes they follow along with the crowd. In this case, Hyundai's doing it. Chevy's doing it. Chrysler's going to do it. Even Porsche will be doing it. And now Mercedes-Benz has joined the gang: The luxury carmaker too will fit a...
John Voelcker -
Fuel Efficient Fours Gain Ground on V-6s, V-8s In New Cars
At December's Los Angeles Auto Show, Hyundai made a big splash by saying it would no longer offer V-6 engines in its Sonata midsize car or its Tucson compact crossover. Instead, it replaced them with higher-performance, more fuel-efficient four-cylinder motors. But Hyundai's just one of many makers...
John Voelcker -
2010 Detroit Auto Show: New Engines for 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe
This is one we're late on posting, but it's significant nonetheless. During the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, Hyundai released details of running updates to its 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe midsize crossover utility vehicle--which is on sale, basically, now. The big news is that Hyundai has replaced both...
John Voelcker -
One of the standouts among the global carmakers at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show was Hyundai. The Korean company has seen its market share rise from 3 to 4 percent during a dismal downturn, even without any new volume models to spur excitement. Now, with its Los Angeles launch of the 2010 Tucson compact crossover and the 2011 Sonata midsize sedan, Hyundai has unveiled two new volume vehicles that it hopes will keep it climbing. The big surprise? Hyundai won't offer a V-6 engine in either model. Omission by design And that's by design. As John Krafcik, CEO of Hyundai America, told us, "We...
