Ford 3 cylinder worth expense?

does the 4cyl include the "includes cruise control, trip computer, power windows, low rpm torque""

 

Depends. The 7 mpg you quote is based on ideal manufacturers figures. Believe me, when you pay $8 a gallon, the extra economy offered by these small engines does pay.

There are also other tax benefits applicable to small engines such as this, making the extra amount even more worthwhile.

You'd be surprised at some of the small displacement engines that we're now getting, as am I.

 

not sure about these being economical , you have to drive them carefully

i have spoken to a car mechanic and he told me those ecoboost turbo charged ICE are in the shop a lot.
poeple drive these with cold engine and drive them hard and a small ice for a large car not good for turbo charge ice.

 

I didn't feel like reverse-engineering your presumptions, but the answer to the question for almost every vehicle that I've ever owned would be "yes" given the presumption that everything else is equal.....which of course it is not.

As Grumpy pointed out, at 8 bucks a gallon?
The $2500 probably makes sense.
As I said. I was too lazy to check the math.

This is just the beginning of course. I remember when the idea of 100BHp per liter was considered crazy talk, especially in a mass produced vehicle, and especially for a sub-liter motor.
Now?
You can do it with a normally aspirated motor, easy as pie.
Motorcycles can get a buck and a quarter.

Imagine what happens when you hybridize this technology...

 

Well the low rpm torque is due to the turbo. The rest, and other goodies, require upgrading from the base S to the SE which starts at $15,580. The 1L Ecoboost is a $995 option and it includes regenerative braking.

 

That doesn't make any sense.
Going from a 4 cylinder engine to a 3 cylinder engine ought to make for a smaller engine, smaller car, and hence lower overall cost.
Am I missing something?

Before I switched to a hybrid, I considered the old Honda insight partly because of it being 3 cylinders and because I don't need a big car anyway. Alright hybrids aside for a moment, I would still expect a 3-cylinder version to be less expensive than the 4 cylinder version.

 

There's no replacement for displacement! Lol

For the small amount in the difference, I'd go for the car with the most power and most options/toys. Both are very cheap to start with.

What I cannot believe is that Americans are discussing these little cars. His a lot has changed in he last 10 years since I visited the US

 

I believe it's because they're now paying the same for petrol that we did back in 2005. Ahhh I remember those days well. When I could fill up after a days work and only put £12 or £15, not the £28/£30 towards the end.

 

We used to have 3 cylinder cars, besides the Insight, here. Behold the Metro.

 

Using these more correct prices ($995 difference), it would take 70k miles to break even with $3.50 gas and 38 vs 45mpg hwy.

I wonder how well one of these engines would fit in my Insight.

 

A three cylinder engine does not run as smooth as a four cylinder, since the OTTO engine is a four cycle engine.

Matching three cylinders to a four cycle engine means that the engine will essentially run rougher.

In a four cylinder engine, there will be a spark or power cycle for every point in the four cycles for the three other cylinders.

When the engine was introduced in Europe, it was noted that it had an internal fiber-rubber timing belt wetted full time in engine oil.

That alone would dissuade me from this three cylinder engine.

The poorly rated 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage uses a three cylinder engine. Reviewers have commented on how rough the engine is at low RPM.

 

But maybe we don't worry as we have bigger and longer warranties that you? Many manufacturers give upto 100,000 mile engine warranties.

 

The company I worked for when I was young, replaced a delivery van with a Geo Metro. We "The workers" didn't know about it until it was pulled up as the replacement.

I remember a few things. #1, as a work, communal vehicle being used often in applications it was not designed for, such as hauling tons of stuff that should of been in a van, it actually held up remarkably well. It was routinely abused, but just kept going.

#2. For such a small vehicle, it had the largest automobile key I have ever seen. It was huge.- Nobody ever lost it.

I actually gained quite a lot of respect for that 3 cylinder Geo Metro. IMO it wasn't a bad vehicle at all. When I first heard it was going to replace a delivery van, I thought it would be dead in months. It finally did die. But that was after 100,000+ miles and several years of almost constant abuse.

I have always thought General Motors/Chevrolet made a mistake in dropping the Geo moniker. I thought it was a great badge name. Even a 8 cylinder gas guzzler sounds more environmentally friendly if you call it a "Geo". Plus even though some models were simply rebadged Suzuki's, Isuzu's and Toyota's I thought the Geo line was starting to gain a good reputation.

 

The brother of one of the guys I work with had a 3 cylinder Metro convertible for years. It was nearing it's end when someone stole the roof off of it.

 

Usually referred to as the small block and the big block.

 

The 4 cylinder is your basic engine. The 3 is an Ecoboost, direct injection and turbo.

The oil bathed timing belt is already in their hybrid engines. It is supposed to give the noise and efficiency benefits of a traditional belt while giving the longevity of a chain. Only time will tell if this works out, but it is more like the belt in a CVT than a serpetine one.

Ford used some clever design in the crankshaft and fly wheel to smooth out the engine without having to resort to a heavy counter balance shaft.