Cars rust in the UK because of the climate, nothing to do with engine size

More modern cars are generally far better though, with galvanised steel been used - but in the past some makes of car were absolutely terrible for rust, particularly Italian ones. Salt on the roads in winter is the big bodywork killer.

Even small engines do pretty high mileage's here as well, engines aren't knackered at 100K - unless you seriously abuse them. But even if a small engine only lased 100K, the original cost of the engine, the much greater quantity of fuel used, and the higher servicing costs, means the smaller engine is far more cost effective.

But if you want long engine life go for a diesel, and get the good mileage as well. Ideal for the long distances you talk about, but I do agree a large petrol engine would be better than a small petrol one for long distances.

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Do you agree that weight rather than engine size defines millage?

Mike.

 

Both really - the bigger the engine the more fuel it will use, and also the heavier the vehicle the more fuel it will use. What you don't want, is a heavy vehicle and a small engine.

I don't know if you watch F1?, but every litre of fuel in the tank costs about 1/10 second per lap.

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Bigger engines only use more fuel if they produce more power. Two cars that weigh the same will use the same amount of fuel regardless of engine size. Big or small they produce the same amount of power per liter of fuel. End of the day it is just energy.

The UK got into this small engine stuff because the insurance companies decided that 1.8 liter was a big engine. The motor companies responded with tuned up 1.8L engines that produced the same power as a "non UK" 3L engine. Net result, UK engines wear out much quicker.

When I first arrived here I was amazed at the size of the engines in cars but then I drove a few and found that they produced half the power of a UK equivalent. It took many years to see that the folly was caused by the UK insurance companies.

Mike.

 

Bigger engines weigh a great deal more - so use more fuel. Check fuel consumptions of identical cars with different engine sizes - the larger engines almost always use more. They have been, and may still be?, a few exceptions - the original 850cc Mini's weren't as good on fuel as the 1000cc ones, but 850cc was really too small.

The UK don't have special engines, they are the same as anywhere else in Europe, and I don't think Japanese imports have special ones either? (certainly plenty of people import replacement Japanese engines direct from Japan).

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well my thinking was somewhat along the lines of wht pommie said, bigger engine will no neccesarily mean more fuel consumption, ok my old 1 L atoz probaly weighed 800 Kg or less, my mondeo 1375 Kg so yes I will use more fuel to move this extra weight but its probably using less pertrol per Kg than the atoz. the atoz engine used to run very fast, so infact a 1 L engine was undersized and to make up it was run faster, the mondeo runs much more slowly so I think is more efficient (less engine friction), at 50 mph it does about 2000 rpm but I'm pretty sure the atoz ideled at that ! and must have run at about 4000 rpm to have any power at all it was very unforgiving of improper gear usage, I can climb a hill at 30 mph in 4th gear with the mondeo.

the engine in a container ship runs at juast 102 rpm and is up to 50 % efficient, that a lot more than the 30 % of a car engine, why ? because ot goes so much more slowly !

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Engine speed doesn't equate to efficiency - just to the specific design of the engine - speed of a container ship engines is down to size.

Some cars are high reving, some are low, both can be quite fuel efficient. We had a Volkswagen Golf at work, I couldn't believe how high reving it was, took lot's of right foot to set off.

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When I lived in South Africa, a Vauxhall Viva ( which was a current model in the UK at the same time) had less power than its UK counterpart purely because of atmospheric conditions....Being higher above sea level than the UK the air was thinner, ergo the power output of the engine was lower....I was even more surpried when I bought a Chevrolet 2500 ( I think it was the equiv of the Opel Commodore ) on how poor the performance was for a 2.5 litre powered car........

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I think basically the atoz engine design is crap !

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You needed a turbo on it

Vauxhall Viva with a turbo, pretty cool!.

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To be honest you would expect it to be.

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quite is a cheap knock off from asia

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Here in New Zealand i began using 98 RON in my 2009 Holden Utility SSV V8 6.0litre (Chevy alloy engine) after hearing about the chance of performance increase or a possible reduced consumption figure. The only supplier is BP and i do pay more for it over 91 or Ethanol mixes but i find on a lazy big V8 that it has a heap more low down torque, fantastic when driving lots of steep hills... On long highway (motorway) trips I'm finding the vehicle runs further before refill on 98 than when it was using 91 but the saving is only a few litres, hardly a whole lot of cash.

Likewise, when i last had the chance to race it on a drag strip i was doing 14.1sec 1/4mile at 99.9mph for an off the car-yard no modifications vehicle yet my friend who was running the exact same vehicle on Ethanol mix just could not do any better than low 16s.

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size isn't everything of course. How much power does your v8 put out?

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In the UK the Govt taxes every car on the displacement of its engine so people naturally spring for a size. Combine that with seriously high fuel costs, which the UK Govt also taxes the death out of you see the reason the whole car industry market is mostly small 4 cylinder things. Another option too is that they are diesel...

I lived in the UK from mid 1980s to 1990s. The only V8s i ever saw were in luxury high quality cars like the RollsRoyce and Aston Martin or Range Rover...

Downunder here in little New Zealand (right by Australia) my new-this-year ute is an Australian build from Holden. GM USA were about to release it onto the American market as the Pontiac R8 but we all know with the Economy that Pontiac disappeared. Sad really because i meet so many USA tourists who ask what my car is because they reckon it's be just perfect back home... a car that's little longer wheelbase than a car but with a large tray yet not a big pickup.

I can get it's motorway fuel consumption (on the computer readout) down to as low as 10litres per 100kms but it normally sits on 12.5l/100kms. Round town and really hammering that 6000cc V8 it changes to as 'bad' as 35litres/100kms under hard acceleration! The tank holds a total of 73litres so range is good. (Sorry NZ is a metric country so i'll let you do the math to turn those numbers to miles/gallon).

The spec for power output on this Chev engine is 270kw. It's the L98 series3 which i'm told is also used in the Corvette...

Of course, it's not my daily driver. Such a vehicle in my part of the country can attract attention for the wrong reasons not to mention it's a pig to find a carpark for it at my work. My daily driver is a sad old 1995 Japanese Toyota station wagon that's done over 300,000km now on it's little 2.0litre diesel engine. A tank full of diesel will cost me around NZD$50 run me about 780kms before refill but our Govt slaps us Road User Charges on us oil burners so there isn't really much of a saving against petrol at the moment... Convenience i know i can run so far for a single tank is the best thing. I do my own maintenance on my cars too which is a $ saver...

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