blowfish

We need to ask the owner what cars he/she likes, budget/how deep s the pocket.
No point to go all over the map and dont know his preference.
Some only want cars from Fatherland, and some appy with Rice rockets.
If u know what to buy even a used car can be good, let the frst owner to pay for the initial depreciation.

Some even say u can need to own the car for several yrs longer inorder to justfy a hybrid.

The truth is buying any new car will cause a lot of environmental damages, u need mining, raw materials, energy to make steel. But if everybody stop buying new things our economy will be at a stand still.  US account of 30-50% of world market, will see how bad will t affect us if they really catch a bad cold.

Some co design efficient bigger engines, IE Honda's variable 6.
Also depends yoru application, if u need to carry lots of people all the time then a bigger engine is advisable. I learn one organisation use Nissan Altima 2.5 and Camry 4 cyl to shuttle full pass load, the drivers find Camry lacks power as compare the Altima.
So u'll be screwed if u had made the wong choice of engne.

Hyde

just get a car with v8

Godiva

原帖由 cyberstudio 於 2008-6-4 01:09 發表
This is a complex question with no simple answer. But in my humble opinion, the biggest difference is in "smoothness". The more cylinders you have, generally the smoother will be your torque curve, me ...

For a typical 4 cylinder engine, torque is weak at low rpm. A 5 cylinder engine is significantly smoother than 4. A 6 cylinder shows additional improvement, but not as much an increase as you go from 4 to 5.

Mr. CyberStudio,

You are mostly correct in your post here, but the bolded line I quoted here is wrong. 5-cylinder engines are inherently rough-running because of the odd number of cylinders thumping up and down the engine block. In fact, 5-cylinder engines are often considered to be an inferior design because they lack the smoothness and power of a 6-cylinder engine, and the fuel economy of a 4-banger. This is why they are not that common in production cars. Generally speaking, inline 6 engines are the smoothest. V6 and I4 can be made to run quite smoothly as well.

Also, the old Mazda MX-3 Precedia had the the smallest production V6 rated at 1.8L. It was certainly a rare gem.

[ 本帖最後由 Godiva 於 2008-6-7 15:31 編輯 ]

blowfish

just get a car with v8

If your Uncle is Sultan of Brunei then a Bugatti Veyron's engne is still kind of small.

Low teens in MPG is not fun especially when u need to pay for it.
Now  put $30 in is like putting in $20 last yr. Doesnt that suck bg time already.