Which company do you think produce the best petrol engines?

[TarquinMX5]

Best ? What criteria are being judged.

Power output per litre
Best torque at 1500 revs
Most reliable
Smoothness
Engineering
Cost per mile
Etc etc

Overall, Honda engines have a generally good reputation but their torque curves don't suit all drivers

[bodhi]

I have no idea about their sub 2 litre range, but a good shout for proper sized engines has to be Nissan - just simply for the numbers some tuners are getting out of the GT-R.

https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1118013_worlds...

[DoubleD]

TwinExit said:

wormus said:

No, it really doesn’t. VAG in particular make some of the worst 4 cylinder engines in history and most of those in past 20 years have been diesels. W12 notwithstanding. Anyone remember the BMW vanos disaster or the unreliable V10 bearings?

I put forward the GM LS series V8 as a proper engine. Powerful, fuel efficient, simple, cheap, reliable and very, very tuneable. Most will make 700hp with a bolt on supercharger and that’s without the fabulous V8 noise. You can also swap one for another as they are all the same basic architecture.

Not like the usual German whip fanboy rubbish!

Edited by wormus on Wednesday 12th December 15:42

Exactly.

Too many PH'ers are limited to the Ford/Vauxhall/French -> BMW/VAG upgrade path, and stay there. Never to venture anywhere else to form a well rounded opinion on what makes a great petrol engine.

No one in their right mind who has driven cars with N/A or forced induction V6s, V8s, V10s, V12 would decide to pick a poxy motor from a remapped 335i or a Golf GTi over these.

Might be worth you having a glance at the 1st post

[TwinExit]

DoubleD said:

Might be worth you having a glance at the 1st post

Why have you decided to single out my post?

The subject has veered towards engines of various capacities and configuration.

[F4R]

I vote for the 2.0 16v from the Clio 172.

2.0 na that revs to over 7k, has decent torque and pulls well to the redline. They propel a Clio to 60mph in less than 7 seconds and on to nearly 140mph without a turbo in sight. Not only that, they achieve around 35mpg combined, road tax is under £300, basic servicing is straight forward and parts are cheap. It's all I want from an engine.

They can go bang unexpectedly though, if I'm nit picking.

[anonymous-user]

There will now be hundreds of posts where people espouse how their favourite marque produces the best engines.

Answer is, many of them have made a some good engines, and all of them have made some dogs.

Which one is the best overall is almost impossible to judge.

[fatboy b]

Leon R said:

BMW wins a lot of awards with their engines.

Is that the most recalls?

[Smokehead]

Austin A Series

[Prinny]

To give you an idea of where I’m coming from, here’s some of the rental cars I’ve had this year alone - Qashqai/Golf/308/508/5008/Focus/Leon/Kadjar/Astra/A3/A4/CLA/X-trail/v40/v60/c-class/318/320/330/Insignia/Passat/S-cross/Cactus/Focus/Tipo/v90... basically, if it’s on Enterprise’s fleet, I’ve driven it.

The 2l T4 or T5 spec Volvo V90 engine does the job just fine in terms of performance, but is otherwise anodyne. The car would be infinitely nicer with a straight-6.

The 318 gave me the best economy (approx. 65mpg doing a mainly 100km/h cruise through NL)

Of all the above, the only <2l petrol from the last 5 years I’d consider owning (of those I’ve driven) would be the 3-pot turbo in the Fiesta/Focus, as it has some character, rather than just feeling like a white-goods appliance, which all the rest did to some extent.

Therefore, I’m choosing Ford. Change the <2l & 5year criteria, and my answer will change though (Another LS fan here).

[lornemalvo]

The Lexus V8 engine , in the LS 400 was probably the best engine ever made in the 90s, in terms of overall ability, including reliability. This may still apply in its latest incarnation today. The best "modest" engine I ever had was the 2.2 5 cylinder KV engine in my 1989 Audi 90

[S2r]

Ducati

[MrGTI6]

TDilover said:

We can divide it into sections. i.e best petrol turbo engine 1.2 and below, 1.3-1.6,1.7-2.0.

From my experience.

1.2 and below: PSA 1.2T Puretech
1.3 - 1.6: BMW 1.5T
1.7 - 2.0: VAG 2.0T

[Leon R]

fatboy b said:

Is that the most recalls?

Yes that and the 60 + international engine of the year awards they have won.

[ianrb]

Cosworth and possibly Ilmor.

[The Vambo]

S2r said:

Ducati

Yeah, someone already said VAG

[DoubleD]

TwinExit said:

DoubleD said:

Might be worth you having a glance at the 1st post

Why have you decided to single out my post?

The subject has veered towards engines of various capacities and configuration.

I quoted you both because you were both talking about large V8s V12s when this thread is about much smaller engines. And yes other may also have not read the OP.

[The Vambo]

lornemalvo said:

The Lexus V8 engine , in the LS 400 was probably the best engine ever made in the 90s, in terms of overall ability, including reliability.

I raise you the LS engines.

[davebem]

Alfa Romeo? You had various racing car engines, an excellent twin cam, boxer, twin spark and Busso V6 engines, plus the latest V6 (F154) in the Giulia and Stelvio has won international engine of the year for 3 years running (although it was orignally ferrari derived). Alfa even beat Mercedes to put a common rail diesel in a production car 1st.

[anonymous-user]

Audi 5 pot

[The Vambo]

Thornaby said:

Audi 5 pot

Read the title.