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Luxury cars ditching V8 engines

 
13 1,589 views Feb 1, 2008

Luxury cars ditching V8 engines

Luxury cars ditching V8 engines

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Environmental concerns on both sides of the Atlantic have got carmakers worried about fuel efficiency and emissions. In Europe, governments are set on introducing strict carbon-emission limits for new cars, while in the U.S. regulators want to see marked improvements in fuel-economy levels. The response so far from carmakers has increasingly been to downsize engine size, and it appears the first strike has been target towards V8 powerplants, especially in luxury vehicles.

GM was one of the first to announce that it was canceling its V8 program for its Cadillac brand. Then Chrysler followed suit with the announcement that its legendary HEMI will not play a major role in its future lineup. Ford, too, has shifted focus towards economical V6 engines and forced-induction for its luxury Lincoln brand.

Part of the reason is that advanced V6 engines offer similar performance to V8s, and luxury buyers are seeking modern and high-tech powertrains. Most carmakers are seeing demand for V8s drop, CNNMoney reports. In just one year, demand for the V8 Cadillac STS went from 26% to just 17% and this year is set to be even lower. But the V8s aren’t going away just yet. There’s still a certain level of prestige and refinement associated with a big-cube engine, something modern day V6s are yet to attain.



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Comments (13)

  1. By Gigan Posted: 2/1/2008 7:42am PST

    I am sure Acura is happy to hear this.
     
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  2. By Alan Posted: 2/1/2008 8:07am PST

    I don't know, although 6 cyliners can offer similar output to V8 nowadays with help of things like forced induction, if i'm buying a luxury car and have money to spare, a V8 would have to be the minimum number of cylinders. I can see the reduction in V8, but i dont' see it going away
     
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  3. By chris Posted: 2/1/2008 9:02am PST

    I think the big problem here is that people with lots of money generally don't care about their cars as much as those who dont have the money. I can definitely say that I'd want a V8 cts or lincoln, but i'd settle for a v6 MKZ in my current situation.

    I like the shift to forced induction v6's because it makes a lot of sense. you can make two different power plants for two different market segments (cost wise) and all you have to do is bolt on a little piece of equipment to an existing single architecture. Its brilliant.

    The argument that I've heard too much of is that V8's are just simply the way to go for larger engines. so heres a question: why when there are V6's as small as 2.5L are we making LARGE 3.5L v6's and then turboing them? why not take the current geometry of our bigger V8's and bring them down in displacement. why can't ford's halo engine (the 3.5L v6) be a 3.5L v8? and then turbo that? would there be a difference in mileage? the argument with v8 is that its smoother. so instead of dropping cylinders, why cant we just lower the displacement?

    The lincoln LS had a 3.9L v8 (280hp/280ftlbs),.. where the mustang has a 4.0L v6 (210hp/240ftlbs) with significantly less power, but same economy. why? why are we moving to v6's again? the 3.5L gets better mileage than the two but puts out 265hp... proportional to the jaguar 3.9L v8.

    just make smaller engines in general. people can still have their v8's
     
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  4. By SuperSkyline89 Posted: 2/1/2008 9:40am PST

    Those are some good points chris.

    But I was expecting to read about REAL luxury brands like Mercedes, BMW, and Audi in this story. Lincoln doesn't even come close to those guys, and there's no way I'd consider Chrysler luxury. Cadillac is the only one here that even comes close to luxury. I'm not going to miss these V8's though. Americans have some kind of fetish with big and weak engines. Just downsizing to a V6 means they'll make the displacements smaller and then they'll be forced to engineer the engines more which can only be a good thing. But until I see the big Europeans stop making V8's then I'll believe that the luxury brands are stopping, this hardly counts.
     
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  5. By CraigS Posted: 2/1/2008 9:41am PST

    Chris,

    Some of your comments are rediculous!! People with money don't care about their cars? Look at who is buying the top end of the car market, high end Porsche's, Ferarri's, Bentley's etc. Ever seen one of the above cars looking like crap?
     
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  6. By Gus Posted: 2/1/2008 11:00am PST

    I'd agree with Chris, and I think what he meant was that poeple with lots of money don't care as much about fuel economy and engine diplacement numbers or cylinders etc as people who are pinching pennies.
    What luxury buyers care about are just two things:
    Smoothness and power. It's totally irrelevant how that's done, it just so happens that more cylinders do that easier (more power pulses per revolution).
    Performance car buyers (not the subject of this article) are much more concerned about numbers of all sorts.
     
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  7. By C6R Posted: 2/1/2008 7:36pm PST

    SuperSkyline89, I am not American but your phrase "Americans have some kind of fetish with big and weak engines" is so lame...
    My Corvette Z06 has a big 7 L V8 that is big, but not weak at all :)
     
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  8. By SuperSkyline89 Posted: 2/1/2008 11:57pm PST

    I meant comparatively weak. I know that the Z06 has a 7.0L engine but it only makes about 500 hp. When I said big and weak, I meant big and weaker than they should be. The Europeans could make that much power with a 5 liter. The new ZR-1 is one of the very few American cars with a high hp/liter ratio. And I know that isn't everything but it's a rough gauge of how much work a manufacturer put into their engines. That's what I meant by big and weak.
     
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  9. By Gus Posted: 2/2/2008 11:50am PST

    Skyline, you're still missing a very important point.
    A big V8 makes it's power EFFORTLESSLY, wheras a 2 liter engine making 200-300 horsepower has to work VERY HARD to do that. Usually involving turbocharging and high revs.
    Of course the 7L vette engine could make 700+ horsepower, but then it would be noisy, harsh, rough, peaky, etc. All the things many people (especially the luxury buyers that are the focus of this article) do NOT want. It's not a question of the Europeans and the Japanese being better at engine design, or being able to squeeze more power out of a given engine diplacement, it's about the FEEL of the powerplant, that surge of power without all the noise, vibration and harshness.
     
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  10. By SuperSkyline89 Posted: 2/2/2008 3:57pm PST

    I have nothing against V8's but the Europeans make V8's also and they make way more power than the American ones. I wouldn't buy a luxury car with a small "tuner type" engine either. But I wouldn't buy a luxury car that makes less power than it can either. If I'm going to pay that much money for a car it better have the power and performance to back it up, luxury is good but its not enough to justify an under engineered engine.
     
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  11. By Gus Posted: 2/2/2008 5:06pm PST

    Ok, you're missing it again.
    The European engines that are V8's that make a lot more horsepower are a LOT more expensive!
    That's what makes the $50,000 Vette so appealing.
    So yes, you are right, the Euros make better engines, but they charge WAY more for them!
     
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  12. By SuperSkyline89 Posted: 2/3/2008 7:20pm PST

    Ya but we're talking about luxury car engines here so you would be paying a lot for the car anyways. The Corvette isn't a luxury car, the only reason we're talking about it is because C6R mentioned it. I never said anything about the Corvette, I was talking about luxury cars the whole time.
     
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  13. By  r4 firmware Posted: 2/9/2010 4:01am PST

    I can hardly believe that GM would ax the V8 program it kind of doesn't make sense for the simple fact the did such a good job with the northstar and the 3.6 DI you think they would carry on the success. And I truly hope they do bring Direct Injection into the LS3's it would be an overall improvement. I hope GM was axing the V8 just to start over and not abandon the idea completely.
     
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