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[Sir Tigger KC]

My cousin works for Ford's and gets a new car every 6 months, so every time I see him he's driving something different. 

Saw him at Christmas and he turned up in a Focus estate with a 1 litre, 3 cylinder, turbo charged engine!    He said that it has the fuel economy of a diesel (about 50mpg) and similar performance to a 1.6 petrol!    It has plenty of gadgets and gizmos like active park assist (it will park itself! ), cruise control that will adjust the speed to maintain the distance from the car in front, and a lane alert system. Interestingly it has a lubricated cambelt which Ford claim is maintenance free! 

Sadly I didn't get to try it, but I wonder what the long term reliability of a highly tuned little engine like this will be? 

Possibly the future of motoring though..... 

[the alarming man]

I had one as a loner just before Christmas..they go ok but I doubt it will go too well loaded up with the crap we carry...I do know when I worked for RMG they started to issue 1.6 Diesel focuses and within 6 months they went back to the 1.8 diesel due to reliability issues which is not surprising as I think the first 1.6 fitted to the focus was a Peugeot lump!

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

My cousin works for Ford's and gets a new car every 6 months, so every time I see him he's driving something different. 

Saw him at Christmas and he turned up in a Focus estate with a 1 litre, 3 cylinder, turbo charged engine!    He said that it has the fuel economy of a diesel (about 50mpg) and similar performance to a 1.6 petrol!    It has plenty of gadgets and gizmos like active park assist (it will park itself! ), cruise control that will adjust the speed to maintain the distance from the car in front, and a lane alert system. Interestingly it has a lubricated cambelt which Ford claim is maintenance free! 

Sadly I didn't get to try it, but I wonder what the long term reliability of a highly tuned little engine like this will be?

Possibly the future of motoring though..... 

F**ked after 30,000 miles.....and in need of new pistons, valves, and turbo.

Big power from a small engine means that something has to give.

[Sir Tigger KC]

F**ked after 30,000 miles.....and in need of new pistons, valves, and turbo.

Big power from a small engine means that something has to give.

Yes that's my impression to be honest, but I wonder if with modern engineering it might prove to be a bit more robust. 

[kevinp58]

I had one as a loner just before Christmas..they go ok but I doubt it will go too well loaded up with the crap we carry...I do know when I worked for RMG they started to issue 1.6 Diesel focuses and within 6 months they went back to the 1.8 diesel due to reliability issues which is not surprising as I think the first 1.6 fitted to the focus was a Peugeot lump!

now days ford don't make engines they are peugeot for deisel. 

[TheBoy]

I colleague has one, probably had about a year. Ideal for him, as he's in Milton Keynes, so only does a few miles a day. Around town, quite nippy, but feels strained on motorways (cruises OK, but any demands for more speed are met with nothing but volume increase).

[MR MISTER]

I colleague has one, probably had about a year. Ideal for him, as he's in Milton Keynes, so only does a few miles a day. Around town, quite nippy, but feels strained on motorways (cruises OK, but any demands for more speed are met with nothing but volume increase).

Probably built as a 'town car'. You'd be surprised how many people never go near a motorway, unless it's a 10 mile jaunt for out of town shopping. Makes perfect sense to me, if you use the motorway often, buy a car that's capable....otherwise, a sewing machine engine will be fine.



As an addendum, these cars are built for town, but mpg for motorways is always made a big deal of.

[the alarming man]

I had one as a loner just before Christmas..they go ok but I doubt it will go too well loaded up with the crap we carry...I do know when I worked for RMG they started to issue 1.6 Diesel focuses and within 6 months they went back to the 1.8 diesel due to reliability issues which is not surprising as I think the first 1.6 fitted to the focus was a Peugeot lump!

now days ford don't make engines they are peugeot for deisel. 

ah there is your reliability problem...

[Johnny English]

I colleague has one, probably had about a year. Ideal for him, as he's in Milton Keynes, so only does a few miles a day. Around town, quite nippy, but feels strained on motorways (cruises OK, but any demands for more speed are met with nothing but volume increase).

Agreed. When driving I often meet small sized high powered engine cars on the motorway where they get the head lamps flashing to let them run away (possibly the are in hurry) okay guys, go. The only stain in this story that later when running uphill I am the one who must sign them to let me to go.  So my view is the small size highly tuned engine is an illusion what doesn't take long.   

F**ked after 30,000 miles.....and in need of new pistons, valves, and turbo.

Big power from a small engine means that something has to give.

 

[kevinp58]

I had one as a loner just before Christmas..they go ok but I doubt it will go too well loaded up with the crap we carry...I do know when I worked for RMG they started to issue 1.6 Diesel focuses and within 6 months they went back to the 1.8 diesel due to reliability issues which is not surprising as I think the first 1.6 fitted to the focus was a Peugeot lump!

now days ford don't make engines they are peugeot for deisel. 

ah there is your reliability problem...

  yup the latest pug engines are crap. 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Back in 1984 my Kawasaki GPZ 750 turbo produced 112 BHP from a mere 738 cc.

The motor and turbo had been rebuilt twice by the time I got my hands on it..... with barely 20,000 miles on the clock. 

[Rods2]

My GPZ1100 was the same, it kept blowing head gaskets, until a neighbour that tuned them told me the barrel and studs aren't strong enough for the increased power from the 1000cc so he made a set of high tensile steel studs and rebuilt the engine and I had no problems since then.

So it will be very depended upon the quality of the design, materials, engineering and build that will define the durability. Modern motorcycle engines are very highly stressed, when the performance is well used, but well looked after they should be good for 100,000 miles plus.

I agree that you can't beat cc's years ago I knew somebody that had a small engined vw polo where he used to have a 300 weekend commute. 40mpg normally, unless there was a strong motorway headwind, then it would be in the high 20's, worse than a bigger engined car.

[2boxerdogs]

Give me a V6 any day !!

[Gaffers]

Or a straight 6 (with supercharger)

[2boxerdogs]

Or a straight 6 (with supercharger)

Yes proper cars, I don't want or need 50 plus mpg & I don't give a toss about all this green nonsense..