Have Americans Lost Their Love Affair With The V8?

Have you been listening to reports on how much oil and gas prices had risen?

They have 4-cylinder engines that are just as much of a gas hog as the V8s.

Does everyone remember in the 1980s when V-8 engines only produced 150hp, now economy cars have been doing almost that, the Fords V-6 is almost 400hp, soon it will be the 4 cylinders producing that.

1980 Ford fastest car was the Mustang Cobra with 4.2 liter V8, 115 bhp and 0-60 in 10.1 sec.

I don't miss the 80's at all.

Hey! The music in the '80s was at least good! Better than the filth that's on the radio these days! ;-)

$4.39 for premium in the bay area.. The Prius as a future car is starting to look mighty fine right now.

Just about anyone with a pulse loves the sound of a V8. Can everyone afford it? No. Both of mine sound great, but each are different. My Duratec sounds like dysentery when cold.

Ford's V6 Ecoboost direct injected turbo is their most advanced engine and perfect for most commuting applications; it's got ample power and efficiency. V8 is unnecessary unless it's for a dedicated sports car like a Mustang.

They should re-incarnate the SVO mustang and use the ecoboost V6 and bump it to just over 400hp

Gas prices are high, but nothing can be worse than filling up my Armada every week..lol. I'm sooo looking forward to taking Euro delivery of my 2012 BMW 550i 6MT in the fall. I plan on seeing just how many tanks of gas I can burn on the autobahn before I ship it back.

You only live once and when I'm 80, I doubt i'll care or even remember how much it cost to fill up my cars over the years, but I will definitely remember how much fun I had driving them. If I have a choice, It WILL have a V8 or performance that makes me forget it's not a V8...

Euro delivery is a lot of fun! congrats! The 550i gets better gas mileage than people think. My friend got a 550xi m-sport and from chicago to indy, we averaged 27MPG on the highway.
The US assumes V8's get bad gas mileage, but 4 cylinders on the highway cruising at 80MPH get worse mileage than a V8 going 80. So, depending the application, 4 cylinders are less efficient than a V8.

It ain't a hot rod if it doesn't have a V8. Buy an eco box for Monday thru Friday to save the planet and a big honking V8 for the weekend to save your soul !

Today's turbo v6 is just as good most 5 year old v8's

Only to the flat plane V8. Nothing special about a OHV V8.

It's funny but I always associate V8's with big, slow, heavy things.

Take a trip to your local drag strip and see how slow the race cars are...

It's tough to beat the American V8 for its power and price combination, a good V8 sound doesn't hurt either. While it is becoming rarer in cars most pickups in the US are still V8 powered and pickups make up a huge chunk of US vehicle sales.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiBCyLv6MBI
This is for all of you v-8 lovers,lol, don't get me wrong I love the old school rumble of the v-8, but this is impressive, I want to see an ecoboost V-8.

Impressive numbers,? but simulated torture can't duplicate time. Components degrade over time. You can simulate over 100,000 miles but the engine is still new. Never the less, I like it. I drove a platinum and was not impressed with the ecoboost. It wasn't slow but was nowhere near as quick as I expected. The tundra 5.7 I compared it to was much faster. I am thinking maybe something was wrong with the demo I drove because the acceleration was not consistent with the numbers that engine generates. It didn't feel any faster than the old 5.4l Triton.

85bmw745, there is nothing like a real test drive, maybe it is all hype? I would like to drive one too to feel the difference, if any, in the end it comes down to power to weight ratio.

85bmw745, there is nothing like a real test drive, maybe it is all hype? I would like to drive one too to feel the difference, if any, in the end it comes down to power to weight ratio.

Absolutely truckman. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't anywhere near what I expected from those numbers and the demonstrations in the videos. I liked the flip out steps, but the dash was so cheap for a $50k truck. I expected better quality materials. The inside of the platinum doesn't look any different than an FX4 or FX2.

The Sonata Turbo gets 274 HP and 269 torques from 2.0L. It also gets 33MPG on the highway, which is only 2 less than the base 2.4L engine. Hyundai easily replaced their V6 engine options with this strategy.