The GREAT Debate: Does It Matter If An Automaker Uses Another Company's Engine?

There nothing to debate about. If Hydundai wants to put a high performance Ferrari engine in their new cracker box sports car, I will accept it.

Nothing wrong with it. But don't call yourself a car maker if you don't make your own engine. Maybe it doesn't matter at the lower end of the market, but at the high end it should count.

Rolls Royce's are powered by BMW engines. According to your sentiments, RR should not call themselves a car maker.

I say: Do whatever works to make your vehicles a success! If I learned tomorrow that Porsche's 911 engines were built in a VW factory, I'd still feel the same about the Porsche (PS: I like it! :-)

Manufacturers have been doing this for more than a century. Ford always used the same engines in their Panther offerings - and no one complained. GM uses a small block chevy engine in a performance Cadillac.

However - it DOES matter - you really do need to use a Superior engine in a premium product - although It probably does not matter where the engine comes from.

BTW - I am expecting the new GM Fuel CELL platforms to be used by both GM and HONDA - and it is possible we are looking for a future link up between those brands. THAT is what GM should have done instead of Saturn.

My post was really about cars and brands that think they matter, not consumer products for mainstream consumption. The situation with Rolls Royce is a bit complicated because it is a house brand of BMW. I am very happy the Bentley Mulsanne uses a historic 6 3/4L V8, but also think that should be the motor across the Bentley lineup (heritage) versus the W12 or an Audi turbo V8. Firms like Lotus, Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin or Pagani, etc they should always be making their own engines. Same goes with McLaren's F1 team. They should not be on the grid as a maker of sports cars and field an F1 team using either a works or customer supplied engine from another company. They should make all of their own engines along with the F1 team too. Even the failed Danny Barr 5 year plan for Lotus had them dropping Toyota and making all of their engines. If you are car mfg and touting your long pedigree and or racing history... It stands to reason that you would make the engine as well as the car. I know car making is a global business and things are not always possible or as they seem, but in a perfect world the V6, V8 or V12 in your Aston Martin came from a factory in Britain and was put together by British people who take their tea with their afternoon break and have a picture of the Queen on the wall in the break room. It's all part of the essence of the brand... And it should be.

The answer is NO. A good engine is a good engine.

For example, while I love the TVR Speed 6, but a Chevy or Ford V8, or a BMW 6 would have gotten the job done. In fact, the Speed 6 is a rather fragile engine if you don't have it "looked over".

BUT a manufacturer can pick the WRONG engine to share as is the case with the Subaru engine in the GT86. A Toyota turbo 4 would have been worlds better.

It depends. I think there are a couple of mainstream car companies that can't get away with it, namely Honda and BMW. A few of the exotics would also be hard pressed to use an engine they did not manufacture such as Ferrari and Porsche. On the other hand there are quite a few others such as Aston Martin in which the engine was never the core appeal of their vehicles so the use of a Mercedes AMG engine may not matter as much. Back to mainstream cars I don't think the general public knows or cares in most cases.

Engine sharing between Ford and JLR happened long after Ford divested and the engine sharing agreement lasts until 2020.

Honestly, I couldn't care less about the motors that power automobiles provided the automaker takes the time to tune it to their tastes — power, sound, etc.

All you have to do is drive something like a Lotus Evora that sounds brilliant and has oodles of power to be convinced. Who cares that it's a Toyota motor when it makes THAT kind of impression?

Yeah....so...basically, this kind of component deal isn't new to the modern automakers. In more expensive models, the recipient brand will make their own tweaks to preserve performance & sound characteristics that's expected by their typical customers.