Did you know you could get the new Nissan Rogue with a 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine? The three-cylinder motor has been around, in various forms, throughout the years. Almost always the three-cylinder engine has represented an efficient yet undesirable poverty-spec car (sorry Geo Metro!). No more. The three-cylinder is here to stay and it’s gone slightly upmarket.
There’s a certain inevitability to this. Turbocharging, direct injection, variable valve-timing, et cetera have led to V6s as powerful as V8s and, now, inline-four motors as powerful as V6s (and many V8s). What’s there to replace the four-cylinder motor in cheap cars? Three is a magic number, after all.
This Morning Dump won’t be all motor as we talk about a car with 4x the cylinders and two offshoots of the UAW strike, one quite predictable and one a big surprise.
The Rise Of The Three-Cylinder
Right off the bat, it’s important to note that the absolute king of powertrains in the United States is the four-cylinder engine. Whether in boxer or inline configuration (or V4 if you’re driving a Taunus), America can’t get enough of the fourbanger.
This data comes from intelligence firm S&P Global Mobility, which points out that four-cylinder engines still make up 57.2% of all sales in the first three quarters of 2023. The once-popular V6 and V8 engines have dropped to 26.8% and 10.9%, respectively.
According to this data, as recently as 2019 the three-cylinder engine made up less than 1% of total sales, which I’m thinking was Mirages and maybe leftover Fiestas? By comparison, in just four years that number has jumped to 6.2%, which is a huge jump.
What’s the deal? S&P points to the rise of the subcompact+ crossover like the Buick Encore, Chevy Trax (which our Thomas Hundal quite likes), and Ford Bronco Sport:
S&P Global Mobility data shows US new personal registrations of 589,026 for subcompact-plus utility models through July, compared to just 123,033 personal registrations for subcompact utilities.
Consumers moving up from a subcompact utility face a modest bump in monthly payments, from an average of about $422 for a subcompact, with a $40 increase to get into a subcompact-plus, according to AutoCreditInsight data supplied to S&P Global Mobility by TransUnion. Moving up further to a compact utility would entail about $ 100 per month in incremental payment from a subcompact-plus.
The story goes on to point out that the lack of consistent inventories has made it “impossible” to tell what the market really wants. My suspicion is that there’s a ton of upside and market demand left for these vehicles and improved inventories will result in more sales and, therefore, more three-bangers (that sounds wrong).
Detroit Automakers Will Start Reducing Incentives
Speaking of inventories… just as vehicles are starting to become affordable again (depending on how you’re financing them), the strike is reportedly leading automakers to reduce inventories as they face the possibility of newly reduced production.
September incentive promotions will be allowed to run their course with cuts appearing in October, Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ head of insights, told Automotive News on Friday, the day the UAW had announced plans to expand its strike to new Ford and GM plants.
J.D. Power Data and Analytics Vice President Tyson Jominy on Monday said automakers establish incentives at the beginning of the sales month, with the first incentive bulletins expected to appear overnight between Monday and Tuesday.
Unsurprisingly, this isn’t going to apply to all vehicles from these automakers as the article goes on to point out:
Caldwell said incentives might not shrink on the high-inventory Jeep Gladiator even though Toledo Jeep Assembly factory workers are on strike, but other models would be “reined in,” Caldwell said. (Enough Gladiator inventory exists to manage at least a five-month strike, Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke wrote in a UAW strike update posted Monday.)
It will be interesting to see what automakers do and if it’s a bellwether for the strikes themselves.
Trucking Volumes Crater Because Of Strike
There has been a lot of debate about how big the auto industry is in terms of percentage of the trucking market.
— Craig Fuller ????????????⚓️ (@FreightAlley) October 4, 2023
The range we’ve assumed is 4-8%.
The drop in trucking volumes over the past week suggest that it’s much bigger with volumes dropping 12%. pic.twitter.com/wzBD3ZIfD7
One fascinating way to look at the economy is through the trucking industry, which my buddy Joe Wiesenthal over at Bloomberg does with his co-host Tracy Alloway for their podcast “Odd Lots” (check out this episode in particular).
Trucking is both an upstream indicator (moving raw commodities/parts) as well as a downstream one (delivering assembled products/processed commodities). I’ve been keeping an eye on trucking volumes via Craig Fuller’s tweets (see above tweet) and it initially seemed somewhat contained.
Now it’s dropped off significantly. The most exciting part is that even the experts weren’t entirely sure how much of America’s total trucking volume was accounted for by the auto industry. While it’s possible something else is going on here, the UAW strike is the most obvious explanation at the moment for the drop and shows that trucking volumes are tied to automotive production to a greater extent than many people thought.
The V12 Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar Is Good
Le Mans is getting exciting again. The cars are good again. They’re not necessarily as loud or as wild as they used to be (the Glickenhaus car being the recent exception), but at least there are more of them.
You know what’s cool, though? The return of a V12 powerplants. Not a hybrid. Not a weird diesel. A damn V12. Will it be competitive when it goes racing in 2025? Who the hell knows? Who the hell cares?
It’s a V12!
It’s based on the Cosworth-built 6.5-liter V12 in the roadgoing Valkyrie that revs to 11,000 RPM and has about 1,000 horsepower. The one racing at Le Mans will probably not have 1,000 horsepower, but it’ll sound freakin’ amazing.
The Big Question
Would you buy a three-cylinder car? Have you?!?
My 2020 Encore GX is a 3cyl Turbo mated with a traditional 9 speed auto transmission and it’s a joy to drive. Granted, I am not hauling meatbags other than myself for my daily commute. But, it’s got plenty of pep all day every day. It’s delightfully fuel-efficient at ~37mpg for my particular commute. I adore the engine for being so small and capable and didn’t find out it was a 3cyl until after the test drive which blew my mind. I’m still not sold on CVT tech so I am glad I got the combo that I have now.
I recently drove a Buick Envista and was pleasantly surprised by the engine. Without whipping it I was leaving everyone behind at takeoffs. Got it up to 75 with three people aboard and it cruised easy. If I hadn’t just bought a car I think I could have given it a home. Yep, here’s an old, traditional guy that would buy a three cylinder. I contend that there’s a lot of people driving three cylinders that don’t know it. They’re happy on the test drive and the sales rep isn’t going to risk scaring them off by asking them to count plugs.
I’ve had a triple in my Triumph motorcycle for more than a decade. I’m mostly miffed that it’s a waste for me to buy sparkplugs in twin-packs.
In a motorcycle: you feel more of the engine characteristics than in a car being that much closer to it and with that much less mass. But the “mostly like a 4-cylinder” feel is really what you notice – it’s not until you wring its neck that it feels less refined.
In a car, in the few rentals I know I’ve had with 3-cylinders, I’d had never have noticed if you told me it later was a 3 or 4 cylinder. The engines are small enough, with enough NVH technology, that they’re reasonably smooth – and they make enough juice to keep you moving not to care.
The trouble with a 3 cylinder engine is that if, say an ignition coil goes out or there is a single cylinder misfire, you are walking. They won’t really run on 2 even to limp. Had a Rogue with a crib dead ignition coil and the owner’s were PISSED. Buyer’s remorse. All that tech, the direct injected, variable compression, dual variable valve timing, multiple throttle bodies before and after intercooler, it isn’t so much that it’s good, it’s for CAFE. Buyer beware.
I own a 2022 Nissan Rogue with the triple. This is the SL model with AWD. It has a very good amount of horsepower compared with the competition, we were able to get it in the pandemic for MSRP and 3% interest (I had a very competitive rate from my credit union that NMAC was able to beat by a few basis points). The vehicle has 22k miles and has been solid in the high 20’s to low 30’s in MPG. A minor issue with some rubber banding that I have noticed, but the seats are out of this world comfortable. Nicer than my sister-in-law’s Rav4 hybrid.
The kicker is that it does not have auto stop/start!
Arguably the rubberbanding may be more related to the CVT’s behaviour.
I agree. The motor is a decent motor with 201 HP and solid torque.
I tell people that my Base Mini has half a Supra engine.
You can figure out pretty quickly who understands global automotive intricacies that way.
Like arguing VW’s 2.5L 5cylinder being half a Lamborghini’s 5LV10.
I’m not sure if VW has the same modularity as BMW but … yeah. That’s the argument.
I love a good old-school 3-cylinder. Usually they are tuned for good low-end torque, and that’s where daily drivers spend the most of their time.
Sometimes, they can be even better than a 4-cylinder.
For example, the Suzuki G10 routinely outlasted the G13 and it was barely slower and got better fuel mileage in most applications.
Cheaper to make, cheaper to maintain.
These modern high-tech 3-cylinders though with turbos, direct injection, wet timing belt, only time will tell I guess.
I own a 2, 4, 6, and 8 cylinder cars in flat, V, and straight configurations. I realize that most engines are not balanced but odd cylinder vehicles (other than radial) just seem like they would be shaky by design. I would tend to avoid 3s and 5s.
It’s not just about horsepower. Turbocharging can’t change fundamental physics.
It’s all about powerstrokes, which make torque, which makes the car go. An 8-cylinder engine makes a powerstroke every 90 degrees of crankshaft rotation, which means that there is almost always a powerstroke happening at all times. A 6-cylinder has one every 120 degrees, and a 4-cylinder every 180 degrees. So a six has some holes, and a four has lots of holes.
With a 3-cylinder, you’re only getting a powerstroke every 240 degrees. That means that most of the time, the engine isn’t producing any torque at all. And so it has to work a lot harder to maintain the same speed.
So I won’t be joining this club. A 4 is bad enough at 90 mph; a 3 must be positively unbearable.
You drive at 90 regularly? Or is this a track day thing?
I have family on the west coast, so I-80… through Wyoming, Utah, & Nevada, it’s SL 80. The going rate is about 95.
I’ve driven wheezy V8s that struggled to get beyond 75mph. I get where you’re coming from but most people buying an I3 aren’t clamoring for 90+ mph.
The only 3 banger I’d consider right now would be the Toyota Corolla GR.
Had some experience with the GM offerings and was unimpressed with anything that might be call ‘performance’. Yes, yes, they are economy and efficiency oriented, but still not what I’m looking for.
Back when I commuted 50 miles each way I owned a Fiesta 3 cylinder.
Bought new in 2017, sold with 80,000 miles in 2022 for more than I paid, never got less than 35 mpg, 40-42 hwy more typical. Had to add aftermarket heated seats but otherwise was equipped ok for what it was.
Decent to drive with the 5 speed and pretty reliable. I’d recommend it to anyone who prefers an old school approach to high fuel economy.
nice you put aftermarket heaters in, I did the same on my Veloster!
Eights and sixes are in deline, yet trucks are keeping the Big Three afloat?
I’ve been a passenger in a 1.0T 3-cyl Focus. It was a perfectly good commuter car and got pretty good MPGs – I don’t think the owner ever got under 30mpg and usually was over 40mpg highway. I’d rock one as a DD although I’d try to find a manual. Too bad it has the wet timing belt setup that is a known failure point.
You know who needs a 3 cylinder in their US products? Stellantis. The smallest motor we get here is a 1.3 I4 that makes 177hp/200ft-lbs of torque in the Renegade & Hornet/Tonale hybrids (without the electric motor). I’d imagine a 3 cylinder wouldn’t be far off HP numbers while weighing less & getting better fuel economy to boot.
Why 3 when you can go with 2 with the TwinAir?
the economy of the TwinAir is great on paper but in the real world is actually quite thirsty in comparison. I test drove a Panda 4×4 with that engine and was great sounding, but would do my head in everyday
If we had a small enough Stellantis product, like Mirage size, then the Twin-Air would do wonders. But 100hp in something like a Renegade? That’s a bit much.
Nah, for the 1 or 2 actual small sized vehicles we have, the firefly is fine. Also, sidenote, the Firefly at least in the renegade has the COOLEST sounding starter of any 4 banger since the 90’s hondas.
I may end up considering a Trax someday, but the only car with a 3-cyl engine I’m genuinely interested in at this point is one of the early Brazilian DKW Vemags that looked like this:
https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/dkw-vemag-belcar-1000-1962/
Triples be damned, I’m ready for twins. Sacrifice a cylinder and some fuel tank volume, screw in a bigger battery for longer EV range and relegate flaming cenozoic swamp goo to extending my electrons.
I bought a Suzuki Every Joypop van 2 years ago. It has a 660cc 3 cylinder thats sounds like a race car when you rev it. Its the best “driving a slow car fast” experience ever! I would post a pic if I could.
Three cylinder engines? Trey magnifique!
Nah. I’ll go BEV before buying a 3 cylinder anything*.
*Except the GR Corolla. Which is unobtanium so that’s that.
My 3 cly. awd 4 dr subaru justy would get to 100mph. (given a long enough straightway)
You, sir, are a madman with over-large gonads! I took a friend’s ‘88 above 60 only once: I had spawned by then—and wanted to see her graduate one day
I’m expecting the I3 Escape to depreciate heavily, and find the half-a-Porsche exhaust in that weirdly endearing, so sure, why not, once it’s down to a price where I don’t care if the engine blows. And yes, the Trax is a perfectly adequate, sensible new vehicle, that if I had to go buy something new, it’d be on the short list (although the exhaust in that is meh).
My theory on the 3 cylinder after having to drive an Ecosport Ford in Mexico a while back with the NA 1.5 3 cylinder, is that the plan is to make the driving experience of new ICE motor new cars so horrendous that you beg for a glorified golf cart and accept 30 minute waits at the charging station when going out of town.
I also recall liking the idea of a daily driver Sprint turbo way back in the early nineties until I drove one of those buzz saws.
If you’re talking about the Ford EcoSport, that wasn’t a model originally intended for US markets. Its largest market is India, and even the US-market advertising reflected that. Really was sold in East Asia (think Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and not Japan or South Korea) and the Indian subcontinent. So it’s very much a cut-rate car relative to what would be sold in the EU and US to hit the price targets for those markets.
The EcoSport is the answer to the, “Why don’t manufacturers bring the cheap cars from X” question sometimes asked. It’s because sometimes they do, they get panned in reviews, and they sell so poorly they’re taken off the market. The only exception right now I can think of is the Mitsubishi Mirage (also an East Asia market car), because Mitsubishi needed something to sell.
The EcoSport could also very quickly equal or exceed the price of an Escape once options or high trim levels started to be selected, even though it was technically $5,000 less than the Escape in its base form, which hardly any dealer stocked. I think people are willing to accept some tradeoffs to get a really cheap car, but $22,000 just wasn’t really cheap enough for that to work.
Oh yeah, they cost way too much for what they were.
Want a real, “wait, what” moment? The Buick Encore GX is the same size class, but it’s actually possible to spec one up to $40,000.
That’s a gussied up Chevrolet Trax. No, not the new one. The first gen one, which was a Chinese and Central/South American market car. Imagine dropping 40 large for one of those with a straight face. What’s crazy is I see them around.
People like them because they’re easier to get in and out of than a LeSabre and are also good to flat tow behind a big motorhome
The GX is related to the Trailblazer and have much newer bones than the old Trax. The original Encore, sans ‘GX’, was related to that Trax, and derived from the Sonic. Encore/Trax pretty much debuted globally at the same time though we didn’t get the Trax for the first year or two.
Encore GX came out for MY2020 and the original Encore existed alongside it through ’22, with Encore trims scaled back to basic ones basically as a price leader, and the GX positioned above it. Until then the original Encore topped out around ~33-34k IIRC, which was too much for what it was, I agree, just as much as 40k is too much for a GX now. But, I don’t think loaded ones have ever gotten stocked too regularly (my closest dealer shows 2/3 of the GXs at $32k or less) nor have any of them gone for sticker, as that much coin buys a pretty well equipped crossover a size class up, even in a Buick showroom with the Envision, or a Terrain if they’re a GMC franchise.
As it stands, I’m on board with EVs, but the industry doesn’t sell an EV that appeals to me. Too much tech and complexity, defeating the purpose of simplifying the powertrain to begin with. Plus there are no lightweight EV sportscars on the market yet, and the ones in the pipeline are not exactly affordable.
If I were to buy an ICE, I want at least 6 cylinders inline, but ideally a V8. I’ll tolerate a Miata with its 4-cylinder engine because for small, inexpensive sports cars, it’s the only game in town, but I really wish it had the Skyactive inline-6 and more aero slipperiness.
At this time, I would not buy a 3-cylinder, UNLESS it came in a car actually designed for fuel economy and all-out function to the sacrifice of the styling trends and corporate brand identity of the day, where the focus was on aero drag reduction, mass reduction, and having less accessories to parasitize power from the engine. And such a car done right, would get 80+ mpg highway, 40+ mpg city, as a non-hybrid. Consider the GM Ultralite from more than 30 years ago as a starting point.
But but… what about the i3!?
Ewwww, might as well be a Nissan Leaf
It’s an electronically complicated mess. I like its small size and the fact that it has an EV drive, but not its middling aero drag. Cd of 0.29. If I were in the used car market, it would be something I’d consider, which is among a small list of cars.
But I lust after something truly slippery, with a Cd value of under 0.2 and a frontal area under 2.0 m^2. This is how you greatly improve straight-line performance as well as fuel efficiency, and in EVs, range.
The Aptera is more my jam. The earlier ICE-electric hybrid prototypes approached 300 mpg.
I’d also like a VW XL1, but because they were never mass produced, they are prohibitively expensive. It would have been nice if VW made a less expensive version with conventional materials, but the same slippery low drag figure, and maybe a 1.9L TDI engine. If Casey Putsch’s Omega sports car is any indication, this could have been a 100 mpg car, no hybrid drive needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EqLXt0qV-I
How about a first generation Honda Insight? I know you said non-hybrid, but hear me out. If you really want to go without the hybrid system in the Insight, there is great aftermarket support behind doing so.
But, if you would accept the hybrid, a 1g insight can provide you with 40mpg city no problem, without any upgrades. 60mpg highway is easily doable without any upgrades, but some aftermarket equipment can push you into the 70s and 80s combined mpg.
The hybrid system is still intact on mine, but from what I understand people drive these without the hybrid system with no problems once they’re modified accordingly.
Your criteria are similar to what mine were, except for the lack of hybrid system, before I bought mine. My previous MPG car was a 91 Honda CRX HF, but I missed power windows, power locks, and an AC system that wasn’t converted to 134a. If you’re only driving to work and you want something that is actually interesting to drive but gets great gas mileage, the 1G Honda Insight is a great choice.
I should have clarified I meant new cars. But NONE of them really appeal to me. The closest candidates are a Miata ND, and a Tesla Model 3 Performance, but the former is underpowered, and the latter is too tech-laden and nearly impossible to work on.
A 1st gen Honda Insight is on a list of cars I’d like to acquire if I had the space to store them. They’re rare, low-drag, light-weight, and the aluminum chassis is robustly built. Barring an accident, a manual transmission version will basically last a lifetime with some repairs done along the way. When the gasoline engine or electric drive system fails, it also makes an excellent conversion candidate for an EV. This is a 150 Wh/mile car as an EV if kept under GVWR, and you could have it weighing roughly the same as stock with a 40 kWh pack of Panasonic NCR21700 batteries.
My only major gripe is that it is front wheel drive.
So basically the pre-EV Rocky Mountain Institute car or the VW XL1?
A good 3-cylinder swapped into a first-gen Insight would be pretty slick.
The 1st gen Insight did comprise its ultimate aero potential for more ride height and Honda’s styling zeitgeist of the time, which is a waste, because the Insight is not generally praised for its looks anyway. The front end needed to resemble that of a Jaguar D-Type with an Alfa Romeo TZ cues ion the rear, and then change some of the body’s shape to cut drag, IMO. Make it sexy, lower, and RWD, and it would have been a much better car.
The Daihatsu UFE-III was a more slippery Honda Insight than the Honda Insight. 0.168 Cd vs the Insight’s 0.25 Cd. It’s a bit ugly, but that could still be fixed while maintaining the same shape.
But the Insight is among the most slippery cars ever sold in the U.S., and that says a lot. An Insight with 2/3 the aero drag and a 660cc 3-cylinder turbodiesel tuned to 100 horsepower, with double wishbone front and rear suspension, would be amazing. You’d have a 150 mpg car that could do 0-60 mph in under 8 seconds, top out at 150-ish mph, and tackle curves with competence.
I once had a Corvair that only really used two cylinders. I mean, it had six of them, but it just wasn’t all that motivated to let them combust anything. I’d say power delivery was a little on the anemic side, but it often got me where I was going before succumbing to vapor lock.
I mean, sure, had that particular Corvair benefited from a healthy 12-cylinder engine, I may have had four cylinders to work with, but I care about the environment.
This is written in a fashion reminiscent of Douglas Adams or the pooled genius behind Good Omens. I appreciate it greatly.
I always imagine what would happen if battery technology never progressed. No BEVs or even viable hybrids, yet emissions regulations marched on.
Would we be ever marching towards single cylinder engines that rev to the moon?