Ward's 10 Best Engines for 2007 at a glance

[JHZR2]

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I wouldn't own any of those engines. Where will I get a TPS for a Saab here on a Sunday afternoon?

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It will be a long time before GM can afford to put an engine that makes the 10 best list in a Saab. Saab has not made any money for GM. The cars have absolutely terrible resale and are among the worst for reliability. Maybe they will get the cars right sometime in the future; they are nice from a European design standpoint.

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Other than resale (which I could care less about because if I replace cars every 2-3 years Id be an idiot anyway), you obviously havent a clue...

Or maybe you consider sludger toyota engines high reliability while an ecotec based saab is #@$%! because CR says so...

Thanks for the great insight... you contribute oh so much...

 

[badtlc]

Another thing about the 3.5L Ford is it produces 265hp on 87octane and hope to have it at 300hp by the end of 2007. I dont know how many can do that.

 

[brianl703]

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I wouldn't own any of those engines. Where will I get a TPS for a Saab here on a Sunday afternoon?

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There are cars that are undrivable when the TPS fails?

 

[BrianWC]

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I wouldn't own any of those engines. Where will I get a TPS for a Saab here on a Sunday afternoon?

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It will be a long time before GM can afford to put an engine that makes the 10 best list in a Saab. Saab has not made any money for GM. The cars have absolutely terrible resale and are among the worst for reliability. Maybe they will get the cars right sometime in the future; they are nice from a European design standpoint.

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Here comes my SAAB rant for the moening...

Two of GM's best engines are in SAABs right now, the Ecotec 2.0l turbo and the 2.8l "High Feature" DOHC V-6 turbo. That ecotec is getting over 15k mile OCI's with stellar results and the 2.8l can be upgraded to 355 lb ft of torque very safely with just an ECU reflash via the OBD II port.

Saab sales have actually increased in the past couple of years and more, better products are in the pipeline. Globally, it's an even better storry as SAABs are one of the most popular upscale cars in the UK. Some of the sales failures of the recent past (9-2x and 9-7x) were merely stopgap measures until better products come to market. As far as reliability, well, million mile saab....

Seriously, saab had a sludge problem for 4 years that they fixed. Reliabilty for the 9-3 has been subpar according to Consumer Reports but in a recent Road and Track survey, it was actually good with the exception of the first model year, 2003. And it's not the engine... As for the 9-5, besides the now aliviated sludge problem, they've been exceptional cars which CR recommends... Not to mention the safety records with the 9-3 being the IIHS's top-rated sedan and the 9-5 being rated the safest car made in Sweden by that country's insurance industry. A country which also produces Volvo....

It's perception

Not the cars themselves....

 

[obbop]

Horsepower... okay

TORQUE!!!!!!!! Liver quivers in unaulterated anticipation of g-forces making the lard spread across the driver's seat.

 

[brianl703]

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Reliabilty for the 9-3 has been subpar according to Consumer Reports but in a recent Road and Track survey, it was actually good with the exception of the first model year, 2003.

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I believe that was due to the coolant contamination problem with the automatic transmission. Apparently there was something wrong with the radiator that allowed the coolant and transmission fluid to mix.

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Not to mention the safety records with the 9-3 being the IIHS's top-rated sedan

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My 2006 Saab 93 costs the SAME to insure as my old 1996 Ford Contour.

That's amazing, considering that one is worth perhaps $2000 and the other over $20,000...

 

[JohnBrowning]

I am sure that their is a lot that goes into these rateings like power density, coeffient of friction, design inovation,NVH, power band, durability and limited spaces(only top 10). So their is always going to be some bias as to wich ones make the list and wich ones do not. Interesting that all but one engine is OHC. I think that this by itself says a lot about what they are looking for!!

 

[XS650]

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Another thing about the 3.5L Ford is it produces 265hp on 87octane and hope to have it at 300hp by the end of 2007. I dont know how many can do that.

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2007 Toyota Camry V6. 3.5L, 268 hp, 31 mpg on 87 octane. If Ford can match that it will be remarkable.

That combination of power and economy on 87 octane horse is impresive, moreso when Ford manages to do it.

 

[bond007]

not sure why everyone is under the impression that american made cars are inferior to lets sat japanesse cars it's just not true car come down to hpw well you take care of your car, and basically cars are luck of the draw, some come out great other lemons,for every car a person says sucks there are a hundred that love it, my brother swears on honda yet his #@$%! civic lasted to 97k before a head blew....my ford escort on the other hand runs good at 225k

 

[XS650]

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not sure why everyone is under the impression that american made cars are inferior to lets sat japanesse cars it's just not true car come down to hpw well you take care of your car, and basically cars are luck of the draw, some come out great other lemons,for every car a person says sucks there are a hundred that love it, my brother swears on honda yet his #@$%! civic lasted to 97k before a head blew....my ford escort on the other hand runs good at 225k

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That's conclusive evidence if I have ever seen conclusive evidence.

 

[bond007]

hey the proof is in the pudding

 

[brianl703]

I think it was telling when I ran across a thread on some forum where someone was talking about how they drove 150K in a Toyota and never had to have any engine work.

Is that unusual in any other brand of car?

 

[BrianWC]

No, it just depends on the type of driving. I did absolutely nothing to the internals of my previous 1997 Saab 900 turbo and got 191,000 miles before getting stuck in the middle of a 3 car pile-up. If I had a hoist, I'd have taken the engine before junking the thing....

But I do 2 hrs of steady speed hwy driving a day.....

 

[Win]

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...not the everyday mills for the average Joe.

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8 out of 10 were 4 or 6 bangers. That's not exactly high end or high performance.

 

[JHZR2]

nope, but its perception..

Its good to see a saab component growing on this site... and lets the truth be told.

Id venture to guess that the 2.0 ecotec was in the running... how else can you get efficiency and top notch safety in a midline car???

lets also not forget that saab does torque very well

JMH

 

[Jimbo]

Is Ward's Detroit-based? It seems odd that Honda was left out and that now-old Ford 4.6 made the list.

 

[rcy]

I can't believe the Nissan VQ is in there again. How many years in a row now? 10? 11?

 

[LouDawg]

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...not the everyday mills for the average Joe.

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8 out of 10 were 4 or 6 bangers. That's not exactly high end or high performance.

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4 or 6 bangers has nothing to do with whether or not it's high-end or high performance. Almost all of these engines were in higher-end cars or turbo/supercharged/hemi-type vehicles. I'm not saying these are Ferrari types, but where are the everyday, run of the mill, regularly aspirated engines? Like a 2.4L Honda, 3.0L Ford, 3800 GM, 2.5L Nissan, any Toyotas? It's obviously slanted toward luxury/sporty type cars.

That's all I was saying.

 

[g20ooh]

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I can't believe the Nissan VQ is in there again. How many years in a row now? 10? 11?

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13 years . Only engine thats made the list every year since the list was started . This year is a redesign . It's aiways been a winner esp. the 3.0l -3.5l .

 

[g20ooh]

Here is what they said about last year .

http://wardsauto.com/reports/2006/ten best/auto_nissan_motor_co_3/