Nissan engineers recognized the VQ V-6 was growing coarse in recent years and have restored the smoothness that made the engine so exceptional when it debuted in 1995.
SOUTHFIELD, MI Now in its 12th year, the annual Ward's 10 Best Engines competition continues as the industry barometer of powertrain development. Although little has changed about the competition, itself, 2006's 10 Best Engines are evidence that...
It's no secret there are a lot of premium V-8s out there. BMW, Cadillac, Lexus, Infiniti. Even safety-first Volvo Car Corp. has a V-8. In fact, some say development has converged to the point where the world's premium V-8s as a group, those...
In 12 years of creating the Ward's 10 Best Engines list, probably nothing caused more consternation among judges than shutting the door on BMW AG's classic high-volume inline 6-cyl. for the past two years. This was deeply troubling, as there is...
Most of the conversations about Ford Motor Co.'s 4.6L SOHC V-8 during Ward's 10 Best Engines testing went something like this: “You drive the Mustang yet?” “Yeah. The four-six is nasty. Goes like stink in that car.” “...
The dominant engine layout in the U.S. is the V-6. Last year, about 44% of the vehicles produced in North America came so equipped, and V-6s beat every other engine layout in terms of total sales. Strangely, though, there are few V-6s using forced...
Big-horsepower engines are nothing new to the Ward's 10 Best Engines competition. Even big-horsepower engines at incredibly accessible prices are not unusual. Those two attributes provide the foundation of a good 10 Best Engines resume. It's no...
An engineer for one of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s rivals recently groused, “You know, you really ought to call it 'Ward's 9 Best Engines,' because Nissan automatically gets a win every year.” The comment was offered good-naturedly but...