In reply to Mike.

The Focus is a small motor car. I4 fits it IMO.

The older American sedans, and the newer sedans were just right for the V8. Same for the muscle/pony cars. Pickup trucks need a V8, not a 4 cylinder dual turbo motor, sheesh. My good friend has an F150 with the 4 banger dual turbo. It has power, but it has two turbos that I would bet will never make it to 300K like my V8's (and still run like new). And if you want real power, the 6.2 / 10 speed in the Denali is a naturally aspirated V8 with 460 ft/lbs of torque. That's in diesel torque territory and with the 10 speed it stays in the max torque band while accelerating.

Lots of cars don't fit the V8 so well and really need a 4 or 6. All those old British small sports cars fit the 4 cylinders quite well. A 911 Porsche wouldn't be the same without the flat 6. Then there are the oddities, like the Jaguar Sedans and XK's from the 50's/60's with those beautiful Inline 6 OHC engines. The weight of those engines was so high you could, and I did once, replace them with a small block Chevy with twice the power and end up with less weight. Same for the old Austin Healy 3000 series cars with the I6.

The 289 was a fine motor in it's day just like the 265/283/327 and then 350 (and even 400). The Chevy 409 and 348 were power motors but expensive to produce compared to the small block or even the big block 396/427/454.

And none of the old standard even comes close to the new fuel injected V8's of today. Quite marvelous they are. The Denali at near 6000 pounds and with the 460 ft/lbs of torque - it's getting just a hair under 20mpg in mixed driving. Phenomenal.

I love cars.