2015 ford f-150

The thing I wonder about these small engines is longevity.



Historically, Small engines in large cars have always ended up in said vehicles having relatively short life spans. Flogging the hell out of a little motor to get power of the thing goes against every engineering principal. Sure, you can get the power but for how long? All the large car/ small economical engine types I have seen before end up smoking, unreliable heaps that disappear fast.
Whenever you see a life critical engine application, it's always a big engine with very modest power for its size turning at a relative slow speed. Putting a little engine in a workhorse application I am unaware of in any other application. I wonder if the lower fuel bills are not going to be largely offset by faster replacements needed and falling resale prices or even more frequent/ pricey repairs?

If you look at Japanese Trucks, They have all gone bigger engines over the years and Euro cars have gone much the same way. They actually get better economy out of turning a bigger engine slower. I'm sure there is more than one way to viably skin a cat but little engines in big vehicles do not instill me with confidence in their long term endurance. As an outsider, I get the impression there is a propensity for a good amount of owners of these vehicles to overload the crap out of them as some sort of pride and proof of their choice of chosen brand. On trucks that are worked hard regularly, it's going to be interesting to see how these things are holding up in 5-10 years.

That of course is of little concern to the manufacturer.
IF they can quote impressive numbers and the things last past warranty, all good for them. If they do fall over a year or so after the warranty is over, better still, Make some back end profit on parts and maybe even replacement engines.