I’m considering buying a small compact car: a Peugeot 208 hatchback
(For Yankee Dopers: it’s a car not sold in the US, but you’d recognize it as, well, a typical cheap hatchback.)
The car has a 3 cylinder engine-- 1200cc, 82 horsepower. Specs here
All the other similar cars I’ve looked at in my price range have 1200 or 1400 cc engines, and are all 4 cylinders.
Almost every car I’ve ever driven (since the 1980’s*) has been 4 cylnders, and I just assumed that God created all engines that way.
Is three cylinders a good idea? How does it hold up over time?
It seems to me that after a few years when things get a little wonky, any small problem would be made worse. It would run rougher, lose a lot of power. Say , if one cylinder is mis-firing or a valve gets gummed up or whatever.
If you have experience with a 3 cylinder engine, what do you think?
I’m not looking for a high-performance ride. I want a cheap, dependable car that will take me through heavy city traffic every day for the next 10 years.
*I learned to drive in 1970, in a battleship–an 8 cylinder Pontiac that got about 9 miles per gallon. when gas cost 25 cents. Good times.
I once owned a GEO Metro with a 3 cylinder engine (Suzuki I believe).
Traveled all over the USA with a friend and my dog…
Gas mileage was great, and being such a light car, surprisingly nimble.
Three cylinder engines run smoother than fours. Three cylinder engines are better balanced than fours (and combinations of those numbers) because the piston positions are 120 degrees off from each other. That really doesn’t mean much though, any particular engine may turn out to be good in the long run or not no independently of the number of cylinders.
I also had a Geo Metro with a 3 cylinder engine. I loved that car, I think it got about 40 mpg. Ex-husband and I even took it on a halfway-across-the-country road trip. The gas for the trip was cheaper than flying.
I didn’t like trying to merge onto the interstate in it because it was somewhat underpowered. I think I had that car about seven or eight years before I traded it in.
I’ve got a Toyota Aygo (same thing as the Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1) which has a 998cc 3 cylinder engine. It’s a brilliant little city car, surprisingly nippy considering its engine size.
The engine sounds a bit different to a 4 cylinder engine (sort of puttering in a way that would be comical, except it is very slight)
There’s no noticeable roughness in the ride or the way it pukks.
if it starts mis-firing, you need to worry more about getting it repaired than how smoothly it runs. there’s nothing about three cylinders which would make it less reliable or durable.
I’ve driven a few 3-bangers, a 1.0 EcoBoost Fiesta and a 1.0 (non-turbo) Ford Ka. The Fiesta was obviously a lot more powerful, but the Ka was just fine around town. definitely not meant for interstates, though. Accelerating to highway speed means I treated the throttle as little more than an on/off switch. Let out clutch, floor it. Shift, floor it. Shift, floor it. etc.
3-Cylinders inherently are un-balanced; they’re not in primary balance which is usually a bigger problem than the secondary imbalance of a 4-cylinder. engineers use various tricks to offset the lack of balance; the Ecoboost 1.0 has deliberately imbalanced flywheel and crankshaft pulley to offset the engine’s imbalance.
I had a early generation Smart with the Mercedes-built 600cc turbocharged 3 cylinder engine. I never had a problem with mine but heard stories of them going bang unexpectedly.
A former neighbor of mine built a drag racing car out of a 3 cylinder Geo Metro. All he did to the car was add some wider front tires and added a nitrous oxide system. He took the car to the drag strip 3 times before giving up on it.
The first time, broke a CV joint while attempting a burn out.
Replaced both drive axles, broke clutch with first launch from starting line.
Replace clutch, ran a 13 second pass at 110 mph. Engine grenaded in a spectacular fashion just as he crossed the finish line.
5 years later the car was still sitting behind his garage.
These problems are examples of what happens when you apply more power to driveline components than they are designed to handle, and cause the engine to develop more power than it’s designed for.
These failures have nothing to do with it being a 3-cylinder engine. They do demonstrate that the Metro was a very poor candidate for hot-rod modifications.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a 3-cylinder engine. It won’t have a lot of power for highways and merging, but for city traffic it should be fine and get good mileage as well.