Three Cylinders: love them or loathe them?

[Matt Bodycombe]

It appears more and more manufacturers are developing three pots these days: Ford, VW, BMW, Renault, Peugeot, Toyota and very soon Vauxhall have triples on the market. They always did have a reputation of being raucous, slightly hesitant when pulling away and not that keen to rev because they needed big flywheels. However I am a big fan of the 1.0 ecoboost which pulls like no 1000cc should in a car like the Focus. I have just read the test of the new MiNI in Autocar too and they say the new 1.5 twinpower triple is a cracker too (must try it).

Anyway what do you guys think? Put your three cylinder thoughts here whether it is a Skode HTP, a Triumph or Laverda motorbike or a Commer three cylinder six piston two stroke Diesel!

[curleybar]

My wife is awaiting delivery of a new Ford Fiesta with the Ecoboost 125 bhp (ish) engine so I will contribute constructively when we have some more experience.

 

However, the 100 bhp version we tried was a bit of an eye opener ...so looking forward to it certainly.

[Phil-E]

My Dad has a B-max with the ecoboost 100bhp engine. Very impressive.

 

I don't mind 3 cylinder engines. The mother in laws previous car was an Aygo and certainly wasn't shy of being reved. Went ok and sounded ace!

 

Phil

[sparks03]

We had two 1.4tdi Fabias at work which were both three cylinder. They sounded great, a rorty engine note and seemed to like to be given stick. Certainly sounded better than the 1.9 units they replaced. I'm a little wary of the 1.2 petrol unit mind, i've seen a LOT of these on Autotrader/ Ebay going cheap (well Polo and Ibiza models in any case) All have either an engine mis-fire or worse.

 

Aren't those Ecoboost engines suffering a world of problems with power loss/ complete unit failure? 

Edited 6 February, 2014 by sparks03

[Ootohere]

Toyota iQ 3 cylinder has been on the go since 2009 as Euro 4 then Euro 5 since late 2010. 

 

'V V T i'. and revs as easy as anything, a wonderful engine. With a Multidrive (CVT) really good.

(some early Euro 4 ones have a EGR Valve/Pipe problem)

 

the New MK3 MINI's have a range of Diesel & Petrol 3 Cylinders,  (BMW)

and the Cooper/Cooper S get a 4 cylinder engine.

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

We had a 3cylinder fabia on holiday, sounded good but was a bit slow up hill. 

[BrownBarge]

Many of these 3pots have turbo's attached which will help some what

[whitep]

I dont believe in small engines. I had a 2.0L Cosworth sierra sapphire and was travelling 35 miles each way to work, a lamp post jumped out infront of me one day so it was off the road for a bit. I bought a 1.0L HLE metro that cost more to insure and cost just as much in fuel to get to work.

 

Small engines.... spawn of the devil.

[BrownBarge]

Engine technology has come along the way since the days of metro's tbf

[Guest BigJase88]

Yes the new engine's on offer are now almost rivalling diesel mpg's

[Dark_Hero]

Nissan have developed a 400bhp 3 cylinder engine that weighs 40kg!

[Matt Bodycombe]

I saw that Dark I am looking to see that in operation. Apparently it can fit into hand luggage as well

[WeirdKerr]

Yes the new engine's on offer are now almost rivalling diesel mpg's

 

The 1.2 TSi in my Leon (still a 4 pot though) is getting around 49 - 51mpg 

Edited 6 February, 2014 by WeirdKerr

[Outofthi5world]

My 1.2 HTP 6V is OK, doesn't like going up hill, but then again neither did the Peugeot and that was lighter and a 1.4 4 pot. And it doesn't like pulling away on motorways, but apart from that it flies, I was doing exactly 69 MPH yesterday on the motorway going to the dealers and it didn't bother it one bit  :no:

[mdon]

Vauxhall have had three cylinder engines for approx 15 years, in my experience they were rubbish back then. New ones may be better though but I think I'd still prefer a bigger engine, I had a 1.5d laguna and hated it because it had no pulling power, there's no substitute for CC.

[sparks03]

 

Small engines.... spawn of the devil.

 

 

 You need to experience VW's 1043cc engine from the 86f Polo. You'd never believe it only produced 40hp 

[littleade]

My old 1300 escort used to run on 3 cylinders....

[TeflonTom]

The gm 3 cylinder engines from the previous generation corsa were complete rubbish, I can't see how they actually managed to sell any? what sort of person goes in the vauxhall dealer and test drives one, then says, oooooh this really nice?

[lol-lol]

Had a Kawasaki H1F which was three cylinder and a GT380 briefly (has four exhaust pipes!).

 

The Laverda Jota was one sexy beast.  Lovely shade of orange. 

 

Not such a good idea for air cooled bike for all sorts of reasons.

 

Three cylinder better balanced than a 4 cylinder I gather though the future is one or two cylinders with electric providing the rest of any power needed. 

[Guest BigJase88]

The gm 3 cylinder engines from the previous generation corsa were complete rubbish, I can't see how they actually managed to sell any? what sort of person goes in the vauxhall dealer and test drives one, then says, oooooh this really nice?

The 1.0l 3cyl 12v corsa was more powerful than the 1.2l 4cyl 8v

My old 1.2 corsa had 44bhp what a shed

[tmwarner]

I had a 3 cylinder 1.4TDi Polo as my second car, loved it! Even better with a remap  

[Stormchaser]

I love my Citigo Sport 3 pot. Loves to be revved. Great raspy engine noise and pulls very well for 60bhp. I was extremely surprised

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[TeflonTom]

The 1.0l 3cyl 12v corsa was more powerful than the 1.2l 4cyl 8v

My old 1.2 corsa had 44bhp what a shed

I bought a second Hand one for swmbo, the 3 cylinder 1.0 litre wonder, it was aweful, in the time we had I changed the cams and followers twice, then got the hump and stuck a new engine in there, that blew up too... Strange though, the bigger engined ones like the 1600cc actually are really nice to drive, quite refined for what they are.

I had a. Polo tdi 3 cylinder from New, I put 178k miles on that before that got rear ended on the A27 near shoreham, but to be fair that car did have a brand spanking new engine fitted by vw under warranty at less than 3k miles due to a balanced shaft seizure.. also had a few lupo tdi's as well, awesome cars, brilliant engine, with a revo map they drive nice too, enough power to push it along nicely but still frugal enough to knock out over 70mpg

[BilboBaggins]

125bhp Fiesta Titanium X on order, test drive in 100bhp was impressive, much better drive and response than SWMBOs 1.3 four pot Yaris

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[Chris GB]

You want small, try the Kia Rio at 1120cc. It pulls well enough to keep up with the traffic, has a characterful sound and offers impressive fuel consumption. I always loved the Jota, the KH750 and the kettle, especially with a heavy port job and proper expansion pipes.

The future will see a lot of triples. Mhale has a 1.2 litre engine making over 200bhp. This sort of unit is likely to find its way into cars like the 5 series in the none too distant future.