I think your information is a bit behind. My old car, a 2002 BMW 325i, fits that description with a 25 MHz 16 bit Infineon C167 processor and 512kb of flash in

I think your information is a bit behind. My old car, a 2002 BMW 325i, fits that description with a 25 MHz 16 bit Infineon C167 processor and 512kb of flash in its Siemens MS43 ECU. That's properly a microcontroller in my mind. My new car, a 2015 Ford Fiesta ST, has a 133MHz 32 bit Infineon TriCore processor and 4MB of flash in its Bosch MED17 ECU. That's more than many PCs had until the late 90s, so while it's definitely running a RTOS I have trouble calling it a microcontroller. That's not even a new ECU either, a friend's '09 VW GTI had basically the same unit. Anything with direct injection almost definitely has a 32 bit ECU, especially if a turbo is involved. I'd imagine a higher end car these days has something more potent (or just doubles them up, like BMW used to do on V12s).