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Forced induction is now much more common in the US than it was five or ten years ago, even on gasoline engines. Most new BMWs in the US are turbocharged, Ford
by sk5t 13y ago
Forced induction is now much more common in the US than it was five or ten years ago, even on gasoline engines. Most new BMWs in the US are turbocharged, Ford is EcoBoosting the venerable F-150, and GM has an interesting mix of turbo- and supercharged engines.
- bliti 13y agoFord and GM have been selling supercharged vehicles since the 80's. GM doing it in their standard family sedan lines across their many brands. Supercharging is a bit easier to manage and pull off in terms of emissions and packaging. The power gains are not as great (when comparing an Eaton supercharger (what they used commonly) to a turbocharger of relevant size (I think a T3 turbo in .42 trim would compare). They are very reliable, and do not need the same service intervals as turbos. Due to how the engine oil is simply not "cooked" inside a hot turbine when the engine is shut off. One interesting point is that none of the American manufacturers has paid much attention to centrifugal superchargers. The only centrifugal supercharger equipped auto I remember working on was the VW Corrado G60.
- sk5t 13y agoAgreed that the domestics have been doing FI for a while, although many of the earlier turbos (like the Omni GLH, Spirit R/T, Thunderbird SC, Turbo Trans-Am, DSMs, Regal T-Type/GN) were fairly niche-oriented cars. Successors like the supercharged Buick 3800 in the Grand Prix GXP and Bonneville SSEI brought it a little more into the mainstream, but these were still marketed as a performance bump rather than taking the modern everyday economy and reliability angle. I never heard nice things about the reliability of the Corrado's G-lader... not that the 12V VR6 is a marvel of easy maintenance either, but people seem to prefer them.