Looking at changing my current car sometime soon. At the moment I've got a normally aspirated 1.3 Toyota which is generally OK but lacks any real oomph when overtaking - especially up any sort of a gradient.
I'm liking the look of the Honda Civic, and see that it comes with a 1.2 turbo (or a 1.5 turbo on the Sport).
I haven't driven one yet, but presume that the turbo gives a very significant power boost. After all, 1.2 (or 1.5) litres doesn't sound very much and the Civic is a rather larger car than my current set of wheels.
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Significant? depends what you compare it to bit you will feel it.
The missus has 1 litre 3 cylinder Ford C-max and the engine is excellent. Good low down torque and pulls well. We've been all over Europe in it and it sailed up mountainous roads. If going for a small petrol I'd definitely go for a turbo. The 1L ecoboost I'm talking about is far better than many 1.6 normally aspirated engines I've tried recently.
My brother has the 140bhp version in a Fiesta and it flies.
Go test drive one with an open mind, you'll be surprised.
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My Fabia has a 1.4L engine that generates 180 BHP. Pretty amazing how much they can push the limits nowadays.
And boy does it have some midrange punch.
What you can’t simulate is 15 years of short journeys / cold starts, only time will test the engines in that way.
Also worth pointing out that there have been many issues with the big robust diesel engines, BMW had failure issues with their 2l, my neighbour for example spent 10k on a 320d a while ago then spent 5k on a new engine a few weeks later. A known issue with the timing chain/belt I believe.
I wont say it's fast but it's nippy. Fully loaded with us two, two kids and everything but the kitchen sink, it gets about no problem!!
These small engines aren't all good:
https://www.driving.co.uk/news/eco-engines-are-among-the-most-polluting-according-to-new-emissions-index/
VW have started adding particulate filters to theirs. Wait to see if other manufacturers follow suit.