Originally posted by hectik: What I don't understand is why Ford will make an engine that is on par with everything else in the market.....never any ground-breaking/industry leading power. Just enough to keep it competitive.
Not the case with the Mustang. 500 HP V-8 is kinda earth shattering to me. There weren't many of those around when Ford announced it.
Seems the formula for success is a bit more complex than most think. They try to overcome the reliability perceptions of American cars, so they produce average engines that last a long time. Keeping a Hi-po power plant together is a bit more complicated, therefore reliability issues, material or design weaknesses will surface sooner in the engine life.
It's a balancing act, I recon. Best way to deal with it is to offer up the typical car, establish the dependability, then offer an engine option for more power (in limited numbers) to keep the enthusiast happy. Sorta, kinda the direction they're heading it looks like...
