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01-18-2008, 08:57 AM
Interest Fades in the Once-Mighty V-8
By BILL VLASIC,
DETROIT — The V-8 engine, long a symbol of power for American car companies, is sputtering.
At the Detroit auto show this week, Detroit’s Big Three are promoting smaller engines and alternative-fuel vehicles, eliminating the V-8 from many models and relegating it to niche status.
“It’s pretty clear that the V-8 is on its way out of the mainstream,” said Ford’s chairman, William Clay Ford Jr.
Even the famed Hemi V-8 from Chrysler will be quieted at stoplights when it is paired this year with hybrid technology in some big S.U.V.’s.
“The era of indulgence is over,” said John A. Casesa, managing partner at the Casesa Shapiro Group, an investment firm in New York. “When oil goes to $100 a barrel, the romance of a V-8 under the hood diminishes pretty quickly.”
Chrysler is bucking the trend somewhat. The company is updating its Hemi engine and achieving better fuel economy by marrying the current edition to a hybrid system in its full-size Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen S.U.V.’s.
But the automaker, which was bought last year by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, is developing a new line of V-6 engines that would be an alternative to the V-8s in popular models like the Jeep Grand Cherokee S.U.V.
“There’s a new group of young customers that may not appreciate or care what the Hemi does,” said the Chrysler vice chairman, James E. Press.
That observation would have been considered sacrilegious in the glory days of the V-8, when drivers blared Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene,” singing along to the words, “Nothing will outrun my V-8 Ford,” and Detroit packed even smaller cars like the Dodge Dart and A.M.C. Gremlin with big engines.
Mr. Ford, the 50-year-old great-grandson of the company’s founder, Henry Ford, said the passing of the V-8 era is somewhat bittersweet for baby boomers like him.
“We all grew up when the coolest guy on the block had the most cubic inches under the hood,” he said. “That feeling dies hard.”
By BILL VLASIC,
DETROIT — The V-8 engine, long a symbol of power for American car companies, is sputtering.
At the Detroit auto show this week, Detroit’s Big Three are promoting smaller engines and alternative-fuel vehicles, eliminating the V-8 from many models and relegating it to niche status.
“It’s pretty clear that the V-8 is on its way out of the mainstream,” said Ford’s chairman, William Clay Ford Jr.
Even the famed Hemi V-8 from Chrysler will be quieted at stoplights when it is paired this year with hybrid technology in some big S.U.V.’s.
“The era of indulgence is over,” said John A. Casesa, managing partner at the Casesa Shapiro Group, an investment firm in New York. “When oil goes to $100 a barrel, the romance of a V-8 under the hood diminishes pretty quickly.”
Chrysler is bucking the trend somewhat. The company is updating its Hemi engine and achieving better fuel economy by marrying the current edition to a hybrid system in its full-size Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen S.U.V.’s.
But the automaker, which was bought last year by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, is developing a new line of V-6 engines that would be an alternative to the V-8s in popular models like the Jeep Grand Cherokee S.U.V.
“There’s a new group of young customers that may not appreciate or care what the Hemi does,” said the Chrysler vice chairman, James E. Press.
That observation would have been considered sacrilegious in the glory days of the V-8, when drivers blared Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene,” singing along to the words, “Nothing will outrun my V-8 Ford,” and Detroit packed even smaller cars like the Dodge Dart and A.M.C. Gremlin with big engines.
Mr. Ford, the 50-year-old great-grandson of the company’s founder, Henry Ford, said the passing of the V-8 era is somewhat bittersweet for baby boomers like him.
“We all grew up when the coolest guy on the block had the most cubic inches under the hood,” he said. “That feeling dies hard.”
