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That's an interesting article. The increase might be due in part to the global problems, the gasoline spike, or just market acceptance of 4 bangers. 4 bangers are still mostly base models with a few options but they've been improved greatly over the last decade especially since OBDII became standard.
With Ford, they finally got around to building a 4-banger engine for the newer ECU OperatingSystem around 2000-2001 with the Focus(as it's known now) and the Ranger getting both better power and MPG than previous years from the same 2.3l displacement. The 4 banger Ranger was getting 98hp 130ft-lbs with the 1993 year model, now it gets 150hp 150ft-lbs with better effective MPG to the "average" driver.
Since the gas spike the number of Geo Metros cruising around has increased noticeably. I see many Priuses and compacts wherever I go. There are still plenty of big trucks, this is Kentucky, but I see less and less of the older 70's and 80's trucks.
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-Allch Chcar
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