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I agree with you. Until very recently, I had a 2000 Impala with the Buick 3800 V6 engine. All you had to do was get the thing moving, and then it would loaf at low RPMs getting surprisingly decent mileage considering its size and weight. On the highways, it was no trouble at all to get in excess of 30 MPG. I always felt that if they could simply improve on that design, they would have a huge winner.
The only reason I could imagine that they didn't is because the typical chattering classes who write reviews of automobiles are always enamored of the "refinement" of the high-revving OHC engines, and so would always pan the "outdated" pushrod design, because it doesn't "sound" or "feel" good when you rev it to the redline. (This just begs the questions, though: unless you're doing an "Italian tune-up" why on earth are you running it to the redline when most of the torque is available at 2500 RPM? And the average American driver actually *doesn't* take advantage of a high-revving engine - they want high torque at a low RPM, which is exactly what this engine provided.)
And totally agree with you about the Quad-4 Beretta.... Had a '95 4-cyl, and it always seemed like something new would fall off every month. Head gasket, two transmissions, power steering, alternator, even the door handle and turn signal lever broke off....
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