[comptiger5000]

Exactly. That was my point. Having an engine set up and a vehicle geared to pull hard at the low end will give better efficiency, and is able to haul more weight, while sacrificing top end speed. If I actually run my Jeep all the way through the RPMs, by about 4400, it's falling on its face FAST in stock form. Compare to a little Honda that has to rev to 3000 to do anything useful, and is still pulling at 6000+.

If people would take a lesson from the big I6 and V8 truck engines, and apply that logic to a little 4 cylinder, with appropriate gearing, we'd have a winner (kinda like what the Metro XFi was intended to be). It would have plenty of power around town, be very efficient, and still be plenty strong enough on the highway up to 65 or so. Unlike my old 2000 Hyundai Elantra 2.0, which didn't even start to wake up on the highway until 75+.