alt Hacker NewsThat's a series of engines, not a single model. The FIAT FIRE [1] series has been in production for 36 years from 1985 to 2021 and, maybe you wouldn't expect it from FIAT, those engines were reliable.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_Integrated_Robotised_Eng...
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Came here just to rant about the FIRE and the Firefly. The Multijet was also extremely reliable.
Instead, they were tossed aside to promote whatever garbage came out of citroen design centers, i guess to achieve the destruction of stellantis. (except in south america, they still get to use the Firefly)
I counter you with a Cleon engine[0] with 42 years. ;)
But in the end an engine can be reliable but still be an environmental liability.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Cl%C3%A9on-Fonte_engin...
In the couple years I've owned my (now) 10 year old wee-Fiat I think I've opened the hood once, when I first bought it, just to confirm the engine was actually there. Other than that, what engine?
Probably should pop it open (heh, Fiat Pop, no pun intended) to fix the headlight which has been out for about a year but it was a lot easier to get a (free) veteran's plate than poke around in there and you pretty much have to commit vehicular homicide in front of a cop to get pulled over with a veteran's plates so... I mean, it came with an extra headlight for a reason.
But, yeah, tiny little engine for a tiny little car which does it's job without issue, what's not to love?
Meh, GM 3800 had a good 40+ years of production (although some of those years were 3rd party,) I'd take one of those over a FIRE.
I’d consider it very bad marketing for Fiat to use the brand ‘FIRE’ for their engine. :)
The Jag XK platform had 45+ year run. I'd bet that as long as the 911 is made, it'll have an inline 6 and to someone's thinking it will be the same platform as the air-cooled version from 1964.
Engine architectures tend to last unless they are bad. They can do a lot on one also, the Toyota GR platform started out as a fairly vanilla V-6 but it has variations with GDI and variations with turbochargers and has been used a lot of different vehicles. A lot of different variations with different levels of compressions and such. It's basically the block and cylinders configuration.
I'll shout out the K-series though, it's a shockingly good platform. Lots of little details have been thought through, it's relatively simple, inexpensive and reliable and maybe one of the easiest engines to work on. If you were new to cars and wanted to start wrenching, the K-series is a pretty good place to start. It can take boost and make power and has lots of aftermarket support. I know civics aren't everyones cup of tea and it's not a big V-8, but I've yet to meet an engineer that isn't at least slightly impressed by the k-series.