[TejasKinger]

I'm surprised the facelifted Elantra Diesel hasn't made it to this list. The car certainly deserves better than the 1.5 L CRDI engine.

[Quinn]

Altroz and Tigor as well to be mentioned.. that 3-pot petrol unit with hit or a miss ASS! Hopefully turbo gets in sooner for Altroz (and not get stopped like the JTPs).

[hiren.mistry]

This an interesting thread. I strongly believe the 1.3 MJD engine in the Punto was/is as weak as they come. The same engine in the Swift would make the car fly, not so in the Punto.
The major culprit was the rather sad gearbox and the extra weight that Punto carried. IIRC, the Punto was almost 200 KGS heavier than the bantamweight Swift.

[NiInJa]

I would add the Chevvy Beat Diesel. The car was good in almost all aspects, the braking and handling were excellent for such a tall and tiny car. But the diesel engine would start wheezing above 90 kmph, at 100 kmph one could feel the car is at its limits. Noise although well controlled was still there. Its all academic now though.

[DicKy]

The list has pretty much all the mainstream cars that have their appeal/sales seriously compromised by the engine offered.
Not just for enthusiasts. Even the average customers.

More so the TUV300, Tiago and Triber, because was seriously contemplating these models at some point.

My only contribution is the MultiX. Was a seriously innovative vehicle. Especially with that all round independent suspension.
Let down by what can only be mildly said as a generator for an engine. Especially for the kind of customers who were daring enough to even think about buying such a left field model.
Ofcourse it wouldn't survive BS6 and the crash norms today.

What irks me is when the manufacturer can, but won't.
Can understand the lack of engine options or the lower level of tech prowess.

But having a suitable engine in their hands, yet sacrificing the model for reasons like product differentiation in favour of the bigger models are just lame. Especially when the model doesn't sell well, and they burn their hands more than if they had allowed in-house cannibalisation.

[sv97]

I don't know whether it should be a part of this list or not but I feel even the earlier gen Innova with its 2.5 Litre mill generating somewhere around 102 BHP was underwhelming for a car the size of an Innova.

Specially, after crossing 100 km/h the engine used to become so vocal it had to be slowed down so as to prevent the engine noise coming inside the cabin.



This is the exact model and colour which I owned till 2017 when it got totalled after an accident.

[smileline]

Nice thread, I guess, one of the best cars to mis-out due to a lacklustre engine is the Honda jazz, during the stages of evolution of this car Honda missed the opportunity to upgrade it with 1.5 ivtec.

It would have been a great combination, which for some reason not launched by Honda.

A great package missed out due to poor engine and overzealous pricing.

[PrideRed]

Most of the cars listed here have an okay engine but actually haven't let down the car. Some of the cars went on to become quite successful as well. Celerio diesel to me is a big let down. The rest while is big let down for an enthusiast, would work just fine for a non-enthusiast or for a person who need a car to travel from point A to point B. Two other cars that I recall had poor engine are:

1. Esteem Diesel


2. Matiz


Both these car struggled and gave up on inclines during test drive.

[fhdowntheline]

More than the Jazz, I think its the WRV that is let down by the 1.2 petrol.
And what about the Ford Escort back in the 90s with that 58 bhp contraption.
The Renault Logan in its 1.5 Ltr diesel guise was also a bit of a letdown. I was almost sold on the car itself rather than its powerplant at one time.
But settled for the Dzire DDIS. And didnt regret one bit!

[Dr.AD]

When I read the thread title, the first car that came to my mind was the 2020 Ford Endeavour with the 2.0L diesel engine!

This is an awesome SUV in all sense, except for the new 2.0L engine. For such a heavy car (weighs about 2400kg) that 2.0L diesel engine is just sad.

I have driven the 3.2 Endeavour, and the engine seemed just adequate for that heavy truck. It is sad that Ford decided to discontinue that and replace that with a rather weak engine. It is so ironic that Ford gave a brilliant 10-speed AT to this new version (much improved over the previous 6-speed AT), but coupled that with a mediocre engine. By mediocre I mean in the context of that massive and heavy vehicle, else the engine is quite advanced and quite capable in absolute terms. But not on a vehicle weighing 2400 kg!

[theAutomaniac]

I am quite surprised to see the S-Cross 1.3 didn't make it to this list!

Among the others, I'd say it would be the WR-V, and the Tata Tigor which deserved better engine options. The engine options on these two are just no match for the segments they are in, and that can be considered a big let down as both these cars could've given the competition a tough fight if offered the right engine options.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by Artyom

Do you guys think that the Creta Petrol 1.6 VTVT also falls under the same category of a lousy Petrol unit which should be included in this list?

I own one but based on my driving style I am satisfied with it.

I wanted to hear from the forum as to what do they think?

I partly agree to this. The low-end is horrible! I own a manual and a slight mismatch in the accelerator-clutch timings stalls the car. All the more the car doesn't pull much in lower end. Same applies for the top-end, looses steam post ~3500 rpm. Only the mid-range is acceptable.

[ramki.grandhi]

From my experience, Tucson 2.0 petrol felt pretty underpowered. I was in dilemma between new seltos htk vs used Tucson, during last year. Though I didn’t buy any for various reasons, I did test drive of used Tucson, rapid petrol Monte Carlo, seltos htk petrol and few more.

I felt Tucson(2017, ran just 25k) was most under powered even with just two people in car. Next slow car was rapid NA petrol. I must appreciate, both cars are really well built and heavy.

[itsashishsharma]

The global Fiesta 1.5L petrol. That dreamy chassis and steering combo deserved and begged for much more oomph from the engine.
I bought this generation in diesel and got it remapped as a nice work around, though I didn't need/want a diesel.

[procrastinator]

All B2 hatchbacks need better engines.
Elite i20! Jazz and many more.
The top variant costs close to million rupees on road.

With petrol being preferred option now, the 1.2L is just adequate.
Even if turbo charged engines are coming, A larger displacement NA engine will offer better drive — an important factor as we drive within city majorly.