I've stated here that I believe GM and Ford followed the wrong horse when they dropped V6 engines from the option list on Malibu and Fusion.

I've read that Toyota is more than doubling production capacity of their V6 from 146k to 362k units at their Alabama plant.

Toyota continues to believe in the simplicity, power and smoothness of a naturally-aspirated V6 v. a force-fed turbocharged 4-cylinder. Indications are the next Accord will continue with a V6 option as well.

Simplicity wins the reliability war over complication every single time. And real-world fuel mileage will likely continue to at least match a turbo 4, if mileage is a primary concern.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out when Ecotec turbo and Ecoboost engines rack up high mileage over the next few years, not to mention the Hyundai/Kia turbo 4.

Edited May 20, 201213 yr by ocnblu

You can bet the money saved on those v6 engines is being put toward new engine tech. They are just taking their time. Granted, Most of toyota's line is pretty good on gas...

These are just FWD midsize sedan appliances, though...I doubt if very many of their buyers can even comprehend the difference between a 4 or 6.

A lot of midsize buyers will take the 4cyl because horsepower is good enough and they want MPG instead. The v6 will survive, but will be a more expensive option or move to larger more expensive cars. Toyota could simply move the v6 to the Sienna and the Avalon and smaller trucks and let everything below a Camry have the 4cyl.

Their 4 cylinder already makes 180 horsepower... which is more than their V6 could produce as recently as 10 years ago and I imagine more and more Camry buyers are turning away from the V6 when the 180 hp 4-cylinder is sufficient for most buyers.... so I highly doubt that this plant capacity doubling has anything to do with Camry.

If anything, the doubling of capacity has more to do with the coming Tundra redesign. The Tundra is currently in its 5th year and the 235hp 4.0 looks rather weak sauce when the Camry V6 sitting next to it has 268hp.

You know what would be really funny? Toyota using this plant capacity to make a Turbo-V6 to put in the Tundra to compete with F-150 Ecoboost.