Car Talk: Three cylinders is more than enough power for the hills

Dear Car Talk:

I recently bought a 2025 Ford Escape. My reason for buying a new car was to have a reliable vehicle for day trips (I live in a mountainous area). I asked the salesman if it had a 4-cylinder engine — he said yes. Now I’ve found out that it has a 3-cylinder engine! I’m so disappointed.

Can a 3-cylinder engine handle mountain roads? Thanks! — Shannon

Well, it’ll have no trouble handling those mountain roads on the way down, Shannon.

Actually, misinformed/misleading salesman aside, the answer is yes, your Escape should do fine. If you look at engine trends over the past few decades, you’ll see that manufacturers are getting more power out of each cylinder than ever before.

We can look at the Ford Escape as an example. The Escape was introduced in 2001. At the time, its 4-cylinder engine produced 130 horsepower, or 32.5 horsepower per cylinder. In 2025, the total output of the Escape’s optional, 4-cylinder engine was 250 horsepower. That’s 62.5 horsepower per cylinder. Nearly twice as much power from each cylinder!

So, it was probably natural for Ford’s engineers to ask the question: Hey, if we can produce that much power per cylinder now, do most people really still need...