I see Nissan going the same route as the Altima in the sense that... The Altima was purposely designed to be the most fuel efficient engine without the use of Direct Injection.
I believe the only reason why DI exists in the Juke is because the unusually small size of the engine and the amount of torque that was needed to make an AWD Juke. This called for drastic measures in order to pull out the smallest, most powerful AWD CUV in the market with the highest fuel efficiency for less than $25k
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In the case of the Z. Going with a turbo 4 or NA v6 to make it fuel efficient or more powerful doesn't truely warrant the need for DI. Companies like Nissan that pride themselves on low-maintenence costs will ONLY add DI when it is cheap to do or has a outstanding benefit.
As it stands right now. DI is one of many methods to gain efficiency in cars. It just so happens to be what has been getting the most attention by the car mags. With more efficient upcoming engine designs and hyper-advanced future transmissions. DI will lose its weight in the auto industry. Its just a decent fix for keeping old technology up to date in gas powered motors in many cases.
Last edited by UNKNOWN_370; 11-01-2012 at 11:06 AM.
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