Blown Engines Dominate Ward’s Top 10 List

Six of the 10 best engines selected by Wardsauto.com for 2013 are turbocharged or supercharged. Ward's will honor the winners at the Detroit auto show on Jan. 16.

Five of the top engines this year are four-bangers. They include two naturally aspirated units Honda's 2.4-liter powerplant (Accord Sport) and Subaru's 2.0-liter "boxer" engine (BRZ sport coupe) and three turbocharged 2.0-liter engines from BMW (323i sedan), Cadillac (ATS coupe and sedan) and Ford (Focus ST coupe and Taurus sedan).

Four six-cylinder powerplants will be honored this month. One, BMW's turbocharged 3.0-liter unit (135is coupe), is an inline six. The others are V-6s: Audi's 3.0-liter supercharged TFSI (S5 coupe), Chrysler's naturally aspirated 3.6-liter DOHC Pentastar (Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck) and Honda's 3.5-liter SOHC engine (Accord sedan).

The lone V-8 winner for 2013 is the supercharged 5.8-liter DOHC engine that powers the Ford Shelby GT500 sport coupe.

Eleven of the 40 powertrains considered this year were hybrids or electric. But Wards says none of those alternate systems made the final cut because they failed to improve upon the current systems found in the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius.

Eligible engines must be offered in a production vehicle that costs less than $55,000 and be available during the first quarter of 2013. Wards editors evaluate each engine subjectively in terms of power, fuel economy, technology, NVH and "relative competitiveness."