Ford can do it.

The mouth breathing, knuckle dragging American in me likes Mustangs. I'm sorry, I can't help it. I think it's fun that you bring up Ford's engines though, because I was thinking about how they're taking a different path than GM's LS Series. Just like people seem to go gaga for the S550, people similarly seem to be in love with Ford's Coyote V8 which happens to be a DOHC setup. Similarly, like you were talking about sub 2L Straight 4s, the 2.3L Ecoboost Engine is proving to be quite respectable. Maybe Ford is on a better path engine wise? Who knows. I'm not trying to turn you on to Mustang or anything, I just think it's an interesting comparison in design philosophy.

And yeah. Fuck yeah. An iron-block pushrod V8 is going to be cheaper than a Porsche flat six. every time. Part of that is that there are a lot more iron-block pushrod V8s in the world so their unit price drops.

So maybe yeah, the argument that snoodog brings up is kind of relevant combined with your argument. I guess people love what they know and more often than not, what people know is what they can afford.