15 August 2026
Ten engines that refuse to die, and the real reason they stopped making them. Not one of these engines could be built and sold as a new car in Britain today. Not because they are unsafe, but because none of them would pass modern type approval. That, more than cost or fashion, is why they are gone.
In this video we count down ten engines that were built with margin, and the ones on this list were designed by engineers who assumed the person who bought the car might want to keep it. The Vauxhall Family Two that taught half the country to drive. The Ford Pinto that lived under the bonnet of every Cortina, Capri, Sierra and Transit. The Peugeot and Citroen X U D diesel that farmers and taxi drivers ran into the hundreds of thousands of miles with no electronics involved at all. The Volkswagen one point nine turbo diesel. The Volvo Redblock that routinely passed three hundred thousand miles on its original internals. The B M W M fifty straight six. The Toyota twenty two R that made the Hilux famous. The Ford Zetec. The Mercedes O M six one seven, the million mile engine. And at number one, an engine you could have bought new within the last twenty years.
We also cover what replaced them, and why so many modern engines are being scrapped rather than repaired. Over eight hundred thousand wet belt EcoBoost engines were fitted in the U K alone, more than any other country in Europe, with repair bills running to four and five figures on cars often worth less than the repair.
And we give the other side of the argument a proper hearing. These old engines are dirtier. Air quality in British cities has measurably improved over the same period all this complexity arrived. Modern engines make more power on less fuel. And nostalgia edits out the failures, because for every Redblock at three hundred thousand miles there was a British engine of the same era that was a disaster.
There is practical advice at the end too. How to find out whether the car you are looking at has a belt running in oil, what to listen for from cold, what actually matters in a service history, and where the clean air zone thresholds fall for petrol and diesel.
Sources and status are stated on air at the end of the video: what is confirmed, what is reported but not settled, and what is still developing.
So tell us in the comments. What is under your bonnet, how many miles has it done, and how long have you had it.
