Basically what I meant to ask was that why have America’s Big 3 never went beyond 10 cylinders, when it came to production spec engines. They...
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The original was posted on /r/cars by /u/HP_594 on 2025-09-20 04:51:03+00:00.

Basically what I meant to ask was that why have America’s Big 3 never went beyond 10 cylinders, when it came to production spec engines.

They used to make V12 and V16 powered luxobarges back in the 30s and 40s, but the last American car with a V16 came out in 1940 and the last American car with a V12 in 1948.

Both BMW & Mercedes had V12 powered saloons in the 80s and 90s, even in the 2010s. Mercedes still has the V12 in the S680.

Heck, even Toyota made a V12 powered saloon in the 90s. The same Toyota which also made cars like the Corolla.

There were concepts like the Ford GT90, the Ford Indigo, Cadillac Cien and the Chrysler ME412, which had V12s, and the Cadillac Sixteen with a functional V16.

In Chrysler’s case, they were still with Mercedes in the partnership and Mercedes didn’t green light the ME412 due to fear of cannibalization of their own sports car sales.

But I’m pretty sure GM & Ford could’ve given the Europeans a run for their money.