Speaking of the cylinder shutdown technique; This techonology is in use, now in the US. My experience with it doesn't offer much in advantage. The computer management system is pretty complex. All cylinders have to be capable of this, as the computer must rotate 'service' cylinders in and out to keep all the pistons wearing at the same rate. They also must be managed to maintain cylinder temperature. It must be high for several reasons some including block warping and alignment stresses. All those problems for what appears to be a negligable gain. I have an 85 fiero with 120k on it. The 2.8 v6 it has gets about 32 miles to the gallon (at 55mph after it drops exponentially). This particular car that I speak of is a newer Impala. It gets 25. Whoopee. Yes the tech has been around a while, and they thought that computer management was the issue. Cadillac tried to address teh problem in the early 80's and it worked Ok. Dealerships were knows for disconnecting the solenoids responsible for operating the lifters because there was so much trouble with the computers. But now, they are still dealing with new issues. We all have to face it, ICE is an old technology and the only reason we haven't dropped it is because no one wants to stick their neck out on a new tech. It's called greed.