Why would engine designers opt to include more cylinders in an engine instead of increasing the displacement?

Question

For example, why would a car manufacturer opt to to use a 2.0L in line six instead of a 2.0L in line four in a vehicle. Are the benefits of including more cylinders in an engine worth the added complexity?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

You can use a lot of the same parts in a 6 cylinder that you did in a 4 cylinder. If I just make a bigger 4 cylinder then I need different parts across the board, which means maintaining separate inventories at smaller scales which means it costs more.

When you have a diverse offering of things (like in vehicles, restaurants, etc.) the name of the game is making everything with the least amount of unique components as possible.