Cars around the world are making do with fewer cylinders to save fuel; the engine of the Tata Nano, to cite one extreme case, has just two.

Yet this is America, land of cheap gasoline and home of the brave V-8, a country where 4-cylinder engines have mainly populated rental fleets and econocars. So the question nags: How low are we willing to go in the cylinder count, especially for models that stake their images on power and prestige?

Ford has made waves with the announcement that its EcoBoost 4-cylinder will be available in the redesigned Explorer. But cowboys, urban and otherwise, might swallow their Skoal if they see 4-cylinder engines in a new, smaller pickup that carries an F-Series badge, an idea that Ford has said it is considering.

Chevrolet has tested a turbo 4 in its muscle-car Camaro.

Jesse Toprak, vice president for industry trends at TrueCar .com, a shopping site, said that automakers will largely test America’s small-engine appetite in safer categories.

“If you’re looking at a starter Camaro, there might be merit in offering a powerful 4-cylinder,” he said.

But in cars above roughly $40,000, some buyers are still likely to resist. Among luxury brands here, Audi has enjoyed the most 4-cylinder success, thanks to notably silky turbo versions in models like the A4 sedan.

Top Audi executives, including Peter Schwarzenbauer, an Audi A.G. board member with responsibility for marketing and sales, said Audi plans to eliminate engine-identifying badges on cars sold in Europe. While every luxury automaker is scaling down power plants to meet mileage and emissions regulations, Audi executives say Americans will favor larger cars with muscular engines as long as they enjoy vastly cheaper gas than most of the rest of the world.

“In some models,” Schwarzenbauer says, “it has to be a V-8. Nothing else counts.”