On paper, a transverse inline-6 sounds ideal, combining the silky smoothness of a straight-6 with the packaging efficiency of a transversely mounted engine. Simply put, inline-6 engines are long, and slotting them under a hood sideways creates headaches for engineers. That difficult-to-package size is one of the main disadvantages of inline-6 engines, and as better, more practical options are available, it's an engineering struggle that's quite easily avoided. These drawbacks become even more significant on front-wheel-drive cars, where the transmission must also fit in the same space. As a result of the packaging penalties, plus obvious benefits of V versus inline engines in this instance, very few automakers have attempted to make the transverse inline-6 configuration work.