Any time an engine has more than 6 cylinders, it will be manufactured as a V engine as a straight 8 or straight 10 will not fit in the engine compartment of the average vehicle today and I don't know of any V4 engines in use on vehicles these days.
Inline Engine
The inline engine also called I (eg. I6=inline 6 cylinder) because all of the cylinders are inline with each other and the pistons are vertical.
An inline engine can easily accommodate an odd number of cylinders such as 5 cylinder engine or the 3 cylinder engines that may be used in small fuel efficient models.
An inline 6 will be cheaper to build than a V6 engine and there can be less complications in this 6 as there is one engine head for the timing belt or chain to connect to.
V Engine
This type of engine, if viewed from the front will resemble a V as the pistons are not vertical, they are slant on either side of the engine. Each side or bank of the engine has it's separate engine head and camshafts. The V will be different angles in different engines but the common angles are 45, 60 and 90 degrees.
An inline 6 cylinder engine
A TOYOTA HIGHLANDER 3MZ ENGINE.
The V engine produces more torque at lower RPM (Revolution Per Minute) ranges probably because of the power stroke coming from 2 sides of the crankshaft.
The V engine is also a compact engine per cylinder. The length required to house an inline 6 cylinder engine will house a V12 cylinder engine.
The width of a V engine is wider but not considerably wider and not so wide that it cannot fit in an engine bay. A W engine (Buggati uses it fot their monstrosity of a thing theycall a Veyron :P) is wider than a V engine and it still fits comfortably in the engine bay of some of the larger cars.
The bottom line is both engines are effective as both engines are used on high performance models with the various advantages of both not really doing much to pose a threat on the existence of the other.
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