Why don't we just get cars with less horsepower?

Question

I **love** cars. I really do. But as much as I do, in light of fuel prices and dependency, it disturbs me that there seems to be a horsepower war among manufacturers, and consumers are loving it. Do we not understand the relationship between power and consumption? How can we fix this as a society?

In all seriousness, I have a 1992 Mazda with 92 bhp (when it was new...). Admittedly, it's as slow as you might imagine, but I get as much as 36mpg (highway). Today you can barely find a car that gets 36 mpg, now 15 years later!

Yes, I know there *are* cars that get better mpg... But do we have an obsession that needs a cure, or am I off base here?

Darrin b's point is well made. Yes, I understand that it's more about a power/weight ratio and how often you invoke the power.

My point is that we don't even have the OPTION to buy a car like his Ford Festiva anymore. I'd *love* a 4 banger with twin turbos that could get 40mpg at low rpm, but rage to 250 bhp at 7000rpm. But even cars like the Mazdaspeed3 don't break 30mpg, and Mazda's best mpg comes in the regular 3 at 35, 15 years after my car got 36.

Don't the car companies see a market for good mpg even if it sacrifices a little power?

Answer 1

I'm with MadJack on this one. I can't imagine that 15 years ago we could buy cars that got better gas mileage than we have today, but it's true. I just checked on fueleconomy.gov, and found that:

1992 Corvette
- 15/23 mpg
- 10.8 tons of Greenhouse Gas Emissions/year
- 300 bhp

2007 Corvette
- 14/24 mpg
- 10.2 tons of Greenhouse Gas Emissions/year
- 400 bhp

So in 15 years, horsepower has gone up 33%, while fuel economy has remained essentially unchanged. On the bright side, GGE has dropped.

For a more mundane car...

1992 Toyota Camry - V6
- 16/23 mpg (V6, auto)
- 9.6 tons of GGE/year
- 185-190 bhp

2007 Toyota Camry - V6
- 19/28 mpg (V6, auto)
- 8.0 tons of GGE/year
- 268 bhp

Okay... so Toyota has massively increased power in the Camry *and* increased mpg by a bit, while also decreasing emissions...

But what would the mpg and emissions be on a 2007 Camry that only put out 185 bhp? Oh wait... there is one! It's the 4 cyl Camry, that at 158 hp, gets 21/31 mpg and puts out 7.3 tons of GGE/year. So power goes down, emissions go down, mpg goes up... but not much if you ask me. I imagine weight is up a bunch as the new Camry is a lot bigger, but I didn't check that.

Still, if the companies are listening... I'd trade power for mpg too in my commuter car. Don't get me wrong... I still want my second car to be more fun, but give us a few more options, please!

Answer 2

You are off base. Horsepower is a selling point, so it MPG one or the other has been the way for a long time and now most manufacturers are delivering on both. Look at most new cars and trucks, from a small car to a small truck (toyota tacoma, ford ranger, s-10) and you will see they all have from 25 mpg on up with an equal amount of HP

Answer 3

I ask that same question every time I see a commercial for some smaller car with a 350 horsepower engine stuffed into it. The Nissan Altima comes immediately to mind, but there are many others. Wouldn't it be nice if the car makers used their obvious talents to increase gas mileage with the same fervor that they're using to crank up horsepower?

Wouldn't a 200 horsepower Altima that got 40 mpg be a much more desirable thing to have? I would think so.

Answer 4

mileage and horsepower are not that directly related. you can have a 300 horse engine that gets 25 mpg, its just not going to get 25 mpg when its putting out 300 horse. mileage has more to do with the weight of the vehicle and how its driven than how much power it will put out. my 1980 ford fiesta would get 35 mpg in town, about 45 on the highway, with a carbed 1.6l 4 cylinder putting out about 75 horse. the same engine with a turbocharger could still get 35 mpg in town and 45 highway and be able to put out 200+ horse on the top end- reason being the turbo has to spool up to make boost. if you keep the engine rpms under where it will make boost you get good mileage, if you always revv it to where it makes alot of boost your mileage will go down the crapper.

Answer 5

its not necessarily the "horsepower" that causes the problem persay..........

if you were to put a lower horsepower engine into a medium size sedan or larger the fuel savings would be pretty much non existent since the engine would have to work much harder to move the weight so you'd be turning more RPM which would burn more fuel

the best solution other then alternative fuel sources is to stop producing large size cars and trucks for the general public , stick with small compact cars that you can run 4cyl. or even 3 cyl. engines in to help reduce the fuel use


B.

Answer 6

We can but we don't. We all want cars that don't bog down on the slightest incline. We all want cars that perform well when loaded with passengers. We all want cars that we don't have to make an appointment when we want to pass on a 2 lane road. We all want cars that have enough power to pull out into traffic.

Yes, they could make cars with less power, they might even sell a few. But most people won't buy them. The manufacturers know this.

When comparing comparably priced cars, most people pick the one with more power. This is why you see the advertisers touting the horsepower ratings.