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1. Steve Savage said on May 29, 2006 at 12:13 pm

   Cars would have better mileage anyway, if not for the consumers insistence that the vehicle have 400 horsepower.

   HP figures are getting ridiculous lately, and with HP/litre climbing higher every year, there’s little reason to be sporting a big block V-8.

   Americans need to point the fingers at themselves.  From about 1998 onwards, the concept of the small-engine economy car nearly died off completely.

2. Randy Bishop said on May 30, 2006 at 8:51 am

   Displacement and gross vehicle weights are certainly ridiculous.  But horsepower alone can’t be blamed for that.  For example, installing a turbo charger on a vehicle will not only increase horsepower but also efficiency.  Theoretically if you were to drive that same vehicle at 3000 RPM traveling 70 MPH with a turbo and standard induction you’d have better mileage with the turbo.  Of course people tend to drive fast cars faster (quick acceleration/braking) thereby ruining the theory.

   Look at Subaru’s WRX, it gets 300 HP from a 2.5 L (top model).  Compare that to a Chevy Vortec 5300 V8’s (used in many of Chevy’s trucks and SUVs) 320 HP and you can see that displacement doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with horsepower.

   From about 1998 onwards, the concept of the small-engine economy car nearly died off completely.

   For American automakers I completely agree.  What of Japanese? How about Honda’s Civic? The SI gets 197 HP from a 2.0 L.  Thus the reason Toyota and Honda are outselling the big three in cars.