This all fell on me like a ton of bricks. I was at a dealer for a routine inspection on my car when we started talking about the upcoming new Honda Civic. The salesman, a young guy in his twenties, began mentioning with much enthusiasm that the engine will be much more powerful, up to 160 horsepower on the base model. Also, he heard that another model, more powerful still, was going to be launched soon after.
Realizing that this news obviously didn't interest me very much, he started explaining to me why the new model HAD to be as powerful since all its competitors have increased the output on their models. Apparently, buyers often said that for the same price, they would rather purchase the most powerful one. He also explained to me that the Mazda 3, which boasts 160 horses, had become the model that affected their sales.
That's when I asked him, with a touch of irony in my voice, if the speed limits increased without me noticing. Visibly bugged by the fact that I'm criticizing the pertinence of his argument about the power increase, he started trying to find an exit pretending that he had work to do... elsewhere.
The demonstration
I've already briefly mentioned the subject, but today I have the intention of giving you a demonstration. More and more vehicles on our roads today are too powerful for nothing. I don't take this lightly, and I've done some research to prove this.
I've decided to check the horsepower of various vehicles on sale today and find which ones among them were already on the market some 20 years ago. To diversify my sampling, I picked known models, all different from each other and in various price categories.
I chose:
.The venerable Toyota Corolla, a small affordable and reliable car which seems to have been with us forever,
.The Honda Accord, representing the mid-size category of affordable vehicles,
.The Dodge Caravan, who saw the light of day in 1984 and is still a very popular minivan,
.The 3-Series BMW, the brand's bestselling model for many years now,
.The Ford Taurus, an automobile that set a trend with its breakthrough design at its 1985 release,
And finally,
.The Porsche Carrera, the automotive icon.
Realizing that this news obviously didn't interest me very much, he started explaining to me why the new model HAD to be as powerful since all its competitors have increased the output on their models. Apparently, buyers often said that for the same price, they would rather purchase the most powerful one. He also explained to me that the Mazda 3, which boasts 160 horses, had become the model that affected their sales.
That's when I asked him, with a touch of irony in my voice, if the speed limits increased without me noticing. Visibly bugged by the fact that I'm criticizing the pertinence of his argument about the power increase, he started trying to find an exit pretending that he had work to do... elsewhere.
The demonstration
I've already briefly mentioned the subject, but today I have the intention of giving you a demonstration. More and more vehicles on our roads today are too powerful for nothing. I don't take this lightly, and I've done some research to prove this.
I've decided to check the horsepower of various vehicles on sale today and find which ones among them were already on the market some 20 years ago. To diversify my sampling, I picked known models, all different from each other and in various price categories.
I chose:
.The venerable Toyota Corolla, a small affordable and reliable car which seems to have been with us forever,
.The Honda Accord, representing the mid-size category of affordable vehicles,
.The Dodge Caravan, who saw the light of day in 1984 and is still a very popular minivan,
.The 3-Series BMW, the brand's bestselling model for many years now,
.The Ford Taurus, an automobile that set a trend with its breakthrough design at its 1985 release,
And finally,
.The Porsche Carrera, the automotive icon.