why do cars have so much horsepower?

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My 99 maxima around 200 HP, new maxima 300. why is that? no weight increase that needs extra 100 hp.
I would rather have old size engine and better mileage. what next 350 HP in the same car?
crazy
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
My 99 maxima around 200 HP, new maxima 300. why is that? no weight increase that needs extra 100 hp.
I would rather have old size engine and better mileage. what next 350 HP in the same car?
crazy


The new car with 100 more horsepower gets better MPG.
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
My 99 maxima around 200 HP, new maxima 300. why is that? no weight increase that needs extra 100 hp.
I would rather have old size engine and better mileage. what next 350 HP in the same car?
crazy


As far as horsepower goes, some is good, more is better, and too much is just enough. That said, my Club Sport is glacially slow(a 1/4 mile ET of just over 16 seconds) but it is a blast to drive. However, I also like driving a car with a surplus of horsepower; my M235i runs the 1/4 mile in a tick under 13 seconds yet returns 26 mpg in daily driving- about the same as the Club Sport. And the C7 has an even more impressive power to mpg ratio. Great fuel economy AND performance that '60s musclecars struggle to match- I don't see a downside to that...
 
Cars have continued to improve.

Power, safety, handling, braking, MPG, luxury, features...

What's not to like??
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
My 99 maxima around 200 HP, new maxima 300. why is that? no weight increase that needs extra 100 hp.
I would rather have old size engine and better mileage. what next 350 HP in the same car?
crazy


It's called competition, and people want more power. [censored], my 8 year old Civic has 200 hp.
 
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In Europe cars have gradually got heavier and larger as well (not sure how this compares with America where cars have historically been far larger), so extra power needed just to retain same performance.
 
HP appeals to the uninformed emotion. It must be better if it has more power. I especially love "I can't safely merge on the highway without a v6".

Stupidity all around.

Doesn't mean big engines are bad, or high power vehicles are bad. But there is an emotional attribute that is used as an objective comparator ("this number is bigger than this one), that sells. Even to people desiring to buy appliance cars. Precisely why you get V6 Camry and similar vehicles.

Cars have gotten bigger, and heavier, and engine tech has improved to the point where recent v6 sedans get the same kind of mileage as last-gen 4 cyl.

But I do wonder what an optimized reduced power 4 cyl vehicle could do.

Pretty sure my accord hybrid is a reasonable example. It would get 40 mpg no matter what, even without the hybrid function. I mean, city driving... traffic, lots of idling, going nowhere fast. This is based upon my experiences forcing engine ops for winter heat.

But that sort of thing only appeals to peoples' pocketbooks when fuel kicks their butts. The rest of the time, the power number sells.
 
Originally Posted By: NGRhodes
In Europe cars have gradually got heavier and larger as well (not sure how this compares with America where cars have historically been far larger), so extra power needed just to retain same performance.


It's not just in Europe, here too. Seems like every time a model is a new generation, it gets bigger...
 
I own three cars and a total of 20 cylinders. Total HP for the three is somewhere around 750hp. Sometimes I actually need to go 0-80 in 8 seconds.
 
why do cars have so much horsepower?

The marketing department demands it. Using the above example of the same car going from 21 to 25 MPG, if the engine had gotten smaller and produced the same 200HP, then I imagine that the MPG of the newer version would be higher than 25 MPG.
 
The engineers are showing just what they can do with that horsepower/torque, and how they achieved all of the HP & TQ, while still meeting strict EPA emissions & while getting quite respectable MPG. Of course, the new transmission are helping as well.
 
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Originally Posted By: edwardh1
My 99 maxima around 200 HP, new maxima 300. why is that? no weight increase that needs extra 100 hp.
I would rather have old size engine and better mileage. what next 350 HP in the same car?
crazy

You can always buy the 4 cyl version of a midsize car and get your 200hp and alot better mileage than the old Maxima. A 200hp NA 3.5l V6 can't really be tuned for much better mileage anyways over a 300hp version, and a 200hp 2.5l V6 probably won't have the torque that your old car had, so they make the 3.5l V6 with as much hp as is reasonably cheap to do so.

Most mid size cars sold do still have ~200hp though, just with a 4 banger now. If you want a low hp V6, the Outlander with a 220hp 3.0l is your last chance. I test drove one and found it just fine really, but a timing belt and a premium fuel recommendation make it kind of a silly engine...
 
It’s impossible to have too much horsepower!
banana2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Char Baby
The engineers are showing just what they can do with that horsepower/torque, and how they achieved all of the HP & TQ, while still meeting strict EPA emissions & while getting quite respectable MPG. Of course, the new transmission are helping as well.


It's got nothing to do with the engineers. They are just told, we want 300 hp and 30 MPG by the marketing schleps.
 
[Indylan/quote]:
You can always buy the 4 cyl version of a midsize car and get your 200hp and a lot better mileage than the old Maxima.
Most mid size cars sold do still have ~200hp though, just with a 4 banger now.[/quote]

[CharBaby/quote]: And the midsize cars that these 4 cyl are in often weigh in at over 3300 lbs.
 
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Originally Posted By: edwardh1
My 99 maxima around 200 HP, new maxima 300. why is that? no weight increase that needs extra 100 hp.
I would rather have old size engine and better mileage.

Disconnect a couple of spark plugs/wires.
smile.gif
 
I don't mind the increasing HP, I like it actually, but one thing I don't like about toady's vehicles are the auto transmissions. They have way too many gears and they are very annoying. They're constantly up or down shifting, and they've always got the tranny in such a high gear that even slight acceleration requires a down shift. They always have the engine lugging...
 
The 2AR feels so effortless in comparison to the 5S in the older Camry. I'm sure that if that car had a 6 speed auto it would be better, or even all aluminum construction. However the 14.5 Camry will average 33 mpg in my commute which is 50/50 whereas the 99 averages about 26 mpg. The cars weigh about the same but the powertrain makes all the difference.
 
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