What makes cars fuel efficient?

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

I also blame whiny barsteward auto hacks and reviewers who complain about 0-60 times being "poor" at 9 seconds.... back in the day anything doing better than 15 was a sports model. Least powerful motor you can buy in a compact these days? 105 HP I think... which was the most powerful motor you could get in a Chrysler minivan back in 1985...

[jbmorse02]

Originally Posted by RoadWarrior

I also blame whiny barsteward auto hacks and reviewers who complain about 0-60 times being "poor" at 9 seconds.... back in the day anything doing better than 15 was a sports model. 1985...

I agree. My dad's 83 vw westy weighs a lot and has something like 84 horsepower. The only time this is a slow vehicle is when you start out on a steep hill. It's adequately powered and maintains 70mph easily.

People think they want power but they don't realize you don't need much. In Europe small cars can come with 1.2 liter engines. In the US, if you want a vw rabbit, you get a 2.5l 5 cylinder. Isn't this overkill?

[GasSavers_Ryland]

horse power is always peek horse power and that peek is around 5,500 - 6,000 rpm on most civic engines, the peek torque on the other hand ranges between 3,000-4,500rpm, the cars that get better mileage tend to have better torque and at lower engine speeds like the crx hf had peek torque at around 2,500rpm and because of that feels like a very powerful car even tho the peek horse power was around 60hp.