(By Tom Lohnes) – The average amount of horsepower a new vehicle sold in America makes is right around 200, give or take. As there is a lot of high-horsepower exotic cars there are also a few piles that are severely underpowered for what they are. Here’s three.
Hyundai Venue: Pushing 121 horsepower to the front wheels through a CVT, this sub-subcompact Hyundai Venue is a strange car. Available with a denim interior for some reason, Hyundai has pulled a page out of Kia’s book and put some “quirky” touches in there. What’s not quirky though, is it’s 11.1-second 0-60 time.
Nissan Versa: 109 horsepower: Available only in a 1.6-liter N/A 4 banger, this $13,995 Nissan is about as base as it gets. Available with a 5-speed manual or CVT, the Versa is one of the very few cars that is actually better performance-wise with the CVT over the gear grinder. Completing the sprint to 60 in a rather lethargic 9.3 seconds, this small sedan isn’t going to blow your wig off.
Mitsubishi Mirage: 78 horsepower: This is by far the worst new car you can buy in the USA. Powered by a tiny little 1.2-liter 3-cylinder with no forced induction, this Mitsubishi starts at about 15k and has no features you want or need, such as power windows. Another feature this car doesn’t have though is acceleration with a shocking 12.6-second 0-60 time.
There’s three cars to buy if you aren’t in a hurry…ever.
My 2013 Honda Fit with 117 HP is fast compared to these…….
Who buys an econo box daily driver and worry about if it is quick.
For those that have to drive to work, A fuel sipper, can save you 20-40.00 or more a week.
I burn 120.00 a month more fuel now that the daily is a v8 suv than the 4 banger I had before that. A 120 a month don’t sound like much, untill you are putting that cash aside instead of spending it on fuel for the daily, and buying parts for the fun/hobby vehicle instead. The more I drive to work at a crawl of 20-30mph in traffic the more and more I don’t see the need or want of fuel eating hp in a daily. If my daily was my only vehicle. it be different. but. When a 17 year old v8 gets better mpg around town than a small turbo 4 new truck by 2.5mph . That big hp numbers at 5800rpm don’t seem to really matter much in the day to day grind.