Autopian Asks: What’s The Most Underpowered Car You’ve Ever Driven?

Aa Most Underpowered Ts
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Man, who doesn’t love a powerful car? The more power, the more better, amirite? Even when all that’s required is basic transportation, a little extra oomph is appreciated. No one visits their mechanic and says “I’d like a little less out of the engine.” And rest assured, any salesman accompanying a starry-eyed first-time econobox buyer on a test drive will invite them to mash the pedal (once up to about 30mph or so) before offering a suitably impressed, “it’s pretty peppy, right?”

Dodge Omni America
College-me had a 1988 Dodge Omni that could dash to 60mph in a mere 11 seconds and I thought it was great.

But woe to those who find themselves behind the wheel of a truly underpowered car. Merely not-powerful is disappointing, sure, but livable. A bonafide underpowered car, however, is true misery. Frustrated drivers in real cars whiz past you the moment you clear the on-ramp. Not only is the left lane off limits, so is the center lane. Even the right lane requires a sharp eye on the rear view mirror, lest you overlook an angry moped rider crowding your rear bumper. A steep hill on the horizon? Better mat the pedal now and build up as much momentum as you can.

Camaro Sport Coupe
Oh boy, the Camaro Sport Coupe. Imagine the disappointment of sliding into the driver’s seat of this beauty back in 1982, then discovering the “Iron Duke” 2.5 liter four only made 90 horsepower. And people at stoplights wanted to race you, because Camaro. 

Tell us about your underpowered-car experiences. If you suffered through stewardship of a malaise-era machine, you no doubt encountered some steel sleds boasting V8s with big cubes but precious few ponies. Or perhaps you commuted in a hatchback that, while lightweight, was very lopsided when it came to power to weight and rewarded you with great fuel economy and zero fun. Hey, at least you were speed-trap proof.

Geo Metro
Where my Geo Metro fans at? If you had the one-liter 3-cylinder, a full 70 horsepower poured into the front wheels. Hold on! 

What cars, trucks, and/or motorcycles wheezed you to school or work with the bare minimum of muscle? Let’s hear those stories!

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285 thoughts on “Autopian Asks: What’s The Most Underpowered Car You’ve Ever Driven?

  1. 1979 VW Rabbit Diesel. 48 Hp at 5000 rpm. 80mph max with foot on the floor on flat ground. Any hope of passing another car on an uphill meant perfect timing and starting to accelerate 1/4 from the passing zone. I did never get worse than 39 mph and that was driving across the southwest desert with aforementioned foot on floor for the entire tank of fuel. It was also a reliability nightmare with parts difficult to find and very expensive. Last VW I ever purchased.

      1. Try going over hwy 17 (SF Bay area) with a group of friends heading to the beach! 35 mph but yeah, great mileage. Sometimes faster to walk uphill tho.

  2. I’ve owned plenty of low powered cars (because cheap), but they’ve always been small cars so it was fine.
    The absolute worst car I drove though was a hired Chevrolet (Daewoo) Lacetti. Yes, the same model that had been Top Gear’s ‘Reasonably Priced Car’. The engine might have made an almost sufficient amount of power, but it was paired with a terrible five-speed gearbox which must have been designed for a bigger engine, because fifth gear was only useable at about 70mph. However, you had to rev the nuts out of it in fourth to get it to at least 75mph, because otherwise aerodynamic drag would slow it down to below 70 again and you’d have to change down. It was a thoroughly miserable car. The only saving grace was that it was so bad, I successfully argued for an upgrade in any future hire cars while I was in that job.

    *edit, y’all complaining about cars with 150HP, my first car had 47HP from the factory and it was fine, VW Polo ftw. Better than the bloody Lacetti.

  3. My first car was a 1982 Buick LeSabre Limited sedan that I inherited when my grandparents were no longer allowed to drive. It sported the 3.8l V6 which, according to my quick internet research, churned out a mighty 110hp for a vehicle that clocked in at close to 3700 lbs.

    One Friday night my dumbass high school self managed to get my one and only speeding ticket when I somehow beat a high school friend pulling away from the last traffic light in town (we had four!) past the ever-present speed trap just inside the city limits. My prize was a hefty fine for 55 in a 30 (the road out of town was downhill . . .) and riding to school with my dad until I paid it off.

  4. My wife’s current car, which is by default also my current car since I got rid of my own: a 2016 VW Passat with the 1.4 TSi. 140 gutless horsepower is fine when cruising, but taking off, it can feel dangerous with local drivers’ propensity for being impatient pricks. When I forget to switch off the auto engine stop, it’s even worse.

  5. My first car, a 1981 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Coupe (Landau). It had the anemic 267ci 115hp V8 and could barely power itself over the modest inclines of the Pocono mountains. This had to be 1993-1994 when I piloted this boat anchor, but as a first car it kept me out of trouble. Too slow and unreliable to do any damage and met its demise when I cooked the engine trying to drive it uphill in the summer.

  6. This one is easy. a 1948 Citroen H.
    It looked pretty good but it was not the fastest of things. Some of the horses had been put out to pasture years before I bought it and those that remained were tired. It had a three speed non-syncromesh gearbox, double declutching works better if there is some momentum, there was no momentum. It was very consistent though; empty it had a top speed on the flat of 29 mph, with ten barrels of beer in the back, 29 mph, on the flat. Hills,umm, really quite slow I suppose.
    It still exists, I donated it to an entirely sane lapsed social worker who had bought a derelict town in southern Spain with the intention of rebiulding the place as a haven for troubled kids. 35 years on and there is a vibrant commune in the Spanish hills with a now much improved Citroen H van still chugging around. It took eleven days to drive it from the north Pennines to Cordoba piloted by three seventeen year old children who had never been out of a housing estate near Leeds.

  7. In the late 80’s my sister had a ’79 Mustang with the four cylinder, and I assume all the smog equipment. Maybe it had a clogged catalytic converter, I dunno, but I swear that car would slow down when you pushed the lighter in.

  8. ’81 K5 Blazer with the anemic 305. 4 speed with the granny low gear paired with a 3.08 rear. It was a nice pleasant 2200rpm on the highway but it was a chore getting there. Had to be about 150 horsepower at best pushing two and a half tons with the most mechanically disadvantaged drivetrain possible. Ahhh the good old days.

  9. My friend’s brother had an 80’s Buick diesel. I want to say that it was a Regal with the V6. That thing did not want to move when you pressed the accelerator. This was an especially hard kick to the groin for him because this car replaced the Datsun 280Z that he’d spent a couple of years rebuilding only to get totaled less than a year after he got it moving.

  10. I am not sure which of the two I own right now its slower. My 1973 VW Super Beetle its slow but feels “fast” because of all the noise I guess. My other one is a 2004 Honda Insight, tall gearing, AC kills the power, and trying to get the best mpg, I am driving slow

  11. My first car was a 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser with the Iron Duke, it was fuel injected, and had the famous drone that I associated with many 80’s GM products. Slow was the word, but it was a car, and could legally seat 8 people, so I charged my classmates exactly half as much as bus fare, which covered my gas and insurance costs that my parents had me pay. It was peak malaise, and I loved it. The 1983 F-150 which replaced it was also slow and drank gas, but I loved it too.

  12. 1992 Ford Ranger Extended Cab. 2.3 Liters and 100hp through a 4+1 on the floor when it started life. With one passenger it was OK. With a full load-out of five, it struggled to reach 65.

    It was a great truck if it was just you and the dog, or your date. Otherwise, it was underpowered to really do any actual “truck stuff”. But it did have a glorious split bench seat…

  13. My first car was a 1992 Hyundai Excel. It had all of 85 hp. It was pretty light, but with a terrible slushbox, it was an absolute dog. I drove it for almost a year before it mercifully threw a rod and put itself out of its own misery. I then drove a Lexus ES300 (my step-dad’s car) while he took his friend’s RX-7 that had blown a coolant seal. The engine in the RX-7 got rebuilt, he drove it for a few months before he got a new Lexus and I got the RX-7, setting me on the path to my current love of rotaries.

  14. 1978 Mercury Cougar XR7. 351 raging cubic inches sucking through an execrable Autolite 2 barrel, rated at 150 hp. 1989 F150 with the un-killable 300 cubic inch straight six – with fuel injection! Rated at 145 horsepower – but at least it was a 5 speed. 1984 (I think?) S10 with a 2 barrel 2.8 V6 and a 4 speed manual – 110 unbridled horses!
    All of them are over the hundred horse mark, but the power to weight ratios are pretty rough – especially the F150. But frankly none of them were at all bad to drive. I love the Cougar and liked the F150 a lot. The manual transmissions helped the trucks for sure. They were all very torquey things, which is all you notice under normal driving circumstances. Its just when you get in a hurry and kick down a gear you realize that you were already getting all the power that was there to be had, and now the engine was just making more noise and drinking more fuel, without really going any faster.

  15. Early 80’s diesel Rabbit. Made like 50hp new and I am sure far less by the time I got it around 2001.
    Merging onto the Kennedy was a religious experience.

  16. The Fiat 500 Hybrid I had as a rental in England last year. 70 hp, 70 ft/lbs of torque from a N/A 1.2L 3 cylinder. It was fine enough to get where I needed to go but wasn’t capable of doing much more than that. It wasn’t even a slow but feels zippy and kind of fun car, it was just the boring slow. It would barely cruise on the highway in 6th and any sort of hill or passing usually meant a downshift to 4th.

    I’m sure some of you are thinking “Oh but I bet the hybrid torque probably helped things a bit” and that’s where I drop the bombshell that it isn’t even a real hybrid. By “hybrid”, Fiat meant that they put an extra 12v battery under the passenger seat and it has a tiny starter/generator on the accessory belt that maybe sort of somewhat helps the engine a little bit. You can’t drive on pure electric at all and can’t even feel whether or not that starter/generator is even doing anything.

    1. A while back I had an Abarth that I had tuned to about 200hp and 250lb/ft which was an absolute blast to drive–always left me smiling. Once, when having it serviced, I was given a Pop as a loaner, and my god it was painfully slow. There wasn’t even a slow car fast kind of feeling that could be wrung from it–it was just slow car slow.

  17. 1958 2CV with 12 hp. It was fine in city traffic and on anything with a speed limit of 50 mph or lower. And no hills.

    That may have been a bit extreme but generally I prefer less powerful cars, since they allow you to apply the throttle much more enthusiastically without getting into trouble. With the 2CV it was pretty much full throttle all the time.

  18. My first car in high school had 60hp (gross), probably 46-47hp (net), that’s almost certainly still the least powerful car I’ve driven. But, it also weighed about 1800lbs, was slow, but not painfully/dangerously slow. Would call the performance “sufficient”.

  19. I have a list of cars I want to own at some point in my life, one of those was a Volvo 240. 5 years ago or so I picked one up non running (was just a corroded fuse). Got it running and drove around the small ish college town we lived in. I redid the tail lights, re did the drivers seat cushion and had plans to keep working on it. I drove it 25 miles on the highway to work one day. Before that I never realized how hilling/rolling the route was. The car struggled to keep speed on some of the “hills” and just wasn’t fun to drive on the highway at all. The drive home was also nerve-wracking.

    I wound up selling that car for a nice little profit and paid for a new washer and drier when we bought a house. It soured me on brick Volvo’s for a while, but I am starting to come back around to liking them. If I were to get another one it would be a wagon and I would do some sort of engine swap. I always thought that the GM Vortech 4.3 V6 would be an ideal cheap swap for those cars.

  20. 1992 Plymouth Sundance hatch base model manual. the worst gasoline engine contrivance I’ve ever owned. would hold 65mph in top gear on flat roads but once any elevation downshifts were necessary. No AC, manual windows, AM 1 speaker radio. it was the cheapest car for sale in the US then. And you never forgot that fact wishing you spent a few grnd more for that Honda/Toyota/Nissan.

    1. You think the manual was slow? Try merging on the freeway in one of these cars with a 3-speed automatic. The poor engine wasn’t *that* bad but the power band just wasn’t wide enough to do the 3 speed.

      Once it finally made into third gear it kept up with traffic ok, but merging into traffic was hair raising.

  21. In late 2012 I bought a 93 voyager, which was pretty common at the time. But it was an N/A 2.5 5 speed. 105 HP of FURY in a 2900 beater. I regularly put my family in that and went everywhere. The funniest but slowest thing I did with it though was tow. I towed with that a lot more than some people I know towed with their diesel trucks. It was almost horrifyingly slow with a car on a dolly behind it. If someone stopped on an on ramp, I was done for the day trying to merge. Heck, even trying to go up some hills in PA coming back to MD where I lived at the time was scary when I bought a neon.

    Then there was the time my brother’s band’s van broke down when they were on their way (to or from?) a festival in western PA and I drove it out there, but shortly after doing the timing belt. I realized going up a hill on rt70 that something was wrong with the van power wise because it was way slower than normal. I got off at a rest area, re timed the timing belt, and got back on the road. I didn’t tell them I had worked on it until we were on the way back.

    I miss a lot of the junk I’ve sold but I miss this green van a lot.

    https://i.imgur.com/pthffGh.jpg

  22. ’58 VW Beetle with the 36hp engine. From the specs section of the owner’s manual: “Maximum and cruising speed: 65mph”. Level ground, no wind, etc.

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