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?”
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.
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.
What cars, trucks, and/or motorcycles wheezed you to school or work with the bare minimum of muscle? Let’s hear those stories!
Mitsubishi Xpander. It was barely capable of getting out of its own way. Driving it around the mountainous terrain of Costa Rica was part torture, part exercise in patience.
I had an absolutely awful Renault econo sedan rental in Morocco, a Logan I think. Something like an 80hp 1 liter engine. With the transmission in 2nd I had the pedal on the floor going uphill and still was barely able to maintain speed.
My older sister leased an 84 Chevette. It was a manual and reasonably well optioned for the era (cassette deck/AC), so it wasn’t entirely terrible to drive. But it was a daily driver and was driven a lot. She had moved away and I visited her during the summer and used the car a lot. That summer we had to drive the car several hundred miles back home to return it at the end of the lease. It was always slow but it seemed slower. We drove over the Blue Ridge Mountains and it had real trouble maintaining highway speeds. When we turned it in, the dealer asked us if we had realized it had blown a cylinder. All of a sudden our troubles going over the mountains made a lot more sense. And no, we had not known, other than it was just slower–no other symptoms.
1994 Ford Ranger with the 4cyl. Now, I loved that truck. However, it was ridiculously underpowered for being a truck as heavy as it was. I know with modifications I could have gotten more power out of it, but dang it was slow.
Sorry to the Subaru guys out there, but any new non turbo Subaru are so slow they are a danger to modern traffic. The dealership that I work at took a near perfect Impreza sport with a stick in on trade. I took it to lunch one time thinking it would be a hoot to drive, little did I know the the car can’t even get out of its own way. I honestly believe person on a bicycle would be quicker.
I’m going to go with the Ford Tempo we had when I was young that I learned to drive on. It was I think a 1992 “L” or “GL” model I can’t recall, but oh man.. wow. So slow.
My 1973 Land Rover Series III. 0-60 … maybe tomorrow.
Early 80’s diesel rabbit. Every gear felt the same. It literally didn’t matter which one you were in.
I drove one of those–my GF bought it for a few hundred bucks. It had A/C. Turning it on was like almost like hitting the brakes, but it was a working A/C. Unfortunately, the engine starting leaking oil into the coolant and that was that. Pity because otherwise the car was great, but slow.
My first car: a 1979 Plymouth Horizon, its 1.7L VW engine sending 65 fearsome horsepower through a three-speed automatic transmission. Measuring 0-60 times required a calendar.
Its eventual replacement, a 1984 Ford Escort, at least masked the anemia of its 70hp with a four-speed manual, so it never felt especially slow.
Fortunately, this was an era when no cars were really “fast” … the C4 only made like 230hp. If I had to daily that Horizon now, I’d get run off the road.
A Mercedes 200D non-turbo diesel. 0-60 in a breathtaking 36 seconds.
850cc Mini
My first car, a1981 Honda Accord LX hatchback with 72ish hp and matched to the wonderfully named Hondamatic (3 spd auto). I mean, it was my first car, so my memories are fun but still…
My favorite underpowered car was my 1990 Honda CRX HF with 62HP and 5spd manual. 0-60 in about 14 seconds, but CRX and 50+ MPG…
I did happen to have my license in 91/92, I did manage to get the dealer of the Yugo to let me test drive one. I was surprised since I was 16 going on 17, but it is whatever. that Yugo is still the slowest pile I ever drove. But I did have one of those weird but smart neighbors, he taught me a bout back pressure and 2 strokes when we managed to get my Honda express to do 60. He also drilled out the distributor and added an adjustable unit from a Fiat I think. His Yugo was pretty quick as I recall
Mercedes 240D
62hp, 101lb/ft of torque, an automatic trans, and 3000+lb curb weight . Floor it today and get to 60mph by tomorrow.
As long as there are no hills, turns, or slightly rough road surfaces with more friction.
I’ll nominate my 2006 Dodge Dakota.
A 3.7L engine that made torque like a high revving 3L, a 4-speed auto, and a dead-weight front axle.
The best 0-60 was like 10.6 seconds, but around town, 0-30 would take be so slow, it made me good at looking at stop lights and following the patterns to go as soon as the light turned green… just so I could at least keep up with traffic.
Sure as hell did some good speed in Mexico though….
I didn’t drive it, but being a passenger in a 1988 Dodge Colt 2 door hatchback with 5 people in it driving up big hills on the Merritt Parkway as it slowly lost speed was the one time getting out to push might have actually helped things.
i had an 82 toyota corrola station wagon manual that was kind of a dog with 75 hp and a whole lotta miles. I also had a 92 Geo Storm base model with the 5 speed that appears to have had a sufficient 95 hp. However, when pressed into moving duty in northern Maine, I discovered it could not make it up many of the long hills without an alarming amount of preparation. After losing nearly all momentum, I made it up the first hill in the breakdown lane, in second gear. All subsequent hills involved getting going as fast i could in the downard portion and keeping it pinned to the floor for the upward side. All said, i really liked that car and when i found two of them in a San Diego junkyard back around 2015 I got very nostalgic. I would love one of those for a commuter right now. Not many around for sale, havent seen one in New England in probably 20 years.
I just looked-up my grandmother’s 1980 K-Car and 1984 LeBaron, and those cars actually are rated at 80hp. When I drove them, the throttle response was SO bad, that I would have guessed closer to 60. I guess it was just the slowest feeling car. Those vinyl landau tops must have been heavy!
It was my first experience with jamming the go pedal to the floor and having the car just shrug at me.
I once drove a -very- long wheelbase Citroen HY van from the south of France over the hills to the Netherlands. Weight approximately 1700 kg, overall length 5,5 meters and a wheelbase of 3,7 meters. The HY had a 1911 cc engine which produced a whopping 58 hp. Power to the front wheels, no powersteering and all the weight on the front wheels. So safe to say it was underpowered. We started on the bottom of the hill with 80 kph and ended on the top with 30 kph. And still this was not the most dangerous feature of the car.
No, stopping was worse, the HY had drumbrakes all around, pressing the brake pedal would send 4 brake goblins on a exhaustive quest to find a drum brake somewhere in the van. You had to start braking the moment you saw the place sign of the next city and with good luck you were able to stop in front of the church on the centre square.
57hp diesel in.my 1450kg VW Transporter, with a loooong 4th gear so it takes a while getting it to 105kph. But I still love it. My 1200 bug feels quicker.
My 1965 Corvair convertible really only ran on two cylinders most of the time I owned it. It was slow.
1990 Jeep Wrangler with the 2.5L carried over from AMC. Would not make it to 60mph… Made it a good recipient for a small-block chevy though!
1976 Ford Pinto
1983 Ford Escort with a slushbox. What a God-awful car that was.
I think it’s fair to limit this to cars that can actually be driven on the road “safely”. On that note, we have a Mitsubishi Pajero Mini, “kei” SUV, rated officially at 51hp, and weighing in at 2057lbs. Non-turbo, 660cc, bike-like 9000rpm redline. Couldn’t make it to even 50mph in a quarter mile of space. Top speed around 55ish. It has the worst power-weight ratio I’ve ever driven on the road, and that makes it an “experience”!
Just the basic main road through town here is a 40mph road. No big deal normally, but in order to keep up with traffic, you have to treat every traffic light like a standing race start: full power launch, run up to the 9000rpm redline in 1st.. 2nd.. 3rd… now you’re at 40mph and have kept up with soccer mom traffic, with hopefully none the wiser!
Lots of hills around here too… lucky to keep above 20mph on those, with no cargo and no passengers. I try to resort to momentum driving to not hold people up -lot’s of fun!- but it’s not great at that either, with very little grip available.
Still, it’s a hoot- always fun to have a different experience once in a while.
There might be something wrong with it – I drive a kei (Honda Today Associe) with 48hp, weighing in at 1499lbs. I mean, it’s a good chunk lighter and considerably more aerodynamic, but it keeps up without any problem until highway speeds – at which point is right lane only and hope I find a truck driving 65mph to sit behind.