I don't see the point of fast cars anymore.

[Lean L]

I recently decided to get a new (used) car. I ended up with an 09 Accord V6 sedan.

I do appreciate that it goes everywhere quickly without hesitation but realistically it doesn't serve any purpose besides wasting gas or pissing others off if all you use it for is commuting.

I watched some videos of what it can do and this is one of the appalling videos that came up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIjzRKtR6IA

I'm concluding that the more powerful engine serves 2 purposes:
1) Better feel when accelerating (The wire throttle felt weird at times in my old corolla when trying to accelerate. The engine just felt like it was struggling.
2) Merging onto the highway and even then it's almost negligible as people know to slow down for a slow looking car.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Why are you even in here?

These posts really should be in OT. In the garage they're nothing but troll.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

3) put big smiles on your face?

 

[sgrinavi]

4) Because I can

 

[jlee]

5) because.

 

[dbk]

What is fast? Its all relative

 

[RedRooster]

Why are you even in here?

These posts really should be in OT. In the garage they're nothing but troll.

This.
Plus it beats going slow.

 

[Via]

My daily commute has at least 5 spots a powerful engine is required for.

 

[Vic Vega]

Three things:

1.) Saudi Arabia is fucked up.

2.) You don't have to like fast cars to be interested in cars. This is not a requirement for posting in the garage.

3.) I prefer cars which can get our of their own way. I've had one sub-200 HP car in the last 20 years and hated every second of it.

 

[_Rick_]

Because racecar.
*vrrrmmmmm*

 

[KDKPSJ]

There is a huge difference between you can't and you don't.

With slow/weak car, you can't accelerate or go fast even if you want/need. With fast/strong car, you can whenever you want/need, just you don't if you don't feel like to.

Again, 'you cannot do' and 'you do not do' are two different thing.

 

[Murloc]

What is fast? Its all relative

this

Merging onto the highway and even then it's almost negligible as people know to slow down for a slow looking car.

untrue, and it's not just about highways.
Where I live it's not so much of a problem but in Italy there are very bad highway entrances (no acceleration lanes, there are cars stopped waiting to enter a high-speed road), irregular and strong traffic and large unmarked avenues where acceleration gets you ahead etc. and I can definitely feel how a more powerful car helps.
Where I live the low-lying mountain pass that is used for commuting can get climbed faster if you have a decent car.
Also even just in regular expressway traffic it gives you more flexibility without risking to get rear-ended because you couldn't accelerate fast enough when overtaking and the guy behind you wasn't looking.

My powerful is different from your powerful, as dbk said.

 

[Carson Dyle]

There are tradeoffs. More power, poorer gas mileage. Better gas mileage, less power. You value better gas mileage? Don't go for more power.

But..

Having the extra acceleration _will_ get you out of jams better. Pass that overloaded car carrier doing 25 MPH on an uphill grade on a two-lane highway. Find yourself in the passing lane with a truck doing 90 bearing down in your rearview mirror, and you'll be damned glad you could go from 75 to 95 in a few seconds. And if you think that _everyone_ slows for merging traffic, you surely haven't been driving for very long.

Then there's hauling. You want to haul your pop-up camper through the Rockies with a four-cylinder Accord? Good luck with that.

And mountains. I appreciate being able to maintain 75 MPH going uphill at 11,000 feet. Being that guy barely doing 50 while your engine sounds like it's going to blow up just isn't very enjoyable.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Three things:

1.) Saudi Arabia is fucked up.

2.) You don't have to like fast cars to be interested in cars. This is not a requirement for posting in the garage.

3.) I prefer cars which can get our of their own way. I've had one sub-200 HP car in the last 20 years and hated every second of it.

Ha! My hybrid has more hp than that. That said, one of the best sports cars I've ever driven has less than 200 hp. I'll leave you to guess what car I'm talking about.

 

[Kaido]

I watched some videos of what it can do and this is one of the appalling videos that came up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIjzRKtR6IA

What are you talking about? That's how I drive my Civic to work every morning, don't you do it that way too? :biggrin:

 

[Insomniator]

If you drive at all aggressively (and no that does NOT mean dangerous), then a car with some oomph makes a huge difference. Doesn't have to be 'fast', relatively of course, but trying to pass or get onto the high way in some cheap corolla is just a major pain for me.

If you are saying there is no point in people buying 600 HP cobras to commute to work in, then yeah I don't totally disagree with you.

 

[LTC8K6]

When I am trying to merge onto I-40 eastbound, and the schmuck in front of me is going 35mph on the ramp, and showing no signs of accelerating to anywhere near the speed of the traffic, I am damn glad I have a Hemi. :biggrin:

Same for when I need to merge and no one can, or will, let me in. I'd much rather kick it to get in front, than slow down and merge well below the speed of traffic...

When I need to pass on a two lane road...and believe me there are people you need to put behind you in a hurry...

Plus where I live traffic is never very bad and there's usually room and time to exercise the ponies...

 

[madoka]

I've had one sub-200 HP car in the last 20 years and hated every second of it.

My 1995 Maxima has 190 HP and I rather enjoy it. In fact, as much as my other cars. If there was a fire and I could only save one car, it'd be my 306,000 mile Maxima as it's irreplaceable.

 

[hans007]

Ha! My hybrid has more hp than that. That said, one of the best sports cars I've ever driven has less than 200 hp. I'll leave you to guess what car I'm talking about.

I used to own an acura tsx which was 201 HP with no torque. Fun car for some things but I definitely got tired of it and bought a car with more engine.

That type of high revving engine I guess is not as fun unless you are in say a manual light roadster.

I also drove a fun hybrid the other day. It had 332hp .... BMW active hybrid 5. Loaner cars are fun...

 

[Meghan54]

\
2) Merging onto the highway and even then it's almost negligible as people know to slow down for a slow looking car.

Apparently you don't understand merging onto a highway. It's not the responsibility of traffic on the highway to slow or in any other way do a darned thing for anyone trying to merge....it's all on the driver who's trying to merge to get onto the highway to do the work. Not saying giving way isn't nice, but wholly unrealistic most times. And expecting people to slow down has that nice ripple effect back down the road.

Give me a vehicle with some power so, as others have mentioned, it only takes putting your foot down a bit to match and merge without any drama on anyone's part.

 

[Throckmorton]

Since I got a 300hp car (which isn't even that powerful by modern standards) I've been able to do a lot of maneuvers safely that I couldn't before

 

[LTC8K6]

My 1995 Maxima has 190 HP and I rather enjoy it. In fact, as much as my other cars. If there was a fire and I could only save one car, it'd be my 306,000 mile Maxima as it's irreplaceable.

That's a pretty fast car...with the manual it was mid 6's new.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I used to own an acura tsx which was 201 HP with no torque. Fun car for some things but I definitely got tired of it and bought a car with more engine.

That type of high revving engine I guess is not as fun unless you are in say a manual light roadster.

I also drove a fun hybrid the other day. It had 332hp .... BMW active hybrid 5. Loaner cars are fun...

I bet it gets 1 mpg better mileage than its gas powered counterpart. I don't get the point of cars like that at all.

I started this trip yesterday on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood and took this pic about 30 miles later on the 5 freeway south heading for San Diego. Overall mpg for the trip was just under 47mpg when my son and I stopped in Oceanside for some In-N-Out. Kept it mostly at 65mph the entire trip. Some guy passed me in a G35 sedan getting 20mpg at one point but I passed him again a few miles later as he was pulled over by CHP.

It really is nice to be able to drive 239 miles on a little over 1/3 of a tank of fuel. 0-60mph in a little over 7 seconds isn't exactly slow either. I'm not racing anyone but I'm not having trouble getting out of my own way either.

 

[AMCRambler]

Yeah, fast cars are over rated. You should sell me that v6 gas guzzler of yours on the cheap and downsize to a 4 banger that you will enjoy.

 

[thedarkwolf]

I never had any problems really merging on the interstate even with my crappy worn out 300k mile 70hp when new 3 speed automatic 81 plymouth horizan death trap. I've had a few manly v8 cars but I've gotten to the point I don't really care about HP anymore either. My stock powered miata is plenty of fun even though it is slow as crap. The only real problem I have with it is despite having no power it gets fairly bad gas mileage too .