I guess I’m willing to make allowances for load. If you can carry five lardos and still cruise at 80mph (as any modern car can) than I think cars have plenty of power (even the unlovely Yaris). Yes, they won’t zip up an onramp heavily loaded or fly up a mountain grade, but having an engine that can do that means you have absurd amounts of performance when it’s just you in the car. Which is typical, judging from the number of people in cars on the freeway.
Even though our car has modest power I never feel like we’re going slower than is safe or that I’d be happier getting to sixty in a couple of seconds less. Frankly, I’m not timing our performance. We’ll never be going to a track day. But I’m comfortable in the seats, it was well equipped for the price, and we can carry two full-size visitors in the back seat. Maybe not members of the Lardo family, but just about anyone else who doesn’t need a seatbelt extender. As a hatchback, it’s even good for bringing home boxy purchases. It’s exactly what we need in a car, not what a sixteen-year-old fantasizes about (well, my fantasies ran towards practical Volvo wagons.) I don’t dream about more power, not ever. The cars I admire are the clever ones that meet needs no one has identified before. Like the Element.
@MarkM
I feel car makers don’t build cars for just a few but for a general trend that sells. The Element was a good car that filled expectations…for a few but not enough to keep selling. It is also inescapable that the average American is BIG compared to the average in " name another country" . They travel greater distances over varying terrain and often take their toys with them. They also have lower gas prices then many which makes bigger engines ( and unused f150s) more likely to be parked in more driveways. The old adage " I would rather have it and not need it then need it then not have it" applies to a lot of things. IMHO, I am not alone in the buying public saying more powerful motors is one of those items.
I have two very modest cars and have owed some real “turds” too. I will never buy an under powered one again. The ones I have owned were not more, but less efficient then some of their counterparts which did not have to work as hard. It’s about perspective and I feel you and I have more in common then you think. For example, IMO, A Corolla has sufficient power but a Yaris does not. Towing to me, has always been one of those requirements that determined motor size. I put a hitch on almost everything I have ever owned.
And I never tow, so my needs are different than yours. On that we agree. I buy for the situations that occur for me regularly. My partner and I are both thin. We tend to travel light. We don’t have any heavy toys that need towing. We do, a fee times per year, have houseguests and we make daytrips with them around the area, so the back seat has to be big enough for a couple of average adults. Every couole of years we take guests to Yosemite or somewhere else for a few days. Still, a normal economy car suffices for carrying three or four people and a smallish bag for each.
If we ever needed to carry more people and their stuff we’d rent, but that never happens. Our ordinary economy car does just fine. Such cars have grown over the years. Our 1994 Civic was a lovely car for two, but the back seat could only handle smallish adults and the trunk wouldn’t handle luggage for more than three. We didn’t hit those limits very often, but more than we do now. I don’t like big cars much. Especially living in a dense city where they are hard to parallel park. Our car ia pretty easy. We do have a garage at home. I feel bad for the people who have to park on the street and remember what days are street cleaning and get up at dawn to move their cars. At least we don’t get snow.