Since when have 1.4 petrol and 1.6 diesel I4s become pointlessly big engines? 500L is a heavy car, weighing more than some of old midsize cars (and they had even bigger engines).
And again this goes back to everything I said in that first post... and no, 1.4 and 1.6 will never be pointlessly big engines, whether because we can get the same power out of smaller or for any other reason.
US lineup: the 1.4T is rated at 160HP. The 2.4 Tigershark engine has been considered too... while the car does just fine with smaller powerplants in the rest of the World. --- Post updated --- Of course not. A 2.4 in that kind of car, on the other hand, is. And that's the powerplant most US buyers have been requesting. That's also the only powerplant that got any favor in the 500X and the Dodge Dart, while similarly sized vehicles on the other side of the pond do well with like 66% the power, produced by efficient 1.6 I4 engines. To each their own, I guess.
Why do they need to charge a 1.4 to 160hp? It consumes up to 10.7l/100 km (factory data, probably even higher in real world) and I'm sure a 2.0 NA with similar power figure would have done better. 1.4 T-jet with 120 hp seems to be pointless as well, with official fuel consumption of 9.1l/100 km.
The X and L are the big bloated ones, right? Yeah, a 2.4 sounds just about right for those things. And yes, we do in fact like our horsepower here in the US. Besides, the Dart is stupidly heavy for a compact car, from the data I found it varies from a low of 3,081 bs (~1,398 kg) for a 2.0L manual to a high of 3,215 lbs (~1,458 kg) for a 2.4L automatic, which I still regard as lip-flappingly insane, so I don't think it's necessarily inappropriate for the Dart to have a bit more power than other so-called compacts (which aren't much lighter themselves if at all).
To a car enthusiast, more horsepower is never a waste of resources. But even if it is wasteful from a technical perspective, that's exactly the thing, isn't it? It's not about need, it's about want. That's what the efficiency mavens and central-planner types don't understand, and that's why they make me so angry.
And what car enthusiast would even consider a dull commuter like the 500L as an option? Breaking news: a good chunk of the drivers out there aren't boy racers (aka "car enthusiasts" that value horsepower on top of anything else) and they actually need a mean of transportation. --- Post updated --- Options. Want to waste resources and buy a powerful car? You can. I need an eco vehicle to cut fuel costs while gaining access to traffic-restricted areas. Methane is just perfect for me. And the fact people like you assume we all must be boy racers and bash alternatives such as efficient ICE vehicles, hybrid and electric powered cars as a matter of principle is what makes me angry. To each their own, like I said.
I'm a car enthusiast and I think in some cases more power is a waste of resources. Slow car fast is always more fun imo and I like to see manufacturers doing things with limited resources.
I can't really imagine the precise confluence of circumstances that would lead to that either, but I'm sure there is one. It's one of the strange facts of life that high-performance cars are quite frequently bought as status symbols, while those of us who enjoy driving for its own sake are just as likely to end up with weird cars that have no performance credentials whatsoever. There's all kinds of reasons for it, who knows what they are. See though, that's what I was talking about in that first post I made. Cars are getting so over-optimized that there's nothing at all left for the enthusiast. I really don't like any mainstream modern cars, whether they have "excessive" power or not. The ones where they load up a car with umpteen billion pounds of sound deadening foam and annoying features most people will never use, then throw power at it so it still feels fast, are the good ones only because the alternative seems to be a barely-adequate downsized turbo that you can't tune unless you're a full-time professional engine builder, in a car that still weighs too freakin' much. If bloat wasn't a thing, maybe a compact car wouldn't need 160 horsepower just to reach 60 MPH in less than 10 seconds, but until normal people learn to put up with some noise in their drive, it'll continue to be that way. The way I see it, mainstream car design hit its peak in the late 1990s or early 2000s - because cars didn't weigh so much, they didn't need that much power just to get going... and when they did have it, they really went. And because the engines were larger and less "perfect", there was plenty of room to grow even starting with a sports model. Besides, we don't like having to beat the snot out of our cars just to go somewhere. If you actually have to use full throttle in normal, day-to-day driving, it just means your car is way underpowered; if you can pull away smoothly and quickly from a light using relatively little throttle, then your engine is adequate. Please do be advised that surface-street speed limits may be higher in some places here than in a typical European city due to our simply having more space.
And that's the very reason why options are good. Also the very reason why american cars usually flop anywhere else, because they are largely unsuitable for every other setting, being developed with only the US market peculiarities in mind. Emerged land beyond the US is quite extensive, you know. I'm glad the 500L is being offered both as a peppy 160HP and as a super-frugal, urban-friendly 2cyl. 90HP versions, because I could chose which variant better suits my needs. Why aren't you?
Lol, We're car enthusiasts. I'm not promoting anything illegal, but when has any amount of speed ever been enough? Or another way I look at it is old grandma James May versus Jeremy Clarkson or Hammond.
Because the 90 does not suit any American's needs? Also, greetings from Puławy, Poland, a town of many Mopar minivans and Jeeps.
Go tell @Shotgun Chuck, who's so glad the 90HP 500L isn't offered in the US... It would make perfect sense to me, but not according to the fabled "enthusiasts" he proudly represents...
Yeah, Flying2YourSoul is a real disgrace. --- Post updated --- There's me and him on this side, and you and F2YS on yours. We're equal. --- Post updated --- There can be enough speed, but the Fiat 500 Twinair definitely isn't that.
