2nd Dec 2010, 18:29
Toyota is pretty much on par with their mainstream vehicles as far as HP ratings go, and within a few HP of all of the Nissan line of cars. Some are higher and some are lower. The Camry, for instance has a 169HP, 179HP and 268HP engine options. The equivalent Altima has 175HP and 270HP engine options. The Highlander V6 is 270HP to the Nissan Murano's 260HP. I am not seeing any huge difference here.
I see a lot of people claiming Toyotas are slow and underpowered... You better tell my RAV 4 that, because it is easily the quickest little SUV on the market right now. It is fun to absolutely stun people when I take off from a stop. Most cars are not even remotely a challenge to it... and I don't really race it, and never even get close to redline.
Lower powered engines will always wear out faster as they have to rev a lot higher to move the car along the same roads as a bigger V6 or V8 engine car. Higher revs means more wear and more strain on the engine. When I buy a certain car that has 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder engine options, I always opt for the V6. Same is true for a V6 and a V8 optioned car. I've never had that much of a mileage difference, because the larger engines are designed to run at lower RPM's and use less gas than they used to. V6's are regularly getting into the 30's for highway mileage... not much less than the 4 cylinder would get in the same car.
30th Mar 2012, 20:51
I bought mine for a lot of good reasons, but how many cup holders it had wasn't one of them.
1st Dec 2010, 13:59
I said underpowered, not grossly underpowered. The Crossfire doesn't work hard at all. Look at the Toyota line of cars for example. Mostly underpowered for their displacement in comparison to say Nissan. Generally pound for pound, the Toyota gets higher mileage, even being 20% down on peak power.
Higher torque engines generally last longer if driven sanely. Torque is at the low end of the rpms, so once the vehicle is up to speed, very little hp is needed. Of course that depends on the speed one wishes to attain LOL.
BTW I am a factory trained Mercedes Benz and Volvo mechanic, and independent since 1984.