In America, speedometer top speed often exceeds reality
| Tom Krisher |
DETROIT (AP) – The speedometer on the Toyota Yaris says the tiny car can go 140 miles (225 kilometres per hour).
In reality, its 106-horsepower engine and automatic transmission can’t push it any faster than 109 mph (175 kph). So why do the Yaris – and most other cars sold in the US — have speedometers that show top speeds they can’t possibly reach? The answer has deep roots in an American culture that loves the rush of driving fast. The automakers’ marketing departments are happy to give people the illusion that their family car can travel at speeds rivaling a race car. And companies often use one speedometer type in various models across the world, saving them money.
The speedometer of a 2013 Ford Fusion displayed at the Bob Maxey dealership in Detroit. Although current cars with high-horsepower engines can come close to the top speedometer speeds, most are limited by engine control computers. That’s because the tyres can overheat and fail at higher speeds. AP
The speedometer of a 1984 Monte Carlo is seen at the GM Heritage Centre in Sterling Heights, Mich. For years, most speedometers topped out at 120, a speed that many cars could come close to reaching, even though it was 50 mph over the limit in most states. Then, in 1980, Joan Claybrook, who ran the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, limited speedometers to 85 mph, even though cars could go much faster. AP
But critics say the ever-higher numbers are misleading. Some warn they create a safety concern, daring drivers to push past freeway speed limits that are up to 75 mph (120 kph) in most states.
“You reach a point where it becomes ridiculous,” says Larry Dominique, a former Nissan product chief who now is executive vice president of the TrueCar.com auto pricing website. “Eighty per cent plus of the cars on the road are not designed for and will not go over 110 mph (177 kph).”
Last year, speedometer top speeds for new versions of the mainstream Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu were increased to 160 mph (257 kph), which approaches speeds on some race tracks. They are midsize family haulers, the most popular segment of the US auto market, and like most new cars, have top speeds that seldom exceed 120 mph (193 kph).
There are several explanations for the speedometers. When people are comparison shopping, cars with higher speedometer readings appear to be sportier. “People really want to see higher numbers,” said Fawaz Baltaji, a business development manager for Yazaki North America, a large supplier of speedometers for auto companies.
“It is indicative of a more powerful engine. There’s a marketing pitch to it.”
Although cars with high-horsepower engines can come close to the top speedometer speeds, most are limited by engine control computers.
That’s because the tyres can overheat and fail at higher speeds. Tyres now common on mainstream cars often can’t go above 130 mph (209 kph) or they could fail.
Automakers, in a push to cut costs, now sell the same cars worldwide and use the same speedometers in different cars all over the world.
In China and Europe, governments require that the top number on speedometers be higher than a car’s top speed. Cars sold in Europe, for instance, have faster top speeds than those sold elsewhere because they can be driven over 150 mph (241 kph) on sections of Germany’s Autobahn. So to sell the same car or speedometer globally, the numbers have to be higher, said Kurt Tesnow, who’s in charge of speedometer and instrument clusters for General Motors.
Also, some mainstream cars have some cousins that go faster and need higher speedometer numbers. A Chevy Malibu with a two-litre turbocharged engine, for instance, can go 155 mph (249 kph), far higher than the mainstream version.
The little Toyota Yaris gets its speedometer from another Toyota model that’s sold in other countries. “It’s not that each speedometer is designed for that specific vehicle,” said Greg Thome, a company spokesman.
In a similar vein, US automakers can make engines that blow past 70 mph (112 kph) because they make cars for global drivers and speed limits vary around the world. And drivers like the security of knowing they could outrun a natural disaster, such as a tornado, if necessary.
The speedometer designs also reflect research that found most people like the needle to hit highway speeds at the top of the speedometer’s circle, said Yazaki’s Baltaji.
