Cars have become much heavier so need more power to shift them. Places I want to have power – accelerating onto a congested motorway where everyone is doing 70+ in all lanes, accelerating out of danger when a lorry decides to change lanes into the space I’m occupying . Both experienced recently…
But do you need more than 200bhp to drive safely? In my opinion, no, you don’t.
My car is a Vauxhall Combo Life so bigger/heavier than most cars on the road and it has 130 bhp – that is more than enough to keep up with traffic, pull out quickly from junctions and get out of any trouble that there maybe with a lorry etc pulling out.
130bhp is the highest power output and the van version of the car I think even has an 85bhp power which is enough to shift a van with a full loads of around 1 ton.