One big thing to consider though is how you drive a car, BHP figures are quoted at a set RPM, ie 190BHP @ 7200rpm.
The big advantage of the high torque of a diesel engine is it tends to put in peak BHP at a much lower engine RPM, so you don’t continually need to drop down gears to overtake, if you consider your normal driving on country roads, it’s much less work (changing gears) in a car with higher torque than a car with massive amounts of BHP, but get on a track where the you can sit at high RPM more often, the BHP will probably be quicker. With the advent of turbos being more common, the gap has closed.
I currently drive a BMW with a 220d X drive engine, rarely ever goes over 3000 rpm even driving hard on country roads (The duel clutch 8 speed gearbox really helps) but this car produces 190BHP @ 4000RPM, 400Nm of torque and 6.9 secs 0-60, it’s so easy to drive fast on twisty winding roads, you’d struggle to overtake me even in a Ferrari, but get it on the track and it would be getting lapped pretty quickly.
So, in many ways, for normal everyday driving, Torque is probably far more useful than BHP unless you really love revving the ass out of an engine and using the gears all the time.
Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate