Buying cars with small weedy engines

In Asia where the road tax is calculated based on engine capacity really puts a damper on buying cars with large engines. In Malaysia where the road tax cost increases exponentially once the engine exceeds 2,000cc is very painful for people who buy cars with engines larger than 2,000cc. For example, a Toyota Estima with a 3 litre engine would cost RM2900 to register each year compared to a Toyota Camry 2.0 which cost only RM390 to register each year! This is one of the reason why we see so many small engine continental cars such as the 520i, E200, 320i, C180 and S280. The buyers will opt for the smallest engines possible to keep the road tax as low as possible and also to keep the fuel consumption low. Asians are notoriously stingy when it comes to paying for fuel.

The problem with this is that these cars will be under powered. When I say under powered I mean not having sufficient power to pull the weight of the car when fully loaded with passengers.
Here are some of the typically under powered cars:-
- Kia Carnival 2.5
- Hyundai Trajet 2.0
- Proton Exora auto
- Proton Gen2
- BMW 318i, 320i
- BMW 116i , 118i
- Mercedes E200 (no supercharger)

Some of these models have just enough power to pull the weight of the car and 1 occupant. Once fully loaded these cars will struggle to go uphills, struggle to accelerate beyond 120km/h and naturally guzzle a lot of fuel in the process. This can be dangerous when the car has insufficient power to overtake slow vehicles. Many drivers underestimate the lack of performance and this has led to accidents.
The fault is not with the engine as the engine is designed to work to provide a certain level of performance however the weight of the car is a problem. If you have a car that weighs 2,000kg (fully loaded) and the engine only has 140hp and 180Nm of torque, it will naturally struggle. Apart from just struggling to haul the weight, the engine is also put under tremendous stress having to squeeze out every last horsepower and newton metre of torque just to make the car move. The extreme stress on the engine will lead to high fuel consumption and high wear and tear on the engine components. Engine parts will inevitably fail sooner.

Now with the introduction of small engines with forced induction (turbo or supercharger) have tremendously helped by boosting torque and horsepower. These days you can see cars such as Peugeot 5008 MPV with a 1.6 litre turbo and the VW Cross Touran with a 1.4 Twin charge engine (turbo and supercharge). These cars are one of the best examples in down sizing engines but yet maintaining a respectable level of performance.

Next time before buying a new car, take the time to test drive it (with several passengers if possible) and test the performance of the car. If it is going to struggle with passengers on board, consider buying something a little more powerful. This will make the driving experience less stressful and more enjoyable.