I don't think a 10-second 0-60 time is slow

"dogisbadob" (dogisbadob)
06/14/2014 at 19:33 • Filed to: None

There's nothing wrong with me, at least due to that thought alone, right? :p

DISCUSSION (28)

Jedidiah > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 19:34

I'd call it average; depending on the weight of the car.

PheeNoIVI > Jedidiah
06/14/2014 at 19:37

For new cars I'd say average is probably 7.5 or so

Tom McParland > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 19:39

It's all relative depending on the year and what you are used to driving. If you drive commercial trucks on a regular basis or are looking at performance numbers from 10 years ago 10 seconds is not bad at all, but when a 4cyl Accord can break the 7 second barrier it seems slow.

Jedidiah > PheeNoIVI
06/14/2014 at 19:39

You think it is down to 7.5 now? I would have guessed 8 or 9 for most obtainable cars.

I'm never around new stuff and don't really like it too much.

Logansteno: Bought a VW? > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 19:41

I'd say 9 is starting to get into slow territory in my book.

Not that anything is as slow as the 11+ my van does.

PheeNoIVI > Jedidiah
06/14/2014 at 19:42

Well it might be a bit higher, but even a standard truck can do it under 10. And then there's all those BMWs I see everywhere that are pretty quick

Maximum_Odyssey > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 19:47

Pretty sure my Honda Odyssey can do it in less than 10.

Jedidiah > PheeNoIVI
06/14/2014 at 19:47

I'd say most Euroboxes are around 6 seconds while most economy boxes and trucks are around 8. Most performance cars are sub 6 seconds.

dogisbadob > Tom McParland
06/14/2014 at 19:51

It also depends on your environment (urban vs rural, traffic, density, speed limits, etc).

My car's 0-60 time is 8.3 seconds, which is fucking fast, way more than needed. My previous car's 0-60 was 10.5 seconds, and even that was more than I needed. And 18 mpg sucks.

Every new car is high performance now. But I'd rather see normal, usable levels of power but with higher mpg. Now this doesn't mean no more fast cars like the Focus ST, but I just want them *in addition* to normal-power cars, not in place of.

dogisbadob > Maximum_Odyssey
06/14/2014 at 19:54

Odysseys from 2002-up are in the 7-8-second range.

The 0-60 time for my car is 8.3, which is really fast!

Tom McParland > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 19:54

Again it depends on what you are used to, I thought my Mini Cooper S was quick at 7.1 seconds then I traded that in for a '05 Legacy GT turbo that was insane at 5.5 seconds, now my Mazda3 feels slow but really isn't at about 7.5 seconds. Once you have the power you miss it when it is gone, but if you don't know any better....

offroadkarter > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 19:56

10 sec to 0-60? thats not slow thats abysmal...

Klaus Schmoll > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 20:07

My cars so far were/are pretty spot on the 10 second mark. In a market where a lot of cars with real market share have 0-60 times of 12 or 14 that is still nice-ish. But the real question is what you make out of it. Give it the full beans at let her rev 'till the valves come out of the bonnet and you can have some fun. "Drive a fast car slow or a slow car fast".....

The US is a market where high powered cars are almost comically cheap. And this is coming from Germany, where almost no taxation on cars exists. We build 'em, we like to sell 'em!

But a Golf GTI for 2/3s (given that the $ is peanuts to the € these days) the price of what it costs in it's native homeland? With only 19% value added tax and nothing else put onto it, that's just weird!

dogisbadob > Tom McParland
06/14/2014 at 20:08

Yeah but not if fuel cost is an object and you're stuck with low speed limits and crowded traffic.

And for the record I've driven cars that are faster than mine, and I don't really miss it because the highest speed limit is 65, and more often than not it's stop-and-go shit.

dogisbadob > offroadkarter
06/14/2014 at 20:11

Yeah but with any cars faster than 7 seconds or so, and you basically don't even need to use the gas in traffic. Just idle with no feet on either pedal, and most manual transmission cars that fast you can start in 3rd of 4th with no drivability loss.

offroadkarter > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 20:21

my car did a 0-60 of 7.2 and all the magazines said it was really slow, in fact a couple literally said "slower than your girlfriends v6 accord"

bpands > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 20:27

The weird thing about being from an urban/suburban mish-mash (NY metro) is that most people assume you don't need an adequately quick car, but if your brakes aren't up to snuff or your 15-60 MPH time is too sluggish, you basically become a rolling liability for a collision at some point on the short merging on/off-ramps in the parkways. This means Priuses, older vans and trucks, and some compacts could become actual road hazards.

Guilty parties: Wantagh State, Southern State, Cross Island, Jackie Robinson. God help whoever dares to take a Smart ForTwo for a ride on these roads.

dogisbadob > offroadkarter
06/14/2014 at 20:38

Yeah those V6 Accord are fast! I think their 0-60 is in the 5's now! The Camry is also close to that as well :O

Fuck those stupid magazines anyway. Who needs then when you got Jalopnik? :)

My 8.3 is more than you need. Although to be fair, the V6 Camry has always been fast, and that 0-60 time is quite brisk for the mid-90s.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > dogisbadob
06/14/2014 at 21:21

10 seconds would be awesome to me.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Jedidiah
06/14/2014 at 21:21

Even Duramax's and Powerstroke's will run 7 to 8 factory. That is for the fully loaded trucks.

tromoly > dogisbadob
06/15/2014 at 01:02

Nope, I've had fun in atleast three cars that take that long or longer to hit 60. One of which is my brother's Mini which is downright scary above 55.

anothermiatafanboy > dogisbadob
06/15/2014 at 02:00

I think your statement makes sense if you are saying cars with 0-60 in 4 seconds, but 7 seconds? A manual Accord 2.4 does 60 in 6.6, and even if you can start off in 3rd or 4th (which would be difficult to impossible), you would certainly find a driveability loss. I think cars 0-60 4 or under are overkill on the street, but 6-7 second cars can still be let off the leash reasonably safely on the street.

dogisbadob > anothermiatafanboy
06/15/2014 at 11:16

Of course, the low-power, high-torque, big-displacement pushrod American V8's can be an exception to this.

A good example is the 3.5-gen Firebird/Camaro, with a 5L V8 making 170 hp (but 255 tq—at 2400 rpm!). The official 0-60 time was 7.9, but of course there's just so much torque down low! Even 1000 rpm can get the car moving quick, and you really could just idle between traffic lights and not even have to use the gas (idle is 300-500 rpm when warm).

Evan, Pope Of Jalopnik by Self-Appointment > dogisbadob
06/15/2014 at 21:16

Maybe I'm spoiled as hell but I would...I think the slowest car I've ever personally driven could probably do it in about 9, and I thought it was extremely slow. So...I guess it's all relative but to me there's no such thing as too much power.

Mike_Smith > Klaus Schmoll
06/16/2014 at 12:53

"given that the $ is peanuts to the € these days"

"These days"? Really? The USD has traded in a band between 0.7 to 0.8 EUR for at least 5 years.

Mike_Smith > dogisbadob
06/16/2014 at 12:58

You talk as though the ST were the only model of Focus out there. There's the SE, the Ti, the electric... there are hybrids and diesels and plenty of cars with "normal" levels of power out there.

dogisbadob > Mike_Smith
06/16/2014 at 15:00

But still, smaller engines are available in Europe, and of course their awesome diesels and wagons that we don't get :(

Mike_Smith > dogisbadob
06/16/2014 at 15:54

Well, if your issue is that America isn't Europe, I'm afraid there's not much we can offer you. :-/ I'm pretty happy with my 6.x-to-60 and 20/30-mpg GTI. To be honest, I'd probably still be happy with a 7.x-to-60 and 27/37-mpg Golf 1.8T, but I'll wait till they get around to that carbon tax... ;-)