So we've all read and seen reviews talking about this car or that car is incredibly slow, and some reviews even call certain cars dangerously slow. But what is slow?
Slow is all about perspective. A Chevy Corvette would be considered slow if compared to a Buggatti Vehyron. Likewise, a Mirage would be considered slow compared to a Corvette. But what is truly slow when it comes to over the road vehicles?
A lot of people put a Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift/Pontiac Firefly up on a pedestal when talking about the slowest modern vehicles. However, my 1996 Metro took 13.2 seconds to get to 60 mph (which happens to also be it's 1/8th mile time at a local drag strip). Yes, that is relatively slow compared to most vehicles, but there is a VERY common vehicle on the road that is much, MUCH slower than that.
A school bus. When fully loaded, a full size school bus can weigh as much as 30,000 pounds but yet they only have around 200 horsepower. Yeah, only 200 horsepower! That's equal to a vehicle that weighs 7500 pounds with a Geo Metro 1.0L 3 cylinder!! When it is fully loaded, the 0 to 60 mph time is approximately 2 minutes! A Geo Metro seems like a Corvette in comparison, and a Mitsubishi Mirage seems like a Buggatti Veyhron!
So the next time someone makes a comment about how slow a Mitsubishi Mirage is, look at things from the perspective of a fully loaded school bus!