More flash than dash: Speedometers often show far higher top speeds than cars can travel
The speedometer on the Toyota Yaris says the tiny car can go 140 miles per hour.
In reality, the bulbous subcompact's 106-horsepower engine and automatic transmission can't push it any faster than 109.
So why do the Yaris — and most other cars sold in the U.S. — have speedometers that show top speeds they can't possibly reach?
The answer has deep roots in an American culture that loves the rush
of driving fast. The automakers' marketing departments are happy to give
people the illusion that their family car can travel at speeds rivaling
a NASCAR racer. And companies often use one speedometer type in various
models across the world, saving them money.
But critics say the ever-higher numbers are misleading. Some warn
they create a safety concern, daring drivers to push past freeway speed
limits that are 65 to 75 mph in most states.
"You reach a point where it becomes ridiculous," says Larry
Dominique, a former Nissan product chief who now is executive vice
president of the TrueCar.com auto pricing website. "Eighty percent plus
of the cars on the road are not designed for and will not go over 110
mph."
Last year, speedometer top speeds for new versions of the mainstream Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu were increased from 120 or 140 mph to 160, which approaches speeds on some NASCAR tracks. The speedometer on the Honda Accord
already topped out at 160. All are midsize family haulers, the most
popular segment of the U.S. auto market, and like most new cars, have
top speeds that seldom exceed 120 mph.
The Yaris got its 140 mph speedometer in a redesign for the 2012
model year, giving it the same top reading as the original 1953 Chevrolet Corvette sports car. Even the new Nissan Sentra compact has a 160 mph speedometer.
There are several explanations for the speedometers.
When people are comparison shopping, cars with higher speedometer
readings appear to be sportier, and buyers favor them even though they
have no intention of driving over 100. "People really want to see higher
numbers," said Fawaz Baltaji, a business development manager for Yazaki
North America, a large supplier of speedometers for auto companies. "It
is indicative of a more powerful engine. There's a marketing pitch to
it."
Although cars with high-horsepower engines can come close to the top
speedometer speeds, most are limited by engine control computers. That's
because the tires can overheat and fail at higher speeds. Tires now
common on mainstream cars often can't go above 130 mph or they could
fail. Many tires, especially on older models, have speed limits as low
as 112. But that's still faster than most people will ever drive.
Automakers, in a push to cut costs, now sell the same cars worldwide
and use the same speedometers in different cars all over the world. In
China and Europe, governments require that the top number on
speedometers be higher than a car's top speed. Cars sold in Europe, for
instance, have faster top speeds than those sold elsewhere because they
can be driven over 150 mph on sections of Germany's Autobahn. So to sell
the same car or speedometer globally, the numbers have to be higher,
said Kurt Tesnow, who's in charge of speedometer and instrument clusters
for General Motors.
Also, some mainstream cars have some souped-up cousins that go faster
and need higher speedometer numbers. A Chevy Malibu with a 2-liter
turbocharged engine, for instance, can go 155 mph, far higher than the
mainstream version. The little Toyota Yaris gets its speedometer from
another Toyota model that's sold in other countries. "It's not that each
speedometer is designed for that specific vehicle," said Greg Thome, a
company spokesman.
In a similar vein, U.S. automakers can make engines that blow past 70
mph because they make cars for global drivers and speed limits vary
around the world. And drivers like the security of knowing they could
outrun a natural disaster, such as a tornado, if necessary.
The speedometer designs also reflect research that found most people
like the needle to hit highway speeds at the top of the speedometer's
circle, said Yazaki's Baltaji. So the common freeway cruising speed of
70 to 80 mph is right in the middle on a 160 mph speedometer, he said.
The rising speedometer numbers aren't surprising to Joan Claybrook,
the top federal auto safety regulator under President Jimmy Carter.
She's been fighting the escalation for years and says it encourages
drivers — especially younger ones — to drive too fast. During her
tenure, she briefly got speedometer numbers lowered.
"They think that speed sells," she said of automakers. "People buy these cars because they want to go fast."
Some drivers at dealerships Tuesday conceded that marketing the
higher speeds could have worked on them — at least when they were
younger.
Paul Lampinen, 36, of Ann Arbor, Mich., said he bought a Ram Pickup
with a V-8 engine because he likes a powerful truck. The higher
speedometer numbers could have influenced him when he was in his 20s,
but they wouldn't work now, he said. "I don't want to pay any tickets,"
he said while getting his truck serviced at a Chrysler dealer in nearby
Saline, Mich.
For years, most speedometers topped out at 120 — even though that was
50 mph over the limit in most states. Then, in 1980, Claybrook, who ran
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, limited
speedometers to 85 mph, even though cars could go much faster.
The move, designed to end the temptation to push cars to their
limits, drew outrage from gearheads nationwide. Some automakers got
around the rule by ending the numbers at 85 but leaving lines beyond
that to show higher speeds. The government also forced automakers to
highlight 55 mph, which at the time was the fuel-saving national speed
limit.
The limit was short-lived, overturned two years later by
Ronald Reagan, who campaigned on a pledge to end onerous government
regulations. Cars with 85 mph speedometers lingered for several years
until they were redesigned and the maximum speeds for most returned to
120.
By the 2000s, however, the speedometer speeds crept higher. Even
compact cars showed 130 or 140 mph. The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette
speedometer and some Jaguar models now peak at 200.
Claybrook concedes there's no data to show the 85 mph limit saved
lives, but she believes it did. She calls the ever-higher speedometer
numbers immoral.
At present, the government has no plans to reinstate speedometer
limits or regulate top speeds, saying there's no evidence to show it
would prevent crashes. "Ultimately, drivers are subject to speed limits
mandated by the states regardless of the top speed listed on a vehicle
speedometer," NHTSA spokeswoman Lynda Tran said.
But Claybrook isn't satisfied.
"To have a car register any more than the maximum speed limit is really a
statement by the company: Drive faster. It's OK," she said. "It's
encouraging people to violate the law."
You
hear it all the time that international cuisine in America is not
authentic, particularly when discussing Olive Garden and Taco Bell.
Well, we know that, but the argument also comes up about the mom-and-pop
ethnic restaurant on the corner. Turn that idea around, and you have to
wonder whether other countries have "American" restaurants. Yes, they
do -and they can say a lot about how the world views American food. CNN
has reviews of the worst attempts at recreating the American dining
experience in Europe. 
