The Volkswagen XL1: 147 mpg car.

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. Maybe it's your American blinders, then

"around half of cars at the time had less than 90 or so HP, that's simply not true. "

I would say it probably is true. Maybe you're thinking of the American market - those cars they found so hard to sell to the rest of the world, because they were heavy and inefficient. But take another best-selling car of the 80s - the VW Golf. Mid-range engine: 1.6L 75 PS (55 kW; 74 hp) I4. Or another popular car, slightly larger - the Opel Vectra. 1.6L engine: 80hp. 1.8L engine: 89hp. These are not the worst performing cars (they're not a 2CV, for instance) - they are the most popular. Average, in other words.

And, as I pointed out, the best selling car in Europe of 10 years ago had a similar acceleration to this VW XL1, so it's not just "an era known for destroying performance". And most of the rest of the world does not go for thirstier cars than Europe.