Originally Posted by
robofunc
The benchmark was the integra type-r's 190ish up. Those cars were using technology from the 80s/90s and dodge finally put out a fast ff car in 2002? The srt4 was bulit for power and the hondas were built to go around curves. They weren't really in the same class. The neon rt, maybe, but not the srt4.
The big 3 have plenty of fine cars, but the reputation they earned with thier out of touch business practices have hurt thier newer models chances for success.
If you really want to get down to it, way back in 1989 Mitsubishi sold this car called the Eclipse that had a 190hp 2.0, later increased to 210hp in 1995. This was before the Type R, before VTEC, before the Neon. Lets talk bench marks, and then talk about how everyone else caught up.