Performance vs efficiency — what matters most to you?

[Swansway Motor Group (SEAT & CUPRA)]

When it comes to choosing your next car, where do you sit on the performance vs efficiency debate?

Would you rather have the extra power and sharper performance when you want it, even if it means sacrificing a little on fuel economy?

Or is fuel efficiency, running costs and getting the most miles from every tank/charge more important to you?

And has your view changed over the years? Maybe performance was the priority when you were younger, but practicality and efficiency matter more now… or perhaps you still want that extra punch whenever you put your foot down!

Performance or efficiency — where do you sit? And what car have you got that best balances the two?

 

[SRGTD]

My views have certainly changed with advancing age. I’m more focused on economy rather than performance these days, although the opposite used to be the case for me.

I’ve owned mainly hot hatches during the (almost) 50 years that I’ve been driving, but my current car is a modest B segment full - self charging - hybrid (not a VAG car). I’ve been retired a few years now and pretty much all of my motoring is local in the area I live with most of my journeys are no more than a 50-60 mile round trip. The roads I drive on are predominantly A and B single carriageway roads and they always seem to be pretty congested with traffic usually travelling at 45 - 55 mph max with little or no opportunity to overtake or use the performance potential of a performance-oriented car, so it’s a case of just going with the flow of the traffic. Under those driving conditions, my lowly hybrid is as quick as the rest of the traffic.

I don’t really miss not owning a performance car these days, and a long term average fuel consumption of circa 67 mpg from my current car is an added bonus!

My next car is likely to be a B segement EV.

 

[Swansway Motor Group (SEAT & CUPRA)]

My views have certainly changed with advancing age. I’m more focused on economy rather than performance these days, although the opposite used to be the case for me.

I’ve owned mainly hot hatches during the (almost) 50 years that I’ve been driving, but my current car is a modest B segment full - self charging - hybrid (not a VAG car). I’ve been retired a few years now and pretty much all of my motoring is local in the area I live with most of my journeys are no more than a 50-60 mile round trip. The roads I drive on are predominantly A and B single carriageway roads and they always seem to be pretty congested with traffic usually travelling at 45 - 55 mph max with little or no opportunity to overtake or use the performance potential of a performance-oriented car, so it’s a case of just going with the flow of the traffic. Under those driving conditions, my lowly hybrid is as quick as the rest of the traffic.

I don’t really miss not owning a performance car these days, and a long term average fuel consumption of circa 67 mpg from my current car is an added bonus!

My next car is likely to be a B segement EV.

That’s a really good point – there’s not much benefit in having lots of power if the roads and traffic don’t give you the opportunity to enjoy it! A hybrid sounds like a great balance for everyday driving, especially with 67mpg. It’ll be interesting to see how your move to an EV compares.

Do you think you’ll miss the convenience of a self-charging hybrid, or are you looking forward to going fully electric?

 

[tracktoy]

I would personally add a third item - Reliability in my personal view we are seeing more and more cars getting much more tech in them and this is leading to issues with user interaction, failing sensors and hardware that stops working correctly so personally I am looking for performance (not for road use but track use) however I would be paying a lot of attention to how many issues a particular model / manufacturer are having with new cars as well as recent releases.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

It's a balance, whatever I find "reasonable" for my needs / preferences and economy. Going to pick up Cupra Raval next week to me I found the basic VZ model's DCC & eLSD and slightly extra power desireable for little extra added cost but I didn't wanna sacrifice the range going for performance tyres with the VZ Extreme model with "C" efficiency rating, seemed like a rather big drop to me from 440 km to 380 km WLTP only by the tyre option alone, I'm not a track racer that needs that little bit extra grip, for me the tyre difference go a little too much into marginal performance gains for a significant range penalty that I didn't find attractive at all, especially as 440 km WLTP, while good for a B segment class car, it sits for me borderline of the minimum range I was looking for as a primary car (I drive 95% around town but occassionally nearby towns so it should be okay but I don't wanna have to stop to charge in winter while 380 km WLTP on a cold winter day might be cutting it a bit short and probably 200~250 km or something actual range in -20C or so with up to 80 km/h speeds that is the limit on countryside roads during winter here so the 60 km or so extra range adds welcomed headroom.

EDIT: now this became more of a hypothetical example as I will be driving with nordic non-studded 18" Goodyear Alu Ultragrip Ice 3 tyres eitherway in winter with whatever range those will have, depending on dimensions seems to be classified A or B for efficiency.