Your car is more capable than you think
They’re just as common in Atlanta and North Georgia as anywhere — brand-new, $60,000 four-wheel-drive SUVs that have been jacked up and fitted with another $20,000 to $30,000 in off-road gear.
It makes me wonder: “Will the owner ever use all that? Heck, will they use any of it?”
A similar thought crosses my mind when I see an already capable sports car that’s been lowered and festooned with racy appendages. Will the driver ever even reach seven-tenths of what the car can do?
Or is it all just for show, for that “maybe someday I’ll need it,” or for … the vibe? Is this all akin to a toddler outfitted in North Face gear so the child can climb around a playground or be prepared for whatever extremes might arise at the Whole Foods deli counter?
Of course, this is nothing new. Ever since cars were introduced, drivers and shade-tree mechanics have been tinkering, wrenching and buying add-ons to improve their vehicles’ capabilities.
But here’s the truth: The car you drive is likely far more capable than you think and can competently handle extreme situations. I’m not just talking about a Jeep that’s been turned into a six-figure overlanding rig or a Nissan Z whose owner thinks mounting a ridiculously big wing on the back will make the person a better driver. (Spoiler alert: It won’t.)
Believe it or not, even something as ordinary as a Kia Sportage is built for extremes. Maybe not on the trail, but where it actually matters: the real world.
Capable in the hottest heat and coldest cold
Cars are engineered to operate safely in extreme temperatures, from deep-freeze cold to deadly heat.
I took part in hot-weather testing several years ago, and it was among my most eye-opening experiences in nearly two decades as a car reviewer.
Hot-weather testing verifies that a vehicle can operate reliably and keep its occupants comfortable in extreme heat. Automakers often conduct it around Death Valley’s Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, where temperatures can exceed 120 degrees.
I watched Kia engineers test preproduction Sportage SUVs to ensure the powertrain and cabin stayed cool. During one “heat soak,” the cabin reached 122 degrees after sitting in the sun. Before we measured how quickly it cooled, a fellow journalist fried an egg on the asphalt.
Automakers conduct similar cold-weather testing in places such as Montana, Sweden and Finland.
At a winter driving event at the closed-for-the-season Yellowstone Airport, the Infiniti QX60 I was testing displayed an outside temperature of minus 19. Inside, my passengers and I were cozy, with our hands and tushes heated.
Maintaining control
Just as eye-opening was how well cars maintained control in snow and ice.
Today’s vehicles use standard technology to help drivers when slick roads have other plans.
Traction control and stability control systems have been around since the 1980s, and by 2012, they were federally mandated for every new car sold in the U.S. These invisible aids help prevent wheelspin and a driver’s loss of control.
I experienced firsthand how the systems work both when activated and when intentionally switched off. A car that had kept mostly composed on snow and ice with the systems on suddenly felt like a marble with them off.
Combined with all-wheel drive and a good set of snow tires, these systems kept an ordinary crossover stable in some of the harshest conditions I’ve experienced. Go figure: It didn’t even need a 5-inch lift and a snorkel to survive.
Towing and hauling
Lastly, we need to talk about towing and payload capability. Have you ever seen an $80,000 Ford F-350 Super Duty towing a tiny trailer or lifted to kingdom come, fitted with ridiculously thin tires on 24-inch rims and driven around the mall?
Excess doesn’t begin to describe such choices.
You can buy a truck today that can tow more than 36,000 pounds and haul about 7,000 pounds of payload. But unless you need to pull a fully loaded commercial trailer or deliver tons of material to a construction site, few ordinary drivers need to spend so much to do so little.
A Ford Maverick compact truck can tow up to 4,000 pounds and haul 1,500 pounds of payload, both far beyond what the average driver will need. It also starts under $30,000 and fits in a residential garage.
The takeaway
Cars are about choice, and one size won’t fit all. Some shoppers won’t consider a vehicle unless it offers far more capability than they’ll ever use.
But if every dollar matters and you want to make a sensible choice about your next vehicle, rest assured that it will likely be far more capable than you imagine — and that more engineering than you’ll ever know has gone into making it that way.
Matt Degen is a senior editor with Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader. He’s driven and reviewed practically every car model made in the past 15 years, all with the goal of helping shoppers find the right one for them.
The Steering Column is a weekly consumer auto column from Cox Automotive. Cox Automotive and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution are owned by parent company, Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.