Halloween Special: Cars That Only Look Fast, But Aren’t

And this is a trend that seems to have accelerated in recent years - a decade ago, this article would have required a thorough search, whereas now it’s pretty much every other new car.

Still, we’ve tried to narrow it down to the biggest offenders in this category. Cars whose design builds anticipation that they can pin you to the back of your seat, when in reality they only give you boredom-derived pins and needles through your entire body.

I’m talking about cars like the latest Mazda3, particularly in hatchback guise. It looks so darn fast, like subtle hot hatch that wants to be taken by the scruff of the neck, yet when you get in and drive it, it’s a complete letdown.

This isn’t really related to the driving experience itself, which is fine by class standards, but it has to do with the choice of available engines (or lack thereof) because the most powerful one has a measly 180 horsepower - that’s pathetic, especially since it feels like its chassis can take a whole lot more.

Oh, and this is true of any modern Mazda, even the from the Mazda2 city car, through its SUV range and all the way up to that mosquito of the sports car world, the MX-5.