To put things in perspective, I've used a non-turbo 2g eclipse as a DD to run back and forth to the day job for the last couple of years. The car was cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, practically free to insure, and I don't care about racking up the mileage during my 110 miles/day commute.
They're 140 hp stock out of the box. Not much but enough for a 2600 lbs car that's pretty slippery to the wind. Plus, I have a few ideas to shed some pretty serious pounds without stripping it out like some high school kid with his Honda.
Now here's where things get fun though... There is some debate to these numbers but the dynos report that the PS pump alone uses 5-8 hp at highway speeds. To put this in perspective, the car only requires about 20 hp to maintain 75 mph.
With some aero mods, a change to a 3.55 final drive ratio, an UD pulley, and a PS delete, the car routinely gets 44 mpg and dynos at about 155 hp running on the ********************tiest gas possible. Ground breaking? No, but it has no problem running at 130 mph on the highway with absolutely no fuss or effort. Hell, its wearing cinder block heavy 17's and running staggered 235 front/255 rear tires (on a fwd car
). Certainly not because it needs them but because I like the grip and look. Haha.
The short version of all this is that accessories are a huge drag on an engine and thats why everyone is going electric.