Back in 2002, Jaguar had to restate the power output of its engines in the U.S. because it had been using the DIN (German) rather than the SAE (American) formula for horsepower. Since 100 DIN horsepower are equal to 98.6 SAE horsepower, Jaguar’s “400-horsepower” supercharged V8 ended up being credited with a less impressive 390. (Why not 394? Apparently it wasn’t quite making 400 DIN.)

Well, it seems that VW never got the memo. I’ve been adding European powertrains for European cars, because we have some members outside North America who have been requesting them. To keep things consistent, I decide to enter SAE horsepower for these engines into the database. And it turns out that the figures VW and Audi publicize in the US are DIN, not SAE.

I’m not going to correct their official US figures, because this would be confusing. But as a result the figures will be a bit off for the US engines when these are viewed by European members.

Of greater concern: American car buyers aren’t getting quite as much horsepower as they think they are.