A Female Car Lover's Rant

I am currently reading a romantic suspense novel which I am going to review next, but there is something in this book that I just have to talk about separately just because it annoys me that much. I have found a paragraph that troubles me. I can't upload photos from my phone which pisses me off, so I will just quote the paragraph.

"From Cisco's, Johnnie climbed into his black Ford Mustang G.T. and fired up the powerful V-8 engine. He'd just bought the car, his pride and joy, a couple of months ago, black leather interior, 412 horsepower, 5.0 engine. Plus, he'd had a mechanic friend of his soup it up even more. The beast could really move. "

This makes my right eye twitch with irritation. This Johnny is a damn Army Ranger. Let that sink in for a second. Why the hell would an Army Ranger go to a mechanic? Especially if the car is his pride and joy?? Seriously?! I have a little 92 Mazda MX-3, I weigh 120 pounds and I wouldn't let a mechanic touch my car with a 40 foot pole! It just is a no no to someone who loves cars.

 Just having those rims adds 50 hp!

Let's move on to the car itself. Don't get me wrong, 412 hp is pretty powerful for a V-6 or even a little 4 cylinder, but a 5.0 V-8?? No, I am pretty sure that is stock. So the fact that he even went to a mechanic that made it faster is even worse because that implies that it had less than stock hp to begin with. People assume that just because it is a V-8 that means it is oober fast and bad ass. It is one of my pet peeves as an V-6 owner. Everyone assumes that since it is a higher number of cylinders, it is faster than everything else.

Now I know that I am being too harsh towards this book because it is a romantic suspense and not a lot of people who love cars read romantic books as well but damnit I do and this needs to be addressed. I only ask this, if you are going to make your character love cars make him be a respectable one. Not one that acts like he loves cars by buying a muscle car with a big engine and lets the mechanic do all the dirty work. It is not a good trait to have. That is all. End of rant.