The speedometer has nothing to do with how fast the car can go, first of all - most cars have speedometers that go somewhat higher than their maximum speed, some have ones that go much higher for no reason at all.

Next, if you had a car with a top speed of 100km/h, you would find that it no longer has the same top speed of 100km/h when going up a hill, or when loaded full of people. So, you need some extra capability there.

So, it is reasonable to say that cars should be able to exceed the speed limit in order to be safe to drive.

So, if we have a car that can exceed the speed limit, but the speedometer does not go as high as the car goes fast, there are situations where you may be driving the car and not know how fast you're going. In the US, speedometers frequently went up to only 85mph in the 80s.

Also, a very slow vehicle is a safety hazard. Now that you've got 5 people in your car, merging on to the highway can be dangerous if you can't get up to speed quickly enough - so a reasonable reserve of power is needed. A car that can go faster will almost always accelerate faster, too I'm not suggesting that everyone needs to drive sports cars, even something like the Smart car, which can do 0-100km/h is perfectly adequate for something that'll only carry 2 people (It does 0-100km/h in about 13-14 seconds) - a larger car with less power, though, could be a problem if it is fully loaded.

For example, my previous car was a Hyundai Accent, it had a small engine, and wasn't fast at all. It was adequate with me alone, or with a passenger, but on the few occasions I needed to have five people in the car, it made it excruciatingly slow, and merging on to highways became an art form not unlike driving a very large truck. That Hyundai had ~90 horsepower, and a top speed just over 100mph (umm, 160 km/h or so) - and it had adequate power - but significantly less power would make it dangerous to drive in certain circumstances. The speedometer on that went to 130 or 140mph or so, by the way, and there was no way it would do that.

Oh - another area a car might have a speedometer that is significantly higher rated than the car will actually go - optional engines. Most midsize sedans in the US come by default with a perfectly adequate 4cyl engine, usually with 140-180 horsepower, which will accelerate the car from 0-60 in 8-10 seconds or so, but most have optional V6 engines with 250+ horsepower as an option. Usually, the 4cyl models will hit their top speed in the 120-130mph range, and the V6 based cars can usually go 150 or so. (about 240-260km/h). So, the speedometer will usually be shared for both.

If you want a less powerful car, that information is fully available. Because different cars have different engine options depending on where you live, this specific information is dependent on that.

For instance, in the USA, the basic engine that comes in a Honda Civic is a 1.8 liter that makes 140 horsepower. There's an option for a 2 liter engine with 197 horsepower, and a hybrid model with a ~110 horsepower engine and an electric motor (Um, and one that runs on natural gas, but they don't sell many of them). In England, however, there are several different engine options. The basic engine in the Civic over there is a 1.4 liter engine with only 100 horsepower. They have the 1.8 liter model as an option (it's almost the same as the US model - 138 hp on that), then, there's a 2.2 liter diesel option, which also has ~140 horsepower, but gets better gas mileage, and then they have the same 2 liter, 200hp engine we get in the US.

So, depending on where you live, you can select an engine option to suit your needs - but inevitably, everything you will be able to purchase will have more than enough power to greatly exceed speed limits.

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