Five Things: the most overrated cars of all time
Monday, 11 January 2021
We’ve done five of the most overvalued cars on the market, so let’s keep the salt flowing with five of the most overrated cars.
This time we’re talking about cars that have a massive following, despite them not exactly being the greatest things to drive. Cue the outrage…
Audi RS 6
Much has been made of the Audi RS 6 being one of the original “supercar killers”, but it’s really only in a straight line. No one will deny it’s fast but when you actually drive it, as in turning the wheel, it doesn’t feel great.
**READ MORE:
* Five Things: overvalued second hand cars
* Five Things: New cars that still have a manual transmission
* Five Things: Fun cars at a reasonable price
**
The steering offers good-not-great feedback and errs on the side of lightness while the front-biased weight distribution and front-biased quattro all-wheel drive systems means any semblance of fun is efficiently ironed out.
And to make matters worse, it doesn’t even sound all that good. I mean, BMW manages to make its twice-boosted V8 sound fantastic and so does Mercedes-AMG (for now) so Audi really doesn’t have much excuse.
Ford Mustang
The Mustang has a long and storied past, but unfortunately, it comprises more misses than hits. The original pony car was little more than a prettied-up chop-shop Falcon that happened upon a winning formula. It sold well, thanks to sharp pricing and sharper looks but from the end of the 1960s it just got fatter and slower.
Then we get to 1994, when Ford decided to turn the Mustang into one of the most boring look-a-like cars ever.
An optional four-speed automatic paired with an ancient 194kW 4.6-litre V8 in the GT didn't help things from a performance standpoint. Of course, you could still get the Cobra version, which would tear your face off with 239kW, a number that may have been slightly inflated by Ford…
A80 Toyota Supra
Ah, the Supra. Legendary for its tunability as well as its appearance in The Fast and The Furious but fantastically glorified to the point of stupidity.
Ask any non-car-person born after 1995 and they’ll probably say “Supra? That toyota with 900 horsepower?” No, the Supra didn’t make 900 horses. The 2JZ straight six powering the A80 Supra was built incredibly well, overengineered some might say, and could absolutely handle near-four-digit horsepower figures, but only after about $20,000 worth of work, that is.
From the factory, the exhaust system was allegedly fitted with no fewer than three catalytic converters to play nice with emissions laws so it doesn’t even make that famous straight-six howl without some aftermarket fiddling.
MGB
The pride of plucky British motoring (Mini Cooper aside), the MGB is famous around classic car forums. However, if you look at it without any rose-tinted glasses on, it’s not actually that good of a car.
Sure it has that cool, burbly 1.8-litre four-pot begging to be revved but it only really works half the time. Then you have the leaky roof (if you have a convertible), iffy British electrical components and the constant fear of rust to deal with.
In what seems like a deliberate effort to make it even worse, MG unleashed the MGC in 1967, using a heavy straight-six to completely ruin the handling of the small car – its one true saving grace…
Tesla Model S
While it may seem to some people that Elon Musk can do no wrong, Tesla isn’t quite at the point where it can call itself an accomplished carmaker, particularly with the Model S.
The motors and batteries are (mostly) sound, the software is quality and the performance is undeniable but the actual car surrounding all of that is a bit lacking. Inconsistent panel gaps, poor paint and finish quality and some supremely drab styling make the large electric sedan feel like a Grand Theft Auto car in real life.
Also, that performance that everybody focusses on is only really uncorked in the top-spec twin-motor Performance version.
It’s not all bad though; the Mercedes switchgear is quite nice.