10 Used Sports Cars No Self-Respecting Gearheads Would Buy
If you want to buy a sports car, the used car market is a great place to pick up a bargain or an underrated classic that went unappreciated during its original production run. Of course, the flip side of this is that you end up getting an awful car that causes you nothing but stress, is horrid to drive, ugly to look at, and can actually be dangerous to have parked outside your house. If you’re a driving enthusiast with a modicum of sense, you’ll already be aware of several cars that you shouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole, but sometimes sports cars can deceive the best of us.
Some of the cars on this list are ugly, some are bad to drive, and some are both. One might even explode. These are 10 used sports cars no self-respecting gearhead would buy.
RELATED: 10 Terrible American Sports Cars All Gearheads Avoid
HOTCARS VIDEO OF THE DAYSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
10 Lexus SC430
Via: Mecum
The Lexus SC430 was never a serious sports car. Sure, it might’ve looked a bit like a roadster, but it was always a boulevard cruiser intended for the laid-back West Coast market. You can tell by the way it was only ever built with an automatic gearbox, and the fact that it was always far too heavy to be a sports car.
Instead, it wallowed from bend to bend with a 4.3-liter V8 that got you to what would normally be an exciting speed, but just didn’t seem it when paired with such a soft convertible. Indeed, reviewers were not kind, with Top Gear claiming it the worst car ever built. The designers of the SC430 spent some time on the French Riviera to “research” how they wanted the car to look, supposedly like a yacht.
That would certainly explain why it drives like one. If for some reason you wish to purchase an SC430, it’s a 20-year-old vehicle now if you get one of the pre-facelift cars. You’ll be looking at a price of around £23,500, so they have held value remarkably well.
9 Geo Storm
Bring A Trailer
Great name, but unfortunately not a great car. The Storm was marketed by Izusu in the early ’90s as a cheap version of the second-generation Impulse.
This sort of tells you what the main problem with it was: cheapness. Underpowered by a range of straight-four engines lacking a turbocharger, a poor ride, an unpleasantly noisy engine, and a badly finished cabin. Still, it looked good and sold well: in the three years it was produced they sold nearly 280,000 Storms during this short run.
If you want a Storm, our advice is to get an Impulse. It’s a better version of the same car and the savings on the used market are so minute a Storm really isn’t worth bothering with. If you still want a Storm, you’ll be spending just over £8,000, which isn’t much less than what it was new.
RELATED: 10 Worst Sports Cars Of The ’90s
8 Ford Thunderbird (2002)
Via: Mecum
Sometimes you get the sense that classic names should be left alone by car brands, so as not to sully the legacy of the original. Ford continued sullying the Thunderbird nameplate right up to the ’90s, with the luxury roadster becoming softer and further removed from the 50s original. After a five-year hiatus, Ford returned with the eleventh-generation Thunderbird for the 2002 model year.
The retro styling was part of the late-’90s/early 2000s renaissance for such a look (see the New Beetle and Mercedes SL), and with it being not as competent a throwback as its contemporaries the look of the Thunderbird sharply divided opinion. Even getting Halle Berry to drive one in a James Bond film didn’t help make it look more glamorous. Speaking of, Ford tried to woo the consumer with a series of special editions, but these were all essentially the same as the two standard cars dressed up a bit.
Therein lies one of the problems: with only one 3.9-liter V8 and one automatic gearbox to choose, every single Thunderbird was basically the same – slow and badly marketed. Ford sold fewer than 69,000 during its 2002-2005 lifetime, and sales fell year-on-year. If you want an eleventh-generation Thunderbird, good luck: having sold so few they are becoming slightly collectible, and the current average sale price of £21,500 is on the rise.
Just get used to the fact people might point and laugh at the failed retro-styling.
7 Pontiac Fiero
Via: Mecum Auctions
The Fiero does get a bad reputation, and this is mostly deserved, but let’s start with the positives. Pontiac made a mid-engined, economical sports car that sold exceptionally well (over 370,000 in just five years) and it achieved all it set out to. Unfortunately, there were quite a few negatives: it was made of plastic, and it was underpowered compared to its rivals.
Oh, and it would catch fire and in extreme cases literally detonate. Much was made of the Fiero “living up to its name” with these engine bay fires, but this hasn’t stopped the Fiero from achieving a cult following, and models from the last year of production are highly sought after by collectors as they had vastly better mechanical underpinnings. On account of this cult status, in 2023 a Fiero will set you back about £13,500, and it could be argued this might make a solid investment.
That said, you should really only drive it wearing a bomb-disposal outfit. RELATED: 10 Worst Sports Cars Of The ’80s
6 Chrysler Crossfire
Via Chrysler
The Crossfire was an interesting venture by Chrysler, then part of a merger in the early-2000s with Mercedes-Benz. This period of Chrysler’s history led to some truly disgusting cars, like the PT Cruiser and, the Crossfire.
Essentially a ’90s SLK re-styled to look slightly art-deco, Chrysler themselves stated they wanted people to “love or hate” the looks. Well, practically everyone hated it: numerous motoring journalists noted that the rear end looked very much like a dog making a brown deposit, as it were. Adding to the negatives were the fact interior materials were cheap, it was poor to drive, it was too expensive for what it was and Chrysler made too many of them.
Thanks to Chrysler making too many of them, they are fairly cheap on the second-hand market: about £15k. Honestly, though, you’re better off going on holiday or saving for a better second-hand sports car.
5 Plymouth/Chrysler Prowler
Via: Chrysler
You might’ve noticed a theme of this list: badly-done retro styling. The Prowler is another example of this, although you have to give credit to designers for really sticking to the brief of a hot rod for the 21st century.
However, the hot rod is innately comical if taken out of context, such as being sat in downtown traffic. The comedy didn’t end there: with a 3.5-liter V6 and an automatic transmission, it wasn’t the big scary road racer that the design evoked, and on account of the pitiable trunk space Chrysler sold a little body-colored trailer as a £5k option. This tiny trailer in particular ruined the look completely, and even those enthusiastic about the Prowler would admit the little trunk-on-wheels is a truly comedic solution to a problem that really shouldn’t have existed in the first place, namely: who is buying a two-seat modern hot-rod and expecting practicality?
This being said, it is valuable: £33k is the average price for a Prowler in 2023. If you can withstand the poor performance and the laughter of bystanders, it’s a solid investment.
4 Ferrari Mondial
Via mecum.com
The Mondial has received a reputation as arguably the worst Ferrari the company has ever produced. An underpowered, heavy, and unreliable four-seater, the Mondial wasn’t even considered good in the early ’80s.
Ferrari is not known for compromise, and it’s clear to see why they don’t try and do compromises very often because they result in terrible cars like this. As with several of the cars on this list, a cult following has amassed for the Mondial, and because no one wants one they are a fairly cheap way of getting yourself a Ferrari: about £45,000 currently, which doesn’t sound cheap but goes to show how expensive a properly good Ferrari would be.
3 Mercedes-Benz C-Class Sport-Coupe
Mercedes-Benz
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class Sport-Coupe is a simple car, overly hyphenated. The German brand wanted to make an inexpensive, good-looking compact sports car out of their C-Class sedan and introduced this.
Not the most horrendous looking, although back in the early-2000s the back end came in for some pointed criticism, the simple reason why no gearhead would be seen in one in this: it wasn’t very good to drive. The bland driving experience coupled with the fact you were driving around advertising the fact that you couldn’t afford a better Mercedes-Benz would turn people off, or at least you would think: it actually became so popular Mercedes followed up with a second generation of the C-Class Sport-Coupe, the CLC-Class. Their popularity and (relative) cheapness mean that they’re not hard to find on the second-second-hand market, and £10,000 will get you a solid Sport-Coupe.
Seriously though, just find the Mercedes that you actually want second-hand and pay the extra money, because there’s no point paying £10k for a badge with some wheels attached.
2 Ford Mustang II
Via: Bring aTrailer
Regarded by practically everyone as the worst Mustang to ever exist, there will always be defenders of it as it was the car that practically saved Ford. Launched as the oil crisis was forcing American manufacturers to downsize their engines and in turn, their cars, the Mustang II was a compact sports car based on the infamous Pinto. Nevertheless, it was a giant sales success and contemporary reviews were glowing.
Looking back, automotive writers correctly determine the Mustang II to be woeful. Not even capable of 100 horsepower, it was a car unfit for the nameplate. Now you might’ve noticed a passing reference in the first paragraph to the Pinto, the car whose fuel tank notoriously exploded in a rear-end shunt, and the Mustang II had the exact same incendiary tank.
Then there was the defective steering, combined with the original Firestone 500 tires, well-known in the ’70s for failing at both low and high speed. In 2023 a Mustang II sells for an average price of £16k, but just don’t. If it’s a potential deathtrap you’re after, they are less-expensive ways of seeking such thrills.
1 Chrysler TC by Maserati
Mecum Auctions
Chrysler already has three cars featured on this list, but we’ve saved the worst for last.
The Chrysler TC by Maserati was a bit like when the two defendants in a court case tried and pin it on each other. Lee Iacocca was Chrysler CEO back in the ’80s and together with then-Maserati head and friend Alejandro de Tomaso they concocted this atrocity. Taking five years to finally put into production, the TC was merely a Chrysler LeBaron made in Italy with the price jacked up.
Consumers didn’t see through the useless front-wheel-drive “sports car” and it was panned by critics and the public alike, who christened it both the worst Chrysler and the worst Maserati, all in the same car. They’re under £10k nowadays, but that’s because they should be.
