The Worst Sports Cars Ever Built
Many people dream of owning their own “sports car” and while they look cool and are usually made better sometimes they are actually made much worse than people expected. This is because many people who like the idea of owning a sports car don’t do enough research before buying a car and realize that the car they chose solely based on looks has horrible gas mileage and is as slow as a snail.
One of the most well-known sports cars of all time is the DeLorean (AKA DMC-12). We all know it mainly because of back to the future, but slightly before the film franchise made the car famous, the DeLorean was known for a few other less glamorous things. The main thing it was known for was that, while the car looked very much like a sports car due to its flashy futuristic design, its looks ended up sadly being just a ploy to draw in unsuspecting customers who did not know very much about cars. The main issue with the DeLorean was that the car simply just could not perform to the standard of other vehicles of its time period or even those that came over a decade before it. The car’s top speed was a measly 88 miles per hour and although the car itself was horrible to drive it at least was a good investment because back to the future it is now one of the most widely collected cars ever made.
Another “Sports car” that many were trapped into buying due to its sporty-looking build is the Hyundai Tiburon. This car unlike the DeLorean had no fame or image to fall back on for sales but due to the car’s sleek design which looks similar to many Japanese sports cars of the time many bought the car in the hopes that it would be a more inexpensive alternative to buying a more well-known sports car. The car had two main issues the first not being very serious; the Tiburon was simply slow as it only did 0-60 miles per hour in 7.7 seconds. Now that may not sound horrible but essentially every other sports car made since 2000 can pretty much reach 0-60 in 6 seconds at worst, with even some economy cars like civics and accords from the same year being able to go significantly faster than the Tiburion. Another much more significant issue with this fake sports car was that it was not up to the same build and safety standards as other competing sports cars in the early 2000s. The car was made from very inexpensive materials and those unfortunate enough to have bought it noticed immediately that the car’s interior was made of cheap plastic like most of the rest of the car. Due to these cheap materials, the car’s safety also took a dive with it being ranked the #8 deadliest car in America.
The third and final terrible sports car which I’ve brought to you today is the Pontiac Fiero. This car was mainly hated because most Americans universally liked how it looked and would compare it to the design of a Ferrari yet when they bought it they would find out that their car could not be further from Ferrari as the Fiero was considered arguable the slowest American sports car of its time. However, aside from these issues, the Fiero had one other issue which was the maintenance costs. This was mainly because while the quality of the car was not very special the parts used in the Fiero were hard to come by which meant if anything in the car broke you would have to pay more money than a cheap sports car should cost.
Sources: https://www.hotcars.com/sports-car-models-too-many-problems/
https://www.hotcars.com/heres-why-the-pontiac-fiero-was-discontinued/
Hi Will,
Your blog about cars was very interesting! I know you only a little bit and I was wondering why you’re interested in cars? Maybe you have a project car or you just think that they look cool? Anyways, I would have loved to hear about any personal experiences that you’ve had with bad sports cars or even cars in general, because I have a gut feeling that you have a couple stories. Personally, I drive a car that’s the farthest from what you’d car a sports car: a 2012 Toyota Prius. My family knew what they were getting into when they bought it— gas efficient, reliable, and takes you from A to B. For the average consumer, that is exactly what you should look for in a car.
I actually liked how all of the cars you mentioned look. Of course the DeLorean is a classic that’ll never go out of style, so that needs no explaining. The Tiburon reminds me a little bit of the Nissan 350z, which is a pretty popular car that I’m sure you know about. You are completely right about the Fiero, it looks a lot like those old Ferraris, just offbrand. I wonder why they would copy another company’s sporty looks and then not have a good engine. I understand trying to save costs, but you can’t have it at least be really fast? Pontiacs are NOTORIOUS for being difficult to repair. My family used to have an old Pontiac van a decade ago, and that thing sucked. It did its job for a while, until both of the sliding doors broke (like every van ever), so we had to retire it. I loved reading your blog post and I hope you have a great day!
Hi Will, I found your blog very interesting because I was very into cars back in middle school. It seems that you are very knowledgeable on the topic of sports cars and cars in general. It is very disappointing that the DeLorean is such a bad car because it would be so cool to drive around in that car, however, I don’t know if I would like driving it because I drive a Honda Odyssey. On the other hand, I am glad the Hyundai Tiburon is a bad sports car because it looks terrible. I would never buy that car and if any of my friends bought it I would slap them. 0-60 in 7.7 seconds is crazy low for a sports car, I think my 2005 Honda Odyssey could do better. Overall, this blog post was very entertaining, it was fun reading about how terrible all these “sports cars” were.