If offered a supercar, without any strings attached, no one in their right mind would turn it down. A supercar offers a driving experience unlike any other. Automakers put extra resources and labor into making these supercars a cut above the rest. The contrarians who can’t find the upshot of owning a supercar are only trying to stir the pot among car enthusiasts. The facts are always important to look at though, and when it comes to supercars, the evidence is clear. Not everything about these cars is rainbows and unicorns. Like any man-made creation, even one like a supercar that’s had more time and money put into it has its flaws. Those flaws inevitably trickle down to drivers who encounter less-than-stellar features while driving these incredible cars.
Updated April: If you're into supercars but can only afford a regular sedan, you'll be happy to know that we've updated this list, providing more details why it may just be better to stick with the sedan.
People don’t buy supercars for their practicality, but many take for granted all the things their typical daily driver can do. If we imagined the complete opposite of a supercar, it’d have to be the sedan. As SUVs and pickup trucks continue to dominate the market, sedans get overlooked, yet are some of the most dependable and practical cars today. While car enthusiasts are all too familiar with the drawbacks of owning a supercar, here stands another reminder of the problems they can experience. It’s enough to make drivers grateful for their sedans, which have some benefits of their own. We made a list of disadvantages owners face owning a supercar, as well as overlooked perks to owning a sedan that a supercar falls short of.
25 Supercar Drawback: Repair Costs And Wait Time
As any car owner knows, that huge amount of money one pays for a car up front is only the beginning of its expenses. Over its lifespan, many maintenance and repair bills crop up.
While the average earner is able to cope with these expenses, a supercar takes things to a whole new level. Business Insider notes that repairs can set buyers back a lot and they may even have to wait a lot longer for their car to be ready.
24 Sedan: Beats A Supercar In A Drag race
The Tesla Model S P100D is no ordinary sedan, but it is a sedan nonetheless. In a video by Motor1, the Model S went up against some of the highest performing vehicles today, including a McLaren 570GT and a Ferrari 488 GTB.
With a bunch of cars up against each other in a drag race, the results were unexpected. In the end, the P100D ended up pulling ahead and winning. It is not a cheap car, but for a sedan, it’s amazing it outperformed the competition. And now, there's the even faster Model S Plaid, which will demolish all but the sickest electric hypercars.
23 Supercar Drawback: Excessive Power
The supercar proves that having too much of a good thing has its drawbacks. On paper, it’s fun to imagine having a car that puts out 600 horsepower. In actuality, getting behind the wheel of one presents a different story.
They can prove unwieldy and hard to control. Business Insider reports that one might even get a speeding ticket for failing to handle their supercar properly. Owners should count out driving their supercar anywhere but a race track if they want to take it for a spin.
22 Sedan: Blends In
These days, it’s getting harder to stand out on the road. Many car enthusiasts wish to stand out because it’s how they express their individuality as a car lover. For many though, standing out in a supercar is the last thing they want.
There’s no way to own a supercar and not stand out. With bestselling sedans Business Insider references like the Toyota Camry or Honda Civic, it has never been easier to blend into the pack and fly under the radar.
21 Supercar Drawback: Lacks Comfort
A supercar offers a unique driving experience that’s unmatched. All the performance and thrills a driver could ever want are jam-packed into a stylish performance car. The only problem is that drivers may not want to sit in it for very long.
As Business Insider points out, from driving a McLaren 675LT around Los Angeles, it did a number on one’s lower back. Everyone knows that a McLaren isn’t made for comfort, but performance. Still, a comfortable car is something one easily takes for granted.
20 Sedan: Family Comes First
Families and supercars don’t go together. As the website Parents notes, the vehicle a family drives home from the hospital for the first time is critical. A sedan fits into this role, though admittedly, it is not the best family car out there.
SUVs and crossovers easily take the top spot. Sedans aren’t far behind though. Car buyers often put, as they should, family before their thrill-seeking. One thing’s for sure, at the end of the day, a supercar isn’t a great family car.
19 Supercar Drawback: One-Dimensional
A supercar provides one thing really well, performance. Many argue that it can’t be beaten. Yet some might find that they miss the jack-of-all-trades versatility of their sedan. As Corsia Logistics points outs, you won’t be able to go on a road trip in a supercar, winter is, even more, a pain and problematic terrain will discourage the driving experience.
A sedan will often handle all of these with ease (depending on the make and model). A supercar, however, does not.
18 Sedan: Practical Exterior Design
A supercar looks good, but the exterior isn’t going to hold up over time. A sedan’s body style is boring, but these vehicles have other interests in mind. A driver’s life is the most important thing and a supercar doesn’t prioritize that—it puts speed above everything else.
As Cars Guide reports, automakers build sedans with stability and safety in mind. Then again, people don’t buy supercars for safety, but to live life on the edge, which a sedan rarely provides.
17 Supercar Drawback: No Storage Space
We won’t pretend that people buy supercars for the storage space. What a supercar sacrifices in space it makes up for tenfold in performance and style. Business Insider quips that you won’t be taking a supercar on road trips due to the limited space.
A supercar offers little in terms of convenience, but it’s basic features like storage space that come standard in even a sedan. While it’s unfair to judge supercars on this standard, it’s another reminder of their limitations.
16 Sedan: Affordable Without Sacrificing Features
Adding up all the benefits can get in a sedan, it’s hard to justify a supercar. As Kelley Blue Book notes, for less than $25,000, prospective buyers can get a competent midsize sedan like the 2018 Honda Accord. A supercar might set one back $1 million.
While a supercar is going to go light-years faster—and look a lot cooler—than an Accord, it is an extreme route to take. An Accord isn’t going to sacrifice performance completely with turbocharged engine options and even comes packed with a comfortable, tech-enhanced interior.
15 Supercar Drawback: Too Low
One of the appeals to owning a supercar is also one of its downsides. People love that they’re low to the ground because it capitalizes on their high performance capabilities. In day-to-day driving though, there are lots of obstacles on roads that will not look kindly on a low supercar.
As Business Insider points out, obstacles like potholes will do a number on a supercar. Even minor speed bumps could prove a problem, limiting a supercar’s mobility in certain parking lots.
14 Sedan: Better For Commuting
Commuting doesn’t sound fun, but this is an integral part of many lives today. That means a car that can do daily commuting is essential. Sedans seem built for this task and can even make commutes—dare we say it—fun.
As U.S. News reports, a sedan can have good handling, good mpg, a good stereo system and even pack a punch in performance. With all those features, it’s hard to pass up on a sedan when the daily grind won’t treat a supercar very well.
13 Supercar Drawback: Exorbitant Price Tag
It is obvious, but supercars cost a lot of cash. There’s a reason they do and, in many ways, they're worth it. Only a handful of these cars exist in comparison to what’s out there. They'll give you something a sedan—or ten sedans, for that matter—could never do.
Plus, automakers tend to build supercars out of special materials, which in turn raises the price. That still means they’re going to take a chunk out of a millionaire’s wealth, which is definitely a downside.
12 Sedan: More Ways To Buy
A supercar isn’t only expensive to buy and maintain, but they’re also hard to find. Being an exclusive feat of engineering and style comes with its drawbacks, and one of them is its availability. Even those who can afford them will have trouble securing one. Sedans are in large supply and easy to buy.
The used market isn’t the most glamorous way to go about buying a car, but it’s packed with inexpensive sedans that’s a fraction of the headache compared to buying a new supercar.
11 Supercar Drawback: Manual Transmissions
Manual gearboxes aren’t as common as they used to be. Once the standard way of driving, the general public has longer converted to the convenience of automatic transmissions. As a result, drivers have become accustomed to driving this way. Many see a supercar and forget that it’s a manual stick-shift though.
Even more, as Corsia Logistics notes, the clutch tends to bear a stiffer quality, which is to ensure longevity when driving at high RPMs. Owners forget that the difficulty curve goes up in a supercar.
10 Sedan: Durability
Despite all the power supercars come packed with, they’re fragile pieces of machinery. Buyers aren’t interested in supercars for their reliability though, they want to experience performance on a whole new level.
This is a tradeoff most are willing to take. A sedan can’t provide that experience, but they're reliable. Although they don’t look as spiffy or tear up the race track, they have enough grit to drive every day for years without breaking down. That’s something most supercars can’t match.
9 Supercar Drawback: Parking Is A Challenge
Parking is easy in a sedan, not so much in a supercar. Part of it has to do with the style and build of these performance machines. According to Corsia Logistics, the width inhibits supercars from fitting into tight spots.
As anyone knows who’s parked a car, especially in cities where there're lots of cars crammed together, it can be difficult navigating cars into a tight squeeze. A sedan will handle these jobs without a problem, while the supercar struggles to fit into narrow places.
8 Sedan: More Options
Supercars look good and perform well. They don’t have much variety though beyond that. With sedans being so ubiquitous, it’s natural they’d have varying styles. For example, as AutoTrader notes, there are buyers who want 4WD but can’t afford an SUV.
In those cases, a sedan is available and will meet their needs, even if it doesn’t impress as much as an SUV could. Sedans appeal to more buyers and offer a wider range of options. It’s a vehicle suited for any taste.
7 Supercar Drawback: Problematic Roads
While already alluded to earlier, this deserves its own section: bumpy roads. As the blog Doug DeMuro wisely points out, a supercar may not be ideal for where one lives. Whether someone lives in a city or a rural setting, there are problematic roads everywhere.
That limits one’s freedom to drive a supercar wherever they want. In a way, it is an expensive purchase one has to store and can only enjoy on a limited basis. As cool and beautiful as they look, these are fragile cars.
6 Sedan: Supports U.S. Car Market
Supercars come from automakers all over the world. Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany are arguably among the top of the list when it comes to the quality of supercars out there. According to USA Today, passenger car sales in the U.S. aren’t doing so hot right now; they reported on Edmunds’ findings earlier this year that sales dropped about 4% around March.
Buying a U.S. sedan helps the economy and supports car markets within the States during a time when sales are lower.