The amount one can end up spending on a sports car can fund an entire country, even if a tiny one, for an entire year. Yet, despite all that moolah spent on a flashy (and fast) set of wheels, they don’t come with a reliability guarantee. Sports cars are known for their unreliability, which is rather surprising seeing their astronomical costs.
Or maybe, all those costs go just to make the car big, brash, and bold – minus any thought put to the fact they should keep running that big, brash, and bold as well. So, here are ten expensive sports cars that are simply not worth it! Some are unreliable, some lose too much money, others are guzzlers, and the last of the lot are white elephants.
10 Porsche Cayenne: Expensive To Maintain
At about $160,000 a pop, the Porsche Cayenne does not come cheap. Sure enough, it looks like bespoke money on wheels. If you have the deep pockets needed to buy it effortlessly and maintain it for years to come, cool.
If you have stretched yourself transparent to afford the Cayenne, then it was a mistake. Basic service costs can give you apoplexy and the smallest of repairs may make you miss lunch for a week. Furthermore, the 2018 Cayenne is not especially reliable for such an expensive vehicle. If you have to own a Porsche, a Boxster would be far better than a Cayenne.
9 Audi S5: A Killing Percent Depreciation
At around $55,000, the Audi S5 is not very expensive and falls in the affordable sports/luxury car variety. The turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 manages a good 354 horses and a 369 ft-lb torque, paired to an all-wheel-drive that manages to make it zoom 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds. All good, right?
The shock will come when you try to sell you five-year-old Audi S5 in the market and get a mere $20 grand for it, as opposed to the $55K you paid for it. The Audi S5 depreciates badly every year and once you cross the five-year mark, things will only get more depressing. You might as well burn your money instead of getting an Audi S5.
8 Mercedes Benz SLC: Overpriced And Underpowered
2011 was not Mercedes-Benz's year, and Daimler’s brief entanglement with Chrysler did not jet out any jewels either. The GLE may be another Merc that wasn't all that appreciated by the buyers, but perhaps one of the most boring of the lot was the Mercedes-Benz SLC Roadster.
Around ten years ago, the base four-cylinder model cost approximately $50,000. The car was not high on power – the 2.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 that jetted 360 horses as the top trim did not wow with its performance. Simply said, it was a tad overpriced at a time when the market was brimming with many other better priced and powered options.
7 Maserati Ghibli: Too Average A Build
Getting a Maserati sure is a dream for many, for it’s a status symbol unlike another. At $75,000 – the Maserati Ghibli doesn’t seem to be too expensive a car – it’s a Maserati after all – and does tempt people to buy it to become part of the exclusive Maserati owners' league.
Sadly, the Ghibli seldom ranks high among midsize sedans. There is also its underwhelming reliability rating to consider. Simply put, the Ghibli is not what you’d expect a Maserati to be like, never mind it being entry-level. An unimpressive build that lands on the low end of the power spectrum, the Ghibli is not what Maserati dreams are made of.
6 Jaguar F-Type: Reliability
Costing a little above $100,000 for the V8 option, the Jaguar F-type is as luxurious as it is sporty. At least, that is what we would expect from a $100k car. Sadly, while the engine options are good and varied, the fuel economy is an environment killer.
The infotainment and climate controls are also a bit too convoluted, though, the interiors are typical of a plush Jag. The reliability rating tends to be relatively unpredictable, especially since Jag landed with Tata Motors. A $100k car should be worth its weight in dependability, but that’s so not the case with the Jag F-Type.
5 Maserati GranTurismo: Barely A Return On Investment
The Maserati GranTurismo boasts a 4.7-liter V8 in a flat plane crank formation and growls like a T-Rex on speed. But for all those race cars like sounds and performance, the GranTurismo does not hold on to its value. You buy it for more than $130,000 and it will sell for a mere $50,000 after five years.
Technically, you just burned $80,000 in five years on a car no one wants to buy used because it is past its warranty period. Maserati also tends to not prioritize reliability.
4 Porsche 911: Sky High Maintenance Costs
Porsches do not come cheap. At least the 911 does not. The 911 Carrera itself starts at a base price of around $100,000. And if you have enough moolah to go higher, like buy a car that costs the same as a house, you can go for the Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport that goes for $650,000.
Of course, these are superb cars and get top of the line ratings for their class. That said, remember that even a Carrera can cost you upwards of $2,000 a year to just maintain and service. It has one of the highest maintenance costs associated with a sports car so this is worth it only if you have an unending fortune to dip into.
3 BMW M5: Massive Depreciation
So, say you get impressed by those 625 horses and 553 ft-lb of torque that this tire-shredder of a car produces. Impressed enough to somehow scrounge more than $100,000 to pay for this road-chewing monster. And once you do manage to get it, you would love that speed and burning rubber smell.
In fact, despite a few recalls and reliability issues, the M5 is a good car. Except when you try to sell it, say after five years. Because then, you will realize that after spending some $100k on the car, you will be able to reap only $40k or so – having lost more than 60% in depreciation. Make this a lifetime-buy, if you must.
2 Dodge Viper: Unreliable, Uncomfortable, and A Guzzler
Yes, we know there are people out there baying for our blood because we just put the Dodge Viper into this list. Remember though, before you come at us with pitchforks, that this is a list of expensive sports cars that are not worth it. Not the worst sports cars. The thing about the Dodge Viper is that it is not considered very reliable or even comfortable for that matter – this after shelling out almost $120,000 for it.
It also guzzles gas like a parched camel in the desert and has rather tight interior space. The brakes are also not the best feature though it does offer awesome power and a good cornering as well. Reliability wise, it’s on a 50% score.
1 Chrysler Crossfire: Wrong Car, Wrong Time
Like the Mercedes-Benz SLC, the Chrysler Crossfire was also produced at the time of the short-lived marriage between Daimler and Chrysler. Sadly, this was one awful offspring that could last only four years and was so ambitiously overproduced that it went on to be sold as extra-stock on eBay and OverStock.com.
Priced at about $50,000 for the top trim, this was one of the most lackluster sports sedans to be experienced by anyone. A rebadged first-gen Mercedes SLK, the Crossfire was old even before it was launched – bad performance, shoddy interiors, and a slow-to-respond everything killed the car. And rightfully so. This has to be one of the worst sports cars of this century, if not ever.