The Japanese automotive industry has given the world some of the most unique and astonishing cars ever produced. The unique designs, incredible reliability, and high performance have certainly attracted many gearheads into buying Japanese vehicles over their American or European counterparts.
Nevertheless, despite how great a car is in terms of how much it offers for the price, for a number of other reasons, some cars are destined to flop and never reach the success their brands expected from them. With this said, for every great JDM car that goes into legends, there are dozens of those that are quite easily forgettable, though they are still great cars to drive.
9 Infiniti Q70
Starting out as Nissan's luxury car brand in 1989, Infiniti has had success on its own, but the Infiniti Q70 did not manage to match the sales numbers of the rest of the Infiniti car lineup.
The Infinity Q70 was produced from 2013 until 2019 and was built as an answer to the BMW's Series 5. It came with several engine options and transmissions, but none of them lived up to the expectations. The model flopped in sales, crumbling down with each year, which resulted in the termination of production after six unsuccessful years. Nevertheless, the Infiniti Q70 is still a great Japanese car.
8 2017 Acura NSX
The Acura NSX from the '90s is one of the most iconic Japanese cars ever, and everyone expected that the successor will continue in the same fashion. However, the second generation flopped miserably, despite it being a great sports car.
The new Acura NSX is a hybrid sports car, as it comes with a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine supplemented with three electric motors, collectively producing 600 hp. It is still a great sports car, but it hasn't lived up to the hype, and for now, it has sold only around 1200 units.
7 Subaru SVX
The Subaru SVX is a perfect mix of an Italian classic car and a Japanese sports car. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, it received a ton of publicity upon release. However, the futuristic design failed to attract enough buyers, and it soon became a notorious flop.
Produced from 1991 until 1996 over a single generation, the SVX was equipped with a flat-six boxer engine that produced 231 hp, launching this sports coupe to speeds of over 154 mph. However, that wasn't enough and many didn't like the window-within-window design, repelling thousands of buyers. As a result, the Subaru SVX was discontinued after five years of production with sales being nowhere near the projected numbers. It was expected that the sales would reach over 60,000, but only 14,000 were sold.
6 Lexus LC 2018
The Lexus LC was introduced in 2018 as the successor to the Lexus SC, and though it looks great with its awesome sleek lines and offers enough power, it was a big bust when it came to sales. From 2018 until the present day, only 3,000 units were sold, which is rather disastrous. Nevertheless, the popularity of the model rose after it featured in the Academy Award-winning film Black Panther.
The powertrain offers the stunning 471 hp; however, the massive curb weight of more than 4,400 lbs made this car too sluggish to compete with its European counterparts, greatly affecting the sales numbers.
5 Mazda Eunos Cosmo
The Mazda Eunos Cosmo was produced from 1990 until 1996 and just 8,875 units were sold. Nevertheless, it was a car ahead of its time, with a number of features that were years ahead of their time.
It came with a pre-installed GPS and a powerful two-rotor 13B engine rated at 230 hp, launching the Mazda Cosmo to 120 mph. However, due to a number of complications, this Mazda never reached American shores and the production ended after only 8,000 units were sold.
4 Toyota Celica T230
The Toyota Celica was in production from 1970 until 2006 and the Celica T230 was the last model that came off the production line. It was described as a great Japanese sports car; however, it had its flaws which hindered the sales.
When it was released, it sold a fantastic 52,000 models, but since then, the sales fell sharply, and in 2005 Toyota only sold 3,113 Celica T230 models. With the questionable engine and underwhelming sales numbers, this awesome sports car by Toyota was promptly discontinued.
3 Toyota Supra 2019
In its rich history, Toyota has built a number of cool sports cars, and the Toyota Supra is one of their proudest accomplishments. It was in production from 1978 until 2002, in over four generations, before finally being introduced as a collaboration between Toyota and BMW in 2019.
The polarizing new model is built using the drivetrain taken straight out of a BMW Z4, with either an inline six-cylinder engine or a four-cylinder one. This had Toyota fans very disappointed, and though it is an awesome car, the sales were disastrous, with just over 2,800 Supras sold in the USA.
2 Autozam AZ-1
The Autozam AZ-1 is in the Japanese Kei car category and is one of the best that Japan has to offer. But despite its timeless charm and tiny size, the sales were as low as they can get, and only around 5,000 Autozam AZ-1s were sold, which makes it one of the rarest Japanese cars on the used market.
This unique car from Japan comes with gull-wing doors and a turbocharged engine that produces 64 hp, which was the legal limit for a Kei car. It is a stunning little car, but the sales weren't that good as it failed to sell the planned 800 units per month due to an unreasonably high price. It was discontinued just one year into production.
1 Mazda Rotary Pickup Truck
The Mazda Rotary Pickup Truck is the only truck in the world that was built using Mazda's Wankel rotary engine. Produced from 1974 until 1977, around 15,000 units were made, but only around 4,000 sold.
It is still a great pickup, described by Road & Track as a powerful truck with a nice interior. However, it was also a bit pricier than the competition and it seems that not many people wanted to take the risk of owning a truck with a rotary engine, which resulted in devastating sales. It was discontinued following the 1977 model.