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Over the course of American automotive history, many manufacturers have given the industry some fantastic cars. We have had icons like the Chevy Corvette, the Ford Mustang, the Dodge Challenger, and the Viper cement themselves in the hall of fame. Cars like the Ford GT40 have gone down in the annals of history for their achievements. Decades upon decades of technological advancement and engineering have given us phenomenal machines that have captivated the world.
However, at the same time, when manufacturers are in the business for so long, there are bound to be missteps. Even though sports cars are the fantasy of every gearhead, manufacturers tend to make mistakes while making them. Be it poor design, terrible unreliability, or just lack of power, there have been many sports cars from American manufacturers that failed to impress gearheads. In that vein, here are 10 terrible American sports cars all gearheads avoid.
10 Saturn Sky
Saturn had always been a sort of experimental brand for GM. Saturn’s cars were distinctively small and lightweight, and the price tag was affordable, too. By the 2000s, though, the brand needed new life, and GM attempted a rejuvenation in the form of the Saturn Sky.
The Sky aimed to lock head with the Civic Si and the Acura Integra, but couldn’t possibly hold a candle to them. Despite a 290 hp engine and a manual transmission, the Saturn Sky simply never attracted gearheads, ultimately going down as a dud.
9 Chevrolet Corvette ‘305’ California
The Chevy Corvette is as iconic as they come, but sadly, even this nameplate has had its terrible years. The 1980 Corvette 305 ‘California’ was built in line with California’s strict emissions norms, but the 180 horsepower it made impressed nobody.
To add to the problem, the engine came mated to a lame 3-speed automatic gearbox, and the car itself was nothing but a blot on the Corvette name. Even Time Magazine gave the California Corvette a place in their list of the 50 worst cars of all time.
8 Vector W8
Vector Motors, in 1990, introduced the world to the W8. The car’s looks were enough to make it an instantly popular talking point, and 625 horsepower with 649 lb-ft of torque made it even more impressive. Sadly, back in 1990, the half-million-dollar price tag was a bit too much for buyers.
As such, Vector ended up only selling 22 units of the W8 over its production cycle. The Vector W8 was ridden with problems, as Car and Driver reported running into mechanical troubles with each unit of the Vector W8 they tested. Tennis star Andre Agassi, too, almost caught fire while driving the W8, which led to widespread negativity for the car.
7 ‘Iron Duke’ Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is inarguably one of the greatest muscle cars ever made, but even the Camaro has had some lemon models that the brand would rather forget. The 1982 Camaro, sadly, was a downright terrible car, and unworthy of the Camaro name.
GM fitted the 1982 Camaro with the horrible 2.5-liter Iron Duke four-cylinder engine, and despite its Camaro name, the car only made 90 horsepower. The 20 seconds it took to reach 60 mph may as well have been a lifetime, and there’s nothing about this sports car any gearhead ever liked.
6 Fourth-Generation Ford Mustang
When the time came for the Ford Mustang’s fourth generation to begin, the car was due for the first major redesign in fifteen years. Even though the 1994 Mustang looked different from anything that had come before, it wasn’t a good thing.
Nothing about the fourth-generation Ford Mustang seemed like a muscle car, as Ford ended up making a car that looked nothing but an ordinary sedan. Even the engine couldn’t match up, being a measly 146-hp V6 that simply wasn’t muscle car-worthy.
5 Chrysler TC By Maserati
There is simply no denying that the Chrysler TC by Maserati was a horrible sports car. Chrysler had the bright idea of crafting and selling an Italian-made sports car, but the ‘Maserati’ car by Chrysler was pretty much just Frankenstein’s monster of Chrysler parts.
Even the Maserati engine for the car was delayed by two years, and in the ’80s, the $35,000 price tag was simply not going to be met with an avid customer base. Naturally, sales for the Chrysler TC by Maserati were terrible, but Chrysler had to sell their obligation of 7,300 units.
4 Chrysler Crossfire
The Chrysler Crossfire has an incredibly cool name, which is about the only good thing it had. Launched in 2004, the Crossfire had a hideous design, horrible handling, poor road feel, and a shoddy, cheap interior.
In fact, the Crossfire was based on the Mercedes-Benz R170 from 1996, which meant it was outdated by 8 years at the time of launch itself. So horrible were the sales for the Crossfire, that Chrysler had to resort to websites like Overstock and eBay to sell the car.
3 Pontiac Solstice
Based on the same platform as the Saturn Sky, the Pontiac Solstice, too, was a terrible sports car, which isn’t surprising. Despite its great design, the Solstice simply never had enough power to call itself a sports car.
Sure, it had the convertible looks and the two doors on point, but 177 horsepower from a four-cylinder engine was simply not enough. Pontiac axed the Solstice in 2009, and not a single gearhead had a complaint against that move.
2 DeLorean DMC-12
The DeLorean DMC-12 is an absolutely iconic car from the ’80s, made globally popular by the Back to the Future movies. It had a lengthy development period, and was touted to be an amazing sports car, especially with its trend-setting, futuristic wedge-shaped design and iconic gull-wing doors.
Sadly, the DMC-12 was nothing but a dud, as it made all of 130 horsepower, took a lifetime (8.8 seconds) to reach the 60mph mark, and the $25,000 asking price was way too much for a car that underperformed like hell. Sure, the DMC-12 is iconic, but no gearhead would want this to be their sports car.
1 Pontiac Fiero
Pontiac built the Fiero as their own unique sports car, and with a mid-mounted engine, retracting headlights, and plastic body panels, the Fiero was pretty much on the right track. Sadly, the car was terribly unreliable, leaving drivers disappointed as well as concerned for their safety.
The Fiero couldn’t house a V8 since the engine bay was too small. Thus, the V4 option was a high-efficiency engine that simply wasn’t peppy or high-revving, leaving the Pontiac Fiero a mess of a car that had no identity of its own.
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