Disappointing cars
 

What car(s) were you dying to drive, but left you totally disappointed afterwards?

Mine:
MiniCooperS
Boxter
S2000

When the Honda Fit first came over here, one of the car magazines' data said it performed better than a C6 Corvette in one of the handling tests. My dad and I went to the dealer and drove one... In one word, Boring. It felt exactly like the '93 Civic I sold after 2 months of driving just because there was no point trying to make it fun to drive. The Civic led me to getting the Miata though, so that wasn't all bad.

The Honda dealer didn't have any Si's for me to drive, and refused to let me drive an S2000.

An early 70's 911, totally felt like driving a bug. Haven't had a chance to drive one since.

Rx-8
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MazdaSpeed 6

Wrx

g35 6 speed. Really boring car that seems like its forcing itself into the sports car category. BTW this was the ones with the updated 298hp.

Rx-8
Minicooper

Porsche GT2.

...bear with me...

its performance was so vast, it led me to hate all my other cars. The feeling is just now starting to fade, two years later.

any non-AMG benz
standard WRX

80's corvette FTL :td:

Mini Cooper S
G35 coupe
MazdaSpeed 6

New Mustang GT500. Great tire-melting torque, but it's still just a heavy sled.

E46 M3. Phenomenal on the road, not so much on the track.

My buddy absolutely LOVED the Mini GP he drove, and his daily driver is an STi with some Ohlins coilovers that are just unreal.

Cars that were worse than expected:
- Modena (mule)
- Fit
- Mazdaspeed 6
- CX-7
- 2009 Duramax 2500HD (mule)
- Solstice GXP (mule)

Cars that were better than I expected:
- 2007 NC Miata
- 2007 Mazdaspeed 3
- 2005 S2000
- 2006 Boxter S
- 2004 911 (non turbo)
- 2007 Mustang GT
- 2008 Lambo Muciliago (sp?) (Mule)

NSX- Needs More Torque

911 mid 80's . it's was the early 90's when i drove it and it was already starting to fall apart.

S2000 Sucks balls at anything lower than 5k RPM and feels like you are sitting in a wash tub.

Mustang Cobra this is the pre-blower cobra with the IRS I can't remember the year. handled like ass.

late 70's early 80's Vettes. Chevy just didn't know how to deal with emissions at that point and totally fucked the engine but it's no excuse for why the suspension felt like you were riding on marsh mellows.

STI. While I really like the drive train on these the esthetic looks like a 14 year old came up with it.

New EVO same deal as the STI.

350z felt like a boat

2003 Maxima SE with 6sp Manual Tranny. Torque steer was damn near dangerous.

I could go on. I drive everything I can get my hands on.

2004 RX-8 tiptronic-loved the crist handling and feedback, but it was slow...

RX-8 Was one of the few cars that was better than i expected, and actually liked it quite a bit.

Gas and Oil consumption was insane on a buddys..

We drove the shit out of it and lost about a half quart in ~150 miles.. car had about 6k miles on it at the time.


we also saw about 8-12 MPG.

Engine sounds amazing but overall the car doesn't do it for me.

Too many to list.

I can't say anything about the performance of the NSX because I only drove it maybe 20' through our parking lot, but the interior felt like an Integra. I thought it would be fancy and expensive feeling but it just felt normal.

To me Leather in a sports car is a bad idea. The damn car needed about 100-150 more Ft/Lbs of torque. The brakes and handling are the tits.

I believe the one i drove was early 90's before they increased the displacment.

to clearify, i like the manual tranny RX-8, just not the auto...

'02 Miata SE. T U R D

deleted and added a few

'77 Porsche 911 Targa

nsx, every mustang,

WRX, talk about boring

S2000, really wanted to love it, but damn it just felt... wrong and isolated like most Hondas I've driven

G35/350Z, felt a lot slower than it should be and felt heavy as hell, makes my MS3 feel nimble and lightweight

Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsa - Felt really vauge, might have been the 3 piece wheels. Lots of power, fun to drive around.. but looked too much like a Jaguar and cost 3 times as much to maintain... All the maintenance costs of a Ferrari without the nameplate and style to go with it.

Corvette would have been a better choice.

Subaru XT Coupe....Turbo. Maybe it was the cutting-edge style that stood out from the Isuzu Impulses and Aries Ks of mid 80's, or maybe it was the mis-directed, mal-informed hormones of a 15 year old. Either way, I liked it alot and thought it looked manly. So one of my favorite past times my dad used to do was take me out to dealerships and test drive cars, just for fun. I would never drive because I was too young, but would sit in the back seat and giggle like a japanese school girl. We would never actually buy a car, of course. So when I got my license at 16, I begged my dad to take me to the Subaru dealership so i can test drive my then-dream car, a Subaru XT. What a fucking turd. I remember flooring it WOT and looking over at the salesman, "When does the boost kick in?". "It IS in boost", he replied. Talk about dissappointed. Don't even get me started on the Subaru SVX......

A lot more recently though, I beat the shit out of a friend's 350Z around Buttonwillow raceway last year and that is a FUN car to drive, despite it's weight. Excellent steering and handling for it's weight. The only thing that sucked was he was on OEM tires and brake pads, and we quickly smoked them both.

WRX
04 NSX
S2000

I like the NSX and S2000 with boost. Especially with 772rwhp (NSX) on street tires. Very scary. I loved driving my FD rx7, perhaps more than any car ever, but I didn't like owning it, cause its a pita.

NC miata. boat

Great thread...

Better:

MS3 - Never thought I would love it as much as I did. Awesome car.
350Z - I have to disagree with everybody else. It was certainly heavier than my miata but it still felt very muscular and tactile.
GTO - Yes it's a pig, but it really behaved well at the limit and had a ton of power.

Worse:

S2000
Mini Cooper S
B5 S4 - I'm sure a modified example would be wonderful, but it was too soft and had a ton of understeer.
WRX - Same as above. I very seriously considered buying one based off of mag. reviews until the salesman learned I had significant club racing experience. One session on a nearby twisty road and I nearly ran out of the dealership.

Question for those that didn't like the S2000. Was this a street or track experience?

I can understand that in city driving, the power is anemic at low speeds......


But on a track, when you're heel-n-toe'ing at high rpms and pushing the car to it's limit, it's nothing a miata can hold up against. I was giddy after driving a stock S2k on the track!

I guess thats just me....

+1
I drove the a 07 that had the auto that could be shifted through the gears and it was badass, i was scared to floor it at all and sounded like a beast, the driver seat was a bit narrow though

BAD:
For some reason my girlfriend's 300zx just feels slow, i mean the suspension is stiff, but it feels like my 240 has more speed and stopping power. Maybe its because her's is N/A and auto? :dunno:

drove a wrx with high expectations,,
car felt slugish, the tranny felt,
well, scary to slam gears , (must be that goofy awd crap)

one of the better surprises came from an srt-4
i thought to my self,, oh boy, so now dodge thinks its making the new evo
after slammin through some gears and listening to that popping sound upon decel
i was hooked,
car was a barrel of monkeys to drive
beware though, car handles like a barrel of monkeys too.......

I drove my friend's SVT focus, feels really nice and direct in corners, but not very powerful at all.

I drove a WRX and they can seriously be hustled and held at the limit with heroic awd, but the transmission felt long and wierd, there was a lot of body roll even with sway bars, and the steering is probably that car's weakest point as it felt very indirect and the rack was too slow.

Reading this thread has made me curious about a few cars that I now want to try for myself, but I am surprised so many people have the cooper s on their disappointing list, I guess I have to try for myself.

mr2 turbo why so much lag?

The 2001 Mustang convertible I drove when I just came to the US (company car), while looking around for a car. It felt just sooo heavy, the interior was junk, the handling was like a wallmart trolly and I didn't like the looks of it. I ended up buying my Miata after that.

Audi A6 -2002 with 2.0L turbo (I think) and auto. My company car for a while here in Germany: Felt nervous in a negative way and had no bottom end tourqe at all. It shifted all the time, also at the least little throttle adjustment and the shifts where jumpy and hard. Drove it in manual mode and it shifted like my grandmother.

S2000: Felt like a bathtub full of led.

Opel Astra coupe 2.2L Turbo 2002. Very fast. Looks great! Even not half bad on the inside. A death trap in every damn corner. Opel, Please stop making cars with too much HP for the chassi to handle!!!

Extreemly pleased with: Volvo V50 2005 Turbo Diesel, 6 speed manual. Also company car. Drove it for about 4 weeks. Also a long trip from Germany to Sweden, 14hours straight, most of them with the foot to the floor. It was great! Comfortable, quiet, steady, nice interior and fast! Made 250km/h on autobahn. One early morning I was staying over 220km/h for 30min straight. Never missed a beat. Miss it.

I owned a WRX wagon for about a year... as my first turbo car, i thought it was awesome... but looking back, if I had never driven one today, and took a test drive, i would have been disappointed..

Actually, the very first time I drove one, I was disappointed.. The turbo lag seemed bad, but it was my fault, I pulled out on to the road, shifted to 2nd at about 15-20 and then tried to floor it.. Yeah, there's lag like that.. live and learn.

As for the gear box, yeah, it's not the kind of car you bang gears in. The box is weak and has been known to shear gears.

Never had any problems out of it, and would/have considered owning another. Great fun in the snow, good dd, etc.

Yes, yes it does. But it glides over bumps so well, I drive my 9-month-old around in it. It angers some of the SRT "purists" (SRT4 purists? yeah, they exist... :pitlab: ) that I use it as a grocery getter.

i'd get a wrx as a daily driver, maybe very mild mods like an flash tune and a set of coilovers and tires and just drive the thing.

wtf is up w/ the S2K hate :( :vash:
can't we all just get along?

Attachment 215082

bad:
g35 coupe was one of the last cars to really disappoint me. shortly followed by the solstice

good:
the current gen RL is one of the best thing i've driven lately for the $
q45. crap that thing is a boat. a really fast boat.

Better than expected:
Evo 8/9/MR. Evo anything, I love them all.. Call me biased though.
Mini Cooper S (I think im the only one on here who liked it.. Drove one for half an hour at work yesterday, loved the little thing. Could have been faster though.)

WORSE
WRX anything
RX7 (Non turbo)
RX8 (Automatic)
Stock DSMs

Almost forgot: I've had a bunch of seat-time in an FD. Hated it. The seating position was really uncomfortable, and the power band was junk. It had nothing below 4500rpm, and the fun was over at 6800. Really, REALLY poor throttle response, too.

That FD must have been busted. Primary turbo failure or something. Mine was a friggin blast, and rev'd hard.

---- 2000 S2K. on the street it had HORRIBLE tires. the car was just too easy to put the back end out, and a lot harder to get it to grip. I would like to drive one with wider, stickier tires under there.

---- I see a lot of people dont like the MCS, I drove one a slightly modded one and thought the only issues it had were in the corners, but it being FWD I didnt think it was that bad. Its one of my choices if I had to own a FWD car.

---- 2006 MX-5, I didnt like it at first, but then I kept on thinking about it and I liked it more and more, now I want one and would like to drive one again.

We replaced the turbos just before selling it. I drove it home from the shop. The thing was just a dog.

I thought you were disassembled and stored when not driving?

Well, I don't try as many cars as all that, and like movies, I have really low expectations of all cars so I'm occiasonlly plesantly surprised.

I drove a date's big engined audi, 3 or 4 liter. Oh my GOD was it a dog. It was so terrible. It picked up off the line like a motor that gives up all it's bottom end for a huge tone of top... but then went downhill. Just the smallest of tugs down low to let you know it shifted uselessly again.

I'd love to hear what's up with the solstice, I figured it would rock with a turbo and all, though I wouldn't buy one.

300ZX feels WAY WAY heavy, otherwise ok. It was NA though.

The RX-8 was about what I thought, I didn't get to beat it up. It just felt like a nice car they added 400 lbs of commuter car comforts to. Probably a good car to learn how to drive in. It felt tracky, if not fast.

The WRX was really fun to do donughts in, slid straight for something loaded with drunk friends. But you couldn't get the tires to smoke it it had turbo lag that never quite payed off. I'm sure a cat-back and 4 more psi would make it a good car - but by all accounts EVOs are the only car of that type worth looking at.

No surprise people like the MS3. The Omni was a great car, the SRT-4 rocks by all accounts. It's not hard to make a turbo-eco-fwd box that's fun.


V-6 Fiero. Man... I really liked the two 4 banger fieros I had, and I figured what could be better than a fiero with more power. I dunno why but it seemed somehow slower. I hated it, it was depressingly slow.

nsx (needs more torque)
nc mx5 (not as good as i thought it would be)
integra gsr
wrx (400+whp - still sucked ass)
rsx type-s (had it for some time - worst so far)
mbz e430
s14 240sx (not enough hp and revs)
audi a4 & a6 (absolutely horrible)
vw jetta vr6 (love gti though)
g35 (my 350z is WAY better)

Oh, I forgot:
I liked the NC miata. No rocket, but it seemed pretty great for a totally unmodded, warrantied street car. It catered to the driver without weight 4500 lbs.

Forgot the Z32 300ZX TT. Big disappointment

really? the 300zx i drive occasionally feels like a dog to my s13 240, but you'd think the addition of 2 snails to my none would make a great change?

Well the engine was alittle beat, and I did drive my miata just before that so it probobly made it seem slower. Idk

I actually owned an S2k for a little over a year and can say I was disappointed on both counts...

At the track it had great brakes and good grip but it got walked by damn near every other car out there. I have no problem with this in a stockish Miata, but c'mon, this is supposed to be a serious sports car. I also did not like the vague steering and the chassis that did not provide any feedback whatsoever at the limit.

Around town the car was a friggin dog, I'm sure I don't need to explain further.

Mazdaspeed Miata - slow, very laggy. damn, i was really let down by this car. this was before I had even turbo'd my own.

Mini cooper - think the stock 1.6 miata is slow? try this one! the miata's lack of power is charming in comparison, the MINI is just scary slow.

350z - I actually didn't notice the weight as a problem, and it seemed to handle pretty well, but it wasn't very quick and the steering was pretty numb.

Iwas impressed with the NC miata though, great handling, the engine is a big improvement over the NB, the only thing to fault is the styling and those retarded cupholders in the doors.

The lesson this thread teaches us: (aftermarket) turbo miatas spoil you.

Isn't that the truth. :mad:

I drove my buddy's new-to-him MKIV Supra tonight. I was actually pretty surprised. It manages to be very sure-footed while remaining pretty maneuverable. It certainly didn't feel like a 3400lb car. The powerband is really amusing too; the second turbo really comes in hard, and the car is deceptively fast. 3rd gear feels so long, and it's very smooth and quiet, and all of a sudden you're doing 85mph trying to catch the DB9 that's just flown past while your friend begins to gripe about your speed. (oopsie)

Was that the LoveFab NSX? They had it out a little while ago at the track I think? I think they are closer to you than me.

disappointment: BMW 335
I ran one this morning on a really long bridge here in Tampa, and smoked it horribly, over and over and over, I even waited for him to try a flyby, and caught up with him before it even got 5 car links away. I would expect a twin turbo bimmer to be much faster. Its also got an ECU upgrade (The thing thats like the Xede, -I work with the guy)

He talks all this shit to get smoked by a 1.8L Sub 10K dollar turbo miata.
Might have been more fair if it was a 135.

Car I was most surprised by:
A friends single turbo T66 Supra. Acceleration after 4000 was like getting hit in the face with a Brick. Pulls hard all the way to 180.