18 Of The Fastest Cars You Can Buy For Under $10,000

With the rising cost of living continuing to hit millions of Americans across the country, more people than ever are looking to the used car market instead of buying new. Buying a used car has a number of advantages, with the most significant being how much money savvy shoppers can save. However, used car buying also comes with plenty of pitfalls, and many friends and relatives also have their own (often unhelpful) advice about what to do and not to do. There's so much choice on the used market that it's easy to get lost, but what usually helps is working out exactly what you're looking for before you start.

Some buyers want cheap and cheerful, or reliability and practicality. Then there are some buyers that simply want performance, even if they don't have a particularly big budget. Buying a car that's genuinely fast might not be quite as expensive as some might think, as even with rising used car prices, there are still plenty of choices out there for drivers with a need for speed. For just $10,000, it's possible to get a variety of performance cars ranging from two-seater sports cars to V8 family haulers, all of which will be able to leave traffic in the rearview at the stop lights. The following list is presented in no particular order.

Jaguar might not be the first brand most people associate with speed, but the brand's older sedans are surprisingly rapid, and they're often also surprisingly cheap. The X350 generation of the XJ8 was sold between 2003 and 2009, and it's this generation that is arguably the best value right now. They pack a 4.2-liter V8 under the hood making 300 horsepower, enough for a brisk 0-60 mph time of 6.3 seconds. Top speed is limited to 155 mph, matching the car's German rivals (via Parkers).

Data from Autotrader shows a number of XJ8s for sale under the $10,000 mark, with the cheapest at the time of writing listed for just under $7,000. The brand's middle-aged image and reputation for unreliability have kept retail prices at rock bottom for years now. Though there's some truth in both of those stereotypes, when it comes to cheap speed, Jaguars are practically unbeatable. Anyone looking to buy a used XJ8 should exercise caution though, as badly-maintained examples might result in maintenance bills even higher than the car's asking price.

Anyone looking to buy a used car with an AMG badge should be aware of two main things: Firstly, they'll probably cost a small fortune to maintain, and secondly, they're some of the best ways to get proper performance car power for a relatively small initial cost. Even so, finding one in the current market that's under $10,000 will be a challenge, but there are a few examples of the Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG that sneak in at just about under budget.

Earlier examples of the car (from the 1999 to 2002 model year) came with a 5.4-liter V8 making 355 brake horsepower, but later models (2002 to 2006 model year) gained a supercharger which pushed their power output up to 493 horsepower. That's about the most powerful car available under budget, but AMGs this cheap do come with an asterisk, as they're likely to have been less well looked after. Even a properly maintained old AMG can be a nightmare to keep running, so anyone brave enough to buy a dirt-cheap CL55 AMG should be aware of what they're potentially getting themselves into.

Before Genesis was launched as a standalone brand, the nameplate was used on Hyundai's sporty coupe and sedan, produced between 2010 and 2016. Even though they shared a name, the similarities between the coupe and sedan were few and far between, and it's the coupe that's the better buy for drivers looking for a sports car experience. The best-spec Genesis Coupe available for less than $10,000 is the 3.8-liter V6 model, which sends 306 horses to the rear wheels (via Edmunds).

Edmunds reviewed the car and praised its sharp handling and impressive power, but they noted that the manual transmission wasn't as smooth as other rivals from the era. It's perhaps not the best all-around sports car for its age, but it's certainly one of the cheapest, and it's rarer than many of its rivals, too. Autotrader shows higher mileage models starting at around $8,000, with a variety of examples available under the $10,000 mark. Insurance premiums might be a little higher than an average sports car though, as data shows the Genesis Coupe is one of the most likely car models to get caught speeding in (via Insurify).

Volvo has gained a reputation for making sleek, quick, yet still safety-conscious cars for buyers who want Swedish chic. In 2003, however, the prevailing marketing strategy for Volvo was simply demonstrating how safe it was. This is why reviewers were so surprised when the S60 R debuted, as it was a world away from the brand's previous offerings. With 300 horsepower, all-wheel drive, and Brembo performance brakes, it was an entirely new kind of Volvo, one that signaled the start of a paradigm shift for the brand (via Car and Driver).

Thanks to the Swedish manufacturer's reputation as makers of safe yet dull cars, the S60 R never really made much of an impact on the market. A general lack of interest from buyers has kept resale prices low, however, and the car is now one of the cheapest ways to get 300 horsepower. The S60 R's 0-60 mph time stands at 5.5 seconds, just 0.3 and 0.5 seconds slower than the Mercedes C32 AMG and the Audi S4 respectively, according to Car and Driver. It's a deceptively quick machine, albeit one wrapped in the bodyshell of your Grandad's old Volvo.

Buyers who want a slice of well-depreciated executive style should consider a BMW 550i, which for the 2005-2010 model years, packed a twin-turbo 4.8-liter V8 making 360 horsepower (via Autoblog). The car was available with either an automatic transmission or a six-speed manual, although the manual is considerably more difficult to find within the $10,000 budget. The car could sprint from 0-60 mph in just 4.8 seconds, and its top speed was limited to 155 mph, like most of BMW's cars (via Encycarpedia).

Executive cars like the 550i were designed to do high mileage, so buying one with over 150,000 miles on the clock shouldn't be an issue providing it's been properly maintained. It's also roomy enough to fit an average family, so it's suitable for daily driver duties should it need to be. It might not be the best-looking BMW ever made, but it's hard to knock the 550i for the value that it offers.

BMW has established itself as one of the leading manufacturers of German performance cars, but there's been no shortage of challengers willing to take it on. One such challenger is Nissan's luxury arm Infiniti, which launched the G37 Coupe with the explicit goal of rivaling the market-leading BMWs of the time. Suffice to say, it didn't succeed in its mission to topple the Germans from the throne, but its resulting sports car is still impressive in its own right. In top-spec form, the G37 Coupe was able to pull 0-60 mph in five seconds flat, and it was limited to 155 mph (via Top Gear).

Part of the reason for the G37's limited success was the timing of its launch, as it was unveiled right as the car market was reeling from the effects of a global recession. Higher gas prices were causing a drop in demand for less-efficient cars, and the G37 was thirsty for its size. Infiniti didn't sell as many as it hoped to, and paired with a lack of brand recognition, it's easy to score a used G37 for less than $10,000.

America's best-selling sports car was bound to feature somewhere on this list, and in fact, there are multiple generations and trims of the Mustang that are both fast and cheap as chips to buy. A particularly good deal on the market at the moment is the fifth-generation Mustang, which in GT spec makes 300 horsepower and can sprint from 0-60 mph in just 5.1 seconds (via The Auto Channel and Zero to 60 Times). There are still plenty of examples around the country on sale for less than $10,000, but thanks to rising used car prices, examples in decent condition are now trickier to find within budget.

The best bet is to look for early model year cars, with 2006 and 2007 models being among the most common to find within the four-digit price range. Previous-generation Mustang GTs can also be comfortably found within budget, but with only 215 horsepower under the hood, there are plenty of more powerful options out there.

If you love the idea of a Porsche but think the classic roadster looks a little too sleek — VW has your back. The Audi TT is a similar European roadster, and also has some vague VW Beetle vibes about it, but costs far less, has very respectable performance, and arguably carries less stigma than buying a Boxter does. The TT shares a platform with the MK IV VW Golf, though the two vehicles differ both in looks and performance. While it's a bit of an acquired taste, it's also an affordable two-seat roadster and a convertible version is easy to find — though you will be sacrificing a bit of performance with that.

2013 Audi TT Prestige can go from 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, which is a lot for a discount sports car. You can find one, and similar examples, on AutoTrader for less than our budget of $10,000. Non-prestige versions are a little slower, with a 2.0-liter version from 2008 rocking a 0-60 time of around 6.1 seconds. With that said, even the slower TTs up for sale would still beat a few of the other vehicles on this list in a sprint.

Cadillac has a reputation for building large, comfortable. American vehicles with impeccable suspension and a turning circle comparable to continental drift. They also like to drop large, powerful, engines into said cars — making many Caddies surprisingly punchy in a straight line.

The pick of the bunch at the time of writing is probably the 2004 CTS V, which is listed on AutoTrader for $9,294. The CTS V is a performance model capable of going from 0-60 in 5.3 seconds. This is thanks to its massive 5.7 liter V8 engine which can produce up to 400 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque while new. After 20 years and over 180,000 miles, a few of those horses might have left the stable. However, the CTS V is still one of the fastest vehicles you can get within our price range. So if you're a wannabe oil baron who would like to smoothly chauffeur grandma to church on Sunday morning, while also toasting some teenager's heavily modified Honda Civic at the lights in the evenings — then this is an ideal purchase.

Just try not to think about gas prices every time you hammer the throttle. With an EPA-estimated average of just 14 MPG in the city and 17 MPG combined, it is one of the thirstiest cars on our list.

Another Jaguar that offers great value for the money is the XF Supercharged, which as its name suggests, packs a supercharged 5.0-liter V8 engine under the hood (via Autoblog). It's good for a 0-60 time of 4.3 seconds, making it one of the fastest vehicles here off the line (via Car and Driver). When new, the car started at $68,000, slotting in the XF lineup between the 510 horsepower XFR and the 385 horsepower XF 5.0, per Autoblog. The XF Supercharged makes 470 horsepower and 424 pound-feet of torque, yet examples are available for as little as $8,000 used.

There's very little to distinguish the XF Supercharged from any other "lesser" model of XF, but that's by design. This is very much a performance sedan built to stay under the radar, a Q-car for drivers who don't need to shout about how fast their car is. It might seem like a bargain at its current used asking price, but don't be fooled: It's no more reliable than other Jaguars of its time. Expect some large repair bills along the way, especially for higher mileage cars or those with patchier service history.

A proper muscle car in both its appearance and its performance, the Pontiac GTO turned out to be among the last of its kind. When parent company GM was facing bankruptcy in 2009, the decision was made to ax the Pontiac brand, bringing to an end over 80 years of carmaking history. The GTO became the last proper muscle car the brand made, although ironically, it wasn't a true Pontiac at all. It was, in fact, a rebadged Australian car, the Holden Commodore SS, which was also sold around the world as a Chevrolet Lumina and a Vauxhall VXR8.

Perhaps it was the fact that the GTO wasn't a pure-bred Pontiac, or perhaps it was simply that the car was simply overlooked as the brand was shuttered. Either way, resale values of the GTO have remained relatively low, and listings from Autotrader prove it's still possible to get a cheap example for under $10,000. They won't be in mint condition — far from it — but with a 400 horsepower LS2 V8 under the hood, most drivers won't mind some imperfections here and there (via The Drive).

The sixth-generation Charger R/T followed the same formula that the generations before it had employed to great success: It was a roomy sedan based off a common Chrysler platform, with a big V8 under the hood (via Edmunds). It was a simple premise, but ultimately a successful one, and Dodge managed to sell over 114,000 Chargers over its first full year on sale in 2006. As a result, there are still plenty of used Charger R/Ts out there on the market, and that's helped keep prices reasonable even as other models have shot up in value.

A sixth-generation Charger R/T can just about be found for less than $10,000, although often only a mere few dollars under budget. However, with a reliable, easy-to-fix engine and generally low maintenance costs, the ongoing bill for running an R/T should be considerably less than some of the other German or British cars featured here.

Another affordable American icon, the Chevrolet Camaro has battled for decades with the Ford Mustang for market supremacy. While the Mustang's sales figures have remained higher on average, the Camaro really hit its stride between 2011 and 2012, selling an average of 90,000 cars each year. This boost in sales has meant that there are plenty of Camaros from the two model years floating around on the used market, which has helped keep prices down.

With a budget of $10,000, it's possible to get a Camaro LT, which features a 3.6-liter V6 making 312 horsepower (via U.S. News). A handful of base-spec LS cars are also available with the same engine. Opting for an even older Camaro will give buyers more choices within the budget, but they also won't be able to take advantage of the 2011 Camaro LT's 0-60 mph time of 6 seconds flat. It's not the fastest car on this list in a straight line, but like the Dodge Charger R/T, maintenance and running costs should be a lot less bank-breaking than similarly-priced offerings from European manufacturers.

The first-generation Hyundai Genesis sedan was built between 2009 and 2014, and despite its so-so styling and middling ride quality, it was generally accepted to be the first Hyundai to get close to competing with rivals from Mercedes-Benz and BMW. It also sported very respectable performance figures for its segment, with a 0-60 mph time of 5.6 seconds, and a quarter mile in 14.1 seconds at 103 mph (via Car and Driver). It was also a generally well-built car, and instrumental in changing buyers' perceptions of Hyundai as a purely budget brand.

However, its lack of standout qualities meant that many buyers quickly forgot it existed, and that's helped keep resale prices within budget. A mid-range 4.6 model can be sourced for under $10,000, although since Hyundai didn't sell very many examples of the Genesis in the first place, actually finding a used one for sale might be the trickiest bit. Buying a high mileage car shouldn't be an issue, as Car and Driver performed a 100,000-mile long-term test on their car (the longest in the magazine's history), and found its engine performance was almost identical to new, even with six figures on the odometer.

The Ford Taurus probably isn't the first car that buyers looking for speed and power will check out, but the SHO package offered on fourth-generation Tauruses is a bit of a hidden gem. With 365 horsepower on tap from its twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6, the Taurus SHO could pull 0-60 mph in just 5.2 seconds, around the same as the V6 Mustang from the same year (via MotorTrend). The Taurus also benefits from family-friendly practicality, and it's a car that no one will suspect to be fast at the lights.

Even with its more powerful engine, the Taurus SHO delivers reasonably good fuel economy, with an estimated return of 25 miles per gallon on the highway. That's all the more important since gas prices fluctuated wildly throughout 2022, with a general trend that only ever seems to go in one direction: up. So, it's fairly economical, as fast off the line as a pony car, and it has five comfortable seats. Sure, it's only a Taurus, but for less than $10,000, it's hard to find many cars better suited to being enjoyable daily drivers.

Arriving in the U.S. in 1997, the Porsche Boxster was popular enough to save the company from bankruptcy, selling over 120,000 over the eight years it was in production (via Road & Track). The car was only available as a convertible, and it featured a mid-mounted 2.5-liter flat-six engine making 201 horsepower. Not as much as many of the other cars featured here, but with a curb weight of just 2,800 pounds, the Boxster was able to go from 0-60 mph in a respectable 6.1 seconds, and top out at 149 mph. It's also now one of the cheapest ways into Porsche ownership, with examples readily available within the $10,000 budget.

For the 2000 model year, the car's engine was enlarged to 2.7-liter, gaining an extra 16 horsepower in the process, and a new S model was made available with 250 horsepower on tap, per Road & Track. The car infamously shared plenty of parts with the 911 from the same era, yet the Boxster is now available for much less than its flagship stablemate (via Porsche Engelwood). Its lack of a fixed roof and strictly two-seat configuration means that it isn't for everyone, but for a fast car with excellent handling and a prestigious German badge, the Boxster is a fine choice for a cheap, fast weekend toy.

It might not have been the prettiest Jaguar ever made, nor the most memorable, but the S-Type offers a great deal to anyone looking for tire-smoking British V8 power. The S-Type R in particular is arguably the best value for money, with its supercharged 4.2-liter V8 making 390 horsepower, yet its used value sitting in the four-figure range for higher mileage cars. The car also has a better reputation for reliability than many other Jaguar models, according to Autocar. Although finding a specialist willing to service the car might be tricky, the actual cost of keeping it on the road should be reasonable for a car of its age.

The S-Type R was originally developed with the intention of taking on the BMW M5 and Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG, according to Autocar, but it never managed to match up to the class leaders in its handling or its performance. However, now it's considerably cheaper to buy than both of them, and at these current prices, it's the best value of the three.

A trusty car in the Chrysler lineup that's now one of the brand's two remaining models, at least until the end of 2022, the 300 packs a 5.7-liter V8 making 363 horsepower. That's enough to pull the car from 0-60 mph in 5.3 seconds, despite its hefty curb weight (via Car and Driver). A range of examples between 10 and 15 years old are available within budget, so buyers have the freedom to choose if age, service history, or lower mileage is of greater importance to them.

The underlying platform of the 300 has remained mostly unchanged since it was introduced in 2004, so used buyers don't need to worry about missing out on significant performance or handling upgrades over the years. Chrysler as a brand might be seemingly on a terminal decline, with only the Pacifica minivan set to carry on production through 2023, but the 300 proves that the brand's older models still offer plenty of value to buyers who want power without breaking the bank (via The Detroit News).