8 Enthusiast Cars That Are Absurdly Overrated

Enthusiast cars tend to be quite divisive for one reason or another. Gearheads tend to be pretty specific with their tastes, which often leads to certain cars having cult followings and other cars being highly criticized for many reasons, from not living up to expectations to not having the specific engine that a small subset of cars people want.

There's also enthusiast car royalty. These cars are constantly in the spotlight for a multitude of reasons, and enthusiasts can't seem to get enough of them. In the same way that gearheads have strong negative opinions about some of these cars, they also have quite the strong positive opinions about others.

Indeed, some of these cars deserve the hype, and are as good as car people make them out to be. Sometimes, however, this transcends anything related to hype or simply being fans of a certain car, and it has led to a lot of enthusiast cars that are absurdly and bizarrely overrated.

Technically, the Lamborghini Urus is supposed to be an enthusiast car, a more practical SUV from an enthusiast brand commonly known for its involvement in the supercar business. The Urus is not Lambo's first production SUV, but it is the first one that isn't a nightmare to own.

In many respects, the Urus is an impressive car. The original version packed 641 horsepower from its turbo V8, and the latest Urus SE plug-in hybrid pushes well over 800 horsepower. It takes less than four seconds to reach 60 mph, it drives pretty well for what it is, and it tops out at 190 mph, which is not something a lot of SUVs can brag about.

However, in the few years that the Urus has been with us, it has become somewhat of a hype car. People can't seem to stop posting it all over social media, and it got lost in this thick fog of hype, even though it was always planned to be just the Lamborghini of SUVs. It's also not the best looking, which is another way of saying that it's hideously overstyled and a little ungainly.

There are many overrated cars, but few can quite claim to be on the same level of overrated as the R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R. This was the final generation of the iconic performance car to use the Skyline nameplate, and it was sold only in Japan throughout the late 90s and the early 2000s.

It would be silly to dispute that the Skyline GT-R is an impressive car because it undeniably is. The RB26DETT engine is fantastic in stock form, but it gets even better when you add more power. Combined with AWD and incredible chassis tuning, the R34 was very difficult to beat for the standards at the time.

Then, "2 Fast 2 Furious" happened. Despite its comparative lack of screen time in that movie, the Skyline GT-R quickly became the absolute king of the Japanese car community. Combined with the unfortunate passing of Paul Walker, who actually owned several of these in real life, we are now living in a time where people are justifying spending $300,000 on what is, ostensibly, a late 90s Nissan. For that money, you can have about six used R35 GT-Rs in good condition, and the R35 GT-R is faster, more powerful, and handled even better. It was officially sold in North America, making it much easier to source.

In the world of Japanese car fandom, if you're not in camp R34, then you are definitely in camp Mk4 Supra. Launched in the early 90s, the A80 Toyota Supra was the final generation of Toyota's flagship grand touring sports car, at least before the excellent GR Supra, co-developed with BMW, appeared at the end of the previous decade.

Powering the A80 Supra was the iconic 2JZ six-cylinder engine, which was either naturally aspirated or turbocharged. Obviously, this engine is known for taking a beating when it comes to tuning and for being ultra-reliable, and we're not gonna sit here and explain how the 2JZ wasn't a very good engine.

The Supra was, at its core, a grand tourer. It was heavy, approaching the weight of a modern Camry, and while it was good to drive, it was never all that special. But again, its appearance in various media franchises means a pristine Mk4 Supra is now worth six figures. For comparison's sake, you can quite easily buy any other 90s Toyota with 200,000 miles on the odometer off Craigslist for whatever small amount of cash you currently have in your wallet.

Over a decade ago, we would have said that the Mazda Miata deserves the hype, including the original NA Miata. However, these days, it's absolutely out of control. We're not disputing the Miata's contribution to the world of sports cars because it is truly a massive one.

Taking inspiration from British roadsters of the 60s and 70s, the Miata was conceived as a modern interpretation with limited power, RWD, a manual transmission, and a removable roof. It was an absolute smash hit, and it continues to be the best-selling small sports car of all time.

While the Miata is a great car in just about every way, the hype surrounding it is absolutely crazy. You can't go more than a few minutes on social media without seeing an NA Miata flexing its pop-up headlights, or some bizarre modifications that include mounting a tongue and teeth to the grille to make it look like it has a face. Good car? Yes. Completely overhyped nowadays? Absolutely yes.

With the refresh of the Challenger back in 2015, Dodge decided to shoot for the stars and create the most powerful muscle car in history. Enter the Hellcat, which initially featured the namesake 6.2-liter supercharged V8 with an incredible 707 horsepower.

From 2015 to the present day, this engine was pushed to well over 1,000 horsepower, allowing the Challenger to obliterate multiple production car records, including 0-60 and ¼ mile times. The obscene power combined with the old-school muscle car feel contribute to the Hellcat being a special car.

With the demise of the Hellcat powertrain and the LX platform vehicles, the Challenger Hellcat has started to garner quite the reputation in the car community. In actuality, the Hellcat's competitors will run rings around it on the race track. Let's face the facts: the Hellcat is a bit of a one-trick pony — just one that persistently has yellow front splitter guards. It's not really a precision tool.

The Tesla Model S is more than a decade old now, and we can't deny the influence the Model S has had on the automotive industry as a whole. In fact, it might even be the most influential car of the past decade due to its contribution to the industry shift towards electrification.

A couple of years ago, Tesla gave the Model S a thorough refresh, including revised exterior styling and a completely overhauled interior. As part of this refresh, the top-of-the-line Plaid model was introduced, with a 1,020 horsepower tri-motor setup, a claimed 0-60 time of less than two seconds, and a top speed of 200 mph. Indeed, along with all of that, the Model S Plaid does have some other cool features, too.

Sure, the Model S Plaid's acceleration is very, very impressive, and even the most jaded of drivers and passengers will be shocked. However, at the end of the day, it's a decade-old car with quality control issues, a really high sticker price, and it doesn't even have a proper steering wheel.Like all other Teslas, it isn't that good of a car in the long run. You're better off spending your money on a Lucid Air Sapphire, and if electric isn't a requirement, Bob's your uncle.

Don't worry — even though you can have multiple R35 GT-Rs for the price of a single R34, that doesn't mean the R35 is any less overrated. When the R35 GT-R arrived back in the late 2000s, it was the first Nissan with a GT-R badge to be sold globally, and initially, it was a very impressive car.

Despite having "only" a twin-turbo V6 under the hood, the GT-R could easily keep up with and surpass a lot of the very best supercars and sports cars of its day. As time went on, the competition caught up, and the GT-R became an ancient veteran that just didn't perform as well in comparison.

Nissan stubbornly continued making the GT-R, finally ending the obscenely long production run after model year 2024. The GT-R might have been the supercar killer once, but by the mid-2010s, it lost the magic when it became the must-have car for YouTube daily vloggers. 

Nobody believed that Volkswagen could actually do it, but as soon as it bought Bugatti back in the early 2000s, it promised that it would build the fastest production car in the world. Launched in the mid-2000s, the original Veyron 16.4 was exactly that: shortly after its launch, became the fastest production car in the world, reaching 253 mph.

Later versions of the Veyron achieved even higher speeds, and Bugatti became the first automaker to break the 300 mph barrier with a modified Chiron. The Veyron was a special car, sure, but over the past few years, the magic has been somewhat lost.

For one, you can get more power and better acceleration from an electric sedan nowadays. Veyrons are incredibly expensive and difficult to own, and it's no fun owning a car that you're too scared to drive. While the Veyron's speed record was and still is impressive, the McLaren F1 is the more special of the two: it's the fastest naturally aspirated production car in the world, and not a single car has dethroned it since.