Can a car BE 'over-rated'?

Can a car BE 'over-rated'?

Author
Discussion

CorvetteConvert

Original Poster:

7,897 posts

214 months

Friday 4th September 2015
quotequote all
I have occasionally seen views from people saying a car (or motorcycle) is 'over rated' or 'under rated', but by definition, if enough people rate them highly, aren't we saying in effect that they are great cars and so cannot BE 'over-rated'?
Put another way, which cars FOR YOU have been over (or under) rated? In your eyes.

CorvetteConvert

Original Poster:

7,897 posts

214 months

Saturday 5th September 2015
quotequote all
Not a suit needed here but a nuclear bunker, but here goes anyway.
Of the cars I have driven enough to form an opinion, I have found a few under and over rated, as I see it and as I found the cars to be.

Over-rated (and yes there are thousands of fans of these out there, I know, who will disagree) are first the BMW M3 CSL. Impossible to drive 40-50% without letting the world know about it via the induction scream (nice WHEN you want it) and poor performance unless you thrashed it. In cut and thrust driving on a car run out the CSL could easily be left by less powerful cars unless you held low gears the whole time waiting for that top-end rush of power and noise. Also it had very poor brakes for a £60,000 (nearer £70,000 in today's prices) car and the gearbox was rubbish.

Ferrari F40. Yes really.
I got to do around 200 miles in my friend's car, in 2 stints, a month apart, on roads which should have suited it perfectly. Big lonely roads in the wilds of California (where he lives).
The fit and finish inside and out was appalling. You could actually see the outside world with the doors closed around their edges! The gearbox was poor and heavy. The clutch was very heavy and had a sudden biting point. The engine was a typical low capacity unit with two huge turbochargers which gave lag like you would not believe before a huge rush of power hit you. But because the car was not happy to rev high it was over as quick as it had arrived and so the effective power band was tiny. These things are going for a million quid each now, remember.
The kit was sparse, the engine hated going slowly and the brakes were appalling for a car expected to stop from 203 mph.
A Californian said to me that it was a race car for the road and should be viewed as such. In which case 470 bhp and 1100 kgs ain't that great is it? Not when for £100,000 you can have a 750 bhp Ultima which weighs 1,050 kgs and has better brakes, suspension, gearbox and is way faster with huge grunt from tickover.

Under-rated? Cooper S Works GP Gen 1. A real gem few got to know or drive. What a hot hatch should be. Light at 1090 kgs. Powerful at 218 bhp. Plenty of urge from 2,000 rpm to over 7,000 rpm. I own one now, my third.
Many American cars. Some are tat but many are written off without people ever trying them. The new Corvette is an absolute gem.