20 New Cars That Aren’t Worth Their Shiny Price Tag

Starting at a base price of nearly $40K, the Honda Ridgeline is the epitome of overvalued junk. It has half the towing power of an F-150 or a Toyota Tundra and costs just as much as those two full-size trucks.

For the price of the Honda Ridgeline, you could get two Ford Mavericks, or at least save yourself $10K and get a Toyota Tacoma. And if you think you are getting yourself anything better quality by getting the Honda, you’re fooling yourself. The vehicle suffers in terms of performance and features, offering poor off-road ability and a dated interior – particularly the infotainment system.

Chevrolet Colorado was once one of the best pick-ups you could buy, but not so much anymore. It’s fuel-efficient, but that’s where the good news stops. The Colorado’s reliability score and customer satisfaction have been on a downward trend over the last half-decade.

Consumer Reports gave it poor ratings, stating that it was noisy, rides were rough, the seats were uncomfortable, and the positioning of the steering wheel was terrible. Overall, these issues make the Chevy Colorado a bad buy. 

The 2024 Jeep Wrangler is one of the most iconic SUVs around, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t overpriced. A top-of-the-line Jeep can cost nearly $90K, the cost of a luxury vehicle, but the Jeep Wrangler is anything but luxurious. 

It's bare on features and performance are certainly lacking when it comes to city and highway driving. It provides poor fuel economy ratings, it’s loud, and it doesn’t handle well. Unless you are driving most of your time on unpaved roads, you’ll get nothing noteworthy from your Wrangler experience.

The Mercedes-Benz GLB is essentially an overpriced RAV4 with a cramped interior and a clunky infotainment system. It also gets slightly worse gas mileage than the RAV4, and you’ll pay $10K more.

Even the features in the GLB are inferior to most non-luxury buys. You get a 7-inch touch screen, HD radio and some safety features which is the bare minimum for SUVs these days. Even the seats are nothing to write home about; they’re synthetic leather.

Once upon a time, the Cadillac Escalade was the symbol of wealth, and everyone who was anyone drove one. Well, things aren’t what they used to be. Now, the Escalade gets lower and lower ratings. Nowadays, experts wouldn’t even call the Escalade a luxury vehicle anymore.

Consumer Reports stated that the “Escalade simply floundered in our tests.” Even though it’s huge, the interior feels cramped – we’re not sure how that can happen. Plus, the seats are uncomfortable while the third row has little legroom. Many analysts have also said that the infotainment system is the worst in the auto industry. Ouch. 

The Mini Cooper is a perfect example of looks over everything else. We can’t deny that it looks sporty and small – some would even say iconic. Well, that’s exactly where the issues lie. The Mini Cooper isn’t practical. U.S. News and World Report consistently lists the Mini Cooper as one of the worst cars to purchase.

The IIHS rated the Mini Cooper poorly for headlight visibility, meaning you’ll likely have a hard time seeing at night. Some of the biggest complaints are engine failure and other maintenance issues, which makes this car much more expensive than it’s worth.

Land Rover is a pretty reputable brand, so why is it on this list? Because of the Discovery Sport. Some analysts have claimed that Land Rover is slipping, and the Discovery Sport is the epitome of their theory. This vehicle cannot compete with others in the same class for a few reasons.

The first issue is that it has an underpowered four-cylinder engine. On top of that, the engine is uneven, while the transmission isn’t responsive. Overall, the Discovery feels less sporty (as the name suggests) and more sluggish. Finally, this SUV has poor reliability scores and resale value.

At first glance, the Mirai looks pretty darn good. It's got sporty styling and is super sleek. It even drives well and has one of the longest ranges of any eco-friendly vehicle. On the surface, those aspects are pretty enticing, but there's just one problem...

You can only drive it in California, where there are some hydrogen fuel cell stations, because that’s what this vehicle runs on. And the performance is underwhelming. It takes over 9 seconds to get from 0 to 60 mph. And even if that doesn’t bother you, paying $50K for a car you can’t drive anywhere you want definitely should bother you.

The Audi Q5 comes at a premium price and naturally promises a premium experience to go with it. However, the $45K compact SUV disappoints on many levels, similar to the Mercedes-Bens GLB.

The Audi Q5 features a small, cramped interior with limited cargo space. The design itself is rather dull and lifeless. While it costs nearly a thousand dollars more than last year’s model, the only feature that’s been added is a heated steering wheel.

The Lexus NX, like any other Lexus, is just a glorified Toyota at a premium price. Its closest counterpart would have to be the RAV4, except that the NX has 20 cubic feet less cargo space.

The Lexus NX and the RAV4 have the same horsepower output unless you pay extra and opt for the Lexus's turbocharged engine.

The Jeep Grand Wagoneer is a big, expensive, and impractical SUV – even if you have a big family. It costs over $90K, but at least at that price, you get leather seats and a ton of features. It's like buying a top-of-the-line luxury vehicle without top-quality materials.

Worst of all, you’ll be spending a ton on gas with this model. The Grand Wagoneer with its twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder engine, gets just 14 mpg in the city and 20 mpg on the highway.

The Tesla Model S has one of the blandest interiors you’ll ever find in a sports car. It has been stripped down to the bare minimum, with the exception of a giant, distracting, and complex touchscreen display.

Its outdated design, cramped seating, and low-quality interior make driving the Model S anything but a joy. Sure, you’ll be able to accelerate fast, but at what cost? At $65K, calling the Tesla Model S overpriced is putting it mildly. And to make matters worse, it offers lower range estimates than in 2022 – at 359 miles - fully charged.

The Porsche Taycan costs about as much as a Model S, but it’s even worse. The base model with the basic battery has a range of just 208 miles, making it an impractical choice for commuters. Over time, as the battery degrades, you can expect even fewer miles.

Also, like the Tesla Model S, it’s reliant on touchscreen controls. The last thing we need from drivers is for them to focus on touchscreens instead of keeping their eyes on the road.

The Volkswagen Golf GTI also suffers from a convoluted infotainment system, but that’s actually the least of its problems. It also has a cheap interior and limited features when you consider its price tag.

Fully loaded, the Golf GTI could cost well over $40K. The base model is around $33K, but if you don’t pay for the upgrade, you’ll miss out on features like a proximity key, a superior audio system, and a sunroof. However, regardless of what model you’d be considering, you’d be paying too much.

The Polestar 2, a vehicle that only gets up to 276 unless you pay top-dollar for about 40 extra miles of range is not nearly worth the $50K that it costs. Performance is lacking, delivering a firm ride and there are few trim options, forcing you to pay most of its extras.

For a company that is narrowly staving off bankruptcy, they have a lot of audacity to be charging so much for their vehicles. Their hideously bland hatchback might appeal to the eco-friendly consumers out there, but it makes no effort to offer anything unique to its brand.

There’s such irony in charging people more for electric vehicles, with the promise that you’ll be saving on gas when the reality is that you’ll be paying all that gas money you save towards the cost of the vehicle itself.

There’s no particular reason the Chevrolet Blazer EV needs to cost $56K other than corporate greed. It doesn’t offer exception performance, and its features are lacking too. The buggy infotainment system, lack of luxury features and cheap interior can’t justify its cost. And for some reason, Chevy has decided to alienate all iPhone users with the absence of a simple feature like Apple CarPlay.

We’ve mentioned it a few times as a more affordable alternative, but that doesn’t also mean it's not overpriced. The RAV4 has been the same thing for practically an entire decade now, and there’s really no reason not just to go out and buy a used model in great condition. It wouldn’t be difficult.

At around $30K, you are paying for dated features and a decade-old design that lacks anything new to offer consumers. Toyota has been selling this model like hotcakes, taking advantage of its unsuspecting consumer base. It’s time for a redesign.

The Jaguar F-Type looks cool on the outside, and that’s where our praise stops. You get two powerful supercharged V8 engine options, but almost nobody needs 500+ horsepower to drive a sportscar on American roads, considering driving over 20 is the criminal limit—but the F-Type makes it easy to do just that! Add to that a poor fuel economy, as you’d expect, and there’s no practical reason to own one.

The interior itself is disappointing. It has a dated design with an infotainment system from the Stone Age - as if it were made to appeal only to elderly British men. It also has a small trunk, making it utterly useless for hauling all your groceries or anything else you need during your day-to-day life. The starting costs for the F-Type range from around $80K to $90K!

Before Genesis became its own brand, it was just Hyundai. And it's still just a Hyundai, which means nobody should pay $90K for one. The G90 ropes people into getting their vehicle fully loaded at the base trim level. The only other trim level offered provides all the same features, except it upgrades the engine to a supercharged version.

It might have a nice interior, but the G90 has one of the worst fuel economy ratings in its class—worse than a mid-size SUV. And nothing about that makes sense. While the turbocharged V6 engine delivers on acceleration, is it really worth sacrificing all practicality?

Although the Jeep Grand Cherokee might offer a fairly upscale cabin, it still costs nearly the same as a luxury brand, around $40K. With the highest-level trim, you can expect to pay around $70K.

The Grand Cherokee offers adequate power, but the ride is firm, and the fuel economy is subpar for its class. Somehow, this is one of the best-selling SUVs, and we aren’t sure why. In our opinion, it’s overrated.