OVERRATED JDM SPORTS CARS 

Was just talking about this with a friend, the 90s were peak car culture. Even today where we all are just trying to relive the 90s. That includes import and domestic. We had some great cars in that time frame.

I'm loving the NFS2 graphics and sounds. That takes me back

I remember in the 90's seeing tons of mustangs, trans ams and Camaros. But at the price points at the time, I see why.

*AE86* *It's a nice car. Rear wheel drive, lightweight and the 4AGE sounds amazing.* *Guess what? A Miata will do everything an AE86 does for a fraction of the cost.*

Missing the viper (non gts) and terminator cobra, terminators were grossly underrated on power. Only reason I mentioned that Cobra is because you did mention a couple JDM cars touching into the early 2000s

If you look at the E36 M3 it's rly sad that you guys in the states got such a slow version of the car due to cost reduction from BMW. the Euro Version with the 3.2l engine has ~320hp and is a whole different animal.

The import scene in America in the mid to late 90's was a special time. The American car companies got caught being lazy.

I love the objective approach, and since you’ve actually owned some of these it seems much more authentic.

Road and Track “You can thank the original Acura NSX for a lot of things: It put Acura on the map in the U.S.; it forced Ferrari to clean up its act with the F355; it started the "VTEC just kicked in, yo" thing, and the list goes on. The NSX also apparently had a profound effect on one Gordon Murray, the mastermind behind the McLaren F1. If you're a fan of the F1-and if you're reading this website, you are-you should probably thank the NSX.”

I have never lusted after a 90s era Mustang, Camaro or Corvette. I simply do not want them in my garage. However I have always fancied the FD, NSX, GTR and Supra. I think the global market agrees

I think you nailed certain things like reengineering the cars for the mandatory OBD-II in 1996 and the yen to dollar that caused drastic price increases in the early 90s and the end to the era that gave us crazy value like the LS400. The LT1 fourth gens don't seem to stack up until the LS1 came around in 1998. It's kind of unfair to compare the C4 from the early 80s to the JDM cars which blitzed America. The leap from C4 (a car I loved to the C5) is pretty remarkable. Looking at the actual performance the Supra traded blows with the C5 and the NSX outperformed both it was noted as having exceptional brakes at the time). I'd say the NSX was the car that transformed exotics and in a way was the GT3. As it stretched past 98 the price rising from $78 to I remember 104kish in 03 was a bit silly. It was the car that was stubbornly Honda in engine tech rather than turbos. 300ZX was a fine comfortable car (partial to the 2+2) myself to stretch the rear a bit and move the gas tank fill. 3kgts were remarkable but in a techy nerdy kind of way, but I thought they were good-looking cars, especially in the final year. The only two sports cars on the list to me are the NSX and RX-7. Having lived with an FD for a decade, it is amazingly difficult to find a replacement, but it's much happier at the track and a bit rough on the street. Never had a GTR and have spent little time in one so can't really comment on that. The remarkable thing is '89 R32, '89 Z32, '90 3kgt, '92 Supra, '92 Rx7. If we just had that one more year of the cars at affordable levels before the SUV explosion I imagine sales might have been a bit better. In reality, even F-bodies and all sports car sales were falling during this time period.

"Overrated jdm sport cars" all of then are 😂

if you are talking straight line performance yes us wins . track corner abilities/build quality have to give it to japan.

The "toggle" sound from the need for speed menu when cars show up in the video = priceless

Of all those cars, I'd love to have an '97 NSX-T with pop up headlights, and 6spd. You don't need to go fast when you look that freakin' good!

Yeah I was in high school in early 2000’s so we all drove cars from the 90’s. I miss my FD RX7 so much, and it was so much fun

I like how you said the NSX weighed 3200 pounds “back then”. Unfortunately, due to inflation, they now weigh 7,000 pounds. 😮

If you find a low mileage mk4 supra and buy it for 100k then be prepared to put almost 80k into it the break lines will be dried out and you have to worry about rust underneath the windows and possibly a bad fuel tank

Will never forget seeing a z32 300zxtt for the first time

It makes me laugh how some idiots compare current cars with those of the 90's or older, man of course they are not fast cars anymore, I wouldn't mind driving a 300hp car from the 90's, because nowadays everyone is obsessed with the horsepower.

i like the the need for speed SFX, keep doing more of those!

The NSX rips are kind of funny, purely looking at 0-60 and 1/4 times? Yep, have fun in your Mustang. The car is much much deeper than that. and even as a huge Porsche guy, let’s not fool ourselves, the NSX made Porsche, Ferrari, and every other true performance company (not muscle car, drag racing….although The Corvette finally woke up and went mid engine….30 years later) take notice. If one is going to gloss over the mid engine, aluminum body, double wishbone suspension, variable valve high revving (normally aspirated) engine, incredible shifting, NSX just because of 0-60 times, the NSX isn’t the car for you. That being said, if you know much about the NSX, a guy Named Gordon Murray (you may have heard of him) and a Car named the McLaren F1, I think I tend to respect Mr Murray’s opinion of the NSX and he put his money where his mouth was, and still it today. But going back to the NSX performance, it outperformed the much higher priced Ferrari 348, the Porsche 964 (247hp) and Lotus Esprit. Yep, there were muscle cars that were quicker, as was the Supra and a slightly tuned 300zx twin Turbo. But those cars were also quicker than the other MUCH more expensive euro sports cars listed above. In the late 80s and through the 1990s I grew up in a home than had, in chronological order….Merc 190 2.3-16v (wish he would have bought the E30 M3 instead) 911, 300zx twin turbo (tuned by Jim Wolf), Acura NSX, BMW E36 (tuned by Dinan), and CLK55. Out of ALL of those cars, the NSX was the most “special” and it’s not even a close comparison. There was an Indycar driver at the time that we knew that just sold his 300zx TT and got an NSX. Asked why he did it, since his 300 was quicker and made more HP, etc. His answer was pretty simple, “the NSX feels like the closest thing to my race car”. The American cars back then drove like absolute crap, especially braking, Corning and handling. Drag racing? Nope, but the quality was absolute crap.

Great video. The 1990s where really the peak of Japanese Cars both all the sportscars mentioned and luxury cars. U had the Mazda Cosmo for an example and the first Lexus the LS 400 but sadly most of the cars where developed right before Japan ran into a very very bad recession in 1991 that they never really totally recovered from. known as the lost Decades. I have had a Toyota 1993 Corolla Gsi-16 coupe liftback myself and the build quality was impeccable did 230k to 260k Kilometers without a single problem only replaced Shocks and such in 2015-2021 In Norwegian conditions.

Where did you get the sound effects from when the specs and pictures are moving and changing? I noticed they're exactly the same as the ones from NFS Underground

I like the NFS2SE touch 😂

I can't remember where I saw it, but I love the take "Oh your $30,000 Supra you dropped $150,000 into is slightly faster than a $100,000 Lamborghini"

I wouldn’t say these cars are over rated, it’s just that some of these cars have been ruined due to the current trends. Negative camber, wings bigger than a garage door, Lamborghini type scissor doors on cars that don’t benefit from it, fake vents, looking fast but not ACTUALLY fast, etc. I’m all for wrapping your car, but there’s a limit to that too. Just don’t overdo it.

Now that's a high quality one! Great job, Craig! 👌

I wonder how the Eclipse GSX stacks up against that lineup of 90s sports cars.

Didn't know the NSX was so expensive im US. The atraction on this car was how it performed on par against some Lambos and Ferraris, but much cheaper in Japan. It has less horsepower but the aluminium structure allowed it to run and turn well

Always enjoy your videos thank you for sharing all of them.

I got my drivers license at 16 in 1976. My first car was a Toyota Corona that my dad gave me. It was gutless and the engine rattled... but it ran. My first car that I bought was a 71 AMC Hornet SST, then a 66 Chevelle Super Sport (should never have sold that one), 64 Mercury Comet Caliente, 71 Impala convertible 427, 71 Challenger 340. Then I bought a used Toyota Cressida with the non turbo six... that thing was fast for a sedan! Now I have a 14 CTS-V coupe... and a 99 Mazda Protege. The V is a beast but the Mazda is low miles, all manual 1.6 liter and I have to say, after lowering it it is a blast to drive. Not fast but it goes around a track really, really well. Power isn't everything. BTW I think you overrated the 0-60 time on the Camaro. I drove some of those and they were rather slow.

Nailed it CL. Same age as you and drove all of them except the R34. The ZR1 Vette wins everyday in my book, and I’m going to own one some day instead of the Supra I used to have.

How do they compare on a road course? Love the channel!😊

Great video! I miss a lot of the 90's FF nuggets . The Mazda mx-3 1.8 V6. The Nissan nx2000, so many back then.

I like your video but I disagree on the performance statement you made. You listed acceleration performance which was never the stronghold of those JDM Cars most of them were built for cornering with no AmericanMuscle listed in here can hold a candle to them. I have owned a 96 Mustang GT, 91 nsx and 87 rx7 turbo, and while I feel like the Mustang had good get-up-and-go there is no way I could have ever driven it at the same speed than the two others on windy roads. Now I am from Europe originally which drag race was never a prevailing type of racing compared to here. Since you've driven a lot more of those cars than I have how do you feel about their handling

NSX handled like a beast though, didn't it? And FD took more boost without many internal mods unlike standard engines. Also, where are the MR2s?

The funny thing is all of these cars are over rated because of Fast and Furious. Mainly the first two movies.

The US spec e36 M3 did not had the proper M3 engine we received here on Europe. In Europe the car had 286 HP and later got the 3.2L with 320 HP.

Good topic. I was a 90s kid so I was a little too young to understand the car culture back then. Too busy playing N64 and riding my bike at the time. Ahh those were the days.

0:35 i’d recognize those sound effects anywhere, Need for Speed Underground / Underground 2 !!!

One car I wish you would have included was the Buick Grand National and the T-Type. GNXs were pretty exclusive. Grand Nationals weren't circuit racers but I remember how badass they were. I somehow convinced a dealership salesman to let me drive a brand new one in 1986 when I was 18. I honestly think the salesperson knew I couldn't buy it, but wanted an excuse to drive it. On another note, what is your opinion on the 80s Dodge Daytona Turbo 2s and Chrysler Lasers?

Lusted after all these cars as a kid and teen, was lucky to have a best friend who was equally immersed in the car culture of the time. All the hours we spent talking about them, playing Gran Turismo, reading our magazine subscriptions, car shows, going to dealerships just to see one on the showroom, etc, etc, etc. Wish I could go back to the late 90's and live there forever.

Great video, it would be nice to have your take on the same subject for the 2000 and 2010 decade

I still wouldn''t call these cars overrated. They are overpriced based on supply and demand. Much of the reason they're touted as overrated is simply the passage of time and cheap HP that became prevalent in the 2010s. Just like I wouldn't call a classic 72 Daytona overrated, neither are these. They're now in the category of collectible neo classics and their performance is irrelevant to value.

Did you just use the sound effects from Need for speed when changing screens :D my man!

Great video! You make view like Need for Speed HotPursuit 2 game hahaha the car selection menu when you look at the car specs nice 👍🏻 I love it

Craig "these jdm cars are overrated" my brother you made them overrated

Well, that M3 is not a very good comparison in your chart. Because you are talking about the U.S. market E36 M3 which was trash. It only had 240 hp and 236 lbs.ft. of torque which is correct. The European M3 made 321 hp and 258 lbs.ft. As you are just talking about U.S. market cars I get your point. Just wanted to clarify for other people that BMW built a better car for us Europeans 😂

Great video Craig. I like the brutal honesty in the video. It is what is is. Keep up the great content!!

Man I miss the 90's, what an awesome time that was.

When will you print ECLIPSE apparel?

Hello and greetings from Germany. I liked how you made an objective look on the cars. Of course, for car enthusiasts it is difficult to be objective. So in my opinion you did a good job here. But from my point of view there is something missing. Japanese and European cars are manufactured with a high focus on cornering ability. Usually in the USA there are long straights. But that's not the case in Europe or Japan. Straights are usually short comared to roads in the US and there are a lot of corners in every thinkable condition. As are the racetracks. You know, sports cars are built with the knowledge from race cars. And that is the main reason why European and Japanese sports cars are high priced. The engines and the suspension of the cars were more complicated as for example in the 1994 corvette. The 3000gt for example had not only a 4 wheel drive but also 4 wheel steering. I see that in nascar or drag races, something like that is not needed, but take a look at the nurburg ring or suzuka race track. I think that explains the high price gap between '90s US muscle and import sports cars. Still, thank you for that video!

3:05 it depends, Craig. An rhd turbo AT was 12000 euros a few years ago in Europe. You could get r32 gtr's for 6000 and r34 gtr for 25000. Looking back with these prices, yes they were cheap.

I enjoyed watching you when you were on with DCA. I decided to give you channel a sub.

When the dealer markup a car 15k and someone buys that’s car is it now worth that markup price because someone was willing to pay it ?

Great video Craig!!! 👏🏻 It would be nice in the next time you display metric system too (along side with Imperial), Imperial system is a little tough for people outside America

Dude, im from Alabama and car culture here has always loved japanese cars. I think it was a silent well-known fact they were special for some reason BUT THEN in 2011, we got this BEACON of light that firmly cemented what we already knew. This movie called 200MPH released and we were like fuck it, we gotta sell some kidneys and get us some Toyoda Supers.

My mom got a brand new turbo Supra in 1995 . I was just getting out of high school at time . I was so stoked she was getting it . All my friends said exactly what you where saying “ why doesn’t she get a corvette “. The answer to r that … we have to drive Toyota/Lexus my family has been the south east importer of TOYOTA since 1969.

In terms of performance American cars have always had the best value for power. The only downside was a) quality, and b) for people outside the US since they only really sold American performance cars IN America

When someone tells me that they want to buy a good looking but crappy quality car, I tell them to just get the scale model of it.

Craig showing some love for the 300ZX! Got mine 16 years ago and will never let her go. Anyone looking to get into a JDM car, they're miles behind the others in price still...finicky and a pain to get up to good running condition, yes, but a great looking car and fun once you get all the basic maintenance squared away. Still a head turner to this day, I always get compliments on it.

Great comparison Craig!

Hey Craig I'm very curious on your thoughts on the SVT Ford Lightning

I was into the American muscle scene when the f&f came out so as a matter of pride I , (and many others like me) were very competitive with the Japanese market cars. We had some strong contenders, the ram air Trans Ams and Camaro SS were rated at 320hp and dynoing nearly that at the wheels. Heck, muscle mustangs and fast Ford's magazine famously ripped a 12.9 quarter in an ls1 SS. When the c5 came out in 97 it was world beating on track and strip. Domestics had some strong contenders back in the day. It still amazes me the domestics from that time go so comparatively cheap now.

I am glad that you aren’t just another old guy saying carb’d muscle cars were the pinnacle of automotive engineering

The thing that broke the Supra mystique for me is when I found out that a turbo 2JZ weighs about the same as a Ford Boss 429 engine. It’s still an amazing piece of engineering, but power density for displacement doesn’t really mean anything if it doesn’t have power density for mass. It reminds me of a comparison I saw between the LS7 and the 4.4 V8 in the then-new M3. The BMW made about the same horsepower from 4.4 as the Chevy did from 7. But the Chevy was physically much smaller, much lighter, made much better torque, and got better mileage and emissions. So which was the better engine? 🤨

Underrated: The MKIII Supra (the same one you wanted in F&F 1) I've been shocked how damn good the car is and how good it looks inside and out. It gets as much attention as a Lambo these days and it's a complete blast to drive. Despite being around 3,500lbs, she's the best handling car I've ever driven by far and the prices are fairly reasonable if you can find a good one. I assume they will be "classics" by the end of the decade.

Happy Easter

Im loving this channel!!!

Tbh you could argue that the Japanese cars performance was underrated. Because they were held back at least to some extent by the gentleman's agreement. Yea they all underrated their numbers but you could Definintly get more out of the engines. But we go with the hard numbers from the time lol.

“Were not going to talk aboit subjective stuff” proceeds to talk almost entirely about subjective stuff. Lol

waiting for the roasting video of cars so i can see how bad my turbo acura legend gets picked on!!!

That intro, felt like I was again 9 playing need for speed

Out of curiosity, how would you rate a '96 Escort Cosworth? 230-ish horsepower, all-wheel drive, 2900lbs, and 0-60 in 5.7 seconds... I know that tuners are now getting over 1000hp versions with various upgrades... but i'm curious what you think..

Some of my favorite cars on this list... but he needs to add about a half second on most of the 0-60 times. They are extremely optimistic lol.

As much as I love the JDM cars of the era, the best bang for the buck going BACK THEN (pre-2003) was the LS1 Z28. If you want a few more ponies while saving a few pounds, pony up a few extra grand for the SS. If you wanted the ultimate in attitude, the WS6 Trans Am was the hot ticket. Mine ran 13.2 bone stock.

Man the mr2 didn’t make the Japanese list? they too have gone up a lot!

I like this style of video!

I love The Need for Speed II style. Great video

Thank you for saying that it's worth what someone will pay. Tired of having to hear people talk about what's over priced and what's not, seems to be a projection of their limited budget for the most part.

Now we need a underrated jdm car list id like to see my 96 gtb legacy on there hehe

90s were great cause boomers were in their 40s. So they had the money to burn and still wanted fun. Now suvs are doing well cause they are at that age.

Bravo! I owned some 15 JDMs Acura Integra 2x TSX Mazda3 626 Accords 3xs Civics 4xs and Eclipse 3xs Infiniti G20T Today dive Eclipse Spyder Won 3 best of shows and entered 1st ever Import Nights Pomona CA

It's hard to believe I bought a car, in 2022, for the same price of a Supra, 25 years ago, and got over a 100 more hp. When people complain about the price of new cars, I point to that 😂

Love the NFSUG2 Sound effects :-D Made me smile

I love my rx7. I like the way it drives better than all the other jdm legends I’ve been fortunate enough to drive them all. The car was made till 2002 tho and the 95 was the worst year because it got updates in 96-98 and more updates in 99-02. America only got 93-95

And we had the Pontiac Firebird. I know it was. Like the Camaro. But that was a really cool car cause. was like the only last car with pop up headlights.

It's very interesting how the price compares. Yet in the U.K. The American cars were about 40% more expensive. I also think we got a more powerful M3.

Would the JDM cars perform the USA cars on a track with corners though?

Even if you kept in on the america side, it would’ve made total sense to mention the eclipse 2g

The fast and the furious really fluffed up 90s JDM cars to where they are now. All arguably great cars but vastly over priced due to movie hype and perceived cheap modding costs at that time. Folks to this day still believe they can spend 30k on a JDM or Euro and put a little over 10k to 15k in mods into the car and gap Bugattis and Ferraris like a walk in the park. Thank you fast and the furious... 😮‍💨 Our American cars did very well for that time it's a shame pretty much all of the American muscle has literally disappeared in favor of electric vehicles. The buyers market dictates what will be sold and consumed but lets keep some of our muscle car history in full form at a low capacity for willing buyers.

Interesting discussion. Only disagreement i have is performance isnt just 0-60 and 1/4 mile times. The whole point of the NSX was to prove that a balance of HP, handling, weight, and braking could compete with cars with more power...... and it did.

Thing about JDM cars is that they're way better than anything from the '60s or '70s. Those were legit garbage cans and people restored them and they still can't handle. Novas etc

I owned 2 sn95 cobras. First one was a 96 Red Coupe, Second was a White 98 Coupe. I was stationed in 29 Palms at the time. I use to run those cars wide open, through the endless desert roads. Very stout engines. They will take all the abuse you can throw at them. I would smoke all the other GT’s on base lol. So many good memories. That feels like a different lifetime ago.

Need an inflation calculator with this episode

I'm not sure if you where referencing when you drove the 3000gt's or when they came out, but the last 3000gt came out in 99 with the 3rd gen, with the VR-4 being the twin turbo V6 AWD variant. I would say the 3000gt is an under rated car, mostly because most of them where FWD, but i love those cars, I've owned my 99 for 3 years now and never plan on selling it. overall great video, loved it.

It’s easy to forget how expensive these cars were at the time.

Nissan 240sx is the most fun car to have as a youngster. I had two of em. 91 and a 93. Preludes were cool too

The good thing is nobody wants the cars that I want but that's also the bad thing because there's none around.