Worst Cars in the Gran Turismo Franchise

The Daihatsu STORIA X4 '00 looks promising enough: a cheap, entry-level hatchback that can be bought as a starter car in most games. And then you get it… And the troubles begin.

This thing is abysmally slow. Yes, it has 118 hp, but it still performs like crap when compared to other cars with 118 hp, such as the Mazda MX-5 Miata '89 or the Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX '83.

Believe me when I say this, you are better off getting any other Daihatsu. The Mira, Move, and Copen are good Kei cars, and the Midget II has a one-make race associated with it.
The only reason to get the STORIA X4 '00 is for the one-make race in GT2. Get it, put a turbo in it, and run the stock race. As for the RM (Racing mod) race, don't bother using this thing. Get your hands on the STORIA Rally Car for a cool $500,000 and dominate.

Arguably the worst Rally Car ever, and that's going up against the likes of the Nissan BLUEBIRD Rally Car (510) '69. This thing is horrendously slow. Sure, it's a nice looking car, but one factor puts it on this list more-so than any other car: Nostalgia 1979.
In Gran Turismo Sport, there is a professional league race called Nostalgia 1979, which is similar to the amateur league's historic car cup. However, you, the player, are only permitted to take race cars to this championship.

The Renault R8 Gordini '66 is the cheapest one, selling for a reasonable $80,000. Not bad, right? A 101 HP car, this thing stands NO chance against its contemporaries, including the likes of the Jaguar XJ13 '66 and the Ferrari 330 P4 '67.
Oh, and, do you want a mean machine like that? Well, you better have a whopping $20,000,000 on you, or hope that the Gran Turismo gods will bless you with one of them for free from the daily exercise.

What does any racer hate more than anything? A slow car? What's worse than that? An expensive slow car. Even worse, an expensive slow car that, when fully tuned, is still slow as molasses.
This ancient beast debuted in GT4, and cost the player a hefty $320,000. It never got cheaper, except from the used car lot in GT5, where, at cheapest, it was still over $200,000.
So, how much ponies is this thing packing inter the hood? Try 93. Yup, you just spent almost half a million dollars on a car with less than 100 horsepower. Oh, and the engine sound is literally recycled from the Volkswagen New Beetle 2.0 '00 in GT2 and GT3.

Dodge had 4 newer 5-seater car models in Gran Turismo 2: the Neon, the Avenger, the Intrepid (Arguably the best of them), and the Stratus, arguably the worst of them.

It came at a respectable cost of $20,550. The car displays having 167 HP in the showroom. However, it will drop down to a measly 100 HP when you get it. This doesn't happen with the other 3, just the Stratus, making it slower than the Neon!
Also, it's just not as good looking as the other three. Now, granted, the next generation Stratus is gorgeous, but this car just doesn't have the staying power to be memorable in any way.
You're better off getting the Neon or Intrepid.

This thing is pathetically weak, especially compared to its stronger siblings.
This is the entry level Clio, and can be bought for around $22,000 in GT2, and around $30,000 in GT4 onwards. Compared to other Clios, though, This thing pushes in the low 100s for horsepower, and operates on an FF drivetrain. Other Clios push mid 200s HP and are running on MR format.
Even newer FF Clios do better than this thing. It's basically useless in GT2, and there's better FFs to use in GT4 onwards. Recommended you skip this car.

The Vertigo race car has had an interesting history. In GT3, the 1998 Vertigo race car was an entry-level race car you could get by winning the European league. Sure, it had low horsepower, but with the right work, the car could be amazing. And it was always epic to see it get its ass handed to it in arcade mode races (what were they thinking putting that little ass car up against the 787B?! )
2004 Gillett Vertigo race car, meanwhile, it's nowhere near as useful… or as good looking. Costing cheaper than its 1998 counterpart ('98 costing 1.2 million to '04 costing 1 million) And having way more horsepower, you think this would be a match made in heaven, right? Not really.
The car had a short gear ratio, and could not keep up with the rest in its class. Again, the car was placed up against the big LM race cars, and it suffered.
I'm cutting the car some slack though as you can fix most of these. However, the worst aspect of this car that cannot be fixed is it horrible usage of tires. This thing goes through tires quicker than a spike strip in a police chase.

Another crappy European hatchback that nobody seems to care about.
The cheapest Mercedes, selling from anywhere around $16,500 to $33,00, this thing is slow, ugly, and just plain dumb. Slightly over 100 HP, there's much better hatchbacks you can get, such as a Mini Cooper.
The plus side of this thing, though? Decent color variety.

An interesting car with a concept that the GT games took zero liberty in showing off is the Schwimmwagen. Like the Kübelwagen, the Schwimmwagen was a WWII-era wartime car used by Nazi Germany. However, the Schwimmwagen is an amphibious car, which can be driven on land and in the water. This explains the submarine-like propeller on the back of the car.

However, this interesting concept could have been tested in GT6 with a land and water race, but instead, it was just left there to be slower than the Kübelwagen. Come on! We went to the moon in 6!

I was also going to suggest a history mode where you can see the role of these two cars in WWII, but that would mean playing as the bad guys, and who would want to do that? I can only imagine it... "Driving Mission 1: Drive Hitler To the Reichstag". Man, that would have ended Polyphony Digital...

It's a good looking car, but it's the crappiest VGT ever.

Background for those who are not in the know: a VGT (Vision Gran Turismo) is a fictitious car that was created in the collaboration of a car company and Polyphony Digital. These cars are often very fast, aerodynamic, and drop-dead sexy. The earliest one predates the term VGT: the Nike ONE 2022 from GT4. In GT6, more futuristic cars came about, including this infamous, yet amazing, Dodge Tomahawk.

This one's from Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota known for small cars, and is based on their well-loved Copen Kei Car. And that's the problem.

The average Copen only has 63 HP, and this VGT, which is supposed to be this big, furious machine, only has about 146 HP. Granted, that's more than the regular, but still laughably low.

Compare this to the Mini Clubman VGT. Mini Coopers are known for being on the low HP side, too. The Clubman VGT has 389 HP. Come on, Daihatsu! Don't be afraid to get liberal with the horsepower.

Not to mention, but all VGTs cost the same amount: $1,000,000. Yup, for a million dollars, you can get either a 146 HP Daihatsu or a 2,000+ HP Dodge. Your choice, fam!

Quick shout out to the Renault Espace F1 From GT2, which showed that minivans can be badass and fast. The Honda Odyssey, meanwhile, was the opposite.
Who at Polyphony Digital thought it would be a good idea to give a nod to the Karen demographic?
This thing is just a standard minivan. One you'd take your kids to soccer practice in, or maybe go run for groceries. Sure, it's a nice laugh to see it run against the likes of a Renault Clio or a Honda S2000, but, other than that, who really wants this thing?
It's heavy, not aerodynamic, and kinda hideous.

When the electric/combustion engine hybrid, the Prius, hit the market in 1997, the world cheered. "Yes! An end to fossil fuels! We can slow global warming! It's a revolution! " We all collectively said to our friends on MSM. So, just two years later, Polyphony decides to add this revolutionary car to the line-up, and we were not feeling it.
The Prius was incredibly slow for what it was, a compact car. Having a laughable 63 HP, equal to that of a Kei car. Acceleration and weight wasn't that bad, though.
However, what truly makes this car painful was that you couldn't modify it! Yup, no exhaust, no flywheels, no racing chip. You gotta run this thing stock!
And there was a planned racing mod for this car, too? Thank god PD scrapped that.
Luckily, for you eco-warriors out there, the Prius has gotten better in later games, and even gotten a race car variant.

There's a first for everything, and, sometimes, the first sucks. Such is the case with the Mazda Demio LX G Package '97, which was the first 'slowest car ever' in the franchise.
Sure, it's been dethroned by the likes of the Subaru 360 and Fiat 500 series, but, this car remains the laughing stock of the first GT, with its low 79 HP. Yeah, this was before Kei cars came to the game.
Well, at least they made up for it by giving the Mazda Demio an A-Spec tuning kit.

The first truck in the franchise, and it was ass. Only 31 HP, which is half of a Kei car, and abysmal aerodynamics. This thing would have been classified as a novelty, but they actually made you use it in GT2 and GT4. After that, it just took up space.

It pains me to put this one here, as it's one of my all time favorites. However, I'm a fair man, and I'll go over the reasons this car is hated without inserting my 2¢.
The Intrepid was heavy, and difficult to steer. Not to mention, they went with the FF layout ES instead of the rear wheel drive R/T, which could chew up other cars and spit them out easily.
And then there's that racing mod, which is one of three drag racing cars. Sure, it looks kind of cool (sorry, had to…), but why didn't they give it a NASCAR stock car RM like the Ford Taurus SHO '98?