These 2010s Sports Cars Didn’t Deserve To Be Discontinued
It’s difficult to say when exactly the “golden era” for sports cars was, as every generation of car enthusiast would likely give a very different answer. It’s very unlikely, however, that most of them would say the 2010s. Perhaps this is due to a shift in tastes: over the decade, the market for sports cars shrunk considerably, and as a result, many models didn’t make it past 2020. This was partly due to various financial crises around the world limiting how much buyers were willing to spend, and partly because performance SUVs exploded in popularity and ate into the traditional sports car’s market share.
All of this change over the decade has meant that there have been several models killed off that simply didn’t deserve to be. In some cases, there were clear reasons for their discontinuation, be it financial ones or practical ones like tightening emissions standards. However, with a few of these cars, it seems like there could have been plenty more life left in them, had their respective manufacturers just put a little extra development work in and given buyers what they wanted. Either way, none of these ten 2010s sports cars deserved to be discontinued.
10 Alfa Romeo 4C
When Alfa Romeo first announced the arrival of a purebred carbon-fiber chassis sports car, the excitement was palpable among enthusiasts. After years of not quite getting it right, it seemed like Alfa was onto a surefire winner with this one. But, when the 4C debuted, many were disappointed.
The main complaint was its handling and the fact that its four-cylinder engine wasn’t as lively as many had hoped. Both of these issues could have been fixed with further development, but Alfa instead decided to leave the 4C on sale unchanged, eventually axing the coupe in 2018 due to poor sales. The spider version followed just two years later, being discontinued in 2020.
9 Ferrari LaFerrari
Any Ferrari with a name translating as, “The Ferrari,” needed to be outstanding, and the LaFerrari didn’t disappoint when it was unveiled in 2013. With a hybrid V12 powertrain and a maximum output of 950 hp, the car seemed like a definitive vision of the brand’s future. Originally, 500 coupe examples were built between 2013 and 2016, then the brand announced a further run of open-top “Aperta” examples that were in production until 2018.
After that, however, the LaFerrari project was ended without a clear successor or any indication of whether Ferrari intended to make another halo car at all. They could have fairly easily developed a revamped version of the car with a new body shape, as they’d already done with the 458 and 488. Instead, it seems the LaFerrari is destined to remain the last of its kind.
8 Holden HSV Commodore GTS-R
Some Americans might have never heard of HSV or the Commodore, but for many Australians, the name represents the last hurrah for the country’s domestic car industry after over 100 years of production. Unveiled in 2017, the GTS-R was the most powerful factory Holden ever produced, with a whopping 636 hp in W1 spec.
All of that power went through the rear wheels, giving the car a 0-62 mph time of 4.2 seconds and an electronically-limited top speed of 155 mph. Unfortunately, the axing of the HSV Commodore was unavoidable, as the entire domestic manufacturing industry was wound down during the 2010s, with the final Holden plant shutting its doors in 2017.
7 Jaguar XKR-S GT
Jaguar has a long and storied history in motorsport, but by the early ’00s, they’d spent a few years off the pace in terms of production sports cars. The second-gen XK began to change that, being introduced in 2006 and culminating with the XKR-S GT in 2014.
The final car was the closest thing Jaguar had made to a supercar in years, a 550 hp brute with a race-ready body kit. The F-Type was introduced around the time the XK was axed, but it isn’t a true successor, as it aims for a different market and was initially produced alongside the XK.
6 VW Scirocco
The Scirocco can trace its roots back to the early ’70s as it was initially designed as a replacement for the Karmann Ghia coupe, but it’s the third generation car we’re focusing on in this list. Introduced in 2008 and axed in 2017, the Scirocco was based on the platform of the Golf but cut a sportier, sleeker line than its best-selling sibling.
It never came to America because Volkswagen bosses decided they couldn’t make any money on it, although perhaps if it had done it would have seen more sales success. As it happened, the Scirocco never really took off in Europe, and it was eventually axed with no successor due to years of low sales.
5 BMW i8
When the BMW i8 Concept was first unveiled back in 2011, very few people thought its radical design would make it through to production. Fast-forward two years and many were shocked when the customer-ready car debuted with the same jaw-dropping looks and futuristic silhouette. As cool as the i8 looked though, its performance could never quite match up.
It looked like a pure-blooded supercar, and it was priced like one, but its 357 hp at launch meant that it couldn’t keep up with its rivals. Despite that, it sold relatively well, shifting over 20,000 units and becoming the best-selling hybrid sports car before it was axed in 2020. Given its eco-credentials and well-aged looks, the i8 seems well suited to further development and a second-generation, but it looks like BMW isn’t interested in making a successor.
4 Porsche 918 Spyder
Alongside the LaFerrari, the Porsche 918 Spyder became one of the hottest topics in the car world throughout the years it was on sale between 2013 and 2015. It featured an F1-inspired hybrid V8 powertrain with an 875 hp combined output, and it broke the production car lap record at the Nurburgring, becoming the first to set a sub-7-minute time.
Porsche made 918 units of the car, but seemingly missed an opportunity to sell further examples. Interest in the 918 remains strong to this day, so it seems odd that Porsche never made a production hard-top version, or at least carried the technology used over to a new halo car.
3 Ferrari GTC4Lusso
Ferrari sold four-seater sports grand tourers for decades, but they always seemed to struggle to make them as desirable as the rest of their range. The 456, 612 Scaglietti, and FF have some of the lowest resale values of any recent Ferraris, and the GTC4Lusso doesn’t seem to be faring much better.
It was axed in 2020 after just four years on sale. No replacement was announced, leaving Ferrari without a “shooting brake” style car for the first time since the ’90s. It’s shame that the GTC4Lusso couldn’t have been kept around a little longer, as it was a welcome change from the brand’s increasingly samey lineup over the past few years.
2 BMW M6
BMW’s naming system has become more and more confusing in recent years, with the “2 Series” in some markets now being simultaneously a small sporty coupe and also a 7-seat minivan. The M6 was a victim of this strange numbering, as its most direct replacement was the 2018 M8 Coupe.
However, the M8 Coupe is not directly a replacement to the M6, as it’s pricier, more tech-heavy, and comes with a bigger focus on luxury as well as performance. With so many models already in BMW’s lineup, it’s disappointing that they didn’t choose to make a new generation of the M6 in its original format, that is, as a two-door version of the excellent M5 sedan.
1 Dodge Viper
Perhaps the most surprising discontinued 2010s sports car of all is the Dodge Viper, as it had been in production since the early ’90s and had firmly cemented itself a reputation as one of America’s best performance cars. Unfortunately, by the time the fifth generation was introduced in 2013, sales of the car had slowed dramatically.
Inventory began to pile up, and it got to a point where the factory suspended production for two months to try and shift some of the unsold cars that were already sitting on dealership lots. It seemed like the writing was on the wall, and sure enough, the car was axed in 2017.
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