McLaren MP4-12C
Reference — shown, never scored
Why 5.0: The first road McLaren since the F1, and it launched into direct comparison with the 458 Italia — a fight the 12C lost on emotion even while winning several instrumented tests on numbers. Hydraulic steering feel was praised from day one; the flat, turbo-muted soundtrack was not, and that verdict never really reversed.
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · $231k (2011) → $95k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
The long version
Reviewers spent 2011 comparing this car unfavorably to the 458 Italia's naturally aspirated howl, and the criticism stuck even though McLaren's own chassis engineering — hydraulic power steering, proactive damping — drew real praise from the same road tests. Early owners who bought expecting Ferrari-grade theater often traded out within a couple of years, feeding a depreciation curve that made this one of the cheapest ways into a carbon-tub supercar for most of the 2010s. The bargain-hunters arriving now are typically drivers who wanted the chassis specifically and never cared much about the exhaust note critics kept litigating.