Muscle cars and American classics in general have an inherent ability to make people slap on some rose-tinted nostalgia glasses, allowing many to see them as more than just cars, but pieces of culture and history itself. Over the decades, a lot of hype has surrounded several of these cars, with some garnishing massive reputations in the process…but, do the cars themselves really stand up to those reputations? Of course, many do, which is exactly why so many of these classics are demanding a king’s ransom for their value. For others, that notion is a bit more skeptical, despite high values on the market.

Some of these cars were simply just slow, and there’s nothing wrong with that, unless they’re advertised and heralded as genuinely fast, only to leave many drivers unfulfilled. Others are just poorly built, and yet, they still command a massive following. Meanwhile, some of these aren’t necessarily bad at all, but have been drastically oversold for reasons unknown. For whatever their reasons, these overrated American cars simply didn’t stand up to the test of time.

Related: 10 Classic Ford Mustang Models That Became Icons

10 1969 Chevrolet Nova SS

1969 Chevrolet Nova SS 396 black muscle car
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These days, vintage Chevy Novas are commanding much higher prices than ever, with several SS versions selling for absurd sums, especially when you consider what they really are.

In full honesty, the Chevy Nova started its life as a compact-sized economy car, built directly to battle against the Ford Falcon. By the late 1960s, the Nova was still very much an economy car, albeit with Chevy’s famous Super Sport package, which saw thousands of these cars fitted with the small-block 350 and the L78 396-cid V8. Sure, these are seriously cool cars and are wickedly fast, but for what they’re costing the average buyer, you’re way better off just buying a standard Nova and dropping in your own choice of engine.

9 1987 Cadillac Allante

1989 Cadillac Allante Convertible
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The Cadillac Allante was one of the ballsiest offerings that General Motors brought forth during the 1980s, save for the Buick GNX. What made the Allante special is that the vast majority of its construction was carried out by famed coach builder Pininfarina, all the way over in Italy. After the bodywork was complete, the finished shells were then flown from Turin to Detroit for final assembly, via a specialized Boeing 747, which resulted in one of the most expensive assembly processes ever conceived.

On paper, it might sound like a recipe for success. In reality, it wasn't. The complex construction process of the Cadillac Allante resulted in insanely high MSRPs over its brief production run from 1987 until 1993. On top of which, Cadillac had decided to use a shortened Seville chassis, which proved for some sketchy handling and plenty of torque-steer. A lack of horsepower was also a factor, although the 1993 versions were upgraded with the Northstar V8 and 300 horses for the final year of production, but we all know the horror stories of that engine.

8 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Black 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28
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Several people seem to envision 1970s muscle cars as powerful machines, ready to do battle at the drag strip at a moment’s notice, with ample amounts of horsepower on tap to finish the job. In the real world, the 1970s were an abysmal era for American muscle. Due to government regulations and smog control, the majority of the 1970s saw these “muscle cars” struggling just to churn out 200 horsepower, if you were lucky.

The 1979 Chevy Camaro Z28 is a prime example of this. Don’t let the ground effects and the wild graphics fool you, the hottest versions of these Camaros only made 175 horses from their 350-cid V8s. To be fair, this doesn’t make it much different than its competitors during this time, but it’s still an amazingly low output for such a large engine, despite high sales records.

Related: 10 Reasons Why The Pontiac GTO Is A Legendary Muscle Car

7 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1

1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1
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1973 proved to be the last year of the Ford Mustang's initial run, which would soon see itself temporarily replaced by the Mustang II. At this point, the Mustang was a bloated shell of its former self, showing massive girth in comparison to the first-gen models of 1964-1966. Although these cars definitely look muscular, that's not quite the case.

The Mach 1 was the top dog for the 1973 Mustang lineup and proved to be the most powerful Ford offered that year. Sadly, this still meant that these cars only made 259 horsepower with the 351-4V Cleveland V8, which is hardly saying much. Although the government legislature is mostly to blame for this sorrowful output, it still earns the 1973 Mach 1 a spot on this list.

6 1984 Hurst/Olds Cutlass

1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Hurst Olds
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The partnership between Oldsmobile and Hurst Performance was absolutely legendary…in the 1960s. By the 1980s, Oldsmobile was once again trying to resurrect the image of their glory days. Cars like the 1968 Hurst/Olds were absolute beasts, specially tuned by Hurst to lay down serious performance against the best muscle cars of the decade. The 1980s, however, were the exact opposite.

The 1984 Hurst/Olds Cutlass is one of those cars that look absolutely great and feature some novel options, particularly Hurst's Lightning Rod shifter, which was styled in the same manner as a Lenco drag-racing gearshift. Still, with only 180 hp on tap, there wasn't going to be much serious racing involved with these cars. Yet, these G-Bodies remain absurdly costly today, despite their lackluster performance.

5 1976 Cadillac Eldorado

1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible
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At one point, Cadillac touted themselves as "the standard of the world", leading the American car industry in the realm of pure luxury. It's easy to see this term applied to virtually everything that Cadillac touched during the 1950s and 1960s, but by the mid-1970s, the world had turned into an entirely different animal – and Cadillac didn't. While European competitors like Mercedes-Benz and BMW were focusing a great deal of attention on performance, Cadillac was still making enormous land barges, powered by massive V8 engines that produced drastically low-power figures.

One of the key factors that doomed the 1976 Cadillac Eldorado was its advertising, which announced it to be "the very last" Cadillac convertible ever to be built, as well as the only domestically built convertible on sale that year. Of course, this proved to be a lie, as Cadillac (as well as several other American manufacturers) would resume convertible production not long afterward.

Related: 10 Reasons Why The Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Is A Classic Muscle Car That Still Delivers Thrills Today

4 1972 Dodge Challenger

1972 Dodge Challenger Yellow
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When most people think about the original Dodge Challenger lineup, they picture true muscle cars, featuring big-block power from Mopar's 383, 440, and 426 Hemi V8s. For the first two production years of 1970 and 1971, this was definitely the case, as these cars proved to be some of the greatest muscle cars ever built and served as the direct inspiration for the modern Challengers you see today.

1972, however, was the start of the downfall. The Malaise Era was at its dawn, and for this year, no big-block engine options were available on the Challenger. To make things worse, the most powerful V8 available was Chrysler's 340-cid unit, which was choked down to anemic power levels. In stock form, these Challengers aren't really worth your time, although they make an amazing platform to pull off a modern Hemi swap.

3 1977 Pontiac Trans Am

1977 Pontiac Trans Am Classic Car
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The 1977 Pontiac Trans Am is probably best known for its role in Smokey and the Bandit, which featured Burt Reynolds driving the living hell out of these cars. Sure, the cars in the movie were fast, but they were drastically modified from the stock platform.

Most of the stock offerings for the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am carried some seriously big engines, consisting of Pontiac's 400-cid V8 and Oldsmobile's 403-cid V8 for the automatic-equipped models. Still, with most variants struggling to churn out 200 horses, you're basically just paying for nostalgia at this point – although these things still look absolutely incredible.

Related: 10 Features That Make The 1967 Shelby GT500 One Of The Most Coveted Muscle Cars

2 1964 Ford Mustang

1964 Is Known To Be The Birth Year Of The Mustang, Although Since The ‘Stang Came In April, It's Usually Called 1964.5 Or 1964½
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Launched nearly 60 years ago, the Ford Mustang has been a staple of the American backdrop ever since. The earliest examples in 1964 set global records for new car sales and quickly brought forth a new wave of popularity for Ford.

Despite all the hype, the first-gen Mustangs were cruisers, at best. Essentially, these cars were just Ford Falcons with different bodywork that was designed to appeal to the younger crowd. No big-block engine options were available during this initial run, leaving the small-block 289 as the hottest example of the bunch (aside from the later Shelby GT350 in 1966, but that’s an entirely different breed).

1 1953 Chevrolet Corvette

White 1953 Chevrolet Corvette on the road
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While the Chevy Corvette has proved to be an absolute icon of the automotive world, as well as American culture as a whole, its beginnings make some wonder how the model ever made it beyond the 1950s, especially with such a mediocre platform at its conception. For its launch in 1953, the Corvette featured some absolutely stunning bodywork, designed by Harley Earl. Sadly, this was about all the early 'Vettes offered.

Powering these early Corvettes was the same Blue Flame inline-six that you'd find lurking under the hood of a typical Chevy sedan, which was essentially a decades-old truck engine. This wasn't exactly terrible, but the decision to pair it with a two-speed Powerglide transmission sealed the fate of the original Corvette. Not just the fact that the transmission was an automatic, but only having two forward gears is definitely not something a true sports car owner is actively seeking for. It would take years for Chevy to properly sort out the Corvette, but when they finally did, they did it right.

Sources: General Motors, Stellantis, Ford Motor Company, Hagerty, Hemmings