Sexy ’80s coupés you can use every day

Stylish two-door icons that won’t cost a fortune

Fancy a daily driver modern classic that’s fun like a hot hatch but cuts more of a dash? You need an 1980s coupé in your life.

Compact four-cylinder coupés were big business in the greed-is-good 1980s, but you don’t need to be a Wall Street trader to run one. Most were spun off from hot hatches or saloons, meaning they’re simple to look after, great to drive, and surprisingly practical, too.

Here’s our countdown of 20 1980s coupés you can use every day.

1. Ford Capri

Target price: £7000

With its live rear axle and leaf springs, ‘the car you always promised yourself’ already handled like a classic by the time it was pensioned off in 1986.

But Capris are simple and fun to drive and there are engines to suit every pocket, from a feeble 1.3 to the wild 2.8 Cologne V6 and rare Turbo Technics conversions (which will, admittedly, cost a lot more than our target price above).

2. Opel Manta

Target price: £6000

GM’s answer to the Ford Capri offers similarly retro-style driving thrills, but that fact that the name conjures up images of Russell Brookes on the way to British Rally Championship glory, and not Del Boy on his way to Peckham market, might help you decide which you prefer.

Available in practical hatchback or sexier notchback coupé form, but a cult following means neither is cheap.

3. Volvo 480

Target price: £3000

Inspired by Volvo’s own classic 1800ES shooting brake from the early 1970s, this wedge-shaped coupé was Volvo’s first front-wheel-drive car.

Under the nose was either a naturally-aspirated or turbocharged Renault 1.7, the latter so mildly tuned it made just 11bhp more.

4. Volkswagen Scirocco

Target price: £4000

Less pretty, but more practical (and less rust-prone) than the original Scirocco, the MK2 is perfect for Golf GTi fans with vertigo.

Carb’d 1.6s are all show and no go, so look for a fuel-injected 1.8, badged GTi or Scala.

5. Mitsubishi Starion

Target price: £7000

Mitsubishi’s answer to the Porsche 944 Turbo does a similar job, but with whole lot less polish. But maybe that’s part of the appeal – as is the massive gulf in values now that 944 Turbo prices have exploded.

Early cars had narrow arches and 2.0-litre engines; the last models had quattro-style flared wings and 2.6 power.

6. BMW E30 3-series

Target price: £7000

BMW didn’t start calling the two-door 3-series a coupé until the E36 arrived in 1990, but the earlier E30 ticks most of the right boxes and is much cheaper to fuel than BMW’s proper coupé, the 635i.

If you’re torn between a fast, oversteery 325i and the humble 318i, skip the slow, thirsty 320i and try the 16-valve 318iS, BMW’s rare Golf GTi rival.

7. Lotus Excel

Target price: £9000

Evolved from the earlier Eclat, the Excel looks excellent from the front, and utterly excrement from the rear.

There’s no turbo version, but they’re great fun to drive and the all-alloy twin-cam is powerful enough to keep a contemporary hot hatch honest. Ugly, but massively underrated.

8. Isuzu Piazza

Target price: £9000

This rare, oddball alternative to Mitsubishi’s Starion featured relatively modern Giugiaro styling on top that hid an antiquated rear-wheel-drive chassis and live-rear axle below.

That was nothing a sprinkle of Hethel magic couldn’t fix: look for a ‘Handling by Lotus’ badge on the much-improved ’87-on cars.

9. Toyota Celica

Target price: £5000

Toyota’s junior-Mustang started the decade as a square-jawed rear-drive fastback or notchback, before switching to front-wheel drive and swapping creases for curves in ’85.

Standard GT-spec cars made a respectable 147bhp, but the push for WRC glory brought 182bhp and four-wheel drive for 1988’s GT-Four.

10. Vauxhall Calibra

Target price: £4000

Taking over from the geriatric Opel Manta in 1989, the stunning new Calibra was the first Vauxhall-badged coupé since way back in 1981.

The skinny-tyred entry-level model claimed an incredible 0.26 Cd drag coefficient, but that’s about where the excitement stopped: the chassis was pinched from the stodgy Mk3 Cavalier.

Still, there’s genuine room for four and the 2.0 8- and 16v engines are strong.

11. Mazda 626 Coupé

Target price: £4000

Think Mazda coupé and you automatically think RX-7. But there’s another two-door Mazda that’s roomier inside and able to drive past a garage without making you feel like you’re on a pub-crawl.

We're talking, of course, about the 1987-’92 Mazda 626, known in Japan as the Capella and in the US and Australia as the MX-6. 

A twin-cam 2.0 developing close to 150bhp makes the 626 feel plenty rapid – although a feeble survival rate might make finding one a tough job.

12. Nissan Silvia

Target price: £5000

While rivals such as Toyota’s Celica followed the hot hatch trend and switched to front-wheel drive in the 1980s, Nissan’s handsome Silvia and its 200SX successor stuck with RWD.

There’s one problem: the combination of that rear-drive chassis and the tuner-friendly CA18 engine means finding one that hasn’t been drifted to an inch of destruction is going to be tough.

13. Nissan Sunny Coupé

Target price: £4000

Here’s one Nissan coupé you can guarantee hasn’t spent its life going sideways. In the case of the entry-level 84bhp 1.6, it’s probably never been further than the post office on pension day.

If you’re looking for marginally more excitement, keep an eye out for the ZX version with its 16-valves and 120+bhp.

14. Honda CR-X

Target price: £6000

High revving multivalve engines supply the thrills in this second-gen Honda coupé, though the likelihood of serious rot means going for the MoT is equally likely to set your pulse racing.

Downsides include slow-witted steering and a back seat that’s strictly for luggage; if you need more space, try the bigger Prelude.

15. Volkswagen Corrado

Target price: £4000

GM’s Calibra might have won the fashion show when this pair were new, but the Corrado’s Mk1-Scirocco-aping lines have aged better. And so has the driving experience.

Base power for 1980s cars was the top Golf GTi’s 139bhp 16-valve 1.8 with a 160bhp supercharged 8-valve 1.8 optional. The mighty VR6 didn’t arrive until 1991.

16. Audi Coupé

Target price: £5000

Original quattros are genuine ’80s icons, but cost effectively rules them out from daily duties. Their narrow-arch Coupé brother is still a viable option, though.

If you’re after quattro-style sound effects, you’ll want the burbly non-turbo inline five. But the four-cylinder versions that use the 1.8-litre Golf GTi engine are a solid bet, offering better handling and economy, and only a slight drop in performance.

17. Porsche 924

Target price: £5000

Too expensive, not fast enough, not Porsche-enough. Those criticisms dogged the 924 for years. But now that the value of even the scuzziest brown 911 Targa Sportomatic on cookie cutters has soared beyond the grasp of most of us, it’s been rediscovered.

They’re not quick and the back seats are a joke, but the boot is huge, the chassis is nicely balanced and the original pre-S 924 car with the VW/Audi engine is surprisingly easy to maintain.

18. Alfa Romeo Sprint

Target price: £6000

The Giulietta-based GTV, with its Ferrari-style transaxle, might seem like the obvious Alfa choice – but don’t forget about the little front-wheel-drive, boxer-engined Sprint.

Originally called the Alfasud Sprint in recognition of the four-door on which it was based, it became simply Sprint in ’83, and shortly afterwards switched to the newer 33 platform and lost the inboard front brakes.

The Sprint has two problems: rust and rarity. If you’re using one daily and want to keep on using it, you’d best live somewhere sunny.

19. Saab 900

Target price: £4000

Is Saab’s 900 a coupé, or just a two-door hatch or saloon? What we can agree on is that it’s as emblematic of 1980s cool as an Audi quattro or early M3, but costs a fraction as much.

Turbos come in fast 8v and faster 16v guises, but a standard non-turbo 900 gives you same Saab fighter cockpit and droopy-headliner experience and is much cheaper to buy and run.

20. Mercedes-Benz 230CE

Target price: £3000

Ditching the back doors didn’t turn Benz’s bulletproof W124 into a sports car, but drop all four windows (presuming they still work) and you’ve got a four-seat pillar-less coupé that’s more elegant than anything else at the price.

These cars are shockingly cheap and more than tough enough to take on the daily grind. Worried about fuel costs? Skip the grunty 3.0 ‘six’ and go for a stoic 2.3 ‘four’.