Coupes under $50k
- Home /
- Best coupes under $50k
Whether you’re just starting to drive or heading into a mid-life crisis, coupes appeal to all of us. Luckily, these days you don’t need to spend big money to enjoy the thrills of the swept-back driving experience.
While you are able to buy a Subaru BRZ or Toyota 86 for less than $40,000, choices start to expand once you’re shopping under the $50,000 so let’s start there.
Toyota 86
It is getting a little long in the tooth, but the Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ combo still offers sports car thrills for an affordable price. Available in manual or automatic with a choice of specification levels, the Toyota 86 has stood the test of time despite external pressure to fill it with extra power.
Mazda MX-5
With the nameplate just celebrating its 30th birthday, there’s small wonder why so many flock to the Mazda MX-5 for an engaging top-down drive. Even if you’re more of a hard-top fan, Mazda now offers the RF version which includes a folding metal roof.
Hyundai i30 Fastback N
A relatively new player to the coupe game, Hyundai’s i30 N was transformed into a four-door coupe following the success of the hatchback. Sleeker styling marries with everything that made Hyundai’s first true hot hatch great
Review: Nissan Pulsar
OCCASIONALLY the backstory is more intriguing than the subject itself. Welcome, then, to the fall and rise of the Pulsar, dormant after seven long years of the spectacularly unsuccessful C11-series Tiida.
Review: Mitsubishi Outlander LS
Previous Outlanders have never been standout performers in the increasingly competitive medium SUV segment, but they’ve sold solidly due to their appealing seven-seat practicality and good value.
Review: Range Rover
The new Range Rover is so quiet I can hear the leather creaking, and I can’t decide if that’s a flaw or a feature.
Review: Volvo’s all-new V40 with Pedestrian Airbag Technology
Volvo has always had an unusual approach to marketing.
Review: Opel Corsa OPC
There are a lot of emotions I expected to see on the face of the bloke getting out of the Opel Corsa OPC in front of me – bemusement, sadness, fear – but joy was not one of them.
Review: Volvo V40
Volvo has always had an unusual approach to marketing. The pitch for the V40, however, is even stranger, appealing as it does to people’s altruism.
Review: VW Beetle
Remember Peter Weir’s The Cars That Ate Paris? Evidently VW doesn’t.
Review: Audi RS6
I am a Luddite. I have clutched with feverish intensity to the good ole days of atmospheric engines that used cubes to create performance rather than embrace the emerging era dominated by snails and superchargers. That could change with the RS6.
2013 Toyota RAV4 Review
Do buyers of SUVs place much importance on razor-sharp handling, or are there more pressing priorities?
Review: Ford Kuga
It’s the most technologically advanced vehicle Ford has ever sold in Australia, utilising enough computer power to send a monkey to the moon, and back, and it’s not a luxury sedan, or even a mega truck, it’s just a medium SUV – the new Kuga.
Review: 2013 Honda Civic DTi-S Diesel Hatch
Journalists, by nature, are cynics. So when Honda Australia declared its first ever diesel, fitted exclusively to the Civic hatch, is as refined and as quiet as its petrol offerings, I sniggered into my morning coffee.
Review: Mazda CX-5 2.5 AWD
Among 2012’s more eventful moments were Lance Armstrong’s performance-enhanced fall and the meteoric rise of Mazda’s CX-5.
Volvo S60 Polestar Limited Edition
Here, at last, is a truly fast Volvo that isn’t rubbish.
Review: Volkswagen Golf GTI
Can Volkswagen do no wrong?
Review: Renault Zoe
The future really is another country, one from which I’ve just returned.
Review: Audi R8
The R8 supercar is the best thing that has ever happened to Audi.
Review: Mercedes-Benz CLA
Thinking of the CLA-Class as a baby brother to the CLS is right and wrong.
Review: Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG
Excess, as AMG well knows, equals success.
Review: BMW 3 Series Touring
The station wagon is dead.
Review: Porsche 911 C4S
Is it a sign of the times that Porsche Australia reckons the typical 911 Carrera 4 buyer is motivated by its fatter stance and greater presence, not necessarily its extra grip?
Review: Subaru Outback
You can be certain of one thing when you show up at a Subaru launch. Japan’s most idiosyncratic car maker won’t be offering the same stuff as everybody else.
Review: Jaguar F-Type
Yes, it’s a Jaguar, folks, but almost certainly not as you know it.
Review: BMW 3 Series GT
Compared with the odious, ugly X6 or the awkward, ponderous 5 Series GT, the new 3 Series Gran Turismo is relatively inoffensive.
Review: Mercedes-Benz GL350
What’s a nice drivetrain like you doing in a place like this?
