Coupes under $50k
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- 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

2011 Volkswagen Jetta Review
THE Chum Creek Road is one of Victoria’s driving delights, curling its way upward from Healesville into the Toolangi State Forest. The corners can be rough or smooth, changes of direction rapid-fire or constant.

Funny road signs from around the world
Have you ever wondered what sort of work goes into making a road sign? It’s actually an intensive, ongoing process – one involving more than posting giant white lettering on a big reflective sign.

Top ten most basic cars ever made
Top ten most basic cars ever made

The Worlds Most Stolen Cars
The Worlds Most Stolen Cars

Opel Zafira Tourer
Though it doesn’t quite feel like it’s running on rails, the Zafira Tourer is smooth and stable at a 180km/h cruise on the unrestricted autobahn outside Munich.

Bizarre concept cars of the 1990s
Bizarre concept cars of the 1990s

Live Blog – Day 4
Stinking hot Heathcote’s drag strip is where the final part of PCC 2011 takes place, with the first off the rank the smurf blue feral-sounding Jaguar XJR-S.

Live Blog – Day 3: morning
The day began with car allocation for the road loop north, where the 18-man crew hope that the car they’re given to start off in is one on their bucket list.

Live Blog – Day 3: afternoon
This is what it’s all about: brilliant, challenging roads and equally matched performance cars.

Live Blog – day 2: morning
BMW is championing its sixth-generation 3 Series as a bigger yet lighter, and faster yet more frugal compact rear-drive sedan.

Live Blog – day 2: afternoon
The gods have turned Phillip Island from a wet, miserable place barely suitable for photographs to a glorious playground for our judges. Yet Ponchard wasn’t the first to spin – Curt Dupriez won that contest, and in the Cayman R, no less.

DRIVEN: Hyundai i40 Tourer
Maybe the i40 Tourer suggests Hyundai also realises the clock is ticking, because this mid-size wagon is just about the most interesting mainstream car the big Korean has launched in Australia.

It’s back: Motor’s Performance Car Cup 2011
Sixteen cars, a bunch of car nuts and one helluva a week. Welcome to MOTOR’s Performance Car Cup 2011.

Live Blog: day 1
We’ve assembled the fastest, baddest and meanest cars of the past 12 months, from screaming turbocharged four-pots, sweet sixes, atmo and turbocharged V8s and, for good measure a V10 too.

The world’s greatest cars by country
After much deliberation we’ve settled on a standout model from each of the major car building nations and quite a few minor ones too. In theory, they’ve all got an equal chance of impressing. In reality, it’s a mix of bona fide classics, exotic rarities and the obscure.

Funny Bumper Stickers
Funny Bumper Stickers

New BMW 3 Series revealed
BMW is championing its sixth-generation 3 Series as a bigger yet lighter, and faster yet more frugal compact rear-drive sedan.

Holden Colorado revealed
Styled in Brazil, built in Thailand, and finally free of engineering links with Isuzu Japan, the new-generation Colorado is GM’s freshly globalised ute for South East Asia.

New Fiat Panda revealed
Fiat has revealed the new Panda that will go on sale next year to mark only the third new model in its 31-year history. Fiat says the new Panda is safer, more comfortable and packs in more technology, yet is barely any bigger than before.

Mazda 3 geared-up for sales showdown
Mazda has launched its face-lifted 3 hatch and sedan range, with lower prices, extra equipment and a new fuel-saver variant added.

Top 10 Favourite Porches of all time
Top 10 Favourite Porches of all time

10 tips to make your car child-friendly
10 tips to make your car child-friendly

Beep beep, new Barina is $15,990
After five years masquerading as an early-noughties Daewoo, the Holden Barina is out to restore its reputation with this Aussie-styled, Korean-built, and, crucially, Opel Corsa-platformed new model.

Auf widersehen, Frankfurt
The presentations are over, the press kits handed out, engineers and designers questioned, and now a bleary-eyed Wheels team are on long-haul flights back from the Frankfurt International Motor Show.