The '80s are back with a bang. Suddenly, all the classic cars from the era are in demand, none more so than Euro classics.
It was something of a golden decade for European carmakers who all seemed to either be at or very near the top of their game. It was for many, a decade of excess too and that showed in the cars that were being made, brands were investing a lot of money in high performance models that they truly believed were going to sell well.
With all that investment, some incredible cars were developed. Cars that have stood the test of time and can still be considered reliable today.
10 Peugeot 205 GTi
When the Golf GTI came out in the late '70s, it set the benchmark. However, in something of an uncharacteristic move, Peugeot hit back the hardest with their own GTi.
It was better than the Mk1 in every way. Even when VW hit back with the Mk2, the little Peugeot just cocked its back wheel and blitzed the Golf both on track and on the sales charts for most of the '80s.
9 Porsche 944 S
For Porsche, the '80s were all about attempting to reinvent themselves by introducing several front engine rear-drive cars that looked worlds apart from their hot selling 911.
These cars were not met with much affection, and today most of them find themselves at the butt of most Porsche jokes. Turbo cars were frail, and the 924 was built cheaply, but the non-turbo 944 was something of a Goldilocks model that had sufficient performance, Porsche build quality, and actual mechanical reliability.
8 BMW M5
Believe it or not, BMW used to make reliable cars. Today, they are widely criticized for their lack of reliability, and often needless complexity. But the '80s M5 wasn’t nearly as complex as it became in the by '90s onwards and this is still a pretty stout car.
It is also one of the hottest sedans from the decade that really gave rise to the super sedan and captured everyone’s imagination at the time. It made an impressive-for-the-time 280 horsepower and went from 0-60 mph in around 6 seconds.
7 Mercedes-Benz 500 SL
Nobody was making more reliable cars than Mercedes-Benz in the '80s. Most of their cars were basically bulletproof and the W123 cars (above) were even “Africa-proof” and still trundle around most of the continent with close to a million miles racked up on their odometers.
The 500 SL was their sports car at the time, and it carried an exclusive price tag. It didn’t handle all that well, but it looked great, and had a V8 that got the barge moving.
6 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera
Since the late '70s, Porsche have pretty much been the gold standard for reliable performance and these potent air-cooled cars still attest to that.
Unfortunately, their incredible durability means they also have a legion of dedicated fans all willing to pay far too much for these cars. Hence, as good as they are, they are still horribly overpriced.
5 Alfa Romeo Spider
Reliability and Alfa don’t usually go hand in hand, but if we are talking European cars, there simply has to be something flying the Italian flag, and this is it.
By the '80s, the Spider was reaching the end of a long production life and just about all the “kinks” had been worked out. They became the go-to Italian sports car throughout the '80s, and are still remarkably reliable, for an Alfa that is.
4 Audi Quattro
Having a fire-breathing Group B rally monster doing all their PR work didn’t do their sales any harm, and the Quattro quickly became a household name.
It also proved to be a pretty reliable performance car, up to then expectations for turbocharged cars were pretty low, but the Quattro put pay to those assumptions and balanced the undeniable turbo-lag with all-wheel grip.
3 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth
Few engines are as legendary as the Ford YB. Capable of taking a tune that can deliver over 1000 horsepower, in stock guise, they are understressed.
Making 200 horsepower keeps these cars reliable, but most tuners have agreed the sweet spot is somewhere between 350 and 400, and that is without upgrading any of the internals.
2 Mercedes-Benz AMG Hammer
Made in seriously limited numbers, these cars will now fetch somewhere in the region of a ¼ of a million dollars.
A luxury sedan for the ages, these AMG tuned monsters were capable of astonishing speed back in the '80s, able to take on the supercar elite and hunt down almost any Porsche on the unrestricted Autobahn.
1 BMW M3
The E30 fan base stretches all over the globe, it became renowned not only for its raucous performance, but also its incredible durability.
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Even though it was only packing a naturally aspirated inline-4, it just happened to be a race derived lump which was capable of churning out 215 horsepower (or just as much as the inline-5 turbo Quattro) in road going spec.