The 1980s were an incredible era of automobile manufacturing. Some automakers had just started to really figure out how to make performance cars again after the fuel crisis of the 1970s shoved a wrench in the works, and quality was improving at a rapid rate. Many cars from the 1980s, particularly the latter half, were simple enough they could be worked on by a DIYer and hadn’t yet been saddled with too many electronic nannies to be enjoyed by an enthusiast. Fuel injection had become mainstream for even the cheapest models, and tire technology had come on leaps and bounds in that decade, allowing even mainstream automakers to develop some pretty good handling machines. Sure, there were some stinkers, but the democratization of speed arrived in the 80s, so who did it best?
If I had to pick any single year from any single automaker to mark as the greatest of all time, it has to be Toyota’s 1987 run. At the top of the lineup you have the Mk3 Supra and its sedan sibling, the Cressida. Just sticking to reasonably affordable sports cars you could also drop by your Toyota dealer to choose from the mid-engine MR2, a number of Celica varieties, the rear-wheel drive AE86 Corolla GT-S, or the front-wheel drive E80 Corolla FX-16.
Pick your poison
It gets really impressive when you think about trucks, too, as the all-but-indestructible Toyota Pickup, first-gen 4Runner, and FJ60 Land Cruiser were also on that same dealer lot. You’re going to have to do a lot of work to find a lineup more impressive than this one. I mean, come on!
So what do you think? Am I wrong? Do you think Toyota has a better lineup of cars in 2025 than it did in 1987? Maybe you’re a Ford guy and think 1984 was the absolute S-tier pinnacle, or that the real GOAT of the 1980s could be found in BMW’s yuppie-bait showroom. I’m willing to listen to your suggestions if you have good reasons for picking it. Can you do better? Sound off in the comments below with your favorite automaker’s lineup from the 1980s. Next week we’ll pick our ten favorite answers and compile them for everyone to see. Let’s go.
