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The Market
Compact coupes represent one of the most volatile sectors in the whole automotive market. Cast your mind back a few years and it looked as if we’d be awash with the things, both Ford and Vauxhall having answered the prayers of many with their Puma and Tigra models. And then the market went awfully flat and seemed to die a little. It’s picking up again, with more and more manufacturers realising that demand exists for the Compact Coupe, a class created by the simple expedient of putting a smarter, sleeker set of clothes on an ordinary supermini or small family hatch.As you might imagine, this works better in some cases than in others, depending on the driving dynamics of the donor car. This in turn has led to some spectacular successes (the Fiesta-based Ford Puma) and some pretty awful failures (the Tercel-based Toyota Paseo). Truth to tell, there are many more mediocre cars than genuinely good ones in this sector but ironically, this doesn’t seem to matter much. This could be because the cars are usually used as glorified city runarounds rather than sportscars, so the short-comings don’t show through. Or it could be because the people who buy them aren’t experienced enough to appreciate fine handling anyway. Whatever the truth, you can see why the popularity of cars like these will continue to grow – and why their residual values are so much higher than the humble shopping cars upon which they’re based. Of course, in return for the wind-cheating bodywork and the admiring looks from the neighbours, you’ll have to make several sacrifices, mainly in the areas of luggage space and rear seat passenger accommodation (both often negligible). There are all the usual supermini virtues however – low running costs, great manoeuvrability and easy parking.
As usual, there’s some cross-over choices that you might also want to consider. Coupes like the Toyota Celica, the Ford Probe and Cougar, the Honda Prelude, the Fiat Coupe and several others are really classified as medium-sized Coupes from the next class up – which is why we won’t be looking at them closely here. In terms of size and technology, they’re a world apart from something like a Tigra. However, on the used market, older examples may represent a good alternative to a newer Compact Coupe. Your call… |
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