The top 10 best coupes to buy in 2024

Written by Alan Taylor-Jones Updated: 5 June 2024

In the early 2000s, almost every manufacturer had a coupe car in their line-up. We’re not talking about rakishly rooved SUVs such as the BMW X6 or five-door ‘coupes’ like the Audi A7, either. These were proper two-door coupes that sacrificed practicality at the altar of style.

Naturally, these cars were hugely compromised. You had to make to with tiny (or non-existent) rear seats and boots that were barely big enough for a weekend’s luggage. But they were fantastic for posing around town in and great at making you feel special.

Now, coupes come in a wide range of shapes and sizes – and they offer varying amounts of performance and practicality. To help you sort the wheat from the chaff, we told our team of road testers to put their heads together and hash out a top 10 list of the best coupes on sale in 2024. It’s also worth noting that, for the purposes of this article, we’ve focused on traditional two-door coupes rather than the multitude of coupe crossovers.

Scroll down to read our road tester’s thoughts – and, if you spot a car that grabs your attention, head over to the leasing section of Parkers to find out whether you can afford to put it on your driveway. Alternatively, most of the coupes below are also available as used cars at knock-down prices.

The best coupes to buy in 2024

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What is a coupe?

The word ‘coupe’ is derived from the French verb ‘to cut’ and was first applied to horse-drawn carriages with smaller passenger compartments than the norm. When self-propelled cars took over from equine-based methods of transportation, many of the terms previously applied to carriages were adopted by the automotive industry, coupe being used ever since.

Nowadays, the word ‘coupe’ has adopted a very broad definition within the car world. It’s plastered onto all manner of vehicles, from SUVs to rakish four-door hatchbacks, becoming as much of a marketing buzzword as it is a descriptor. The purest definition is a two-door car with a low (or cut-down) roofline and a design that typically prioritises style over practicality. For that reason, coupes also may or may not have rear seats.

Often (but not always – see the Bentley Continental GT and Maserati GranTurismo for textbook examples of exceptions to the rule), coupes also have firm suspension and sharp handling. That makes the best sports coupes an absolute joy to drive.

Coupes always have fixed rooves, but some manufacturers also make closely related convertible versions of the same car. You can have a fixed head and drop head version of the BMW 4 Series, for example. If getting the wind in your hair is a priority, check out our list of the best convertibles on sale.

What is a four-door coupe?

Pitch that question to an engineer, and they’ll tell you there’s no such thing. However, four-door coupes have penetrated the market thanks to the work of clever marketeers.

Four-door coupes were designed to solve a problem that the traditional two-door coupe created. So, buyers want the style of a coupe, but they’re completely unwilling to opt for something as sensible as a saloon or estate car despite how desperate their need for that additional practicality may be.

Four-door coupes can be very good cars. For example, we rather like the Audi RS7 Sportback and the BMW i4 Gran Coupe, even though they’re both basically more shapely saloon cars. Still, they stretch the definition of ‘coupe’ too far for us.

More recently, manufacturers have started sticking ‘coupe’ badge on their more rakish SUV models. These so-called coupe-SUVs typically have a slinkier back end and sharply sloping roofline compared to the regular SUVs they’re based on. Check out our review of the Skoda Enyaq Coupe for a classic example of the breed.

Luke Wilkinson is Deputy Editor of Parkers. He has worked as a car journalist for five years, and spends his time writing news, reviews, features and advice pieces for both Parkers and its sister site CAR magazine.