The top five Audi cars of the 1980s heralded the launch Quattro AWD just in time for storm clouds to darken the company’s future.
It’s no surprise the top five Audi cars of the 1980s share the company’s Quattro all-wheel drive. In the late 1970s, Audi’s chassis engineer, Jörg Bensinger, created a mule by putting the Volkswagen Iltis’ all-wheel drive in an Audi 80. The results not only showed the practical merits of AWD in snow and wet weather but showed promise in rallying.
But just as Audi began to reap the rewards of AWD, its prospects darkened due to a scandal involving sudden acceleration allegations. Audi claimed the severity of the issue was caused by driver error and was eventually proven right. But the incident and resulting lawsuits damaged sales and the company’s reputation to the point it considered leaving the U.S. market.
Despite the scandal, the 1980s was the decade Audi emerged from Porsche and VW’s shadows. The combination of clean styling and Quattro all-wheel drive also provided Audi with a way forward.
5. Audi 5000S
The Audi 5000 offered modern, streamlined styling three years before Ford launched the Taurus. The streamlined profile reduced the drag coefficient to 0.30, helping the 2.2-liter five-cylinder turbo-powered 5000S achieve a top speed of 139 mph. Car & Driver put the 5000S on its 10 Best List saying, “on the right country road, there’s nothing with four doors that can match one of these.”
Unfortunately, that same year saw the 5000S mired in controversy because of the sudden acceleration scandal. Audi emerged vindicated but dropped the 5000S name in favor of the 100S designation used for the rest of the world.
