Car and Driver
The title says it all: Here you’ll find a rundown of every Car and Driver 10Best Cars list from the inaugural awards in 1983 all the way through the latest crop of automotive greats. While the cars that win each year aren’t necessarily the newest, we strive to have our winners represent the absolute pinnacle of what’s available on your local dealer’s lot.
These Cars Have Won 10Best the Most
One last note before you dive in and wonder where the heck all the Ferraris are: We always ensure that our winners are available at prices mere mortals can afford, because a car that pushes or exceeds six figures had damn well better be amazing.
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Car and Driver isn’t the first magazine to bring you the 10 best of something or other, nor will we be the last. We hope that we’re breaking important new automotive ground, however, by bringing you the 10 best in 10 different automotive categories. That’s 100 of the best, right there, and when you throw in our seven sidebars—those boxes and panels that hold subcategories related to one or another of the 10 basic biggies—it adds up to 170 examples of things excellent, noteworthy, and/or memorable. If not the best of everything, at least our choice for the best of Automotive America, 1983.
FULL 1983 10BEST COVERAGE
The Winners:
AMC/Renault Alliance
Chevrolet Caprice
Ford Mustang GT 5.0
Honda Accord
Mazda RX-7
Mercedes-Benz 380SEL
Pontiac 6000STE
Porsche 944
Toyota Celica Supra
Volkswagen Rabbit GTI
There’s a great deal of pleasure to be had in acknowledging things that really work well, people who’ve actually accomplished something, situations where everything seemed to go right. That’s what the second annual Car and Driver 10Best issue is all about. Cars, parts, people, events, and places singled out for a little well-earned praise. Last year we decided to celebrate and commemorate the 10 best in 10 different automotive categories. The result was our January 1983 issue, which started the year off with a roar, one of the best-selling magazines of our entire year. So, okay, if you liked last January, you ought to love this January. We get better with practice. FULL 1984 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi 5000S / Turbo
Dodge Daytona Turbo
Honda Accord
Honda Prelude
Mazda 626
Pontiac 6000STE
Pontiac Fiero 2M4
Porsche 944
Toyota Celica Supra
Volkswagen GTI
It is January again, and we have come to praise and celebrate the best cars, people, and other noteworthy phenomena in our automotive universe. There was an embarrassment of riches from which to choose this year. Far more has gone right in the world of automobiles than has gone wrong. Mr. Reagan hasn’t fixed all that’s bad in the government’s relationship with the Republic’s cars and drivers, but neither has he done anything terrible to us, as did Mr. Nixon (the speed limit) and Mr. Carter (everything else). General Motors has given us a Corvette that not only will run faster than any other American production car in the past decade (150 miles per hour), but will also set records for lateral acceleration (0.84 g on the skidpad) and stop just as fast as it goes. GM must share the credit for these splendid achievements with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, but the fact that their collaboration was so successful is just another reason for us to celebrate. Five years ago, there was little to be hopeful about on the automotive scene. Now we’re deluged with wonders and delights. They’re even fixing our roads! FULL 1985 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi 5000S / Turbo
Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager
Honda Accord
Honda Civic/CRX
Honda Prelude
Merkur XR4Ti
Pontiac 6000STE
Porsche 944
The fourth edition of our annual 10Best fest is dedicated to the admirable notion that it’s never too soon to begin a celebration. In a few weeks, fans of the automobile all over the world will be toasting Gottlieb Daimler, Karl Benz, and everything automotive that has followed since they put us on this roll 100 years ago. To give you party animals the proper excuse for a head start at the merrymaking, we’ve packed this special issue with the 10 best stories we could muster. We hope it’s the first hurrah in a full year’s tribute to all that’s good about the automobile.
FULL 1986 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi 5000CS Turbo Quattro
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Taurus / Mercury Sable
Honda Accord
Honda Prelude
Lincoln Mark VII LSC
Porsche 944
Saab 9000
Toyota MR2
Volkswagen GTI
We modestly title our annual celebration of automotive excellence “Ten Best,” but this January issue is filled to the borders with more than a hundred examples of the greatest things in life. If you’re not already in a festive frame of mind, you soon will be: there’s more than enough inspiration here to lift your holiday spirit to the rafters and to keep you humming on a high plane well into the new year. FULL 1987 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura Integra
Audi 5000/CS Turbo
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Mustang GT
Ford Taurus
Honda Accord
Mazda RX-7 Turbo
Pontiac Bonneville SE
Saab 9000 Turbo
Toyota MR2
Stoke up the yule log and pour yourself another cup of flog, because it’s that Ten Best time of year again. Ready or not, we’re back with another lapful of our best work to prove that there really is a Santa Claus.
FULL 1988 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura Integra
Acura Legend Coupe
Audi 5000
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Mustang 5.0
Ford Taurus
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Honda CRX
Saab 9000 Turbo
For the seventh consecutive year, it’s our pleasure to bring you Car and Driver’s annual 10Best issue—the oldest and best of its kind. Each autumn, as the leaves begin to turn, we begin to assemble a field of automobiles from which our editors select—by secret ballot—our 10Best Cars. We take this assignment seriously, and, judging from the flood of mail that our January issue generates, so do you. And so do the numberless newspapers, radio stations, television shows, and magazines who call us for interviews about our 10Best Cars.
FULL 1989 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura Legend Coupe
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Colt Turbo / Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo
Ford Probe GT
Ford Taurus / Taurus SHO
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Lincoln Continental
Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo / Plymouth Laser Turbo
Saab 9000 Turbo
This is the eighth rendition of our annual 10Best issue. Here at Car and Driver, no issue of our magazine receives as much attention as the one you hold in your hands. . . either from you or from us. To say nothing of the attention it now gets from other media. The 10Best issue is not only our annual best-seller, it is also the issue that requires the most work. That work, however, is labor freely given in the cause of bringing you, our subscribers and our readers, yet another 10Best issue.
FULL 1990 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura Legend Coupe
Diamond-Star Turbos
Ford Taurus / Mercury Sable
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Lexus LS400
Mazda MPV
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Nissan 300ZX/300ZX Turbo
Nissan Maxima SE
Welcome to the ninth annual 10Best issue of Car and Driver, our traditional kickoff of the coming year. The toughest responsibility; we have to our readers, picking the 10Best Cars, has been made more difficult, once again, by the increasing number of quality cars being produced worldwide. Not that it gets any easier to tell which is which. What has gotten easier to do is to tell you that cars are better than ever.
FULL 1991 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Diamond-Star Turbos
Ford Taurus / Mercury Sable
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Mazda MPV V-6 3.0i
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mercury Tracer LTS
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Toyota Previa
This is the 10th year we’ve winnowed the season’s new cars down to 10Best. We regard it as a heavy responsibility, and yet—and yet—for a troop of car guys, what could be lighter work?
FULL 1992 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW 325i
Cadillac Seville Touring Sedan
Eagle Talon TSi AWD / Plymouth Laser KS Turbo AWD / Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
Ford Taurus SHO
Honda Prelude Si
Lexus SC400
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Toyota Camry V-6
As we open the second decade of 10Best Cars selections, we’re bound to offer along with our selections the opinion that car buyers have never had it so good when it comes to the number of high-quality, exciting, and surprisingly cost-effective cars available for purchase.
FULL 1993 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW 325i
Dodge Intrepid / Eagle Vision / Chrysler Concorde
Ford Probe GT
Honda Prelude Si VTEC
Jeep Grand Cherokee V-8
Lexus SC300
Mazda RX-7
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Toyota Camry
For the staff of Car and Driver, choosing the 10Best Cars is the most difficult and most important comparison-test vote of the year. With almost 50 excellent nominations, covering the gamut from high-testosterone sports cars to cozy and cuddly minivans, selecting our 10Best Cars always turns into an exercise in automotive hair-splitting.
FULL 1994 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura Integra GS-R
BMW 325i/325is
Chrysler Concorde / Dodge Intrepid / Eagle Vision
Ford Probe GT
Honda Accord EX
Honda Prelude VTEC
Lexus SC300
Mazda RX-7
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
This is the 13th time that we have mustered the far-flung staff of Car and Driver for the purpose of selecting the 10 very best cars available on the American market. While this goal sounds eminently simple, culling 10 winners from the 40 to 50 excellent nominees gets more difficult every year, as the world’s carmakers constantly intensify their Sisyphean struggle for market share. For guidance in this difficult process, we look to the set of simple rules governing this contest.
FULL 1995 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura Integra GS-R
BMW 325i/M3
Chrysler Cirrus LXi
Ford Contour / Mercury Mystique
Honda Accord
Honda Prelude
Lexus SC300
Mazda RX-7
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Maxima SE
For most Americans, Labor Day signals the end of summer. Here at Car and Driver, however, our summer-ending ritual for the past 14 years has been the weeklong 10Best Cars pageant that we conduct in late September.
FULL 1996 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura Integra
Audi A4
BMW 328i/M3
Chrysler Cirrus / Dodge Stratus
Chrysler Town & Country / Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager
Ford Contour / Mercury Mystique
Honda Civic
Honda Prelude VTEC
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Maxima SE
For our 15th-annual 10Best Cars competition, we’ve finally added pickups to the ranks of the cars, minivans, and sport-utility vehicles eligible for 10Best honors. Contrarians familiar with our glacial thinking will take this as proof positive that truck sales have finally peaked.
FULL 1997 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura Integra
Audi A4
BMW 328i/M3
BMW 5-series
Chrysler Cirrus / Dodge Stratus / Plymouth Breeze
Chrysler Town & Country / Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager
Ford Contour / Mercury Mystique
Honda Prelude SH
Mercedes-Benz SLK
Toyota Camry V-6
In the 16-year history of Car and Driver’s 10Best Cars competition, there has never been a year when six new vehicles forced their way into our hearts and onto our annual list of favorites. Until now.
FULL 1998 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi A4
BMW 328i/M3
BMW 5-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Intrepid
Honda Accord
Honda Prelude
Lexus GS300/400
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster
Beatific calm often sets in after a period of tumultuous change, and that’s exactly what happened at our 17th Annual 10Best cars competition. Although a record six new cars muscled their way onto our list last year, there were only two new faces for 1999. But before getting into the details of the winners, let’s review the process by which they were selected.
FULL 1999 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW 328i/M3
BMW 5-series
BMW M Coupe/M Roadster
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300M
Dodge Intrepid
Honda Accord
Lexus GS300/400
Mazda Miata
Porsche Boxster
With a U.S. record of some 17 million vehicles sold in 1999, coming on top of 75.8 million sales in the previous five years, the car industry is red hot. And in the hope of keeping these sales churning, the industry keeps turning out new models. Which doesn’t make our job of picking the 10Best any easier at all.
FULL 2000 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi A6 2.7T/A6 4.2
Audi TT
BMW 3-series
BMW 5-series
Chrysler 300M
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Honda S2000
Lexus GS300/400
Porsche Boxster
As this is written, new car and truck sales are running ahead of 1999’s record pace. This follows five fat sales years from 1994 through 1998. Moreover, U.S. buyers are spending more than ever on new cars and trucks with the average transaction price running at about $24,800. Record sales at ever-increasing prices might suggest that the carmakers have the upper hand in this market, but nothing could be further from the truth.
FULL 2001 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi A6 2.7T/A6 4.2
Audi TT
BMW 3-series
BMW 5-series
Chrysler PT Cruiser
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Honda S2000
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster
Amazingly enough, this issue marks the 20th occasion that the editors of Car and Driver have assembled to select the 10Best cars available in the U.S. market. Despite protests from manufacturers who are as outraged as proud parents that we’ve overlooked the beauty of their babies, we are back to select the 10Best cars once again.
FULL 2002 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura RSX
Audi A4
BMW 3-series/M3
BMW 5-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Honda S2000
Porsche Boxster
Subaru Impreza WRX
As we head into our third decade of selecting the 10Best cars sold in the U.S., the industry finds itself in a peculiar state. As of this writing, vehicle sales are heading for the second-highest annual total in history, despite threats of terrorism and war, a general economic malaise, and not even a whiff of pent-up demand, thanks to sales of more than 97 million vehicles in the previous six years. This miraculous act of sales levitation is being supported by bribing buyers with ever-increasing rebates, low-interest loans, sweetheart lease deals, and free dates with Miss America contestants and Chippendales dancers — okay, that last part hasn’t happened quite yet.
FULL 2003 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura RSX
BMW 3-series/M3
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Infiniti G35
Mazda 6 s
Nissan 350Z
Porsche Boxster
Subaru Impreza WRX
It’s not easy being a car manufacturer these days. Factory capacity around the world is capable of spewing about 50 percent more cars than the markets can possibly absorb. At the same time, countries everywhere are propping up their automotive companies because the business is seen as a flagship industry and holds the prospect of great export earnings.
FULL 2004 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura TSX
Audi S4 Quattro
BMW 3-series/M3
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Honda S2000
Infiniti G35
Mazda RX-8
Toyota Prius
With the recent presidential politicking, the war in Iraq, and the surging price of oil, nobody complains anymore about the high price of new cars and trucks. And why should they? With consumer rebates running as high as $7000 on some models last year and numerous similar dealer incentives, it’s been a buyer’s market. FULL 2005 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura RL
Acura TSX
BMW 3-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300
Dodge Magnum
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Mazda RX-8
Mercedes-Benz SLK350
This year marks our 24th-annual 10Best Cars competition, and we’ve conducted the past 20 or so of these events at the same rural site about 30 miles west of our home office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over the years we’ve grown used to seeing camouflaged new models and convoys of competitive vehicle sets cruising around on these roads. But during this year’s test week, we saw something new.
FULL 2006 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Acura TSX
Audi A3 2.0T
BMW 3-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300/300C Hemi/300C SRT8
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Mazda MX-5
Mazda RX-8
Porsche Boxster
Every year the entire Car and Driver staff gathers at a rural site about 30 miles west of our home office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a week of evaluating all the new cars and, hopefully, avoiding cops. We judge the cars in three general areas: First, how well the car performs its intended functions. We expect sports cars to be fast and exhilarating, while we presume a family sedan will be practical. Second, we show a preference for the more engaging cars in each category, be it better driving manners, a double-take-inducing look, or a powerful engine. Finally, we are suckers for a good deal, so an inexpensive car that’s fast, fun, and practical will certainly rise to the top of our list.
FULL 2007 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW 3-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Infiniti G35 Sedan
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazdaspeed 3
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen GTI
Every year the entire Car and Driver staff gathers at a rural site about 30 miles west of our home office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a week of evaluating all the new cars and, hopefully, avoiding cops. We didn’t do very well with the latter this year, receiving a record number of speeding tickets that, unfortunately, cannot be expensed.
FULL 2008 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW 3-series
Cadillac CTS
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Malibu
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazdaspeed 3
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen GTI
Cars are judged on three points. The first is how well they perform their intended functions—sedans and hatchbacks should be spacious and versatile, economy cars should be frugal (but not punishing), and sports cars should be responsive and satisfying. Secondly, we consider how engaging a car is on an emotional level—do we emerge from a drive with a smile, and does it hold our gaze as we walk away? Finally, we look at how competitive a car’s pricing is for the levels of versatility, practicality, and fun it offers. We recognize value when we see it and we highlight those cars that possess it.
FULL 2009 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW 3-series / M3
Cadillac CTS / CTS-V
Chevrolet Corvette
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Infiniti G37
Jaguar XF
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen GT
This year, for the 28th running of our annual 10Best competition, the rules were simple. First, we raised the price cap from $71,000 to $80,000 (roughly three times the average transaction price of a new car) in the belief that 80 grand is the current point of automotive excellence’s diminishing returns. Cars get more expensive than that, but they don’t get much better. More important, raising the cap makes eligible nominees in two other vital categories: luxo-sport GTs and luxury sedans. Never mind that only two new cars qualified (and one was about to be replaced in a few months, so we left it out).
FULL 2010 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi S4
BMW 3-series/M3
Cadillac CTS/CTS-V
Ford Fusion Hybrid
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazda 3 / Mazdaspeed 3
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen GTI
From the dry lake bed of El Mirage, California, we present these pinnacles of automotive achievement: cars that affirm that, for all the hand-wringing about the coming electrified future, the dinosaurs and the mammals are playing together quite nicely. For the first time ever, we have an electrically powered car on the list, the Chevy Volt. You may have heard of it. But we haven’t forsaken its antipode, the Cadillac CTS-V.
FULL 2011 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW 3-series/M3
Cadillac CTS-V
Chevrolet Volt
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Hyundai Sonata
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
Welcome to 10Best. The cars here don’t have to be the newest, and they don’t have to be expensive–nothing over $80,000 is allowed. They just have to meet our abundant needs while satisfying our every want. These are the best cars on the market.
FULL 2012 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi A6 / A7 3.0T Quattro
BMW 3-series/M3
Cadillac CTS-V
Ford Focus
Ford Mustang GT/Boss 302
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
Over one week in September, and over a distance of more than 15,000 miles, our editors drove every new 2013 model under $80,000, as well as our returning winners, to bring you this year’s 10Best.
FULL 2013 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi A6 3.0T / S6 / A7 3.0T / S7
BMW 3-series Sedan
Ford Focus / Focus ST
Ford Mustang GT / Boss 302
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
There are a lot of bests out there—best summer movies, best places to live, best pizza joints within two miles of your current location. Our 10Best award is not one of those. These are cars we’re talking about, people. We actually test these things.
For a full week each fall, we lock the office, turn off our phones, and engage in the most comprehensive and focused driving in the car-evaluation business.
FULL 2014 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Audi A6 / S6 / A7
BMW 3-series / 4-series
Cadillac CTS
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Ford Fiesta ST
Honda Accord
Mazda 3
Mazda 6
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
There are roughly 150 new-car models on the market today, many of them only narrowly distinguishable from one another. The sedans are flame-surfaced affairs with elongated rooflines, and even the sporty coupes rely on huge grilles to trumpet their brand lineage. Most emit the same muffled calls, so you can’t reliably classify them by sound, either. This guide is intended to help you identify the 10 cars that, through a rare combination of strengths, stand apart. They reward close observation. We hope the following pages will tune you in to the attributes that mark the differentiation. Individual areas of noteworthiness are called out, but the assembled cars share the following traits: They cost less than $80,000, they excel at delivering value for the money, they have a strong mastery of their segment, and they are graceful in motion. These 10 will entertain and delight any driver, but only if you know how and where to spot them.
FULL 2015 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW M235i
Cadillac CTS
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Mazda 3
Mazda 6
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Tesla Model S 60
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
10Best involves more than drawing up lists of our sub-$80,000 favorites. Every year we enter our weeklong evaluation looking for new and improved combinations of virtues: value and engagement, performance and poise, sights and sounds, soul and character. The cars that earn this award do more than merely succeed on one or two criteria; they come to us fully formed, polished, complete. But how do they get that way? This year we delve deeper into our winners’ makings to better explain why they won. Who builds and develops these cars? Where? How do they go about it? What is a 10Bester truly made of? There are, of course, varied answers because cars are not simple things. You do not buy them on Etsy, and we’re not running a Maker Faire here. Automobiles are still the most complex and technologically advanced consumer products that man has ever devised. What follows in this section is our proof. FULL 2016 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW M235i
Cadillac CTS Vsport
Chevrolet Camaro
Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 / GT350R
Honda Accord
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazda 3
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Tesla Model S 70 / 70D
Volkswagen Golf / GTI / Golf R
Each year for more than three decades, we’ve put dozens of new cars through thousands of miles of cumulative evaluation to determine our annual list of the very best automobiles for sale in America. The rules for consideration are simple: Entrants must cost less than $80,000 (anything pricier should be excellent by default), and they must be either a returning winner or all new or significantly revised. Winning isn’t easy, however—in order to take home a trophy, a vehicle must offer good value, excel at its given mission, and, critically, deliver a pleasurable driving experience. These 10 cars deliver all of those qualities in spades. While none of them are perfect, they come closer to that ideal than anything else you can buy new.
FULL 2017 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW M2 / M240i
Chevrolet Bolt EV
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport
Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 / GT350R
Honda Accord
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazda 3
Porsche 718 Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / Alltrack / GTI / R
Here’s how the stats shook out: 65 cars, 10 days, 26,000 miles, 58 ballots, 502 doughnuts, one rainstorm, zero traffic citations. Some cars had roofs, others didn’t. Some came in quiet hatchback form, others were twin-turbo Italians. At their core, however, all cars do the same thing. They move people from work to home and from home to wherever else they need to be. But each car does it differently. They’re separated by everything from how well the steering wheel reacts to the driver’s touch, to which type of material stretches across the dashboard. From a group of new cars and returning champs, these were our 10Best for 2018.
FULL 2018 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Alfa Romeo Giulia / Giulia Quadrifoglio
Audi RS3
Chevrolet Camaro V-6 / SS / ZL1
Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport
Honda Accord
Honda Civic Sport / Si / Type R
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mercedes-Benz E400 / Mercedes-AMG E43
Porsche 718 Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / Alltrack / GTI / R
Where some look at their car and see only a monthly payment or basic transportation, we see a personality. The right car might speak to our own identity, desires, and priorities. It might set our nerves aflutter. Or maybe it’s just gas. Whatever it is, cars can make a powerful statement about who’s behind the wheel. Most people’s lives fit into a crossover perfectly, and vice versa. But when you commit to driving something fun, you commit to standing firm against the great teeming tide of conformity. The 10Best cars are not only full of personality and fun, they also deliver on their missions through imagination and exacting engineering. That isn’t always cheap. In 2019, we rose our limit to $90,000 to take into account rising prices. The result of that, and plenty of testing, was 2019’s 10Best cars.
FULL 2019 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW M2
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Mustang GT
Genesis G70
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Porsche 718 Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / Alltrack / GTI / R
2020 10Best Cars and Trucks
For the first time in 10Best history, cars and trucks coexist on the same stage, competing for our annual awards. It’s no different than they do already on streets and in parking structures anyway. Does that make our job more difficult? Sure. Comparing sports cars to pickups to SUVs? C’mon. They’re different teams in vastly different arenas. The New England Patriots don’t play against the St. Louis Blues at the U.S. Open, but they’re the best in their own right. All of these vehicles compete against each other for sales while each of them competes against rivals in specific markets. After an exhaustive evaluation of this year’s new and refreshed models, comparing each against those that won last year, we’ve done the work and narrowed it down to the very best.
FULL 2020 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Chevrolet Corvette
Honda Accord
Jeep Gladiator
Kia Telluride
Mazda CX-5
Porsche 718 Boxster / Cayman
Porsche Macan S / Turbo
Ram 1500
Toyota GR Supra
Volkswagen Golf GTI / Jetta GLI
2021 10Best Cars and Trucks
If you’re anything like us, your account balance doesn’t have anywhere near enough commas to make your dream garage a reality. Reconciling your hobbies with life’s responsibilities doesn’t have to mean driving something boring, though. Think of our 10Best winners as enthusiast picks for regular people. This year’s winners include three vehicles with starting prices under $30,000, a full-size truck, a three-row family hauler, and the best deal among luxury autos. We’ve got sports cars, too, of course—three of ’em.
FULL 2021 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Chevrolet Corvette
Genesis GV80
Honda Accord
Kia Telluride
Mazda CX-5
Porsche 718 Boxster / Cayman
Porsche Macan S / Turbo
Ram 1500
Toyota GR Supra
Volkswagen Golf GTI / Jetta GLI
2022 10Best Cars and Trucks
It’s been a big year, and even a tire, chip, labor, and toilet paper shortage couldn’t hamper automakers from pressing play on some of the best cars we’ve ever driven. Our 39th 10Best awards a few familiar models, and adds the highly-anticipated Ford Bronco, sporty Toyota GR 86 and Subaru BRZ, as well as a pair of Cadillac Blackwings that nearly blew our socks off. Despite the obvious, it’s been an incredibly fun year to be behind the wheel of a new car.
FULL 2022 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing
Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Bronco
Honda Accord
Kia Telluride
Porsche 718 Boxster / Cayman
Ram 1500
Subaru BRZ / Toyota GR86
Volkswagen Golf GTI
Unlike last year, the 2023 10Best list is split into two categories: cars and trucks, the former of which we’ve yet to announce. No worries, though, because our 10Best cars list ought to whet your automotive appetite. With SUVs and trucks such as the Ford Bronco, Kia Telluride, and Ram 1500 no longer in contention for a spot on the cars-only list, our 10Best cars for 2023 features a number of 10Best newcomers. This includes the battery-electric BMW i4 and Toyota GR Corolla. The Honda Civic and Toyota GR Supra also return to the list. Credit the arrival of the latest-generation Civic Type R and the welcome addition of an available six-speed manual transmission in the six-cylinder GR Supra.
FULL 2023 10BEST COVERAGE
Winners:
BMW i4
Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing
Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing
Chevrolet Corvette
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Porsche 718 Boxster / Cayman
Subaru BRZ / Toyota GR86
Toyota GR Corolla
Toyota GR Supra
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