THESE CONCEPT CARS WILL AMAZE YOU, P.

022

10Best Cars
JAN/ 2018 INTE L LIGE NCE. IND E PENDE NCE . IRREV ER E N CE.

of 2018 THESE
WHICH OF
IT?
MAKES

THE QUEST
TO DEFEAT
LAST YEAR’S
WINNERS
Does the Alfa Romeo
Giulia have a shot?
Can the Kia Stinger take down Europe?
Will BMW return to form?
 SSG019 | www.SeikoUSA.com

AVAILABLE AT
Features
— Car and Driver
032
10BEST CARS FOR 2018
—
vol. 63, no. 7
In this Issue:
Section 1
034 . WELCOME TO THE
FIRST WEEK OF 10BEST
Wherein we gather all “If you have a taste for bland
the new (and new-
to-us) cars under
buttered noodles, buy a
$80,000 and submit Lexus ES. If you want
them to no end of trials.
Only 10 will make it to arrabbiata, get an Alfa
the second round. Romeo Giulia.”
—J O S H J A C Q U O T, “A S P O R T S S E D A N I S E T E R N A L”
Section 2
043 . ALL 10BEST
CHALLENGERS PROCEED

044
TO WEEK TWO
Most of the cars we’ve
assembled this year are
headed back to their
makers. But not this
denary. What makes
them so special? No
nook, cranny, or knurled
knob escapes our
attention in our search
for the truth.

On the Cover
One stays, one goes.
photography
by Roy Ritchie

J A N /2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . 003
When limits are ignored, expectations can be shattered. Introducing the Genesis G80 Sport. An
impeccably crafted balance of power and detail, with its aggressive dark-chrome crosshatched
front grille, carbon-fiber-trimmed dash, and 19-inch copper accented alloy wheels artfully
surrounding a 365-hp twin-turbo engine that will pin you to its copper stitched sport seats. Add
in the peace of mind of our most advanced safety features standard and Complimentary Service
Valet, and the only thing the G80 Sport doesn’t have is limits. It’s designed from the ground up
the only way we know. Our way. Genesis.com.

Estimated horsepower based on premium fuel. Service Valet available from Authorized Genesis Retailers during complimentary maintenance period. Includes
normal wear, parts replacement and warranty repairs for 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first. Coverage area varies by retailer. Charges and fees may
apply. Applies to original owner/lessee only. Safety features standard on Genesis G80 models.
Car and Driver
vol. 63, no. 7

062

Departments
—
Upfront
015 . THE YEAR IN
REVIEW
But first, a look back.
016 . WINNERS AND
10Best, Section 3: Let the Battles Begin LOSERS
Some who won, some
who lost, and a very
056 . BEST OF THE BEST SELLERS 080 . ROUTE MASTERS 092 . RIDE SHARING considerate bear.
The Toyota Camry and Honda No strangers to our competition, The cars of three German luxury 020 . DATA CENTRAL
Accord, reanimated in sync. the Chevrolet Corvette Grand automakers are becoming more The ups and downs of the
by John Pearley Huffman Sport and the Porsche 718 and more alike, as the Audi A5/ past year, in black and
Boxster and Cayman basically S5 Sportback, BMW M240i/M2, orange.
062 . THE BATTLE OF THE own the 10Best loop. and Mercedes­Benz E­class 022 . CONCEPT CARS
BADASS ENGINES by David Beard demonstrate. The 10 showstoppers that
The bonkers Shelby GT350 and by Mike Duff stopped us hardest.
Audi RS3 let their freak flags fly. 084 . CHEAP CHIC 024 . MOST PROMISING
by Ezra Dyer The Kia Rio hatch and the entire 096 . WHO’S ZOOMIN’ WHO? TECHNOLOGIES
family of Volkswagen Golfs: big Which of these Mazdas has more Coming soon to a
065 . FAMILY VALUES design statements, small bucks. Mazda, the Mazda MX­5 Miata or
Two major affordable perform­ marketing campaign
by Tony Quiroga the Mazda 3? near you.
ance clans, the Chevrolet by Jeff Sabatini —
Camaro’s and the Honda Civic’s. 086 . STATION TO STATION
by Daniel Pund 098 . PILGRIMS’ PROGRESS Etc.
The Mercedes E400 wagon and 009 . BACKFIRES
Volvo V90 prove the essential Finding religion with the Alfa
070 . ZAPPED! Romeo Giulia and Kia Stinger GT. You tolerate us. You really
rightness of the long­roof form. tolerate us.
The Chevrolet Bolt, shocked by by Jeff Sabatini by Josh Jacquot
the Hyundai Ioniq EV. 112 . WHAT I’D DO
by Jared Gall DIFFERENTLY
Tim Allen.

006 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . J A N / 2 0 1 8
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LONG When you create a New Sportscar eXperience, you don’t chase the
competition—you chase your dreams. You build a facility that manufactures one
LIVE thing: performance. You assemble the world’s best designers and engineers.
PERFORMANCE You throw in a couple of troublemakers. And you get to work. You start with the
driver. You reject benchmarks. You stay true to the feeling. You do it your way.
You deliver PRECISION CRAFTED PERFORMANCE. You don’t just tell the world
what you’ve created. You find a racetrack. And you show them.

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Backfires:
The joyful noise of the
commentariat, rebutted
sporadically by Ed.
THREE-CAR MONTE
A proposed line for
your September 2017
cover: The Super
Good, the Big, and
the Fugly.
—John Bryans Fontaine
Westport, CT
HER NAME IS RIO
Don’t ask why this
happened, given the
sheer volume of
waggish comments in
an average issue of
your publication, but
here it is: The Kia Rio’s
silly grin being wiped
off sent me into
uncontrollable gales of
laughter [“New Cars
for 2018: The List,”
September 2017].
Alone. In my garage.
And for a long time.
—Keith Bonnecarrere
Auburndale, FL
ART HISTORY
Ferrari has finally
made it [“Super Fast,”
September 2017]!
Paste a prancing
horse emblem on the
grille and the rear of
the Corvette Grand
Sport and many
would believe it to be
the Ferrari shown in
your issue.
—John Everett
Fairfield, CT
TYPE R
PERSONALITY
Don’t count me
among the masses
of those hating on
the Honda Civic
Type R’s style—or the
Si’s, for that matter
[“Turbo Kicked In,
Yo!” September
Sic your dogs on us at:  editors@caranddriver.com or join:  backfires.caranddriver.com
2017]. I think it looks
badass. And I’m 44
years old. And I drive
a Ford Fiesta ST with
a COBB Stage 3 kit . . .
Wait, I guess that
explains a lot.
Seriously though,
didn’t at least some of
you grow up loving
Group B rally cars and
hot hatches?
—Joshua Haddox
Huntington, WV
Sure did, but none of
the Group B cars had
fake vents—Ed.
PUNCH IT,
MARGARET
I appreciate Toyota
offering an excellent
V-6 engine in the 2018
Camry [“Crazy
Eighth,” September
2017], but 301 horse-
power is too much for
a front-driver with
sporting pretensions.
The Camry V-6
desperately needs
all-wheel drive; get
with the program,
Toyota!
—Bill Hickman
Venice, FL
VAN DAM DOOKY CHASE side of a minivan at knife to a gunfight.
Only the Toyota Okay, idiots. Let me 90 mph and kill a Would love to see how
Sienna offers all- state what is obvious. family. I am too classy many more-expensive
wheel drive [“Real Don’t encourage to call you assholes, cars in this compari-
#Vanlife,” September people to run from the but I want you to know son would be outrun
2017]. I think anyone cops [“Whatcha I’m thinking it. by the ultimate Civic.
who lives in snow Gonna Do When They —Jacob Parkinson —Bill Ladas
country that buys a Come for You?” Chilliwack, BC Newburyport, MA
car without the ability September 2017]. A We admire your We asked for one,
to spin all four wheels lot of jurisdictions restraint—Ed. but Lightning Lap
and use chains when have “no pursuit” took place before
required is either policies because No, we don’t all the Type R’s launch.
stupid or rich enough these chases cause secretly root for the We’re promised one
to park their van for carnage. Trying to do bad guy in a police for next year—Ed.
the winter. this may get you pursuit. And that’s a
—Phil Kessel killed, but you may really stupid thing to Anyone who drives on
Truckee, CA also plow into the print in your anything other than
magazine. surface streets knows
—Terence Bragg that tires make a huge
West Covina, CA difference. In your
Lightning Lap test,
STORM WATCH the Subaru BRZ has
I enjoyed the article, all-season Michelins
but I’m not sure I while every other car
understand why you has high-perform-
chose to test a Civic Si ance summer tires. I
over the long-awaited understand this is the
Type R [“Lightning manufacturer’s
Lap,” October 2017], choice, but you would
which is better suited think this would merit
for such an event. I at least a mention in
have nothing against the blurb about the
the Si, but this seems BRZ. If the AMG GT R
similar to bringing a had all-season tires,
J A N / 2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . 009
I can imagine para- gotten an LP580-2. sedan. And while I
graphs about the —Auckley Crooks “WHY DO know it doesn’t have a
outrage.
—Jee Su Chang
Elmont, NY
Lambo didn’t want YOU PRINT rear-facing way, way
back seat, if you could
Wheeling, IL
The BRZ comes
to play, but we’ll try
again next year for
LETTER have put a child
mannequin back Explained:
exclusively on a Huracán QUOTES IN there waving goodbye Braking
Michelin Primacy HP
summer tires. They
Performante—Ed.
BOLD AND to the Porsches,
Alfas, et al. as they Performance
aren’t the stickiest,
but they aren’t
Holy cow! A 205-hp
Subaru, a 164-hp Fiat,
LARGE disappeared in the
rearview, maybe a few
In virtually every issue, I encounter a
statement along the lines of these
all-seasons, either. a 228-hp Mini, and FONT?” more readers would about the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadri-
We didn’t express another crappy see the wisdom of the foglio from the October Lightning
much outrage Honda with 205 station wagon. Lap feature: “The binders are
because we’ve horsepower. These —Welles Henderson speed-shedding magic” and
already griped are ferocious cars? should have included Shaker Heights, OH “There’s no denying the force of the
extensively about Really? Please only the Lincoln MKT. We brakes.”
Subaru and Scion’s include cars with at have a 2010 model It seems as if Sabatini Here’s my admittedly
choice of least 350 horse- with the twin-turbo overlooked what, I amateurish understanding: The
rubber—Ed. power. Plus, no 3.5-liter V-6 and imagine, is both the brakes on any modern car have
self-respecting male I would replace it with a price and sales leader ample power to lock all four wheels
I can’t discern which know would drive 2018 model if a new in the segment. What at any speed (though, of course,
writer from your team around in a little vehicle were neces- happened to the anti-lock braking systems prevent
deserves the credit, convertible, unless sary. It still looks Toyota Venza? Oops. them from actually doing so); any
but whoever wrote someone dropped a great, is very quick, —Greg Loebbaka power they have beyond that is
“the GT R wrings last V-8 in it. Sorry for not handles well, and gets Sugar Grove, IL superfluous. The real factor differ-
night’s Scotch from being politically reasonable fuel It went out of pro- entiating two cars’ stopping dis-
your liver with 1.21 g’s correct. mileage. As a Ford duction in 2015—Ed. tances is the grippiness of the tires.
of lateral accelera- Also, please start a product, its cost of Are such phrasings instances of
tion” has my vote. A blog or something for maintenance is less You have done it the writers choosing color over
car that can distill your East/West Coast than half of the Euro again. I refer to precision, or do I have a faulty
hours-old alcohol political views. I am models’ you listed. Sabatini’s use of the conception of what really matters in
from morning coffee not renewing Motor —Hank Holcomb word “charabancs.” determining stopping distance?
is a first. Trend because it Columbus, GA Only the highly —Robert Woolley, Asheville, NC
—Bill Pence seems to think Sounds great, literate, or Franco-
Happy Valley, OR anyone cares about except the MKT isn’t phone, would under- True, a single panic stop, like
Colwell says, its politics. I enjoy Car a wagon—Ed. stand the word. The our 70-mph-to-zero test, is
“Scotchy, Scotch, and Driver because rest of us must repair almost all down to the tires’
Scotch”—Ed. it’s about cars. Daaa. America is taking to our dictionaries. longitudinal grip. But braking
—Rick crazy pills on its SUV —Daniel Allan performance on a track relies
I found the LL 2017 Waukesha, WI obsession, and I’m Las Cruces, NM on a combination of attributes
article a little boring. Da, comrade—Ed. hoping your article beyond grip. Good brake-pedal
Where were the may turn a few back CALLED OUT feel helps the driver achieve
Lambos? Okay, WAGGIN’ THE DOG to the light. But what Why do you print maximum deceleration at the
maybe you couldn’t Your wagons article you should have done letter quotes in bold end of a straight and is a boon to
get your hands on a [“Stations of the is run the AMG E63 S and large font and trail braking. Unlike during a
Performante, but Wagon,” October wagon in Lightning also print the letter, single stop, braking systems
surely you could have 2017] was great but Lap instead of the making us read the build heat on a track, thereby
same thing twice? reducing their effective power
—Paul Niehoff (a.k.a. fade), sometimes to the
South Portland, ME point where locking a wheel is
impossible—Ed.
SHORT AND TALL
Did the Mercedes-
AMG GLE43 [“Enemy
of the Estate,” as streamlined or as TINY DANCER
October 2017] really aerodynamic as you While reading the
take 14.1 seconds to might think at high long-term wrap-up of
cover a quarter-mile speeds. the Mazda MX-5 Miata
at 98 mph, and then —D.J. DeFrancesco [October 2017], I was
take another 4.3 Millstone, NJ dismayed to learn
seconds to get to 100 No. The correct time that a “f*****g
mph? I guess those to 100 mph is 14.7 s*****g” broke the
station wagons aren’t seconds—Ed. rear taillight lens. I’m

010 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018 Sic your dogs on us at:  editors@caranddriver.com or join:  backfires.caranddriver.com
 Editor-In-Chief Publisher and Chief
reasonably certain I DEMON DROP tion changes—per Eddie Alterman
—
Revenue Officer
know what “f*****g” I was nearing the end our protocol. Colwell Deputy Editor Felix DiFilippo
—
Daniel Pund National Advertising Sales
is, but I’m not so sure of the October issue felt that even his Creative Director Director Cameron Albergo
Darin Johnson General Manager, Hearst
about “s*****g.” Is it when I came across best result, which Technical Director Men’s Group Samantha Irwin
Eric Tingwall —
a s*****g or a the review of the was in the 10s, Managing Editor NEW YORK
Mike Fazioli East Coast Automotive Director
s*****g? Dodge Challenger wasn’t representa- Design Director Joe Pennacchio
Nathan Schroeder Assistant Philippa Malloch
Many years ago SRT Demon [“One tive of what the car Features Editor East Coast Digital Sales Manager
Brett Fickier
when my wife and I Tool to Rule Them could do. Stay Jeff Sabatini CHICAGO
Senior Editors Integrated Sales Director
owned a 1990 Miata, All”]. The launch- tuned, Williams—Ed. Tony Quiroga, Jared Gall Rick Bisbee
Reviews Editor Integrated Midwest Manager
a f*****g s*****g control sequence Josh Jacquot
Associate Managing Editor
Marc Gordon
Assistant Yvonne Villareal
stole the left-front forced me to go to the SAY, UNCLE Juli Burke
Copy Chief
DETROIT
Integrated Sales Director
Mark Fikany
turn-signal assembly medicine cabinet for a I doubt Daniel Pund’s Carolyn Pavia-Rauchman Midwest Account Manager
Assistant Technical Editor Bryce Vredevoogd
while the car was bottle of Dramamine. reminiscing about his David Beard Assistant Toni Starrs
Road-Test Editor C. Benn LOS ANGELES
parked in front of our Really, Dodge; go take Uncle Doug [October Copy Editor Beth Nichols Integrated Sales Director
Editor, Montana Desk Anne Rethmeyer
house. The joke was a lesson from Tesla: 2017] was written to John Phillips Integration Associate
European Editor Mike Duff Michelle Nelson
on him, though, as the Simply push the jerk a tear from my Carolinas Editor Ezra Dyer Assistant Richard Panciocco
Staff Photographer SAN FRANCISCO
assembly was filled Ludicrous button on eye, but he succeeded Marc Urbano Smith Media Sales, LLC
William G. Smith
Art Assistant Austin Irwin
with condensation. your P100D touch- nonetheless. I’m 67 Road Warriors Zeb Sadiq,
DALLAS
PR 4.0 Media Patty Rudolph
Anyway, as a longtime screen, acknowledge and my Uncle Mike Maxwell B. Mortimer, —
Nathan Petroelje, Harry HEARST DIRECT MEDIA
Granito, Kunal Haria, Kevin Sales Manager Brad Gettelfinger
reader, I must say that you want to had a similar influ- Moreno —
MARKETING SOLUTIONS
that Car and Driver “bring it on,” then ence on my youth. I — Executive Director, Integrated
Contributing Editors Marketing Dawn Sheggeby
f*****g **cks. punch it. No messing just wish Pund had Clifford Atiyeh, Csaba Csere,
Malcolm Gladwell, Fred M.H.
Director, Integrated Marketing
Amanda Luginbill
—Tim Brown around and no blown the engine on Gregory, John Pearley Senior Manager, Integrated
Huffman, Davey G. Johnson, Marketing Michael Coopersmith
Riverside, CA nonsense. And no that Raptor. Peter Manso, Bruce McCall, Integrated Marketing Manager
P.J. O’Rourke, Steve Siler, Tony Sandy Ramos
“S*****g” rhymes fumes to asphyxiate —Randy Peterson Swan, James Tate, Dweezil Art Director, Group Marketing
Zappa Elena Martorano
with shitbag—Ed. the person waving the Auburn, IN — Marketing Coordinator
Deputy Online Editor Vincent Carbone
green flag. Dave VanderWerp Director, Digital Marketing
Executive Online Editor Kelly Martin
I have a personal —Joseph Billy Jr. Daniel, your Uncle Erik Johnson Senior Digital Marketing Manager
Testing Director K.C. Colwell Lee Anne Murphy
project that I do with Summit, NJ Doug knew full well Senior Online Editors Research Manager Peter Davis
Joe Lorio, Mike Sutton, —
every Car and Driver: I the stack of car Kevin A. Wilson
THE BLEND LINE
Executive Creative Director
Online Editors Alexander
look for a picture, You chose not to magazines he gave Stoklosa, Andrew Wendler
Maury Postal
Production Director Tia Devlin
Associate Online Editors
mention, or full- publish the quarter- you included a few Joseph Capparella, Greg Fink,
Branded Content Editor Damien
Scott
spread article about mile times for the nudie mags. Trust me. Tony Markovich Project Director Meagan Maginot
Technology and Mobility Editor Senior Manager, Media Strategy &
the Miata. It is rare Challenger Demon —Tom Kosmalski Using Shell V-Power® Pete Bigelow
Environmental Editor
Planning Scott Topel
Accolades Manager, Media
NiTRO®+ Premium
that an issue has less because they failed to Hood River, OR Gasolines and diesel fuels Bengt Halvorson Strategy/Planning Coordinator
Rebecca Taroon
appropriately in all Consumer Editor David Muller
—
than two Miata live up to the factory Car and Driver test vehicles Managing Online Editor ADMINISTRATION

mentions. Why the hype. I assume that LAST WORDS ensures the consistency
and integrity of our
Scott Mosher
Buyer’s Guide Executive Editor
Kirk Seaman
Advertising Services Director
Regina Wall
—
fascination for that means you were I’m using a magnify- instrumented testing Buyer’s Guide Senior Editor PRODUCTION
procedures and numbers, Rich Ceppos Production/Operations Director
little Japanese turning times in the ing glass now. If the both in the magazine Buyer’s Guide Managing Editor Chuck Lodato
and online. Jennifer Misaros Operations Account Manager
roadster, especially 10s or even 11s. How print gets much Buyer’s Guide Assistant Editors
Elizabeth Cascone
Premedia Account Manager
Drew Dorian, Eric Stafford,
over so many tremen- about a comparison smaller in the letters- Annie White
Zachary Smith
—
Online Copy Chief
dous automobiles? of the Demon and the to-the-editor section, Rusty Blackwell
CIRCULATION
Executive Director, Consumer
And then in your Mustang Cobra Jet? Online Copy Editors
I’ll have to get the Laura Sky Brown,
Marketing William Carter
—
long-term test, I found The Cobra Jet doesn’t Braille edition. To the Charles Dryer, Daniel Golson, Published by Hearst
Paul Livingstone Communications, Inc.
the Miata! To my disappoint, turns 8s people who com- Online Staff Photographer 300 W. 57th Street
Michael Simari New York, New York 10019
surprise, it was a right from the factory. plained that your use Online Production Manager —
Luke Sellenraad President & Chief
five-page test filled Otherwise, keep up of the word bullshit Assistant Online Production Executive Officer
Manager Chris Haponek Steven R. Swartz
with pictures of the the mostly good work. offends them, two Buyer’s Guide Production Chairman
Assistant Cory Wolfe William R. Hearst III
many sides of the car —Steve Williams words: Grow up. Online Production Designers Executive Vice Chairman
Sarah Larson, Jeff Xu Frank A. Bennack, Jr.
and even a picture of Cumming, GA —Walter Raulerson Online Production Assistants Secretary
CUSTOMER SERVICE Ron Askew, Brad Fick, Catherine A. Bostron
the stick shift. I never The test conditions New Bern, NC Visit service.caranddriver.com Daniel Wilson Treasurer Carlton Charles
or write to Customer Service Community Engagement —
drove a Miata, but for were far from ideal, Department, Car and Driver, Manager Jen Feeny HEARST MAGAZINES DIVISION
P.O. Box 37870, Boone, IA Social Media Michael Aaron President David Carey
professional automo- and Colwell was Sending this via 50037 for inquiries/requests, Photo Assistant Charley M. President, Marketing
Ladd & Publishing Director
tive writers to be as allowed only three mobile device from changes of mailing and
Product Director Mark Quint Michael A. Clinton
email addresses, subscription
hurried attempts on Interactive Design Director President, Digital Media
flagrant about a Florida. It’s four days orders, payments, etc.
Sam Conant Troy Young
particular car is at a strip that was after Irma. I have no PERMISSIONS Material in — Chief Content Officer
this publication may not be Editorial Office Joanna Coles
least odd, and at under water less electricity or hot reproduced in any form without 1585 Eisenhower Place Senior Vice President,
permission. Ann Arbor, MI 48108 Chief Financial Officer
most, suspicious. than 12 hours prior. water. I am in heaven, REPRINTS For information on —
Printed in the U.S.A.
Debi Chirichella
reprints and e-prints, please Publishing Consultants
—Sam Simoes Not to mention the though; Car and Driver contact Brian Kolb at Wright’s —
Editorial Contributions
Gilbert C. Maurer,
Reprints, 877-652-5295 or Mark F. Miller
Weymouth, MA fact that he couldn’t arrived today. bkolb@wrightsreprints.com. Unsolicited artwork and —
To order digital back issues, manuscripts are not accepted, INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS
It’s affordable, small, run in each direction The rest no longer go to your favorite app store. and publisher assumes no Brazil, China, Greece, Spain
Car and Driver© is a registered responsibility for return or —
fun, quick, reliable, and average the matters. trademark of Hearst safety of unsolicited artwork, HEARST AUTOS
Communications, Inc. photographs, or manuscripts. President Nick Matarazzo
and a conspiracy times—to account —Larry Bergeson Copyright 2017, Hearst Query letters may be addressed Chief Marketing Officer
Communications, Inc. to the deputy editor. Jill Meenaghan
[see page 096]—Ed. for wind and eleva- Lehigh Acres, FL All rights reserved.

01 2 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018 Sic your dogs on us at:  editors@caranddriver.com or join:  backfires.caranddriver.com
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THE YEAR
WHAT IS TO
IN REVIEW
COME WILL BE
BUILT UPON
WHAT HAS BEEN.
AND SO WE TAKE
ONE LAST LOOK
AT 2017 BEFORE
PUTTING IT
BEHIND US.

illustration by M A R C O S C H I N 015
 The Y
in Revear
iew
WINNERS
SOME WHO WON, SOME WHO LOST, AND ONE WHO ABSOLUTELY
WILL NOT BE SWAYED IN HIS DEVOTION TO TACO BELL. by Jared Gall
WINNER: NEW DRIVERS
Saudi Arabia, the only country on earth
where women were not allowed to drive,
announced this past fall that it would lift its
ban on women behind the wheel. In a show
of solidarity, children—whose driving
rights are still restricted in 195 countries—
took to the roads in droves. In East Pal­
estine—the one in Ohio—a resourceful
eight­year­old loaded his four­year­old sis­
ter into the minivan after their parents had
fallen asleep and drove to McDonald’s for a
cheeseburger and McNuggets. Witnesses
reported that he obeyed all traffic laws. He
had learned to drive by watching YouTube
videos, which will henceforth replace the
bankrupt Skip Barber Racing School as our
preferred means of educating new staffers.
In Australia, which is bigger than Ohio,
a 12­year­old made it 800 miles before
being pulled over. To the east, in New Zea­
land, another boy was spotted driving a car
with a goat in it. Inspired by the goat, a bear
in Roanoke County, Virginia, found its
way into a Honda Pilot parked in a driveway
and closed the door behind himself. Then,
realizing he had no pockets in which to not
have the key fob, and lacking the digital
literacy necessary to operate the interior
door handle, the bear honked the horn until
the Honda’s owners came outside to free
him. Questioned about some 16th­century
bone fragments he was using as toothpicks,
the bear responded: “Wrong Roanoke. That
one was in North Carolina.”
016 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
LOSER: INTERMEDIATE STEPS
After watching someone they didn’t know
do something they didn’t understand, a
passerby in Santa Clarita, California, called
the police to report a kidnapping. The
police arrived and detained the suspect at
gunpoint before determining that the “kid­
napper” had, in fact, simply helped a child
into a Tesla Model S’s rear­facing third­row
seat. “We’re not Tesla experts,” offered a
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station lieu­
tenant. Smugglers, who repeatedly had
marijuana­packed Fords from Mexico
seized last year, took note.
LOSER: ENTRENCHMENT
After nearly 90 years, General Motors
closed the door on its European operations
with the sale of Opel and Vauxhall to the
PSA Group, the French multinational that
makes Peugeots and Citroëns. And for the
first time in their history, the Detroit Three
are no longer expected to account for the
majority of vehicles made in North Ameri­
ca. Transplant factories owned by Euro­
pean and Asian carmakers are on pace to
crank out more cars, with Tesla providing a
boost for the away team. Broken streaks
with happy endings include Ferrari’s first
1-2 finish in 130 Formula 1 races and a Brit
with a lump in his lung that turned out to be
nothing more malignant than a Playmobil
traffic cone he’d inhaled after receiving a
play set for his birthday—40 years ago.
WINNER: UNEXPECTED TURNS
IndyCar driver Scott Dixon had an exciting
visit to Indianapolis last May. The weekend
before the Indy 500, he took pole with the
race’s fastest qualifying speed in 21 years.
Then, mere hours later, while treating their
finely tuned digestive tracts to the fourth­
meal of champions, Dixon and IndyCar
alum Dario Franchitti were robbed at gun­
point in the Taco Bell drive­through. The
following Sunday, Dixon crashed out of the
500 on lap 53 of 200, perhaps due to his
practice of subbing beans for the meat in
his Cheesy Gordita Crunch.
illustration by V I N G A N A P A T H Y
AND LOSERS
LOSER: PRETENSE
Still think your SUV is tough? Ford recalled
more than 20,000 Explorers in Canada last
year, but only in three provinces with
unique mud that can accumulate and
harden around rear toe links, causing them
to bend or break. Reached for comment, the
F-150 Raptor said, “Explorer? Don’t know
’im. Isn’t that, like, a Taurus wagon?”
WINNER: WORDPLAY
After Dodge battered the internet into
indifference with what felt like an 840-
week teaser campaign for its 840-hp
Demon, which it claims can run the
quarter-mile in 9.65 seconds, Texan tuner
John Hennessey announced his 1000-hp
Camaro ZL1 upgrade. It, too, is claimed to
run a nine-second quarter. Hennessey calls
it the Exorcist.
At Get Your Fix Automotive, a ram-
shackle mechanic’s shop in Pueblo, Colo-
rado, the FBI discovered that you could get
not just crystal meth with your oil change,
but also heroin and cocaine. The feds then
took a second look at Higher Calling, the
local seminary, and I Smoke Rocks, a
climbing-tour company. That last sentence
may not be true.
But it is true that, during snowstorms
on the East Coast last winter, an adult-
video site offered to help any small business
that wanted “to get plowed” with a free
snow-removal service. It doesn’t seem to
have followed through with it, though—no
photos exist of the branded trucks fulfilling
the promise—but maybe it shouldn’t come
as a surprise that an adult-entertainment
enterprise would struggle with fidelity.
LOSER: APPEARANCES
Navigation app Waze plowed through data
from its users and quantified their commit-
ment to their New Year’s resolutions. The
average pledge to spend more time at the
gym lasted all the way until January 19.
WINNER: APPEARANCES
Tired of speeders blowing through their
village, residents of Hopeman, in northern
Scotland, took to standing at the side of the
road in day-glo vests with hair dryers
pointed at oncoming traffic.
LOSER: THE EIGHT-MINUTE BARRIER
It was a busy year at the Nürburgring Nord-
schleife, with new front-wheel-drive and
SUV records dipping further below the
once sacred eight-minute barrier and the
production-car lap record falling twice
(thrice, if you count Chinese vaporware).
Honda’s front-drive record gets an asterisk,
as the preproduction Civic Type R that set
it packed a roll cage, excised its audio sys-
tem and rear seats, and rolled on nonstock
tires for its 7:43.8. Joining the Type R below
eight minutes was an asterisk-free Alfa
Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio with a 7:51.7
lap. Lamborghini took the production-car
record from the Porsche 918 Spyder, hitting
6:52.0 with the Huracán Performante in
March, but Porsche reclaimed the title in
September when the 911 GT2 ran a 6:47.3.
The defunct Dodge Viper dethroned no
car but proved that it has the most devoted
fan base. A team of privateers, upset that
Dodge had never gone for the record with
this ultimate Viper, spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars in three sessions
chasing the record with two ACRs. They
managed a best of 7:01.3 before tire and
mechanical failures sidelined both cars.
WINNER: NEGLECT
After winning first and second in the
24-hour IMSA race at Daytona, Cadillac’s
DPi-V.R prototype teams swapped their
engines for fresh units. They then ran races
in Sebring, Florida; in Long Beach, Califor-
nia; at Circuit of the Americas in Austin,
Texas; and in Detroit—more than 2800
racing miles and 13 hours at wide-open
throttle each—without so much as an oil or
filter change. They won all four of those
races, too, as well as the manufacturer,
team, and driver championships.
017
 The Y COLLISION
in Revear
BEST

iew
WORST
INSURANCE CLAIMS
Results are relative;

466 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL FLYING SPUR

100 represents
the average claim

563 FERRARI 458 SPIDER

in dollars for all

DATA CENTRAL
vehicles.

426 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GTC

407 MASERATI GRANTURISMO
388 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT

359 BMW 6-SERIES xDRIVE COUPE

359 MASERATI GHIBLI S Q4
387 BMW M6 COUPE
373 NISSAN GT-R
FROM OUR GREAT BIG BOOK OF TEST SHEETS (AND OTHER, LESS

352 AUDI RS7

TRUSTWORTHY SOURCES) COME THESE BEST AND WORST NUMBERS
FROM THE PAST YEAR. by K.C. Colwell

BEST AND WORST PERFORMERS

ROLLING 1/4-MILE 1/4-MILE INTERIOR ROADHOLDING, BRAKING,
0–60 START, ELAPSED TRAP SOUND LEVEL, 200- or 300-FT 70–0
MPH 5–60 MPH TIME SPEED 70 MPH SKIDPAD MPH

2.6 11.0 3.5 11.8 10.7 18.4 129 79 63 77 1.18 0.68 129 206
sec sec sec sec sec sec mph mph dBA dBA g g ft ft

HIGHEST
LOWEST
FORD F-150 SUPERCREW 42
GMC CANYON CREW CAB 4WD 44
FORD EDGE 53
SMART FORTWO ELECTRIC 54

NISSAN XTERRA 57
JEEP WRANGLER 54
GMC CANYON CREW CAB 54
CHEVROLET COLORADO EXT CAB 55

MINI COOPER ROADSTER 57

FORD F-250 SUPER DUTY SUPERCAB 55
2017 2017 2017 2018 2017 2016 2017 2017 2018 2017
PORSCHE TOYOTA AUDI TOYOTA MERCEDES- MAZDA CHEVROLET FORD CHEVROLET CHEVROLET
911 PRIUS A4 C-HR AMG MX-5 CORVETTE F-150 CAMARO COLORADO
TURBO PRIME 2.0T XLE E43 MIATA GRAND RAPTOR ZL1 ZR2 CREW
ADV QUATTRO PREMIUM 4MATIC SPORT Z07 SUPERCAB 1LE CAB DIESEL

BEST PERFORMERS WORST PERFORMERS

FUEL ECONOMY
13 MPG 2018 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE TRACKHAWK 119 MPGe 2017 CHEVROLET BOLT
EPA COMBINED
11 MPG 2018 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE TRACKHAWK 128 MPGe 2017 CHEVROLET BOLT
EPA CITY
17 MPG 2018 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE TRACKHAWK 110 MPGe 2017 CHEVROLET BOLT
EPA HIGHWAY
13 MPG 2017 CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 96 MPGe 2017 CHEVROLET BOLT
C/D OBSERVED
0 30 60 90 120 miles

020 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018 infographic by N I C O L A S R A P P

 FORD ALFA ROMEO
TOYOTA SMART
SALES CHEVROLET LEADERS LANGUISHERS FERRARI*
HONDA BENTLEY
January to
September NISSAN ROLLS-ROYCE*
2017. JEEP LAMBORGHINI*
HYUNDAI McLAREN 79

99
64

0
SUBARU ASTON MARTIN*

2
51

1755
1672
7
KIA SCION 19

7350

3
1.84
RAM LOTUS* 2

7
0.5 0

7
0.4 8
0.4 6

(in millions)
0.4

2
0.62

2635
1
1. 6
2
1. 0 8 1 .5
1. 1 2

*Estimated.

+49% +30% +23% +18% +13% +10% +9%

+1659% JAGUAR TESLA* MASERATI INFINITI BENTLEY McLAREN VOLKSWAGEN
ALFA ROMEO

+458%
GENESIS +200%
GAINERS LOTUS*

LOSERS

–98% –35% –23% –15% –15% –12% –11% –7% –7% –7%
SCION SMART CHRYSLER FIAT HYUNDAI JEEP MINI DODGE KIA LEXUS

RECALLS Through November.

HONDA HONDA FORD FIAT CHRYSLER
FORD
Battery sensor may be Front-passenger Door latches may Occupant-restraint controller may
Front-
exposed to water, airbag inflator not fully engage. not function properly in a rollover crash.
passenger
shorting electrical may rupture.
airbag
system and causing a fire. 1,021,279
inflator may
10 LARGEST

rupture.
FIAT CHRYSLER
1,148,550
Brake-booster shield issue.
VEHICLES RECALLED 977,708 1,101,107 654,695 646,394

BMW BMW HYUNDAI GENERAL MOTORS

Electrical short may cause Blower-motor wiring may Front seatbelt linkages may detach. Vehicle may lose power-
a fire, even when vehicle cause a fire, even when steering assist at low speed.
is not in use. vehicle is not in use.
740,561 672,775 977,778 690,685

1 VEHICLE RECALLED 2 VEHICLES 3 VEHICLES

2013 MERCEDES-BENZ R320 CDI 4MATIC: 2015 MERCEDES-BENZ SPRINTER: 2013–2014 FREIGHTLINER SPRINTER, 2016
10 SMALLEST

If communication unit is damaged in a crash,
engine or fuel pump may not shut off.
2016 KIA OPTIMA: Incorrect installation of
inflator seal may cause reduced inflation of
driver’s frontal airbag.
2017 JAGUAR F-PACE: Bolt used to attach
fuel pump may be too long.
2017 LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER: Bolt used
to attach fuel pump may be too long.
Driveshaft catch strap was not installed.
2015 MERCEDES-BENZ SPRINTER:
Protective plate for gas tank and foam ring for
the filler neck were not installed.
2017 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA: Engine may
seize due to improperly cast block.
2017 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA: Vehicle
identification numbers on body do not match
VIN plate near windshield.
MERCEDES-BENZ METRIS: Routine software updates
may cause conflicts between vehicles’ computers.
2015–2017 MERCEDES-BENZ METRIS: Electrical
contacts for power steering may not have been properly
welded.
2016 FORD ESCAPE: Driver’s knee airbag may not
inflate properly.
2016–2017 MERCEDES-BENZ C300: Electrical contacts
for power steering may not have been properly welded.

C O L L I S I O N F I G U R E S : I N S U R A N C E I N S T I T U T E F O R H I G H W AY S A F E T Y, 2 0 1 3 -T O -2 0 1 5 M O D E L-Y E A R V E H I C L E S . S A L E S D ATA : A U T O M O T I V E N E W S 021


The Y
in Revear
iew
CONCEPT
CARS
THE INSPIRATIONS, AMBITIONS, AND
WHIMSY THAT PORTEND THE AUTOMOTIVE
FUTURE. PERHAPS. by John Pearley Huffman
[A] ASTON MARTIN VALK YRIE
It’s a shriek expressed in
carbon fiber and powered by
a mid-mounted, Cosworth-
engineered 6.5-liter V-12
supplemented by an F1-style
kinetic energy recovery sys-
tem. All that is supposed to be
good for somewhere north of
1100 horsepower. The shrink-
wrapped body covers only
those parts that need cover-
ing, with the rest dedicated to
downforce or airflow manage-
ment. A conspiracy between
Red Bull Racing and Aston, the
Valkyrie should be sucking a
reported $2.6 million from
each of 150 flamboyant billion-
aires’ offshore accounts by
2018. Maybe 2019.
[B] BMW 8-SERIES
The upcoming replacement
for the current 6-series, the
8-series will be BMW’s play to
regain its spot among
big, high-style,
[D]
022 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
high-performance coupes.
Sculpted to within an inch of
pornographic, the 8-series
concept puts the kink into
Hofmeister. In production, the
mechanical bits and engine
choices will be mostly 5- and
7-series stuff. There will be an
M8, too, probably about a year
after the ordinary 8s appear in
2018. Incidentally, M8 is the
name of a Cadillac-made,
World War II-era self-
propelled howitzer.
[C] BORGWARD ISABELLA
After a scant 55-year break
(and some Chinese financing),
Germany’s Borgward was
miraculously resurrected in
2016 with the BX7 SUV. Who
knew? A Beijing-built cross-
over is smart business, but any
surviving Borgwardians
would burst their adult diapers
at the sight of the new Isabella,
[C]
[B]
with its four sliding doors, two
electric motors, and enough
swoopy, delicate flourishes
to shatter any ascetic’s self-
esteem. Former Mini sculptor
Anders Warming gets credit
for the most satisfying sur-
prise of 2017.
[D] HONDA URBAN EV
Swiping cues and proportions
from its own old, old-school
Civic, Honda proves that a
supertiny box with huge
wheels can be spectacular.
Here it takes the form of the
electric city car that urban
planners insist we need. The
Urban EV is so damn cute, we
almost agree.
[E] INFINITI PROTOTYPE 9
One concept from the past
year made us want to grab a
leather helmet, enter the
1936 Indianapolis 500, and
rub balloon tires with
Louis Meyer. There are
only two problems with
the Prototype 9. First,
[E]
[A]
there’s no room for a riding
mechanic. And second, behind
that gloriously art-deco, retro-
punk, reverse-waterfall grille
is a Nissan Leaf’s electric
motor. It ought to have an Offy.
[F] JEEP QUICKSAND
An unashamed reflection of
throwback sensibilities, the
Quicksand is a thumping mix
of insane sand dragster,
demented Wrangler, and
demonic chopped phaeton.
There’s a 391-cubic-inch Hemi
V-8 capped with velocity
stacks up front, a six-speed
manual transmission, gold
Halibrand-style wheels, and a
recovery rope packed inside a
friggin’ drag-chute bag. Amid a
sea of concepts trumpeting
their makers’ virtuousness,
this one indulges in the deca-
dent glory of internal combus-
tion. It will surely enter
production in some mirror
universe of inverted realities.
[F]
[G] KIA PROCEED
Wagons may not be commer-
cially viable in the States, but
they are the one true sleek
alternative to a world overrun
by blunt crossovers. The
Proceed is Kia playing a long
game that forecasts today’s
market forces collapsing under
a zeitgeist-wide longing for
provocative vehicular
sexuality.
[H] MAZDA VISION COUPE
Mazda, you get us. You are our
passion and our reason, the
sodium to our chloride;
together, we are the table salt
of desire. We lose ourselves in
the sweep of this four-door.
Transfixed by its hooded eyes,
we drown in the depths of its
paint. Its interior looks as if it
were carved from a single limb,
one struck and felled by a
lightning bolt of inspiration
off a golden tree of awesome.
This is glory beyond English.
C’est magnifique.
[I] McLAREN ULTIMATE
VISION GRAN TURISMO
McLaren is embracing the
hallucinatory power of gam-
ing. The Ultimate Vision Gran
Turismo is a purely theoretical
concept like the tachyon. It
exists only as a computerized
representation. In this case,
[I]
the digital realm is Sony Play-
station’s Gran Turismo Sport.
10BEST CARS WE DON’T GET
There’s no physical middle for —
the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 to We’ve driven a couple, seen most at international auto shows,
fill and no real front wheels for and fantasized about all the vehicles that you can’t buy within
the dual motors to spin. The 3000 miles of here. Straight from overseas markets, these are
active aerodynamics are just our favorite not-for-U.S.-sale cars and trucks. by Clifford Atiyeh
hyperactive lines of code. But
all concept cars are fantasy, so aren’t enough of
them. Nor have we
why bother with real-world had our fill of trapezoi-
constraints? Given that ALFA ROMEO GIULIA dal center-exit
QUADRIFOGLIO exhausts, checkered-
McLaren’s Vision supposedly MANUAL AUDI SQ7 flag fog lights, or
packs 1134 horsepower and a The Ferrari-inspired This high-perform- violent-orange paint.
flappy paddles ance diesel SUV would The Mégane Renault
motorcycle-style driving mounted on the have arrived already Sport checks these
position, maybe piloting one Giulia’s steering were it not for that boxes in a package
column are cool, but pesky EPA and a with 275 horsepower
on PS4 is close enough to real we hate to be stick- couple of minor crimi- and four-wheel
life for anyone’s health. teased. When Alfa nal convictions. Audi steering.
confirmed the car’s hangs two turbo-
sale in the U.S., a few chargers off the SQ7’s
[J] PEUGEOT INSTINCT stateside dealers V-8 plus a super-
parked demo models charger spun up by a
Peugeot uses the term “shoot- with six-speed 48-volt motor. The
ing brake” to categorize the manuals in their electric-blower tech
showrooms. Then will eventually migrate SEAT LEON CUPRA R
Instinct, but “boudoir” fits those cars disap- stateside, just not in While we’re at it, let’s
better. The car supposedly peared, never to be the SQ7 with its 664 grab a steroidal Volks-
sold. We’ve yet to pound-feet of torque. wagen GTI with some
operates as a driverless plug-in meet a great sports Spanish flair. Seat
hybrid integrated with the sedan that wasn’t routes 306 horse-
made better by a power through the
Samsung Artik cloud plat- clutch pedal. Leon’s front wheels,
form, but it’s hard to believe then adds matte gray
paint, carbon-fiber
any of that actually works yet. aero trim, big copper-
When it does, Peugeot should HONDA S660 colored wheels, and a
The engines in Japan’s decidedly nastier
paint the Instinct’s under- kei cars must displace mien. Only 799 Cupra
carriage red, get Christian ALPINE A110 no more than 660 Rs will be made.
The French have been cubic centimeters to
Louboutin to sign the hood, automobile-design qualify for tax bene-
and sell it to a Kardashian. pioneers since the fits. Usually, the cars
19th century, and look like Kleenex
They shouldn’t be trusted to while no American boxes with wheels, not
drive themselves anyhow. misses the LeCar, rear-drive, mid-
we’re très en colère engined roadsters. SUBARU LEVORG
that the Alpine A110 is Sure, the S660 only STI SPORT
off-limits. It’s a reborn has 63 horsepower, We had the WRX
rally car with a 2400- but it’s also got a tiny hatch. Now picture a
pound curb weight turbo, a 7700-rpm WRX wagon with a
and a mid-mounted redline, and a six- dash of Legacy. Tech-
four-cylinder that speed manual. You nically, the Levorg
sounds sweeter than want ponies, buy a name is a portman-
the Porsche Cay- Hellcat. teau of LEgacy reVO-
man’s. Slap a red lution touRinG, but it
[J] Rallye Monte-Carlo also sounds like one of
sticker on that blue Captain Kirk’s inter-
body and let’s go. stellar booty calls.
[H] MERCEDES-BENZ
C-CLASS ESTATE
There hasn’t been a
[G] Mercedes C-class
AUDI RS4 AVANT wagon in the U.S.
Audi denies us any since 2005, when the
Avant models for fear body style became
that a wagon without the exclusive domain
plastic fenders is of the E-class. But the VOLKSWAGEN
about as appealing to CLA, GLA, and GLC CALIFORNIA
Americans as seem to be carving It’s named after our
tuna-flavored chewing out a place that’s just most populous state
gum. It’s under- waiting for the return but isn’t sold there.
estimating us. We of the long-roof C. An Nor is it sold in Port-
like tuna. RS Avants AMG C63 estate: Now land, Oregon, where
we’ve previously that sounds perfect. features editor Jeff
pined for include the Sabatini now parks his
twin-turbo V-10 RS6 Westfalia. He proba-
as well as the RS4 with bly wouldn’t see a
its screaming, natu- need for the Califor-
rally aspirated V-8. nia’s optional power-
Now there’s a twin- operated camper top
turbo V-6 in this RENAULT or its built-in stove,
ground-scraping MÉGANE R.S. but we could get
anti-SUV, and it’s still We thank Ford, Honda, onboard with this
one of the strongest and Volkswagen for mobile kitchen pow-
reasons to envy America’s hot-hatch ered by the available
Europe. revival, but there still twin-turbo diesel.
023
 The Y MOST PROMISING
TECHNOLOGIES
in Revear
iew

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE LIES HERE.

DIGITALLY ENHANCED
Supplier Tenneco wants to bring uously adjustable valves that are common
adaptive damping to the masses with its in adaptive dampers. Tenneco also reduces
new, affordable Digital Ride Control the need for costly computers and motion
Valve damper. Its DRiV unit uses sole­ sensors by mounting control circuitry and
noids to control fluid flow through three accelerometers on the damper itself. DRiV
ports with differing diameters. Opening dampers can be installed on any vehicle,
and closing these valves in different but Tenneco is pitching them to auto­
combinations creates eight distinct makers primarily as a solution for pickup UNDER PRESSURE
IN A WORLD OF
damping profiles, and rapidly switching trucks, where adaptive damping can help I N T E R N E T-
between those curves imitates the per­ smooth the ride in a wide range of load con­ CONNECTED
EVERY THING,
formance of the more expensive contin­ ditions and use cases. WHY SHOULD
YOUR RICE
COOKER BE
SMARTER THAN
THE RIGHT STUFF YOUR TIRES?
C O N T I N E N TA L’ S
With its Project One ELECTRONIC TIRE
hypercar, Mercedes-AMG is I N F O R M AT I O N
accelerating the trickle-down S Y S T E M , eT I S ,
effect, fire-hosing racing MGU-H USES A SENSOR
technology onto the street. AT TA C H E D
Its Motor Generator Unit– D I R E C T LY T O T H E
Heat, or MGU-H, a small TIRE LINER TO
electric motor/generator, is MEASURE TIRE
one of the craftiest bits of T E M P E R AT U R E ,
tech to make the migration. TURBINE COMPRESSOR
The compressor and turbine LOAD, AND EVEN
of the turbocharger fitted to TREAD DEPTH,
the little 1.6-liter V-6 are split ALONG WITH TIRE
by a relatively long shaft that PRESSURE. LIKE
doubles as the rotor for the A N O I L- L I F E
MGU-H, the white stuff in the MONITORING
turbo’s Oreo. None of this S Y S T E M , eT I S
motor’s torque makes it to COULD ALERT
ENGINE THE DRIVER
the wheels, but its 107 horse- WHEN IT’S TIME
power reduces lag by BLOCK
spinning the turbo when FOR A TIRE
exhaust energy alone is R E P L A C E M E N T—
insufficient. This tech will NOT BASED ON
forever redefine throttle MILE AGE, BUT
response for street cars. THE CONDITION
OF THE RUBBER.

BE DAZZLED
Headlights that afford a
driver maximum visibility
and full-high-beam
intensity without blinding
oncoming drivers are the
next advancement in
road illumination. They’re
known as adaptive
driving beams, and the
latest version is found in
Audi’s 2018 A8, which
goes on sale this spring in
Europe and will come to
the U.S. in the fall. Matrix
HD LED headlights—as
Audi calls its ADB system—
employ 32 LEDs
arranged in two rows. By
switching off individual
LEDs or dimming them
over 64 stages, millions
of light patterns can be
generated. The arrays
allow Audi to create a only high- and low-beam rulemaking action that
swivel effect with no operation with specific will allow ADB headlamps
moving parts and to use intensity limits through- as optional equipment.
the navigation system to out the beam pattern.
predictively “aim” the The National Highway
lamps into upcoming Traffic Safety Adminis-
corners. Multiple manu- tration is currently
facturers produce working on a
lighting systems that are
capable of such feats,
but federal law
restricts our
headlights to

024 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018 illustrations by C H R I S P H I L P O T

 DUST IN THE WIND
Porsche Surface Coated Brakes dress
conventional iron rotors with a 0.004-inch
layer of tungsten carbide to limit the
creation of the iron-oxide dust that often
blankets the wheels and calipers of high-
performance vehicles. The coating also
gives the discs a polished finish to help
buyers justify yet another four-figure
Porsche option. Paired with a top-secret pad
SPARK, SQUISH, BANG compound, PSCB will stop a vehicle shorter
than a conventional disc and last up to 30
Mazda appears to have (kind of, sort of) won a percent longer, according to Porsche. When
decades-long race to reliably ignite gasoline they make their debut on the 2019 Cayenne,
PSCB systems will be equipped with white
using compression—similar to a diesel calipers to show off their cleanliness.
engine—rather than a spark. The company
says it will sell a car using the fuel-saving tech-
nology by 2019. There’s one caveat: Skyactiv-X, HIGH VOLTAGE 50-kW stations. Simply
as Mazda calls this engine, relies on a spark to Americans spend an average turning up the amperage to
control the compression ignition. A small dose of three minutes and 33 support 350 kilowatts on
of gas injected in the intake port early in the seconds—the length of a today’s 400-volt hardware
intake stroke creates a uniform air/fuel mix- typical pop song—refueling at would demand cumbersome
ture throughout the cylinder that is too lean to gas stations. EV drivers plug in liquid-cooled cables, so
ignite solely with the compression of the pis- to DC fast-charging stations Porsche proposes doubling
ton. As the piston nears top dead center, an for an average of 22 minutes the voltage instead. This
injector in the combustion chamber sprays and and still reclaim significantly requires a large-scale reengi-
the spark plug fires almost immediately to less range than an internal- neering of many onboard
combust this fuel-rich pocket. The pressure combustion-powered vehicle. electronics but preempts the
rise created by that ignition then causes the Porsche is leading the push for need for thicker cables. It also HIGH
DOWNFORCE
lean mixture throughout the combustion 350-kW stations that would leads to a happy side effect:
chamber to burn. Mazda uses this technique at more than double charging Some 80 pounds of wiring
low to moderate loads with an air-to-fuel ratio rates compared with Tesla’s and electronics could be
of roughly 30.0:1. Conventional gas engines 120-kW Superchargers and omitted from each vehicle.
use significantly more fuel, with ratios below the existing brand-neutral A full charge still won’t be a
15.0:1. Under high loads, the engine operates as radio single, but 450
a conventional spark-ignition gas engine. amps at 800 volts could LOW
DOWNFORCE
Equipped with a supercharger, the Skyactiv-X deliver 90 kilowatt-
2.0-liter inline-four makes about 190 horse- hours—good for about
power, and Mazda promises a 20 to 30 percent 225 miles of range—in
improvement in fuel efficiency over its current the span of a 15-minute AIRING IT OUT
2.0-liter gas engine. prog-rock opus. Altering the path of
the air, rather than
tweaking the shapes
with which it inter-
acts, is the coming
LIQUID SOLID frontier in active
SOLID IMPROVEMENT aerodynamics.
Replacing a lithium-ion battery’s liquid or gel electro- Though several
lyte with a crystalline solid electrolyte could double vehicles currently
its energy density, improve its longevity, and elimi- employ this trick,
nate the failure modes that, today, can turn your the Lamborghini
electric car into a fireball. Such solid-state batteries Huracán Perfor-
are the most promising successor to modern EV mante does so most
batteries. While most experts say the tech is a long elegantly. Funneling
way from production, Toyota claims it will commer- air into the stan-
cialize solid-state batteries in the early 2020s. chions supporting
the car’s rear wing
and then exhausting
it out vents built
into the hollow
WET AND WILD wing’s underside
reduces both drag
W I N G I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y P E T E S U C H E S K I

As automakers turn up the boost in high-performance engines, and downforce.

they edge ever closer to the thermal limits where fuel detonates When downforce is
catastrophically. Bosch’s WaterBoost system cools the intake required, airflow into
the stanchions is
charge by spraying a fine mist of water into the intake ports during blocked, allowing the
high-load, high-rpm driving. Lower intake temps allow for a tem- wing to function
conventionally. Also,
porary increase in boost levels, producing more power. BMW uses the inside of the wing
water injection in the M4 GTS track special to raise output from is divided in two so
that it can create
444 horsepower to 493, and Porsche’s newest widowmaker, the 911 greater downforce
GT2 RS, makes its 700 horses with the help of water injection. The on one side, helping
Lambo Junior rotate
tech also increases engine efficiency and reduces emissions, which in corners.
could lead to more mainstream applications.

025
 The Columnists
This year marked my 29th 10Best
affair, each one a shrieking kalei-
doscope of fun. So much fun that
we’ve sometimes laid bare a
splinter of recklessness. In 1991,
for instance, we had on hand—
but did not vote for—a Geo Metro
LSi convertible that was so awful that then
road-test coordinator André Idzikowski
would hand you the keys only after warn-
ing, “There’s a good chance you’re gonna
get hurt.”
Here are some other fouls:
1990: Mazda MPV. This was the first of
the second-gen minivans.
Unlike most of its ilk, the
MPV was rear-wheel drive so
that it felt as balanced as a
nice Ford Econoline E-150
filled with plumbing sup-
plies. When editor-at-large
Larry Griffin learned the
MPV was a 10Bester, his head
expanded into a pink and
puffy medicine ball, and he punched a fist-
sized hole in a closet door. He did this in
front of then administrative assistant Sue
Mathews, who never looked up from her
desk because she is a superior human being.
1991: Toyota Previa. Drivetrain pecu-
liarities in minivans had apparently over-
whelmed us—notwithstanding Larry’s
pugilistic display—and so the mid-engined
Previa made the list. Its door pulls were
upholstered in a gooey material that felt
like suede with warm maple syrup injected
beneath. You can’t help but vote for that.
1995: Chrysler Cirrus LXi. We were
feeling sorry for Chrysler that year. Too bad
we couldn’t fast-forward to 2017, when we
(and Mr. Marchionne) were feeling sorrier.
1995: Ford Contour/Mercury Mys-
tique. These were the replacements for the
026 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
Tempo and Topaz and thus had just the
tiniest shoes to fill. Jackie Stewart suppos-
edly had helped with suspension develop-
ment. I wish he’d left behind, say, a business
card or a pair of tartan Jockeys to prove it.
Or his small shoes.
We went on to race a prototype Contour
V-6 that was conceived by
the SVE folks at Ford and
prepped by Roush Technolo-
gies. It was the first Contour
whose seat fit me, given its
Nomex-clad Recaro. We
towed the car to the 24-hour
race at Nelson Ledges
[“Night of the Iguana, Sort
Of,” November 1995], where
we forgot to pin its hood, which rocketed
backward and shattered the windshield.
We replaced it with my rental car’s wind-
shield. And that’s all I care to say about that.
1998: Sometimes we simply made deci-
sions based on failed sitcoms and beer
foam. Such as Aaron Kiley’s insistence on
photographing the cars arranged in a giant
numeral 10. He managed this from a heli-
copter he’d rented from—I don’t know,
perhaps from a man selling Belgian waffles
out of a life raft. The helicopter was the size
of a Fiat 500 and struggled to get airborne.
The pilot looked to be 15. On the aircraft’s
tail, I swore I saw the word “Mattel.” Some-
times I think the ghost of John DeLorean
protects us from ourselves.
2001: Chrysler PT Cruiser. To cite a
cliché, this is when the wheels came off,
John Phillips
except it’s too bad they didn’t really. As you
may recall, the PT Cruiser began life as a
Neon that tumbled into Lady Gaga’s paint
shaker. It was styled to resemble a station
wagon from 50 years prior, pretty much
what no one had asked for. Chrysler plowed
ahead with the project anyhow, virtually
cornering the dental-hygienist demo-
graphic, a group who’d never known cars
even existed in the ’50s and later went on to
buy three or four Chevrolet HHRs.
2004: Toyota Prius. This was the
second-gen Prius and the first to be engi-
neered to feel like a hybrid and not like a car.
And, boy, did it feel not like a car. I didn’t
so much disagree with the selection of the
Prius as I did the editors’ creepy obsession
with monitoring its power flow and fuel
economy and brake regen and tulip growth
in Holland. “Come on, 60 mpg!” said one
editor. “The game is fun.” No, it wasn’t.
Isn’t. Not at all.
2005: Mercedes-Benz SLK350. I
couldn’t fathom how this roadster could
stoke campfires of desire in anyone’s brain-
box. It was as if Mercedes couldn’t decide
whether it wanted a smallish grand tourer
or a sports car or a showroom halo queen
and thus missed the bull’s-eye on all three.
Remember Cedric the Entertainer? He
claimed to be a stand-up comic, actor,
game-show host, and, for all I know, an IRS
agent. Never heard of him, right?
2010: Ford Fusion Hybrid. I don’t
remember driving this car. I can’t find any-
one who remembers driving this car. It
should have appealed to me because I was
right then getting old enough that cadaver
dogs would alert on me at breakfast.
But, of course, does it matter? Car
enthusiasts are defined by their vivid
mistakes. The new-car off-gassing smell is
said to melt brain cells. You know, I recall
making a generous offer on a 1964 Bill
Thomas Cheetah, whose gearbox was con-
nected to its differential by only a U-joint.
“I can get six attorneys to counsel you not
to proceed,” said my father, who had not yet
sniffed enough hydrocarbon fumes but
soon would, when he realized he couldn’t
get rid of me.
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 The Columnists
As driving instructors go, my
one-time friend Jeff might have
been the worst. If you had ques-
tions, say, about the interaction
of certain pharmaceuticals, Jeff
was your guy. Care to know every
minute difference between a
Fender Jaguar and a Fender Jazzmaster? He
knew them. But driving? Nope.
But damn if the guy wasn’t 30 years
ahead of his time in regard to autonomous
driving. The circumstances surrounding
his autonomous-driving epiphany are long
since lost to the thick, stinky cloud of his-
tory, but I distinctly remem-
ber a pause in conversation
followed by this declaration:
“Dude, just let your hands do
the driving.” Well, as they say,
“Out of the mouths of pro-
foundly stoned babes . . . ”
Turns out, Jeff was right:
You already have an autono-
mous car. It’s whatever car
you happen to be driving. You already have
an array of sensors (of varying reliability),
a three-pound fat-based computer, and a
variety of actuators capable of effecting
change in vehicle behavior. And once you’ve
fed your autonomous system enough infor-
mation over years of driving, it operates so
efficiently that you don’t bother to notice it.
It might be a bit of poetic license, but for all
the conscious effort you put into driving,
sometimes it can feel as if your hands are
doing the driving. You might not be driving
well, or even safely, but you are driving.
Consider this: Have you ever arrived
home from work to discover that a large
portion of your drive is completely absent
from your memory? Ever drive behind a
white Ford Explorer for miles and then real-
ize suddenly that there is no longer a white
028 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
Ford Explorer in front of you and you don’t
have any idea where it went or how long ago
it vanished? My most recent example of this
was my commute on I-94 this morning.
Okay, it’s not technically fully automated
driving. It’s actually more like automaticity.
It’s muscle memory on a grand scale. Famil-
iar roads, familiar conditions,
familiar controls send you
into automatic mode. Driving
on the same old expressway
route is a task of low cogni-
tive load, sort of like reading
Motor Trend. You’ll maintain
a roughly consistent distance
from the car in front of you,
accelerating, coasting, and
braking with no more thought than you put
into your morning shower routine.
Now if you have to deviate from your
usual route, that’s going to require some
conscious intervention from your brain’s
so-called central executive network. In
other words, you’ll have to do a bit of
thinking.
The reason you don’t remember your
drive is twofold, possibly more in Jeff’s case.
First, your drive down I-94 is not interest-
ing or novel enough for your noodle to
bother recording much of it. Familiarity
breeds “meh.” But here’s the other reason:
TUT. Folks who regularly read excruciat-
ingly dense academic papers on neurobiol-
ogy (when not devouring stories about a Kia
Rio’s limit handling) know that this stands
for task-unrelated thought. In this case, a
Daniel Pund
TUT is any thought not directly related to
operating the car you’re operating. Com-
puter processors don’t have TUTs because
that would just freak out humans. But your
processor does. These are the kind of
thoughts that make kids score poorly on
reading-comprehension tests. They’re
ruminations, daydreams, and, if you’re like
me, great ideas that disappear—forever—
almost as quickly as they appear.
Driving is, as of yet, too complicated for
silicon-based computers. But because it’s
often too simple for the human brain, we
get TUTs. And the longer your drive, the
more TUTs you’re going to get. Where do
TUTs come from? The DMN, of course.
(And you thought the auto business was
filthy with three-letter abbreviations.)
That’s the default mode network, so called
because this collection of connected brain
bits is activated when there’s not much else
going on. And daydreaming has a strong
negative effect on your working memory—
poof, the commute essentially doesn’t exist.
This is also likely why I always forget the
marketing presentations on car launches.
Oddly, if you look at functional MRI
scans of someone’s brain when his DMN is
active, it looks a bit like the Mercedes-Benz
three-pointed star, the top point near the
front of the brain and the two lower ones
out back. If this person turns around, it
looks like a flux capacitor.
Anyway, it’s in these wandering-mind
moments that your epiphanies happen.
These internal thoughts are closely associ-
ated with creativity. These are the shower
moments. It’s said that the world’s greatest
thinkers arrived at their breakthroughs
while on walks. I, on the other hand, came
up with the idea for this column while com-
muting. Clearly then, not all breakthroughs
are equally great. Also, the DMN is impli-
cated in many mental disorders. But let’s
not bum ourselves out.
Our automaticity, and the mind wan-
dering that it allows, doesn’t make us like
the computers that are supposedly des-
tined to replace us. In fact, it’s this ability
that makes us more human and creative. To
which Jeff would respond, “Duuuuude!”
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 The Columnists
I knew we were getting pulled over
even before the blue lights came on.
In this respect, boats are the same
as cars. You pass the Coast Guard
going in the opposite direction,
there’s a pause for a moment or
two, and then the law expresses
its interest by ripping a tight 180. At that
point, the blue strobes are almost redun-
dant. When you’ve got an orange rigid-hull
inflatable with triple 300-hp Verado out-
boards bearing down on you, you chop the
throttles. Odds are slim that you’ve got the
juice to pull away from a U.S. Coast Guard
boat. But we could have, a
fact unsubtly advertised by
the gigantic AMG logo span-
ning each side of the boat.
You know how AMG cars are
fast? So is this.
When the officers board
the boat—a 41-foot Ciga-
rette Racing SD GT3 center
console—Skip Braver, Ciga-
rette’s owner, raises the rear hatch over the
engines, revealing two twin-turbo 1100-hp
DOHC 9.0-liter V-8s from Mercury Racing.
One of the Coasties observes, “If you’d
decided to run, we wouldn’t have been able
to catch you.” Well, not with a boat.
Cigarette and AMG have been collabo-
rating on these co-branded boats for a
while, typically to the confusion of onlook-
ers who assume the boats must have AMG
engines. The partnership isn’t that literal,
N O M AT T E R H O W C L O S E LY I T L O O K E D ,
THE COAST GUARD COULDN’T FIND A
S I N G L E B I T O F M E R C E D E S I N T H I S B O AT.
030 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
not least because the offshore horsepower
scene is way crazier than anything in the
AMG engine portfolio. You can get that
Mercury V-8 in 1550-hp flavor, warranty
included. Yeah, it’s a 10-hour warranty, but
putting a warranty on a 1550-hp boat
engine is like offering low deductible health
insurance to a chainsaw jug-
gler. You have to be really
confident that he’s good at
juggling chainsaws.
So this is strictly a brand-
ing exercise, but one that
makes sense—both Cigarette
and AMG cater to rich people
who like things that look cool
and go fast. Braver and Benz
design boss Gorden Wagener are friends.
Hence, AMG boats. Also, this trip from
Miami to Key West, by sea with the AMG
boat and by land with an AMG GT R.
Wagener is part of our troupe, and
before we got on the boat, he held court on
the design future for Benz. I tend to imag-
ine designers as artsy types, gaunt folk who
wear metal-framed glasses and possibly
berets. But Wagener comes across as a jock,
the karate guy from the bad dojo, someone
who might at any moment give you a
noogie. I was afraid he was going to give me
a purple nurple after I said that I liked the
look of the Lexus LC500. He didn’t say any-
thing, but his expression would’ve been
appropriate if I’d just coughed tuberculosis
in his face and showed him my collection of
Band-Aids that I found at water parks.
Ezra Dyer
What Wagener did say was that Benz
design is going clean. “Instead of adding
things,” he said, “you take things away.”
That’s an unforgiving approach, because if
you get it wrong—an unresolved curve, a
cut line that doesn’t quite work—there are
no flashy gewgaws to distract the eye. The
GT R, which he designed, is a case in point.
Its active aero shutters are buried under the
grille where you can’t see them. Yeah,
there’s a wing on the back, but even that’s
subtle for a car that nearly matched the
Porsche 918 Spyder’s record at Lightning
Lap. So the AMG GT shape probably won’t
change much anytime soon.
And beyond that, Mercedes is ponder-
ing the question of how it will stay relevant
in the face of automation and electrifica-
tion, forces that threaten to homogenize
the automotive market. So Wagener com-
missioned his design team to imagine that
near-future world and all the ways Mer-
cedes could fit into it. The result is a book
called Sensual Purity, which might also be
the name of an unreleased Prince album.
Within those pages, we see not just
sleek future cars, but houses, bridges, and
public spaces. Some of it is deliberately over
the top—hey, who wants a condo in the
5000-foot-tall Benz skyscraper? Don’t
worry, it has a dock for your thousand-foot
Mercedes yacht, which has 160,000 horse-
power. I would’ve gone for 200,000 horse-
power, but I dream bigger than most.
The yacht is so huge that it has its own
marina at the stern. And there, in the illus-
tration, we see a dagger-looking center con-
sole not unlike the Cigarette SD GT3. That
part, anyway, isn’t the future. It’s the pres-
ent, if you’re rich enough. And it’s a preview
of a world where car companies aren’t just
car companies, a future that everyone from
GM (ride sharing!) to Tesla (solar roofs!) is
trying to figure out. You’re mad Ferrari will
make an SUV? Wait till it makes a toaster.
I don’t know if I’m ready for that. I don’t
know where all this is going. But the Coast-
ies seemed to like it. A few minutes after
they left, we were streaking along again,
an 85-mph AMG billboard. No need to
overthink it.
 1
Toyota Safety Sense™ is now standard
on many new Toyotas.

The road can be unpredictable. That’s why many new Toyotas, including the first-ever Toyota C-HR, come with
a suite of active safety features at no extra charge, including Pre-Collision System (PCS)2, Lane Departure Alert
(LDA)3 and other innovations. Toyota Safety Sense™ (TSS). Designed for safety.

Prototype shown with options. Production model will vary. 1. Drivers are responsible for their own safe driving. Always pay attention to your surroundings and drive safely. System effectiveness is dependent on many factors including road, weather and vehicle conditions. See
Owner’s Manual for additional limitations and details. 2. The TSS Pre-Collision System is designed to help avoid or reduce the crash speed and damage in certain frontal collisions only. It is not a substitute for safe and attentive driving. System effectiveness is dependent on many
factors including road, weather and vehicle conditions. See Owner’s Manual for additional limitations and details. 3. Lane Departure Alert is designed to read visible lane markers under certain conditions, and provide visual and audible alerts when lane departure is detected. It is
not a collision-avoidance system or a substitute for safe and attentive driving. Effectiveness is dependent on many factors including road, weather and vehicle conditions. See Owner’s Manual for additional limitations and details. ©2017 Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
65 cars, 10 days, 26,000 miles, 58 ballots,
502 doughnuts, 1 rainstorm, 0 traffic citations.

10Best
We crunched the numbers and here you have it:

Cars
for
Every year, we gather all the
new sub-$80,000 cars for a
meta test of automotive virtue.
After a week of evaluating them
on a now well-known loop of
public roads near our Ann
Arbor headquarters, we pick

2018
the 10 most promising new-
comers. A second week of
driving pits these challengers
against last year’s winners to
determine a new 10Best list.
Let us begin.

032 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018 illustration by A T E L I E R O L S C H I N S K Y
033
 Welcome to the First
Week of 10Best.
Relax, you haven’t done anything yet. You’re just new and you cost less than
$80,000. Your manufacturer has dropped you off at base camp with one
mission: Impress us on a lap, maybe two, of our 13.5-mile drive route. Do that
most important part well and we might peruse your window sticker, take a
look in your trunk, and make some further value judgments. If you’re good
enough, you might get to stick around until next week. Meet your competition:

ACURA TLX SH-AWD A-SPEC
$45,765
Acura
In theory, an Acura is a better Honda, one
with enough additional technology, pres-
tige, and capability to warrant luxury-
brand pricing. In practice, Acura fields a
single great halo car—the megahybrid
NSX—trying to cast its glow over a fleet
of only mildly deluxe sedans and SUVs.
Honda’s new Accord and Civic lineups cer-
tainly aren’t helping matters. Acura’s single
entry in this year’s 10Best competition is
the TLX V-6 SH-AWD A-Spec, an all-the-
goodies version of the TLX sedan that
replaced both the TL and TSX for 2015.
The TLX failed to impress at 10Best that
year, but pairing its 290-hp naturally aspi-
rated V-6 and torque-vectoring rear differ-
ential with the A-spec suspension and tire
upgrades gives it a second shot.
a path to sustainable sales volumes. Not
that a more conventional Alfa is in any way
mainstream. In the U.S., Alfa’s 172 dealers
sold one vehicle for every six 3-series that
BMW moved in September 2017.
Despite Alfa’s slow start, the Giulia por-
tends good things. For Fiat Chrysler’s frag-
ile empire, the Giulia’s Giorgio platform is
poised to revitalize Dodges and Jeeps that
still trundle along on dusty DaimlerChrys-
ler bones. For disaffected enthusiasts, the
Italians are rekindling the passion that the
Germans have left untended.
We sampled the Giulia in two strengths,
an all-wheel-drive model powered by the
turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four and the
Quadrifoglio with its 505-hp twin-turbo
V-6. Lamentably, both engines are paired
exclusively with eight-speed automatic
transmissions in the U.S. Still, expecta-
ALFA ROMEO GIULIA AWD
$40,990
tions have rarely been as high as when
we slipped into the driver’s seat and
thumbed the Giulia’s steering-wheel-
mounted push-button starter. The Italian
with the four-leaf clover on its fenders
already beat a BMW M3, a Cadillac ATS-V,
and a Mercedes-AMG C63 S in a compari-
son test. At 10Best, that’s a better omen
than any good-luck charm could bring.
Audi
New design motifs tend to spread across a
carmaker’s lineup with all the haste of wind
erosion. Or in the case of Audi’s latest, a
slow-motion rewind of wind erosion. With
the new A5 and S5, another set of Audi’s
soft-cornered trapezoidal grilles stretches
into hexagons.
At last year’s 10Best, Ingolstadt’s rede-
signed A4 survived the first cut to challenge
ALFA ROMEO GIULIA
QUADRIFOGLIO
$75,095

Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo’s U.S. return became real with
the arrival of the Giulia sports sedan. The
Giulia is accessible in all the ways the fan-
tastical mid-engined 4C isn’t, not the least
of which is the four-door’s sub-$350 lease
payment. Along with the recently arrived
Stelvio crossover, the Giulia gives the brand
Captions reflect base pricing for listed models.

034 . 10 B E S T CA RS FO R 2 01 8 . CA R A N D D RI V E R . JA N /2 01 8 10Best photography by M A R C U R B A N O A N D A N D I H E D R I C K

 the incumbents in Week Two but failed to
earn a spot on our final list. This year, that
bread-and-butter sedan donned natty new
clothes and brought powerful reinforce-
ments to make a second run at our annual
recognition. The 252-hp A5 and 354-hp S5
dispatched to 10Best were not the coupes
that have traditionally worn these particu-
lar alphanumerics, though. Audi instead
sent a pair of freshly minted Sportbacks,
whose style trades on the look of the suc-
cessful A7/S7.
For its part, the newly rechristened Audi
Sport division (née Quattro) contributed
the RS3 sedan with a 400-hp version of that
quintessentially Audi engine, the turbo
inline-five. Withheld from the U.S. market
in its prior iteration, the RS3 adheres to a
classic factory-hot-rod recipe: Combine
one small car with a high-output engine;
drive vigorously. The Audi five-pot makes
AUDI RS3 the RS3 (along with the TT RS) the most
$55,875
powerful vehicle built from the Volkswagen
Group’s versatile MQB componentry. An
optional set of staggered tires—wider at
the front than at the rear to thwart under-
steer—suggests Audi Sport may have
changed its philosophy as well as its name.

AUDI S5 SPORTBACK
$55,375 AUDI A5 SPORTBACK
BMW
$43,575 BMW is in crisis. Not on the sales front;
this is an identity crisis. The Bayeri-
sche Motoren Werke is trading its brand-
defining tactility and dynamic excellence
for what feels like someone else’s ideas
of luxury and comfort. Of course, these
new notions haven’t meshed well with
our priorities. The 3-series, with 23 con-
secutive 10Best awards, was one of the
longest-reigning champions in the his-
tory of our little competition. But it hasn’t
made the list since 2014. The 2-series has
kept the brand among the winners the
BMW 530e iPERFORMANCE last three years, but that end date on big
$53,395 brother’s winning streak can’t be undone.
BMW 530e iPERFORMANCE xDRIVE
$55,695 It’s up to the new 5-series to reintroduce a
BMW 540i mass-market BMW four-door to 10Best.
$58,695
No other challenger at this year’s
contest includes such a multipronged
BMW M550i xDRIVE
approach. We’ve got the four-cylinder 530e
$74,395 plug-in hybrid in both rear- and all-wheel-
drive configurations, a four-cylinder 530i, a
six-cylinder 540i, and even a 456-hp M550i,
one of those not-quite-an-M-car models
that allows it to duck under our price cap—
something the M5 won’t be able to do when
it arrives this spring. If the 5-series doesn’t
BMW 530i
make the list, it won’t be because the right
$53,395 one wasn’t available.

035

DODGE CHALLENGER
SRT HELLCAT WIDEBODY
$72,590
Dodge
Thirteen years have passed since the last
Dodge, the Magnum, earned a 10Best nod.
In that time, management has continued to
defibrillate the aged rear-drive platform,
which dates back to the DaimlerChrysler
era. A variation of it still underpins this
year’s pair of Challengers. Yes, the retro
muscle car has already taken a few swings at
10Best and whiffed, but like a T-baller with
a fruit-punch mustache, it’s taking two
more this year. First, the V-6–powered
Challenger receives an all-wheel-drive trim
dubbed GT AWD, a first for the pony-car
class. It’s sure to be popular in the snowy
Midwest—at least among this region’s
many FCA employees. Second, the tire-
scorching 707-hp Hellcat is back again in
a flared-fender Widebody model with
expanded Pirelli rubber to help address its
notorious deficiencies at anything beyond
straight-line performance. Getting its two
and a quarter tons to carve an apex may
prove an impossible task, but we nonethe-
less look forward to reacquainting ourselves
with the 300-foot burnouts from years past.
And what about the Demon? you might ask.
Unfortunately, the cost of admission to the
gates of hell exceeds our price cap.
General Motors
No carmaker earned more 10Best accolades
last year than General Motors, which has
036 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
DODGE CHALLENGER GT AWD
$34,590
GENESIS G80 SPORT AWD
$58,725
three Chevrolets—the Bolt, the Camaro,
and the Corvette—returning to defend
their titles in the second week of this year’s
competition. Yet GM also sent us a trio
of new alt-fuelers: the Volkswagen Jetta
TDI–imitating turbo-diesel Chevrolet
Cruze sedan; the Buick LaCrosse featuring
eAssist, with a small electric motor/gener-
ator replacing the 2.5-liter four-cylinder’s
alternator; and the plug-in hybrid version
of the Cadillac CT6 luxury sedan, which
boasts a 31-mile electric range as well as
335 combined horsepower from two elec-
tric motors and a turbocharged 2.0-liter
inline-four.
If these three cars seem like the ghosts
of 10Bests past, it’s because they are. They
showed up last year with more conven-
tional powertrains and failed to make it
beyond the first week. But they also reflect
corporate priorities at the largest domes-
tic automaker. GM has long insisted that it
would not put all of its eggs in one basket
when it comes to producing alternatives
to gasoline-engine orthodoxy, even going
so far as to rename its Powertrain unit
GM Global Propulsion Systems in 2016.
And shortly after 2018 10Best testing con-
cluded, GM announced big plans to launch
new battery-electric vehicles as well as fuel-
cell electrics in the coming years.
Planning for future 10Bests may involve
calling an electrician.
Genesis
Despite its name’s implication, Genesis did
not get a fresh start when Hyundai launched
its luxury brand in 2016. The flagship G90
is a redesigned Hyundai Equus and the
G80 is an update of the second-genera-
tion Hyundai Genesis that made its debut
for the 2015 model year. That’s not to say
Genesis is resting on its laurels, though.
The G80 gets a new trim level, Sport, with
a twin-turbocharged 3.3-liter V-6 that
makes a healthy 365 horsepower. Add some
visual tweaks, plus upgraded rear brakes
and Sport-exclusive adaptive dampers,
and this is more than enough of a revision
to warrant a 10Best invitation this year.
Honda
We have admired and appreciated the
Honda Accord for as long as the company
has built it, a sentiment reflected in the
record-setting number of 10Best accolades
bestowed upon the nameplate. Even the
least involving versions of this seminal
mid-sizer have usually stood proud of the
segment. Since the outgoing Accord placed
on last year’s 10Best list, the redesigned
model is given a bye and advances to the
second week of competition.
When we look back across the decades,
however, it’s not the company’s dominant
family car that we remember passionately.
Rather, it’s the light and lively ones—the
CRX Si, the Prelude Type SH, the Civic Si—
that formed the basis of our longtime crush
on the big H. In recent years, though, the
sprightly little Hondas have fallen flat. The
CR-Z was no CRX. The Prelude is long
dead. And the Civic? Well, Honda cost-cut
the previous-generation Civic into medioc-
rity. The current Civic sedan, a curiously
designed mini Accord, is a fine piece of
work. But it wasn’t good enough to make
10Best when it came out two years ago.
This year, Honda sent us a buckshot
spray of sporty Civics. At the bottom of the
ladder is the Sport hatchback with a six-
 CADILLAC CT6
BUICK LaCROSSE PLUG-IN HYBRID
speed manual. At around $22,000, it’s only WITH eASSIST $76,090
$30,490
a couple grand more than the Kia Rio that
was also at base camp. Like the other Civics
there this year, the Sport was covered in
Rallye Red paint, and it promised to be so
much fun to drive that we could almost for-
get how it looks. The middle child of the
Civic performance lineup is the Si. For not
that much more than the Sport, the Si
carries another 25 horsepower, chops seven-
tenths of a second off the Sport’s zero-to- CHEVROLET CRUZE
DIESEL SEDAN
60-mph time, and is available in less $24,670
weird-looking sedan and coupe body styles.
Speaking of weird, the Civic Type R has a
lock on this year’s competition for the car
that looks most like an evil robotic hedge-
hog. Honda swaps out the turbocharged
1.5-liter inline-four used in the two other
Civics here for a hard-punching 306-hp
turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder. The
result is a zero-to-60 time of 4.9 seconds, HONDA CIVIC SPORT
$22,390
Porsche-level braking, and more than HONDA FIT SPORT
1.00 g of lateral grip on the skidpad—all for $18,390

about $35K. If this sporty trio can’t spark

the old fire, all hope might be lost.
Also appearing in a supporting role is
our old friend and former 10Best winner,
the Fit, which has gotten a mild facelift,
additional driver-assist options, and a new
Sport trim level.

Hyundai
Fueled largely by its own outsize ambition,
Hyundai rocketed from irrelevance to HONDA CIVIC TYPE R
$34,990 HONDA CIVIC Si SEDAN
global titan over the course of three $24,990
decades. Its cars improved dramatically
with each generation, culminating in a
10Best win for the mid-size Sonata sedan
in 2011. The pace of improvement has
slowed since, but the Korean automaker
has been no less ambitious, adding models,
entering new market segments, and spin-
ning off the Genesis luxury brand.
This year, four Hyundai-badged 10Best
entrants (plus one Genesis model) repre-
sent the automaker’s best efforts to keep HYUNDAI IONIQ ELECTRIC
building market share. A refreshed and $30,385
HYUNDAI SONATA 2.0T HYUNDAI IONIQ HYBRID
retuned Sonata still delivers 245 horse- $28,485 $23,085 HYUNDAI ELANTRA GT SPORT
power from its optional turbocharged $24,135
2.0-liter inline-four, but now through an
eight-speed automatic. The Prius-fighting
Ioniq comes to us as a hybrid and a full EV
(the third model, a plug-in hybrid, only
became available after our testing). And
the plucky Elantra GT Sport hatchback
packs a turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four
and six-speed manual and looks ready to
take the fight to the Volkswagen GTI. Like
we said: ambitious.

037
 Infiniti
It’s been more than three years since Infin-
iti renamed all of its cars Q-something,
but the glacial pace of the brand’s product
development means that we still struggle
to put names with faces—er, grilles. Infin-
KIA OPTIMA
PLUG-IN HYBRID iti introduced only two cars in that time:
$36,105
the Q50 sedan we gonged from last year’s
10Best and this year’s entry, the all-new
Q60 coupe. This stunner makes anyone
behind the wheel look rich, and the 400-hp
twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 underhood means
we shouldn’t have too much trouble remem-
bering the Q60 Red Sport 400’s name.

KIA RIO HATCHBACK

Kia
$15,095 Kia’s strategy for selling cars is pretty sim-
ple: Pitch cost-competitive vehicles into
KIA STINGER GT
$39,895 almost every segment. And, in the case of
KIA STINGER GT AWD its four-door hidden-hatch Stinger, into a
$42,095
slice of the market we aren’t sure even exists.
That the Rio is the brand’s global top
seller—and one of the least expensive cars
LINCOLN CONTINENTAL
3.0T AWD on sale in the U.S.—makes its redesign for
$60,815
the 2018 model year critically important.
We tested the four-door hatchback version,
but a conventional sedan is also available.
Kia’s Optima plug-in hybrid, with a
claimed 29 miles of electric-only range,
arrived at 10Best this year promising a con-
ventional-powertrain driving experience by
INFINITI Q60 RED SPORT 400 using, well, a conventional six-speed auto-
$52,995 matic transmission.

MERCEDES-BENZ C300
MERCEDES-BENZ E400 CABRIOLET
4MATIC COUPE $52,195
$62,395
MERCEDES-BENZ E400
4MATIC WAGON
$64,045

MERCEDES-AMG E43
4MATIC SEDAN
$72,595
MERCEDES-AMG C43
4MATIC COUPE
$56,895

038

But let’s face it, the 365-hp twin-turbo
V-6–powered Stinger GT is Kia’s best
shot at a win. Also available with a boosted
2.0-liter inline-four, the Stinger comes
with either rear- or all-wheel drive. We
had both versions on hand this year but no
turbo four. The biggest question surround-
ing the car is: What exactly is Kia target-
ing? The nebulous nature of the Stinger—
part sports sedan, part near-luxury car,
and part utilitarian hatchback—reflects
Kia’s democratic brand proposition. Will
that translate into a compelling machine?
Lincoln
The 10th generation of Lincoln’s flagship
Continental went on sale in 2016, so it
really should have been at last year’s melee.
Lincoln seems to be making up for that,
passing on the front-wheel-drive poverty-
spec Conti with the naturally aspirated
V-6 and sending us its top-of-the-line Black
Label instead. This 400-hp twin-turbo
V-6–powered all-wheel-drive party barge
is resplendent with a blue leather-and-faux-
suede interior that reminds us of our aunt’s
house, lacking only the dish of Lysol-
flavored candies. This Continental also has
bewildering 30-way adjustable front seats
and a sticker price of $83,210. That’s a lot of
Lincoln. That its name doesn’t begin with
MK gives this husky fella a bonus point in
the scoring. But just one.
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes may have split itself into three
divisions (Benz, AMG, and Maybach), and
these divisions may encompass a stagger-
ing 46 models, but the brand now has the
clarity of purpose it lacked throughout its
long drift in the ’90s and aughts. Despite all
its models and subbrands, Mercedes makes
only one thing now: deeply and consistently
satisfying vehicles. The modern Mercedes
car draws on the old alchemy of the marque
at its postwar peak, managing to be effort-
lessly fast, meticulously engineered, suf-
fused with quality, and sublimely, almost
predictively, comforting.
We had Cs and Es at 10Best 2018, includ-
ing useful C-class additions such as the
C300 cabriolet and the C43 coupe, as well as
the new E400s and E43 sedan. This E-class
V-6 lineup is the brand’s beating heart, deliv-
ering an impressively wide range of uses
and body styles—coupe, sedan, convert-
ible, wagon, and verging on a supersedan.
They’re here because they’re new, of course,
but they’re also heirs to a classic tradition.
10Best That Never Were //
Here are the cars we asked
for that didn’t show up. Or:
a possible preview of next
year’s competition.
Each year, we start calling carmakers in late spring,
reminding them that in September we’ll need their new
models for a few weeks of testing and photography. We are
usually met with enthusiastic responses. Or the polite sug-
gestion that we check back later in the summer. Sometimes,
due to either PR incompetence or spite (usually the latter),
we are ignored. Then summer comes and goes in what feels
like a single 100-degree day capped by a thunderstorm, and
10Best has snuck up on us all over again.
Occasionally, cars that were guaranteed attendees drop out. Press fleets are as fragile
as an auto executive’s ego, subject as they are to the whims of the barbarians they serve.
Sometimes the vagaries of global production and shifting launch schedules mean that
new models quite literally miss the boat. Or carmakers tell us they blew their entire PR
budget on a mommy-blogger junket to Mars and didn’t order any press cars.
Irrespective of reason, some eligible models didn’t make it this year. Here are the
10Best absentees, then, listed alphabetically:
1. BMW 6-series Gran horses. But none of those 8. Nissan Leaf The all-new
Turismo This 5-series– Mustangs made it into 2018 Leaf delivers 150 miles
derived four-door hatch- Ford’s press fleet in time. of electric range and more
back confusingly replaces conventional small-car
the 5-series Gran Turismo 4. Jaguar F-type A 296-hp styling. Nissan told us the
in BMW’s 2018 lineup rather four-cylinder is now avail- only Leaf it had in the U.S.
than the 6-series Gran able in both the F-type was nondrivable. It seemed
Coupe that it sort of resem- coupe and convertible. futile to respond that many
bles. We imagine we’ll see EVs meet our definition of
it at next year’s 10Best 5. Jaguar XE The power- nondrivable.
if it sneaks in under the train shuffle for Jaguar’s
$80,000 cap. compact sedan includes the 9. Nissan Sentra SR
introduction of an all-new Turbo/NISMO A turbo
2. Buick Regal Still based four-cylinder in both 247- four-cylinder sport
on the Opel Insignia, the and 296-hp tune, as well as compact with a manual
redesigned Regal comes as a horsepower bump for the transmission seems like
a hatchback (called Sport- supercharged V-6, to 380. 10Best catnip. But Nissan
back, just like an Audi) or didn’t make a turbo Sentra
a crossover-style wagon 6. Jaguar XF Sportbrake available, even though we
dubbed TourX. The hot- This is the Jag we’re most gave the 2017 NISMO a
ted-up GS returns for 2018, excited about—a gorgeous, fairly positive review when
too, powered by a 310-hp long-roof model with that we tested it back in the May
V-6. All three arrived too late 380-horse V-6 and all-wheel issue. Perhaps Nissan is
for our test. drive. Next year, for sure. still pissed about that deer
that T-boned us . . .
3. Ford Mustang A mid- 7. Kia Stinger 2.0T Kia
life-cycle refresh puts a managed to pull two 10. Tesla Model 3 We did
new 10-speed tranny in all Stingers from its fleet prior not put down a $1000
automatic Stangs, ups the to the media launch, but deposit on Tesla’s compact
torque of EcoBoost models both were gonzo 365-hp electric sedan—not that we
to 350 pound-feet, kills off twin-turbo V-6 GT models. would have received one by
the V-6 model, and brings We’re still curious about the now even if we had. In early
power and fuel-economy base 255-hp turbocharged October, Tesla announced
bumps to the V-8–powered four-cylinder model that that it had built a total of
Mustang GT, now with 460 starts under $33,000. 260 Model 3s.
JAN/2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . 10BEST CARS FOR 201 8 . 039

SUBARU IMPREZA SEDAN
$19,355
SUBARU IMPREZA HATCHBACK
$19,855
Subaru
As we rolled into this year’s competition,
Subaru was in the process of hitting its 70th
consecutive month of sales growth. Its new
Impreza saw sales increase 43 percent
through the first three quarters of 2017. Yet
Subaru is still a ways from becoming a big
carmaker, and we hope its enthusiast-
focused models will find their place in the
company’s long-term plans. Because
despite Subaru remaking most of its lineup
into a homogeneous sop to the masses—or
perhaps because of it—it’s still the WRX,
based on the old Impreza platform, that
compels us most, providing the same spon-
taneous driving antics it did when it first
arrived here 17 years ago. With a redesigned
WRX still in the offing, only the new Sub-
VOLVO V90
CROSS COUNTRY
T6 AWD
$57,095
040 . 1 0 B E S T C A R S F O R 2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . J A N / 2 0 1 8
TOYOTA CAMRY
$24,390
TOYOTA CAMRY HYBRID
$28,695
TOYOTA CAMRY V-6
$35,295
aru Global Platform Impreza sedan and
four-door hatchback joined us at 10Best
this year. These Imprezas certainly sell
well, but whether they speak to our inner
throttle-stomper remains to be seen.
Toyota
For more than a decade now, Toyota has
seemed content to sell millions of cars to
throngs of appliance-seeking buyers. This
is not a recipe for 10Best notoriety. How-
ever, the auto-building behemoth is in the
early stages of making good on CEO and
chief car guy Akio Toyoda’s no-more-bor-
ing-cars edict, with the eighth-generation
Camry representing the immensely popu-
lar sedan’s best shot at glory since it last
made the 10Best cut in 1997. The revamped
VOLVO V90 T6 AWD
$56,945
TOYOTA PRIUS PRIME
$27,995
Camry is certainly more stylistically
adventurous and has substantially upped
its dynamic game, no longer soft to the
point of sloppiness. Plus, Toyota still offers
a V-6—this one makes 301 horsepower—in
addition to the base four-cylinder and a
hybrid model.
As further proof of the brand’s commit-
ment to its new mission, even the second-
generation Prius plug-in, also here at
10Best, has the improved dynamics of the
fourth-generation Prius on which it’s
based. Now denoted by “Prime” in its mon-
iker, this plug-in hybrid’s battery capacity
more than doubled, bringing its electric-
only range to a much more useful 25 miles.
Volvo
In terms of popularity, Volvo station
wagons lie somewhere between pickled
herring and herring in cream sauce, but
we are happy to report that this rare aspect
of our car culture endures. When Chinese
megacorp Geely bought Volvo in 2010, it
looked as if the Swedish brand was going
to get out of the wagon business for good
in the U.S. But a product renaissance,
beginning with the 2016 XC90—the first
Volvo to be underpinned by the brand’s
Scalable Product Architecture—has led
to this majestic V90 wagon. It’s available
only by special order, but Volvo dealers
will be happy to sell you its more common
lifted and clad Cross Country sibling right
off the lot. Based on the S90 sedan that
missed out on a 10Best win last year, both
wagons come to this competition in T6
configuration, with all-wheel drive and a
supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-liter
inline-four that makes 316 horsepower.
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 All 10Best Challengers
Proceed to Week Two.
Most are headed back to their makers. But not you.
Things went pretty well last week. You’ve got some
dirt ground into your floor mats, your tires are
missing a fair bit of rubber, but at least nobody lost
your key fob. Most important, you’re still here at
10Best camp. Problem is, so are last year’s winners.
All of them. ¶ You’ve been held over for a reason.
Maybe it’s your all-around excellence. But more likely
it’s one specific thing, an attribute, a facet of
your personality that made us want to take another
drive, push a little harder, open your hood. ¶ So you get
another tank of fuel and a wash. And you’ve earned a
few column inches all to yourself.

illustration by a T E L I E R O L S C H I n S K Y J a n /2 0 1 8 . C a R a n D D R I V E R . 1 0 B E S T C A RS F O R 2 0 1 8 . 043
Alfa Romeo license Quadrifoglio. Markedly differ-
ent points on the sanity meter, each
both on its steering and on your lunch.
There’s sufficient pace in the QF to

Giulia/ car nonetheless exhibits sparkling

steering fidelity and faithfully trans-
rival a Camaro ZL1, but it comes with-
out the big American’s bravado and

Quadrifoglio // mits chassis motions to its driver’s

fingertips, guts, and soul.
need for attention. It is, on that scale,
a subtle Italian. But it’s not a begin-

A sports sedan Our lesser Giulia, the 280-hp Ti,

was an all-wheel-drive model lacking
ner’s car. It doesn’t chase lane ruts like
several of the highly focused 10Best

is eternal. both the adaptive suspension and the

limited-slip rear differential that come
with the Performance package, yet
contenders, but its animated steering
and rear-biased-handling behavior
will keep even the sharpest drivers
it navigated the cratered, off-camber awake when pushing hard. Keep your
// B Y J O S H J A C Q U O T 10Best roads with compliance and hands on the wheel and your eyes
composure. The 505-hp Quadrifoglio down the road, and the Quadrifoglio
Into a sea of cars with indif- simply ignored the pavement irregu- delivers the disciplined, precise chas-
ferent, feedback-free steering larities with a combination of speed sis of a machine that’s alive, intuitive,
systems at 10Best sailed two and magic befitting a fully realized and real damned quick.
Alfas tethered securely to the tarmac sports sedan, which is exactly what
via rubber, aluminum, and verve. it is. Though they share an ultraquick
They came from Italy, but their steer- 11.8:1 steering ratio, the 2.0-liter Ti’s
ing was from the empyrean realm. light controls can be directed with
We tested two Giulias: the steals- fingers and toes, whereas the Quad
your-heart Ti and the steals-your- demands a more deliberate grip—

044 . 1 0 B E S T C A R S F O R 2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . J A N / 2 0 1 8
 The Giulia’s ability to offer confidence-inspiring con- Tech Highlight //
trol coupled with its refusal to be sterile or stiff is what Nice Rack
advanced it easily to Week Two. We voted it into the sec- Core to the Giulia’s back-road magic The
ond week keenly aware that, until now, not a single is its light, responsive, and super- Culled
Giulia Quadrifoglio has passed through our hands with- quick steering ratio. At 11.8:1, this Cars that didn’t
make it to
out, at a minimum, illuminating a check-engine light. Alfa’s rack offers the quickest fixed Week Two.
But both cars here were completely trouble-free, and ratio in any sedan made today. For
we’re obligated to evaluate them based on what we expe- comparison, consider the 15.0:1 and
rience now. Plus, the dynamic allure of these machines 14.1:1 ratios used, respectively, by
is absolutely irresistible. If you have a taste for bland but- the BMW M3 and Mercedes-AMG ACURA TLX
tered noodles, buy a Lexus ES. If you want arrabbiata, C63. Alfa benchmarked the BMW SH-AWD A-SPEC
get an Alfa Romeo Giulia. Both trim levels deliver on the 3-series and 5-series for feel, speed, “Never really rises to
promise of their heritage with chassis and steering sys- and response and then evidently the level of fun.”
tems that grant assurance as speed builds. These aren’t chose its own path. The Italian brand —E.Alterman
just spectacular sedans, they are four-door tools of went with a fixed-ratio rack instead
engagement that drive well, are everyday livable, and are of a variable-ratio unit, conferring
never dull. on-center quickness and cost
savings. The Giulia’s Bosch-supplied BMW 5-SERIES
steering rack is assisted by an “Look on the bright
electric motor turning a recirculat- side: BMW still builds
ing-ball drive via a belt. great engines.”
—M.Sutton

BUICK LaCROSSE WITH

eASSIST
“This is a $30,000
sedan in a $45,000
wrapper.”
–K.Colwell

CADILLAC CT6 PHEV

“The gauges are
completely inscrutable,
as is the point of this
version of the CT6.”
—J.Sabatini

CHEVROLET
CRUZE DIESEL
“I knew the Jetta
TDI. The Jetta TDI
was a friend of mine.
Senator, you’re no
Jetta TDI.”
—E.Alterman

DODGE CHALLENGER
“A terrible way to end
Chrysler’s car
division. Even as an
anachronism, this
car is inexcusable.”
—J.Phillips

silhouette illustrations by P E T E S U C H E S K I 045

046
Audi A5/S5
Sportback //
Maybe we
don’t have
to start a
#savethecars
campaign.
// B Y E R I C T I N G W A L L
Trucks and crossovers are domi-
nating the market, with cars
accounting for just one of every
three new vehicles sold here. The sedan
appears to be facing an existential slide
similar to the decline that decimated the
station-wagon segment.
But there’s hope for drivers who prefer
to stay close to the road. Hinge the rear
decklid from the roof, and the common
sedan adopts some of the utility that’s
made crossovers popular. Call them hatch-
backs, fastbacks, Gran Coupes, or, in Audi’s
case, Sportbacks. The name is about as
important as how many gloves fit in the
glovebox. What matters for the 2018 Audi
A5 and S5 Sportbacks is that they share the
same basic shape that we first fell in love
with on the Audi A7.
These new Sportbacks are made of the
same mettle—and largely from the same
metal—as the soberly competent A4 and S4
sedans. Yet the extra flourish of hatchback
style helps the Sportback’s personality do
the same. The teardrop curve of the roof-
line pulls the car’s visual center of gravity
rearward. Tapering the canopy near the tail
creates haunches over the rear wheels that
give this five-seat Audi a muscular tension.
And when you punch their accelerators,
both the 252-hp A5 and the 354-hp S5
unwind with explosive force.
Inside, the A5 and S5 display typical
Audi polish. High-end materials are
deployed with restraint and precision. This
is par for the brand, though. The Sport-
back’s payoff is its interior volume. Behind
the rear seats, the cargo hold grows from
13 cubic feet in the A4 sedan to 22 cubic feet
in the A5 Sportback. Folding the rear seats
brings the total to 35 cubes.
The 2017 Audi A4 made it to the second
round of 10Best last year based on its all-
around dynamic abilities and its well-
rounded package. The A5 and S5 Sportbacks
elevate that performance with an overdue
infusion of style and personality.
S5 photography by J O H n R O E
Audi RS3 // Keep Audi weird!
(More inline-fives, please.)
// B Y E Z R A D Y E R
We’re losing the special engines. They don’t make sense. Used to be, when
you bought a dedicated performance model, there was a whole different ani-
mal under the hood—a V-10 in a 5-series or a 7000-rpm 7.0-liter in a Corvette.
Nowadays, you just slap on a supercharger or dial up the boost on your turbos and call
it a day. The cars are faster, sure, but it’s hard to brag to your friends about your model-
specific intake manifold. Remember when the M3 had a V-8? That was awesome.
By all rights, the RS3 should have a boosted-to-bejesus 2.0-liter inline-four, an upra-
ted version of the powerplant that moves the Volkswagen Golf R. Audi could’ve done
that. Given the low-volume nature of performance sedans, it would’ve been the rational
route. But, to our great joy, the RS3 (along with its brother, the TT RS) has a very spe-
cial engine—a 2.5-liter inline-five running 19.6 psi of boost. If you missed your chance
to drive a Group B car, this is your ticket to the land of righteous off-kilter warble and
four-wheel roostertails of dirt. The RS3 at full throttle sounds like a pod of enraged
narwhals, and that’s a sound as rare as a pod of enraged narwhals. Because this Audi
2.5 is the only gas-powered five-cylinder left on the market. How’s that for special?
But the RS3 isn’t being different for difference’s sake. This aluminum-block five is
a beast, spinning out a lag-free 400 horsepower and sledgehammering 354 pound-feet
of torque from 1700 rpm all the way to 5850 rpm. Students of dyno charts know that
horsepower peaks are usually just that, an apex followed by a drop. Not here. The RS3
has a horsepower plateau, maintaining that 400-hp output from 5850 rpm to
7000 rpm. Use that extra bandwidth to hold a higher gear midcorner, minimize shift-
ing on a road course, or just extract a maximally gratifying blap from the optional sport
exhaust when the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic rips into a higher gear. The point
is, revving the RS3 to redline should be done
often and with great enthusiasm.
The RS3 is a machine that sounds prepos-
terous even in theory: “Imagine, if you will,
the power of a C6 Corvette stuffed into a car
that’s the size of the original A4 and makes
noises like a 1985 Quattro coupe.” And yet,
somehow, Audi built it. Obviously, this car
makes it to Week Two.
Jan/2018 . CaR anD DRIVER . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . 047
Honda Civic Sport/Si/Type R // Punching above
its weight, below, and everywhere else, too.
// B Y D A N I E L P U N D

Officially, we didn’t know until

the end of the first week that
the three assembled Civics
would move on to the final round of CIVIC SPORT CIVIC Si CIVIC Si CIVIC TYPE R
HATCHBACK SEDAN COUPE HATCHBACK
competition. We had to wait to tally the
votes, don’t you know? We’re pretty cer-
tain, though, that the Civics secured a
spot on each individual voter’s ballot PRICE $22,390 $24,990 $25,190 $34,990
AS TESTED
moments after they finished driving
them. For your humble narrator, that
would have been Monday, right around 0–60,
SEC 4.9 6.3 6.7 7.0
11:30 a.m.
No other models, save perhaps the
Alfa Romeo Giulias, were such a cer- 1/4-MILE,
tainty for a round-two berth. Why? Well, 13.5 14.8 15.0 15.2
SEC
the three Rallye Red Civics represent
a mighty left-right-left combination
70–0,
punch in the affordable-performance FT
142 159 160 176
realm—and each blow lands harder
than the one before it. Only Volkswagen
300-FT
can truly match Honda’s C-segment SKIDPAD, 1.03 0.97 0.93 0.88
three-rung performance ladder. Maz- G
da’s pretty 2.5-liter manual hatchback 3
does a fine job battling the Civic Sport WEIGHT,
2868 2879 2911 3111
hatch, but the company from Hiroshima LB
has nothing to go up against the Si or the
Type R. Subaru’s WRX and STI are for-
OBSERVED 31 28 26 23
midable competitors in the upper end of MPG
the segment, but the regular Impreza is
no performance car. Ford is in the same
CARGO
boat: The ST and RS are no joke, but the VOLUME, 26 23 15 12
standard Focus gives up 20 horsepower CU FT
to the Civic Sport hatch and is roughly
20 percent less fun to drive. HORSE-
306 205 205 180
If you can have only one car and POWER
have a regular-guy amount of money
Three body styles, three intensities, and one distinct flavor. We didn’t have an Si coupe on hand for 10Best,
to spend, it’s hard to beat the Civic but the family was well represented nonetheless. Test results are from encounters in the past year.
performance models. These three Civ-
ics cover the $22,000-to-$35,000 zone
right at the heart of the affordable new-
car market, and each comes equipped
with a crisp-shifting six-speed manual
transaxle. It’s the only gearbox avail-
able in the Si and Type R. Each of these
Civics is endowed with precise steer-
ing and a supple, lively chassis. Each is
roomy and practical. Each is motivated
by a turbocharged four-cylinder that
doles out equal measures of low- and
high-rpm power. Each returns excel-
lent-for-its-class fuel economy. And
each is styled . . . well, they are awfully
fun to drive.
That this trio represents a comeback
for Honda small-car performance might
not help them on the scorecard, but it
does warm our hearts.

048
Hyundai Ioniq EV //
An eclectic elec-trick.
// B Y J A R E D G A L L

“Electric Hyundai hatchback” might not be a terribly tan-

talizing descriptor, but the Koreans are zeroing in on
small-car excellence and this is one of the better-realized
products in the portfolio.
A peek behind the curtain of our 10Best machinations: The
Hyundai Elantra has been earnestly debated as a Week One winner
for two years running. Last year, we argued about the sedan lineup;
this year, the VW GTI–aping GT Sport
hatchback had us picking sides and hurling
regrettable personal insults.
The Ioniq isn’t exactly an Elantra hatch-
back, but the resemblance is fraternal
inside and out, and the front-suspension
designs are similar. If you also see a lot of
Toyota Prius in the profile, that’s because
the Prius looks the way a car does when it
rolls over and dies in a fight with the wind,
and the Ioniq didn’t rise to supreme effi-
ciency leader by making compromises. Its gently sloping roof and
Kamm tail are undeniable basics of aerodynamics; the closed-off
“grille” panel and flat underbody tray help the Ioniq EV achieve an
EPA-rated 136 MPGe, the highest figure bestowed on any car or
truck for sale in the U.S.A. today.
The higher that number, though, the more we try to undercut
it. The Ioniq EV isn’t here because we feather-footed it around our
loop, trying to top the EPA’s figure. It’s here because it’s surpris-
ingly satisfying to drive. At 3240 pounds, its curb weight is closer
THE 118-HP
HYUNDAI IONIQ
MOTOR.
to a Porsche Boxster’s than that of most EVs,
and the positioning of the battery pack beneath
the rear seat and cargo area gives this front-
driver a slight rearward weight bias. It feels
light and nimble but solid. The steering is
nicely weighted, but it’s what’s on the back of the wheel that really
caught our attention. What would be shift paddles in a conven-
tional car here vary how eagerly the electric motor scavenges elec-
tricity when the driver lifts off the accelerator. In the most aggres-
sive of its four levels, the Ioniq will almost stop itself without the
driver touching the brakes. In the least, it’ll freewheel as though
you’ve tossed the car into neutral. That flexibility imbues this EV
with a semblance of manual-transmission control and gives us
further hope that the electric future won’t be total drudgery.

Kia Rio color, perhaps hoping that the outrageous

hue would keep people from noticing the
idea of this no-nonsense, stripped-out LX
trim endearing, even if we’d probably be

hatchback // shoddy build quality. Successive genera-

tions have brought improved fit and finish
willing to pay a bit more for the better-
equipped S or EX models.

Exceeding the and more appealing styling, but the littlest

Kia was never a great small car.
Yet the most surprising facet of the
Rio’s evolution is its suspension tuning. It

low expecta- The new-for-2018, fourth-generation

Rio hatch arrived at this year’s 10Best com-
absorbs impacts like a more expensive car
while still imparting confidence on a back

tions that come petition ready to reverse that. It remains a

cheap car—impressively so with its $15,095
road. There’s not much verve to the steer-
ing, but the Rio is surely among the best

with low prices. base price—yet it no longer seems apolo-

// B Y J O S E P H C A P P A R E L L A
Selling inexpensive cars usually
requires a distraction: an eye-
catching color, a clever ad cam-
paign, a long list of standard features, or a
ridiculously low monthly payment with lots
of fine print. Each of these tactics serves to
overcompensate for the fact that, in most
cases, you get what you pay for.
The Kia Rio is an expert at playing these
games. It arrived in 2000 as sub-$10,000
bargain-basement transportation, the least
expensive new car in America at the time.
Kia launched it in a hideous puke-green
getic for its cheapness. A restrained and
attractive exterior conveys a newfound
subcompacts to drive, and we might even
argue that it’s the most dynamically
resolved car in Kia’s current lineup—new
confidence, with shadows of the purposeful Stinger included.
and sober Volkswagen Golf in the hatch- No brand—especially not Kia—wants to
back’s chunky C-pillar. The most extreme be associated with cheapness. But the Rio
colors offered are blue and red. Hard plas- succeeds because it’s a cheap car with the
tics dominate the interior, but the grain right priorities, no distractions required.
looks nice and the dashboard
design is pleasing enough to
keep us from making Playskool
references.
Kia is so keen to prove it’s
not overly reliant on standard
features that the base Rio, like
its predecessor, is one of just a
few new cars you can buy with
crank windows. We find the

infographic by n I C O L a S R a P P J a n / 2 0 1 8 . C a R a n D D R I V E R . 1 0 B E S T C A R S F O R 2 0 1 8 . 0 49
 Kia Stinger GT //
Long and low
and anything
but slow.
// B Y A L E X A N D E R S T O K L O S A

“When sports-sedan makers in

this world disappoint the car rags
they should fear, and abandon
enthusiasts who see or hear, the cry goes up
both far and near for . . . Stinger!”
Okay, so maybe nobody depended on
Kia to save the sports-sedan market. Yet
here it is, 10Best’s very own underdog,
barking its tires right into the second week.
Surely the establishment ain’t what it
used to be. BMW’s latest 3-series is the first
we’ve liked less than its predecessor, and in
Audi S5 Sportback Kia Stinger GT AWD 2015, it succumbed to strong-enough com-
$58,675* $46,595* (mfr’s est) petition to fall off our 10Best list. Audi’s
4017 lb 4157 near-faultless A4 also missed the award last
year for being perfectly devoid of personal-
ENGINE ity, and this year, the brand’s best effort is
the oddball quasi-sedan A5/S5 Sportback.
0–60 MPH
Heroes in the compact-sports-sedan—or
4.3 sec 4.6
hatchback—realm are increasingly rare, yet
1/4 MILE the going rate for a nicely equipped six-
12.9 sec 13.2 cylinder model has moved into the neigh-
borhood of $60,000.
OUTPUT Enter Kia, which surprises the opposi-
tion from below, just like the FIM-92
354 hp 365 Stinger surface-to-air missile it probably
didn’t name this curious hatchback after.
Stinger pricing starts around $32,000 for
the base model with its 255-hp turbocharged
369 lb–ft torque 376 inline-four and about $40,000 if you opt for
the rear-drive GT with its 365-hp twin-
turbo 3.3-liter V-6. That’s more than
$15,000 short of where Audi opens bidding
INTERIOR
on its less powerful S5. The Kia is nearly as
187.1 in

PASSENGER VOLUME
quick as the BMW 5-series, too, delivering
190.2

93 cu ft 96
tire-squealing, sub-five-second times to
60 mph. It is also notably larger, with a long
CARGO VOLUME
and low design that looks as if it drove right
22 cu ft 23
off Kia’s auto-show stand. The hatch is so
well integrated into the tail as to be nearly
CHASSIS invisible. Pop the lid to surprise friends, or
stuff the 23-cubic-foot hold with the cash
300-FT SKIDPAD
you saved by not buying German.
0.95 g 0.91
That you won’t get a German car for this
70–0 MPH BRAKING sort of money cuts both ways. The Stinger
158 ft 164 matches up better on paper than it handles
on a road course—or, say, our 10Best loop.
But we’re not going to fault Kia—the com-
pany that makes its bread in the U.S. on
54.5 in 111.2 in 114.4 55.1 hatchbacks marketed by anthropomorphic
hamsters—for bringing us an affordable
72.6 in 73.6 performance statement that puts up big
Height Wheelbase numbers. At least not in the first week.
*Price as tested.

050 . 1 0 B E S T CA RS FO R 2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . JA N /2 01 8 infographic by N I C O L A S R A P P
Mercedes-Benz/AMG E-class V-6s // The
Everything, all under one roof (or four). Culled
Cars that didn’t
make it to
// B Y M I K E D U F F Week Two.

GENESIS G80
SPORT AWD
“Funny that, in the
field of traditional fat
luxury sedans, this one
is so much more
competent than the
Buick and the Lincoln.”
—J.Phillips

HONDA FIT SPORT

“The Fit still has Bone
Mode™, where you can
totally fold down the
front passenger seat
and make a lumpy bed.
Or maybe it’s I Live In
My Car Mode™. Either
way, don’t let your
daughter get picked up
for prom in this thing.”
Even before it was called the Or, indeed, a proper sports coupe, convertible, or wagon. —E.Dyer
E-class, the mid-size Mercedes Last year, the entry-level E300 sedan didn’t make our final
has always been a sensible choice. 10Best list largely because of the lack of firepower from its turbo
While there have been some truly exciting four engine. But the arrival of a new twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6
versions over the years—the 1992 500E was forced us to consider the E anew. This engine comes standard in HYUNDAI ELANTRA
a Porsche-built autobahn Hoover and the the 329-hp E400 sedan, coupe, cabriolet, and wagon, but also GT SPORT
2003 E55 AMG was once the quickest pas- in a brawnier 396-hp tune for the E43 sedan. We had a mess of “The real question is
senger sedan in the world—the majority Mercedes at 10Best, but it was the E43 that induced spasms of whether it’s worth
have been calm and rational to the point of ecstasy, fevered babbling, and, in one case, drooling. Under spending $1745 more to
dullness. These cars were not chosen by gentle use, the V-6 is as cultured and refined as any Mercedes have this rather than a
thrill seekers, unless they got off on simply engine should be, but it offers serious snap when given its head, Civic Sport hatchback.
demonstrating good taste and fortune. even in its less powerful form. The E43 keeps the good manners And the real answer is
The current E-class changes that and, in but pours on several scoops of creatine powder. no.” —J.Jacquot
doing so, upsets the balance of its part of the Mercedes has built plenty of good engines in the past, but
market. Like its predecessors, it is good at this E-class, since its update last year, sits on a supremely ver-
all the things you expect from a Mercedes: satile chassis, too. Cruising refinement is outstanding, and the HYUNDAI SONATA 2.0T
pliancy of ride, comfort of cabin, and an E is content to barrel determinedly down any straight stretch of “It has a buttoned-down
ability to make the neighbors jealous. But road. But what it really loves—and this is rare for an E-class— suspension now, but its
it’s also become the choice in its segment for is bending itself into corners. Its steering has weight and biggest shortcoming is
anyone in search of a proper sports sedan. actual feedback, ride quality is good—even on the more firmly that it’s still not as
sprung E43—and the all-wheel-drive system daring as its
(optional on the coupe and cabriolet and stand- predecessor.”
ard on the wagon, sedan, and E43) directs more —A.Stoklosa
than enough power to the rear to keep things
interesting.
The E-class’s many-faceted excellence was
also BMW’s huge misfortune. The Merc helpfully INFINITI Q60
highlighted every area where the new 5-series is RED SPORT 400
lacking, such as body control and impact harsh- “If the steering had half
ness. The E43 offers a more compelling package the enthusiasm of the
than even the M550i, despite having two fewer V-6, Infiniti would be
cylinders and 60 less horsepower. It still looks onto something.”
like an E-class, but it delivers far more. —D.Beard

051
Toyota Camry // We give a most improved
The
award to the car most needing it. Culled
Cars that didn’t
make it to
// B Y J E F F S A B A T I N I Week Two.

As you’ve probably noticed by now, life is not fair. Like

when that jerk in the BMW cuts you off just before the traf-
fic signal. So the turn arrow isn’t so green anymore when KIA OPTIMA PHEV
you speed through the intersection, and a month later you’ve got a “This car is about as
$500 traffic-camera ticket in your mailbox. Or when the promotion exciting as waiting for
you’ve earned at work gets delayed because of a corporate hiring it to charge.”
freeze, and in the meantime, you decide to tell your boss exactly what —J.Gall
you think of him. At the holiday party. After you’ve had a few drinks.
And then several more. Yes, sometimes you get screwed, but most of
the time, you get exactly what you deserve.
Which brings us to the new-for-2018 Toyota Camry. Had it been Q&A // Don Federico LINCOLN CONTINENTAL
at last year’s 10Best, where the field of competitors was stronger, G E N E R A L M A N AG E R , V E H I C L E PE R FO R M A N C E
3.0T AWD
this Camry might not have made it past the first week. Certainly in D E V E LO PM E N T, TOYOTA M OTO R N O R T H “Is the price in
A M E RI CA R E S E A RC H & D E V E LO PM E N T
years past, the roster was deeper still, and plenty of cars that Canadian dollars?”
missed making 10Best by a point or two would steal the Camry’s C/D: We’ve heard that Toyota is among the —M.Duff
lunch money as surely as they would its place in Week Two. But carmakers that use the 10Best loop for
that’s not how 10Best works. vehicle evaluation. Any truth to that?
So the Camry claims its spot among the Week Two challengers DF: Absolutely. When the new Camry
by doing what it does best—functioning as a perfectly accommo- platform was in its infancy, we reached out to MERCEDES C-CLASS
dating transportation appliance—but also by delivering more than Toyota in Japan and said we really need to hit “BMW has left the net
it has to. The new styling is the very definition of more. This year’s this out of the park. So we invited Japan untended, but the
V-6 delivers more as well: 301 horsepower from one of the slickest here—the platform chief engineer and a lot of AMG C43 overshoots
engines out there. And output from the 2.5-liter inline-four is now the dynamics people came to Michigan, and the goal. Its suspension
as much as 206 horsepower in the XSE trim, which actually has a we did a big target-setting event on those is too stiff and its chassis
Sport mode with a dedicated button. See, Toyota is trying. roads. That was 2011. is too easily upset by
It has gone to work on the Camry chassis, too, which remains Did you ask for the new rear-multilink- rough roads. And the
well planted around our drive loop thanks to a new multilink rear suspension design? convertible? Cutting
suspension and even delivers a modicum of feedback through the The performance requirement dictates the the roof off a car is
steering wheel. Ditching the six-speed unit, Toyota now puts con- hardware. And what we saw was every single only an improvement
ventional eight-speed automatics in its Camrys—no continuously mid-size sedan was going to multilink with a when you’re trapped
variable transmissions here. Well, except for the Camry hybrid, fully isolated subframe—even in the C inside and the doors no
which we are excluding from Week Two competition because of segment. Honestly, we were challenged to use longer open.”
said transmission and the way it makes the engine thrum. the previous setup because it’s familiar and —E.Tingwall
No carmaker could care less about magazine accolades than more cost effective. But we quickly realized
Toyota. It already sells the best car, at least judged by sales, which there was just no way to achieve our goals to
is the only metric that truly matters in this business anyway. On balance ride, handling, and noise and vibra-
reputation alone, it could roll out a cardboard box with pool noo- tion at a more premium level with that setup. SUBARU IMPREZA
dles for tires and “Camry” written on the back in crayon and still What was North America’s contribution “Hard to excuse an
outsell the Mazda 6, which had a nice little two-year run as a to developing the latest Camry? engine this weak or a
10Bester in 2014 and 2015. For quite a few years, this was the direc- We didn’t have direct responsibility for the manual transmission
tion Toyota seemed to be heading. But this latest car is more of a vehicle, but at the conclusion of that activity this crappy.”
throwback to the fourth-generation Camry, which made 10Best in 2011, the Japanese said: “We need to be —D.Pund
when it was introduced in 1997. That was a really nice car, the kind here more often. We need to drive on these
you could feel good about recommending to your mom and not public roads, to be able to experience all the
cringe every time you had to borrow it. So is this new one. things you’re talking about. On the proving
grounds, we have this curve, but there isn’t a TOYOTA PRIUS PRIME
huge pothole in the curve.” One of the things “It feels like you’re
we really believe in is going and seeing for driving yesterday’s
yourself. We refer to it as “genchi genbutsu.” future more than
So we agreed that we would get back together
P O R T R A I T B Y T. M . D E T W I L E R

tomorrow’s. Toyota
at every prototype phase and drive the has taken the Prius
vehicle in North America. There’s no substi- concept as far as it’s
tute for driving. You can do so many Power- going to go.”
Point presentations, so many meetings, and —J.Sabatini
then you get that aha moment behind the
wheel. That led to what Camry is today, that
kind of unified team with a clear goal.

052
Volvo V90 //
Scandinavian
in form
and concept.
// B Y E R I C T I N G W A L L
No other vehicle so aptly embod-
ies Scandinavian design—unpre-
tentious and pragmatic—as does
the station wagon. And no wagons so
wholly represent Volvo as do the V90 and
its lightly ruggedized twin, the V90 Cross
Country. A new high-water mark in Volvo’s
Chinese-funded product renaissance, the
V90 makes the case that every Volvo should
be a wagon. We are so smitten by the V90’s
design, inside and out, that we’ve even
begun to wonder if every wagon should
be a Volvo.
V90 photography by R O Y R I T C H I E
The Swedes penned a car of righteous
proportions, a long and low sculpture with
an assertive linearity in the Volvo tradition
of wagons. It literally defines the term
“two-box car.” This one, though, is honed
and polished into a contemporary beauty.
Taken in profile, the V90’s hood seems as
long as an Olympic swimming pool. Its
unapologetic rear overhang croons, “Hey,
baby, let’s call off the sitter and take the
kids tonight.”
Functional. Honest. Simple. The V90’s
Swedish sensibilities are the same traits
found in the American workhorses that
moved families around our cities and sub-
urbs 50 years ago. A drive in the V90 is a
leather-gloved slap across the face remind-
ing us that Americans need crossovers like
we need butter in five-pound tubs.
The richness of the V90’s interior can’t
be conveyed in pictures; the materials must
be felt to be appreciated. Trace the natural
grain of naked dark-walnut trim. Draw
geometric shapes on the cold, perforated
Jan/2018 . CaR anD DRIVER . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . 053
stainless-steel speaker grilles. Roll the
knurled engine-start knob between thumb
and forefinger. This is quality you can
feel. And it’s not just fashion, either. The
gear selector walks from front to back—
park, reverse, neutral, drive—with clear
mechanical detents, just as Odin intended.
The V90’s seats are wrapped in supple
nappa leather, although they could be cov-
ered in burlap for all we care. The magic
here is in the meticulous contours that cup
your shoulders and lift your spine. It’s in
the cushions that hug your rib cage and sup-
port your thighs. It’s in the driver’s seat,
and the passenger’s seat, and the rear seats,
too. And those seats are standard in every
V90, because who among us has a back that
isn’t killing them?
The Volvo V90 progresses to Week Two
on the merits of its design. Not style, but
design—the craft of blending art with
function. It doesn’t get more functional
than a wagon, and wagons don’t get more
alluring than the V90.
 THAT BOSS

WON’T PAY
FOR ITSELF.
Switch to GEICO and save money for the things you love.
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 Let the Battles Begin.
Nobody cares about your best-in-class sun visors.
In fact, nobody here cares about classes,
categories, segments, or market share at all.
And that 10Best award in your trunk? Better to just
leave it in the trophy case because it’s not going to help
you out there on the road. What matters now is
how you drive, how much value you represent, and how
well you fulfill your intended mission.
Are you better than those who would rise up to
challenge you? Are you an exceptional automobile?
Do you elevate the form?
Are you indeed a 10Best car?

LAST YEAR’S WINNERS:

BMW M240i/M2 • Chevrolet Bolt • Chevrolet Camaro V-6/V-8 coupes • Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport
Ford Mustang Shelby GT350/GT350R • Honda Accord • Mazda MX-5 Miata/RF • Mazda 3
Porsche 718 Boxster/Cayman • Volkswagen Golf/Alltrack/GTI/R

illustration by A T E L I E R O L S C H I N S K Y JAN/2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . 055
 Best of
the Best
Sellers The reanimated Toyota Camry made it
through its first-week trial, where it met up
with the all-new but well-established
Honda Accord. by John Pearley Huffman

056
 “We’re not trying to be a General Motors,” Honda’s then foreign sales manager told the New
York Times in 1977, the year after the Accord went on sale. “Our modest goal is simply
to become the No. 1–selling foreign car in the United States.” When C/D first sampled
the new 1983 Toyota Camry, the car hardly felt Japanese. “What we have here is the
American car according to Japan,” we wrote, “in its purest form ever.”
The Accord and Camry assimilated into American culture so thoroughly that they have
long ceased being foreign at all. They’re largely engineered here, built here, and have topped
the sales charts here for so long that millennials, post-millennials, and post-post-millennials
don’t consider them anything but America’s most ubiquitous cars. Forget all the other minnows in
the sedan mainstream. The Accord and the Camry are the big fish; the rest are swimming hard in their
wake. And now, for the first time in the Accord’s 42 years and the Camry’s 35, they’re both all-new at the
same moment. It’s a weird sort of convergence.

10Best photography by M A R C U R B A N O and A N D I H E D R I C K JAN/2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . 057

Dumping the K platform upon which three generations of Cam-
rys have been erected since 2002, the eighth-generation Camry
adopts the Toyota New Global Architecture that’s already under
the current Prius and goofy C-HR and destined to spread like a
front-wheel-drive epidemic throughout the product line. TNGA is
a set of components that can be chopped, channeled, twisted, and
fried to support everything from compact sedans to hybrid cross-
overs. That’s practically everything Toyota sells except ladder-
frame trucks and forklifts. The Camry is the first TNGA platform
vehicle to enter production in North America.
Now two development cycles removed from the control-arm-
front-suspension fetishism of the hard-core Honda faithful, the
10th-generation Accord adopts the global platform that’s already
under the current Civic and stalwart CR-V and destined to spread
like a front-wheel-drive epidemic throughout the product line. This
platform is a set of components that can be chopped, channeled,
twisted, and fried to support everything from compact sedans to
hybrid crossovers. That’s practically every four-wheel Honda
smaller than the Pilot and Odyssey that isn’t a side-by-side ATV or
a lawn mower.
So at their core, the Accord and the Camry emerge from simi-
lar corporate-product-development pools. And yeah, they’re both
058 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
still front-drive sedans with strut-type
front suspensions, electrically assisted rack-
and-pinion steering, and all sorts of elec-
tronic whiz-bangery designed to minimize
the consequences of a driver’s stupidity.
But after that, the deviations and devian-
cies start accumulating.
The Camry retains its commitment to
conventional powertrain wisdom with a
four-cylinder base engine and an optional
V-6. While the Camry’s new four carries
the same nominal 2.5-liter displacement
as before, the stroke is now slightly longer
and the bore slightly smaller, enabling a rise
in compression ratio from last year’s 10.4:1
to 13.0:1. So horsepower is up from 178 to
203 (or 206 with the XSE model’s quad
exhaust tips) and there’s an accompanying
bump in torque production. The optional
dual-injected 3.5-liter V-6 also runs a
higher 11.8:1 compression ratio and rates at
301 horsepower. The Toyota brand is one
of the last strongholds in the United States
for natural aspiration—none of its current
offerings here is turbocharged or super-
charged. And no, Lexus doesn’t count.
The Accord goes elsewhere. Honda
resisted forced induction right up until
the introduction of the 2016 Civic. And
no, Acura doesn’t count, either. Now
the wastegates are open, and the Accord
has embraced the blown future. Forget
the previous generation’s base 185-hp
2.4-liter inline-four and welcome the
Civic’s turbocharged 1.5-liter four, mak-
ing 192 horsepower here. Send last year’s
278-hp 3.5-liter V-6 down the memory
hole, too. It’s been replaced by a 2.0-liter
four-cylinder with a turbo heaving into it
and making 252 horsepower. That power
rating is deceptive, though: The old V-6
made its peak 252 pound-feet of torque way
The Accord’s interior up at 4900 rpm, whereas the turbocharged
design is subtle and 2.0-liter four thumps out 273 pound-feet
handsome, instead of
flashy. It highlights the from 1500 to 4000 rpm.
quality of its materials Until internal combustion is outlawed
and intuitive
ergonomics. completely, the turbocharged present of
fewer cylinders and smaller displacement
will continue to pervade the market.
Toyota will succumb eventually. Probably soon.
Toyota puts a conventional eight-speed automatic into every
new Camry. Honda’s automatic paired with the 2.0-liter has
10 gears, but more important, Honda offers a genuine, honest-
to-praiseworthy-goodness, six-speed manual gearbox in Sport
models with either the 1.5- or 2.0-liter engine. For most buyers,
the availability of a manual transmission won’t matter. But this
is Car and Driver, and that additional level of mechanical engage-
ment in an everyday mid-size sedan is a transcendent validation of
our sacred, ancient faith.
And it’s at that point, where the driver interacts with the car, that
we see how clearly superior the Accord is. Organic is a trite term,
but there’s crunchy granola naturalness to how the new Accord
works. The steering wheel’s size and squishy rim are perfect, and the
controls embedded in it are selected semi-intuitively. The Accord
“Like Honda manuals of the past, the shift
action is light, quick, and accurate. The clutch effort
is modest; the ratios are well chosen.”
Honda Accord
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
engine, front-wheel-
drive, 5-passenger,
4-door sedan
BASE PRICE:
$24,460–$31,200
ENGINES: turbocharged
and intercooled DOHC
16-valve 1.5-liter inline-4,
192 hp, 192 lb-ft;
turbocharged and
intercooled DOHC
16-valve 2.0-liter
inline-4, 252 hp, 273 lb-ft
TRANSMISSIONS:
6-speed manual,
10-speed automatic with
manual shifting mode,
continuously variable
automatic with manual
shifting mode
CURB WEIGHT:
3154–3419 lb
C/D Test Results*
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
5.5–7.3 sec
1/4-MILE: 14.1–15.7 sec
TOP SPEED: 121–127
mph (governor limited)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
162–170 ft
ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 0.87–0.90 g
FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 28–33/25–35/
34–38 mpg (C/D est)
Toyota Camry
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
engine, front-wheel-
drive, 5-passenger,
4-door sedan
BASE PRICE:
$24,390–$35,295
ENGINES: DOHC
16-valve 2.5-liter
Atkinson-capable
inline-4, 203 or 206 hp,
184 or 186 lb-ft; DOHC
24-valve 3.5-liter
Atkinson-capable V-6,
301 hp, 267 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION:
8-speed automatic with
manual shifting mode
CURB WEIGHT:
3409–3665 lb
C/D Test Results
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
5.8–7.9 sec
1/4-MILE: 14.4–16.2 sec
TOP SPEED: 133–136
mph (governor limited)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
167–175 ft
ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 0.87–0.88 g
FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 26–34/22–29/
32–41 mpg

interior is straightforward with knobs

where knobs seem to work best, switches
that operate with a sniper’s accuracy, and
seats that manage the trick of simultane-
ously accommodating and supporting. The
center touchscreen at the top of the dash
responds instantly to inputs, has real but-
tons to trigger important menu jumps, and
glows with brilliance. The instrumenta-
tion in front of the driver can be configured
to provide whatever info you find import- Accord are slight, with the latter’s wheelbase only 0.2 inch longer
ant at the time. At the lofty Touring level, For the design of the
new Camry interior, than the former’s and its overall length a puny 0.5 inch longer than
a head-up display is included. The Accord is Toyota has apparently the longest Camry. Yet the Accord Touring 2.0T automatic we
dang roomy, too, an evolutionary half-step drawn inspiration from
Hasbro’s seminal work, had at 10Best checked in at 3419 pounds while the Camry XSE V-6
beyond the new Camry. Chutes and Ladders. was 3665 pounds. Opt for the manual transmission in the Accord
But it’s the combination of the Accord’s Sport 2.0T and curb weight drops to 3276 pounds, which, when com-
new engines and the manual transmission pared with the Toyota, is more than an NFL lineman’s worth of
that cements this, the Accord’s 753rd appearance on C/D’s 10Best mass. Of course this is apparent in the driving experience, given
list. Like Honda manuals of the past, the shift action is light, quick, that the difference amounts to almost 11 percent of the Camry’s
and accurate. The clutch effort is modest, the ratios are well weight. This makes the Camry feel larger, heavier, and slower-wit-
chosen, and it all combines to bring an eagerness and fluidity that, ted. The Accord is lithe and lapidary, and hence more fun.
no matter the dynamic improvements in the Camry, still keep But the Accord isn’t just better than the Camry. This is a
the Accord on top. mass-market car selling at a keen price—and a better-driving one
One underappreciated advantage of the turbocharged four- than many more expensive and pretentious performance cars. It’s
cylinder engine is that there’s simply less weight up front than with the unquestioned victor here and everywhere else mid-size, mid-
a V-6. The dimensional differences between the new Camry and the price vehicles may roam.

*Test results throughout 10Best reflect data produced by a range of trim levels. Not all vehicles tested are 2018 models. 059
 S O R R Y. N O T S O R R Y.

OFFICIALLY BANNED BY THE NHRA

Dodge is a registered trademark of FCA US LLC.

The Battle of the In a world awash with sensible turbocharged
2.0-liter four-cylinders, the bonkers
engines of the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 and
Audi RS3 let their freak flags fly. by Ezra Dyer
It’s not that the Shelby GT350 is a bad car. It’s one
of our favorites. And yet it’s been usurped by a
new challenger, this funky little five-cylinder
sedan. What happened? Well, in the battle of
badass engines, one of them simply has a better
car wrapped around it.
You could argue that Ford’s 8250-rpm Voo-
doo, the only domestic V-8 with a flat-plane
crank, is a more compelling engine than Audi’s blown five. And we’d agree. Running the
GT350 through the gears—manual only, carbon-bronze synchros, best shift action since
the Honda S2000—takes you to a place no other American car can go. You’re on the grid
at Indy or attacking the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans. Except that the Voodoo’s bassy
howl sounds way more exotic than the tune played by Ford’s actual contemporary Le Mans
entry. Most V-8s evoke a quartet of Harleys whumpa-whumping on down the road. This
one sounds like two crotch rockets racing, or what that might sound like if race bikes had
062 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
about 250 percent more displacement. We
wish Ford dropped the Voodoo into other
vehicles, the way Chrysler does the Hellcat.
Voodoo F-150 Lightning? Yes, please. Voo-
doo Transit? That would liven up your air-
port shuttle ride. Voodoo Fiesta? Bring
back the Shogun.
As for the rest of the car, it’s a Mustang.
Which means that it looks much like a
million other cars on the road. And Ford
appropriated the Shelby’s most distinctive
feature—its lower hoodline—for all 2018
Mustangs, while pumping the GT up to 460
horsepower and adding a 10-speed auto-
matic to the options list. We’d guess that a
Badass Engines
GT so equipped would give a GT350 all it
could handle in a drag race, undermining
the bragging rights that you’d expect when
you’re paying an extra $22,050 for your
super-Stang. The new Mustang GT even
offers a dual-mode exhaust, just like the
GT350. You can’t fault Ford for building a
better GT, but the Shelby’s ultimate-
Mustang turf isn’t as clearly delineated as it
was last year.
The RS3, meanwhile, is without peer in
the Volkswagen-Audi universe. Out on the
road, GTI drivers bow in supplication—
they’re not worthy. It’s also ruler of the
rally cars, with Subaru STI and Mitsubishi
Evo drivers knowing an apex predator
when they see one. It’s nice to be at the top
of the food chain, and the RS3’s 3.5-second
zero-to-60 time will shoot the moon to
plenty of cars that are more expensive or
less practical. One car that’s in both of
those categories: the GT350, which costs
$2170 more than the Audi.
The price difference is surprising since
the Audi owns the nicer interior and the
far more sophisticated chassis. Consider
the seats: In the GT350, you’re sitting on
Recaros that serve their purpose but look
as if they were upholstered with spray-on
hair in a can. The RS3’s sport seats are
leather, with quilted, perforated shoulder
bolsters that flare out like a cobra’s hood.
Spring for the $3200 Technology package
and you also get Audi’s Virtual Cockpit
high-res dash display and an outrageous
Bang & Olufsen sound system. Throw in
a few tasteful carbon-fiber inlays and you’re
getting a definite R8 vibe in there, but
with a back seat. The GT350 has a Mustang
interior, which is not a demerit until you
compare it with, say, a nicely dressed Audi.
It’s Banana Republic versus Zegna.
Both the RS3 and the GT350 include
magnetorheological dampers as standard
fare, but our Audi was equipped with the
063
 Audi RS3 Ford Mustang
VEHICLE TYPE:
Shelby GT350/
front-engine, all-wheel- GT350R
drive, 5-passenger, VEHICLE TYPE:
4-door sedan front-engine, rear-wheel-
BASE PRICE: $55,875 drive, 2- or 4-passenger,
ENGINE: turbocharged 2-door coupe
and intercooled DOHC BASE PRICE:
20-valve 2.5-liter inline-5, $58,045–$65,545
400 hp, 354 lb-ft ENGINE: DOHC 32-valve
TRANSMISSION: 5.2-liter V-8, 526 hp,
7-speed dual-clutch 429 lb-ft
automatic with manual TRANSMISSION:
shifting mode 6-speed manual
CURB WEIGHT: 3547 lb CURB WEIGHT:
3710–3790 lb
C/D Test Results
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
C/D Test Results
3.5 sec ZERO TO 60 MPH:
1/4-MILE: 11.9 sec 3.9–4.2 sec
@ 117 mph 1/4-MILE: 12.2–12.4 sec
TOP SPEED: 155–174 TOP SPEED: 175 mph
mph (governor limited, (redline limited, C/D est)
mfr’s claim) BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
These two engines couldn’t be more different. Yet the Shelby’s high-revving flat-plane-crank V-8 and Audi’s BRAKING, 70–0 MPH: 146–152 ft
turbocharged inline-five-cylinder are united by the less traveled paths both take. 157 ft ROADHOLDING,
ROADHOLDING, 300-FT-DIA
300-FT-DIA SKIDPAD: 1.02–1.10 g
SKIDPAD: 0.98 g FUEL ECONOMY,
Dynamic Plus package, which subs in fixed- the more track-oriented R version of the FUEL ECONOMY, EPA COMBINED/CITY/
rate sport dampers and carbon-ceramic GT350. But for all its ride theatrics, the EPA COMBINED/CITY/ HWY: 16/14/21 mpg
HWY: 22/19/28 mpg
front brakes. Even without the near- GT350’s handling is predictable and bal-
infinite variability of the adaptive units, anced. You can lay into the power early
the RS3 is fluid and graceful, delivering a without fear of overwhelming the rear through. A rear-wheel peel in an Audi
smooth ride with quick reflexes. The GT350 tires, and its big brakes feel like they’re sedan? Believe it.
exhibits lightning-quick reflexes, too, but inexhaustible. The ride is the only aspect of the RS3
on our loop’s one-wheel dips, crowned By contrast, the RS3 is more stable. This that is forgiving. The car’s structure is
and rutted pavement, and general asphalt is not to say the car isn’t playful: With the unyielding. Built on Volkswagen’s stellar
mayhem, the GT350 is never smooth. Dynamic package bringing wider 255-sec- MQB platform, the RS3 feels as if its steer-
Instead, it’s uneasy. To make this Mustang tion-width tires up front and 235s on the ing column is extruded from the floorpan
a track star that delivers more than a g’s rear, the RS3’s rubber is sized to counteract and the whole thing is made of titanium.
worth of lateral grip, the Ford Performance the tendency toward understeer that you’d The body is so stout, if you hit a pothole,
team fitted seriously stiff strings and expect from a car that carries 57.7 percent you feel bad for the pothole. If the RS3 were
MagneRide dampers that trade ride quality of its weight up front. Also bringing the a professional boxer, it’d be nicknamed the
for max performance. And then they added fight against push is the all-wheel-drive Ingot from Ingolstadt.
fat, sticky tires. The result is a jittery, system. Crank in some steering and apply Look, it’s not as if the RS3 directly dis-
high-frequency ride response that makes full throttle from a stop, and you’ll hear the placed the GT350 on our 10 list. Other cars
the car a bucking handful, at least on poor RS3’s inside rear tire spin for a moment fell off, too. But there’s room for only so
surfaces. As you might imagine, that behav- before the other three claws dig in to send many factory hot rods, and this year, that
ior doesn’t get any better when you opt for you catapulting out of the Starbucks drive- garage gave priority to the Audi RS3.

064 . 1 0 B E S T C A R S F O R 2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . J A N / 2 0 1 8
Family
Values
The two most prominent clans in the affordable
performance-car world, the houses of
Chevrolet Camaro and Honda Civic lead separate
but parallel lives. by Daniel Pund

The Honda Civic and the Chevrolet Camaro might fit

into a single camera frame, but they exist in com-
pletely different worlds.
Perhaps there are guys who have both a Civic
Type R and a Camaro SS on their shopping lists.
But we sure haven’t met them. We have, however, met
plenty of Camaro partisans who wonder aloud why any-
one would buy a Civic, throw $20,000 of performance parts
at it, and still end up with a car that’s not as quick as a stock V-8
Camaro. And you can imagine what sort of questions Civic guys
ask about a Camaro owner’s lineage.
Sporty Civics and Camaros are magnets aligned so that the north
side of each faces the other. They repel each other as a force of nature. But
on the opposite sides, they are each plenty attractive to plenty of people.
They are fundamentally different things: front drive versus rear drive,
modest engine displacement versus immodest, tall and nerd-chic versus
low and racy. But they are the yin and the yang of affordable, mostly prac-
tical performance cars.
In the decades-long development of these two models, never has either
been better than it is today. And never in the history of these models have
they been offered in as many compelling versions. Both Honda and Chevy
now proffer an array of sporty Civics and Camaros that pretty effectively
covers the sensible-to-insane performance spectrum.
It didn’t seem likely that it would go this way. In recent years, Honda
lost touch with the fun side of the business, and the last-generation Civic

065
066 . 10BEST CARS FOR 201 8 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/201 8
suffered as a result. Remember, also, the Camaro took a seven-year
dirt nap between 2002 and 2009.
Two years ago, the current-generation Civic sedan reignited the
Honda fires with precise steering, lithe handling, and a level of
apparent quality absent from the previous version. But saddled
with a CVT and going up against the all-around-excellent Mazda 3,
the Civic sedan couldn’t quite make the 10Best cut.
But then Honda unleashed a fusillade of performance variants
at our 10Best testing grounds. All three came with a type of trans-
mission that not only has gears, but also allows—nay, requires—
that you choose among them. In fact, two of the three are available
only with manual transmissions.
The cheapest of the triumvirate, the Civic Sport hatchback,
is offered with the CVT from the sedan as an option, but that’s
like Subaru offering a CVT in a WRX. (What’s that? Subaru does?
Okay, strike that.) Save yourself the $800, order the car with a
manual, and it’ll only cost you $22,390.
That’s a screaming deal for a vehicle that Behold, the two most
delivers so much joy and precision. That satisfying affordable
performance-car
it also offers a roomy cabin and an easily ladders in the
accessed and large cargo area means it ful- business. They’re
ladders of different
fills the one-car-for-every-purpose mission. heights, but still.
The Sport, which shares its turbocharged
1.5-liter four with lesser Civics but gets
a slight power bump and a set of 18-inch
wheels wearing 235/40 all-season tires, is
the only one of the non-Si or Type R Civics
that makes the cut this year. It gives up a bit
to the Mazda 3 in refinement and conven-
tional good looks, but the Sport more than
makes up for it in performance. This car
has flow. Its relatively torque-rich turbo
engine is both more powerful and more
fuel efficient than the engines of most
other C-segment cars. But it’s the Sport’s
fluidity that sets it apart from others in its
class. It feels alert and playful. Its steer-
ing and handling are knife-edge sharp and
backed by plenty of grip. This is the kind of
Civic that will convince its new owner that
he’s made a smart choice.
The Si, available only in the less weird-
looking sedan and coupe forms, brings a
performance improvement over the Sport
well beyond what the $2600 increase in
base price might suggest. This is the sweet
067
spot of the lineup. At $24,990, the Si is still The Civic Type R and
well below the average price of a new car but the Camaro ZL1 1LE are
studies in aerodynamic
well above average in every other respect. It doodadery. The Type R
uses the same basic engine as the Sport, but has 438 percent more
red bits in its interior
here that little powerplant is cranked up to than the 1LE.
205 horsepower. In our earlier testing of the
Si coupe, we achieved a 6.3-second zero-to-
60-mph time, a 159-foot braking distance, and a staggering 0.97 g
of grip on the skidpad. That test car wore the optional summer tires
($200). Our 10Best tester, a sedan, wore the standard all-season
tires in the same 235/40R-18 size. Equipped this way, the car can be
expected to give up some outright grip, but it’s a sensible approach,
consistent with the model’s aim. And the all-season-shod car gives
up nothing in terms of driving pleasure. The Si feels as if it rides
about a foot lower than the Sport. A revised linkage and a beefed-up
shifter mount bring shift feel all the way up to sublime. Oh, and the
Si delivers real-world fuel efficiency in the mid-20s.
Our man in Europe, Mike Duff, notes that the Civic Type R is as
subtle as a lap dance. It is ridiculous-looking and will surely be the
butt of many jokes, both from Camaro owners and virtually
everyone else. But the Type R’s performance redeems it. With this
quickest and most hard-core of Civics, Honda threw out the typical
balance of virtues it aims for in other performance Civics and went
full gonzo. This car is wired. It does not relax. It is loud. Its engine,
a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 306 horsepower,
feels impatient and primed. Its ride is firm but never abusive. That’s
no small feat considering that it wears 30-series tires. And if you
didn’t already know it, nothing in the Type R’s handling character
would reveal that it’s a front-driver. Everything you operate in this
car feels serious. Its brake pedal is firm and commands binders that
will haul the Type R down from 70 mph in a stunning 142 feet. Its
shifter is a short-throw affair that moves with gratifying certainty.
It is, in short, spectacular. But it’s a very distinct and powerful
flavor, and not one everyone will savor.

068 . 10 BE S T CARS FO R 201 8 . CAR AN D D RIVER . JAN /201 8


Chevrolet Camaro
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
engine, rear-wheel-drive,
4-passenger, 2-door
coupe
BASE PRICE:
$28,395–$63,795
ENGINES:
DOHC 24-valve 3.6-liter
V-6, 335 hp, 284 lb-ft;
pushrod 16-valve
6.2-liter V-8, 455 hp,
455 lb-ft; supercharged
and intercooled pushrod
16-valve 6.2-liter V-8,
650 hp, 650 lb-ft
TRANSMISSIONS:
6-speed manual,
8-speed automatic with
manual shifting mode,
10-speed automatic with
manual shifting mode
CURB WEIGHT:
3441–3933 lb
C/D Test Results
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
3.4–5.5 sec
1/4-MILE: 11.5–14.2 sec
TOP SPEED: 150–198
mph (governor/drag
limited, mfr’s claim)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
141–166 ft
ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 0.88–1.18 g
FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 15–23/13–19/
20–29 mpg
Because Camaros powered by the
turbocharged 2.0-liter, as well as those that
have had their roofs removed, did not make
our 10Best list in the past, they were not
invited back this year. So our Camaro love
affair begins with the V-6–powered coupe.
Honda has kept a tighter focus on cost than
Chevy, and the Camaros are starting to
edge out of the affordable range for some
buyers. But there’s still tremendous value
here. With 335 horsepower, the V-6 Camaro
is no embarrassment in the performance
department. This is particularly true when
it’s equipped with the 1LE package of
upgrades, as was our $43,580 test car. And
its Alpha platform is every bit as well sorted
here as it is in more expensive versions of
the car. Unlike the old days, the Camaro
with the V-6 is not a poseur but a genuinely
satisfying performance car.
But as long as the General sees fit to offer
V-8s in the Camaro, that’s what’s likely to
remain the engine of choice for us. Step up
to the SS model, now with a base price nudg-
ing $40K, and the hooligan nature of the
Camaro reveals itself. A 455-hp 6.2-liter V-8
will do that. Bolt it to the optional eight-
speed automatic ($1495) for the quickest
possible acceleration numbers or save the
cash and shift your own. Either arrangement is excellent. Add the
$895 dual-mode exhaust to annoy your neighbors and excite your
head-mounted microphones. But as great as the engine is, it’s the
Camaro’s chassis that steals the show. With rapid-fire turn-in, gobs
of grip, and roll kept tightly in check, the Camaro is more modern
sports coupe than dunderheaded muscle car.
Speaking of muscle: How would you like way more of it than is
necessary? Like, say, 650 horsepower’s worth? That’s the Camaro
ZL1, a great ripping totem to overkill. Powered by the super-
charged 6.2-liter V-8 from the Corvette Z06, the ZL1 should be
a mess. But it’s not. Thanks to magnetorheological dampers, an
electronically controlled limited-slip differential, and fat Good-
year Eagle F1 Supercar 3 tires, the ZL1 can actually handle its over-
endowment of power. And while a six-speed manual is standard,
the new 10-speed automatic might actually be the transmission of
choice for this sled. Despite its double-digit number of gears, the
transmission never feels busy and it delivers crisp, perfectly timed
downshifts.
New for 2018 is the ZL1 1LE, a remarkable vehicle, and not just
because its name is a near palindrome. It makes the cut despite
being almost totally inappropriate for public roads. It’s stiff beyond
belief, tossing itself this way and that on undulating two-lanes. The
ZL1 1LE is every bit as likely to strike fear into the heart of its driver
as it is satisfaction. But if you happen to live near the Mid-Ohio
Sports Car Course, this is your Camaro.
That these Camaros and Civics win 10Best this year will do noth-
ing to bridge the divide between them. But they are united, at least,
in overall excellence and in offering beautifully constructed ladders
of performance. Now pick your side. As if you hadn’t already.

Honda Civic Sport/

Si/Type R
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
“The ZL1 1LE is every bit
engine, front-wheel-
drive, 4- or 5-passenger,
2-door coupe or 4-door
as likely to strike fear
hatchback or sedan
BASE PRICE:
$22,390–$34,990
into the heart of its driver
ENGINES: turbocharged
and intercooled DOHC
16-valve 1.5-liter inline-4,
as it is satisfaction.”
180 hp, 177 lb-ft;
turbocharged and
intercooled DOHC
16-valve 1.5-liter inline-4,
205 hp, 192 lb-ft;
turbocharged and
intercooled DOHC
16-valve 2.0-liter
inline-4, 306 hp,
295 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION:
6-speed manual
CURB WEIGHT:
2868–3111 lb

C/D Test Results

ZERO TO 60 MPH:
4.9–7.0 sec
1/4-MILE: 13.5–15.2 sec
TOP SPEED: 131–169
mph (governor/drag
limited, mfr’s claim)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
142–176 ft
ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 0.88–1.03 g
FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 25–33/22–29/
28–38 mpg

069
Zapped!
We are referring, of course, to the 1982 Scott Baio masterpiece and
not the Chevrolet Bolt or the Hyundai Ioniq EV. by Jared Gall
In a field of hurried, me-too entries
based on existing internal-com- Chevrolet Bolt
bustion vehicles and struggling to VEHICLE TYPE: front-
motor, front-wheel-drive,
add a third digit to their range 5-passenger, 4-door
estimates, Chevrolet’s Bolt was a hatchback
BASE PRICE: $37,495
bombshell. It came last year boasting MOTOR: permanent-
an EPA-rated 238-mile range that, in one magnet synchronous AC,
200 hp, 266 lb-ft
of our first outings with the car, we handily BATTERY: liquid-cooled
surpassed. Combine that with a price that starts lithium-ion, 60.0 kWh
TRANSMISSION:
out as affordable and drops into the meat of the 1-speed direct drive
market once federal and state tax credits are accounted CURB WEIGHT: 3569 lb
for, and you’ve got the first no-compromises mass-market electric C/D Test Results
vehicle, and the first widely affordable EV to make 10Best. ZERO TO 60 MPH:
Well, on paper there are no compromises. But in the real world, 6.5 sec
1/4-MILE: 15.0 SEC
cars are bought by people, most of whom can see. The Bolt is a @ 93 MPH
gawky, goofy-looking thing that appears to be decidedly unwell. TOP SPEED: 93 mph floors means we’re unlikely to ever have a
(governor limited)
And inside, the obligatory big-screen interfaces bear an insulting BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
truly sloppy-handling EV, the Ioniq better
resemblance to toys designed to teach infants about light and 181 ft delivers on that promise.
ROADHOLDING,
sound. While the Bolt is a competent cruiser, there’s little joy to be 300-FT-DIA
At least until you stomp on the brakes.
had once the novelty of the electric powertrain wears off. SKIDPAD: 0.78 g While the adjustability of its regenerative
FUEL ECONOMY,
That’s where the Ioniq Electric makes its play. Sure, its 124-mile EPA COMBINED/CITY/
braking system is one of our favorite things
range is about half the Bolt’s. Ditto its 118 horsepower. In the HWY: 119/128/110 MPGe about the Hyundai, the system’s hydraulic
200-hp Bolt, motor output is dialed back under various conditions operation feels like an unchecked box on the
to maintain traction—not a concern in the Ioniq. But turn the Hyundai engineers’ “Finish before Launch” list. In
Hyundai’s steering wheel, and there’s a pleasing, progressive resis- Ioniq Electric panic situations, feel evaporates entirely, as
tance to the helm. With some 300 less pounds to lug around and a VEHICLE TYPE: front- though all four wheels are locked up on ice.
motor, front-wheel-drive,
greater share of it over the rear wheels, the Ioniq EV feels more 5-passenger, 4-door And the 194-foot stopping distance is right
playful than the Bolt. It’s an impression bolstered by their relative hatchback on par with that of an 8000-pound truck,
BASE PRICE: $30,385
seat heights. In the Bolt, which Chevrolet MOTOR: permanent-
not a 3200-pounder that hauls your family.
According to the gospel considers “crossover-like” even if nobody magnet synchronous AC, We’d like to see the Bolt receive a thor-
of Tesla, a handsome else does, the seats force occupants to sit, 118 hp, 218 lb-ft
ough de-nerding, but we’d settle for some
EV is a desirable BATTERY: air-cooled
thing. It seems that lithium-ion, 28.0 kWh

B O LT P H O T O G R A P H B Y T O M S A LT
ahem, bolt upright. In the Hyundai, you sit chassis tweaks to make it more rewarding
neither Hyundai nor as you would in any normal car. While the TRANSMISSION:
to drive. The Ioniq Electric’s shortcomings,
Chevrolet subscribes 1-speed direct drive
to this belief. low center of gravity inherent in vehicles CURB WEIGHT: 3240 lb on the other hand, are more intrinsic. Step
with battery packs bolted beneath their C/D Test Results into the Bolt with half a charge, and its
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
range is about the same as an Ioniq’s fresh
8.6 sec off the plug. To advance the electric-car
1/4-MILE: 16.7 sec
@ 83 mph
field, the Ioniq needs to be a major technical
TOP SPEED: 104 mph leap forward. It’s not. Alas, neither of these
(drag limited)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
EVs ranks among our 10Best this year.
194 ft
ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 0.82 g
FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 136/150/122 MPGe

070 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018

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Route
Masters No strangers to our competition,
the Chevrolet Corvette Grand
Sport and Porsche 718 Boxster
and Cayman don’t just know the
10Best loop, they basically own it.
by David Beard

Since 10Best emerged from David E. Davis

Jr.’s petroleum-enhanced brain in 1983, the
Chevrolet Corvette and the Porsche Boxster have
brought home an impressive 18 awards apiece. In
this, our 36th competition, the pair of similarly priced
two-seaters displayed their skills to similar ends: a 19th
title for each. Which means we will have to drive the wheels
off these cars yet again next year. We are okay with that.
The Grand Sport, available in either convertible or targa con-
figuration, is the spawn of two Corvettes. A traditional Stingray
donates its powertrain to the chassis of the ferocious Z06. The result
is a track-ready street fighter that sacrifices 190 horsepower to the latter
but carries an entry fee as low as $66,590.

“Is that a Ferrari?” yelled a young boy
during the first of what would be frequent
refuelings. After learning it was, in fact, a
Corvette, he responded with a fairly astute
summary of what most editors would write
in their notebooks after driving the Grand
Sport: “WOW!”
Vying for its 13th consecutive title, the
Porsche, like the Grand Sport, comes in
multiple body types; the hatch is still called
the Cayman while the convertible is, of
course, the Boxster. Purist base models
can relocate from dealer lots to a driveway
near you for as little as $56,350 for the Cay-
man or $58,450 for the Boxster. It doesn’t
take much to swell these prices above
$70,000—or even to six figures for the
more powerful S models—as Porsche’s
option list runs deep. Hopefully so does
your wallet. But a well-equipped 718 can
still be had for less than a base 911.
General Motors’ LT1 fills the Grand
Sport’s engine compartment with 6.2 liters
of naturally aspirated V-8, producing
460 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of
torque the old-fashioned way. Pushrods
actuate just 16 valves that allow the small-
block to quickly inhale and exhale as it revs
to its 6500-rpm redline, where the exhaust
screams like a ’roided-up UFC champion.
At idle, the lumpy camshaft triggers
thoughts of old muscle cars as the dry-
sump engine quivers in its mounts. Heart-
beat of America, indeed.
A quick-shifting eight-speed automatic
($1725) may be the best way off the line, but
our preferred gearchanging method is still
the standard seven-speed manual. Chevy’s
no-lift shift, allowing wide-open throttle
during clutch engagement, makes quick
work of banging through the gears. The
sprint to 60 happens in just 3.9 seconds, the
quarter-mile in 12.3 seconds at 117 mph.
Manual Corvettes have active rev matching
to automatically blip the throttle on down-
shifts, turning driving zeros into racetrack
heroes. But even if that system removes one
variable during aggressive driving, the
Grand Sport is already easy enough to pilot
that many of us prefer to leave it disabled
and heel-and-toe for ourselves.

080 . 1 0 B E S T C A R S F O R 2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . J A N / 2 0 1 8
081
 The single, most often heard complaint about the Porsche 718
family may be growing old, but it’s not going away: “I still prefer Chevrolet Corvette
the old six-cylinder engine note,” wrote one of our more polite Grand Sport
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
editors, while others were less tactful but more succinct: “Sounds engine, rear-wheel-drive,
like crap.” It’s true, we dearly miss the redline wail of the erst- 2-passenger, 2-door
convertible or targa
while naturally aspirated flat-six. The blaaaaaat and pop pop on BASE PRICE: $66,590
overrun of the turbocharged pancake-four is hardly music to the ENGINE: pushrod
16-valve 6.2-liter V-8,
ears, but the swell of power the boosted four-bangers generate is 460 hp, 465 lb-ft;
intoxicating. TRANSMISSIONS:
7-speed manual,
In base form, the 718’s 2.0-liter churns out 300 horsepower and 8-speed automatic with
280 pound-feet of torque. Sure, the engine packs a punch, but manual shifting mode
CURB WEIGHT:
caught in the lower rpm range, it struggles to breathe, lagging along 3452–3483 lb
until the turbocharger increases manifold pressure. Our power-
plant of choice is the 2.5-liter found in S models, which makes C/D Test Results
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
350 horsepower and 309 pound-feet. 3.8–3.9 sec
As with the Corvette, the 718’s standard gearbox is a manual, 1/4-MILE: 12.2–12.3 sec
TOP SPEED: 175 mph
although the Porsche transaxle has just six cogs. Its shift feel is sub- (drag limited, C/D est)
lime. Short throws are met with a mechanical clunk as the lever BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
129–139 ft
travels through nicely defined gates. Nail the launch, and the Cay- ROADHOLDING,
man S blasts to 60 in 4.1 seconds. Yet, even for manual slappies like 300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 1.11–1.18 g
us, Porsche’s PDK dual-clutch automatic is FUEL ECONOMY,
The GS pictured here is $3210 well spent. The transmission snaps EPA COMBINED/CITY/
the new Carbon 65, a off up- and downshifts with predictive HWY: 18–19/15–16/
trim-and-color special 25 mpg
edition. We’d pass on ease, and the launch-control system,
that package, just as exclusive to PDK-equipped cars, operates
we would the 718’s Porsche 718
pricey trim options. flawlessly time after time. Just select the Boxster/Cayman
appropriate driving mode, stand on the VEHICLE TYPE: mid-
engine, rear-wheel-drive,
2-passenger, 2-door
convertible or hatchback
BASE PRICE:
$56,350–$68,750
ENGINES: turbocharged
and intercooled DOHC
16-valve 2.0-liter flat-4,
300 hp, 280 lb-ft;
turbocharged and
intercooled DOHC
16-valve 2.5-liter flat-4,
350 hp, 309 lb-ft
TRANSMISSIONS:
6-speed manual, 7-speed
dual-clutch automatic
with manual shifting
mode
CURB WEIGHT:
3057–3169 lb

C/D Test Results

ZERO TO 60 MPH:
3.6–4.4 sec
1/4-MILE: 11.9–13.0 sec
TOP SPEED: 170–177
mph (drag limited,
mfr’s claim)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
141–145 ft
ROADHOLDING, brake, lay into the throttle, and breathe
300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 1.01–1.04 g
deeply. The Cayman S with the automatic
FUEL ECONOMY, rockets to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and hits
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 22–25/20–22/
the quarter-mile in 12.0 seconds at 117 mph.
26–29 mpg The Grand Sport, with twice the cyl-
inders but no turbo, may not be quite as
quick, but its superpowers are derived
from the serious hardware that underpins it. The electronically
controlled limited-slip differential, magnetorheological dampers,
and the eyeball-straining brakes—all shared with the Z06—are
standard equipment here. On the standard Michelin Pilot Super
Sport steamrollers and with its alignment set to track specifica-
tions, the GS stops from 70 mph in 136 feet and circles the skid-
pad with a shocking 1.13 g’s of lateral grip. Order the Z07 package
($7995), with its carbon-ceramic brakes and ultra-sticky Miche-
lin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber, and the Corvette delivers supercar
levels of chassis performance. Stopping distances plummet to a

082 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018

 “One lap around our 10Best
loop is all it takes to divine how truly
reliable the 718 chassis is; most editors use
the Porsche as a benchmark
for the rest of the week’s driving.”
brain-scrambling 129 feet, and the car can sustain a monstrous
1.18 g’s of bite in corners.
The Boxster and Cayman achieve somewhat more modest,
yet still profound, levels of track performance. Our lowest skidpad
figure for the range is a very grippy 1.01 g’s, and the highest is at
1.04 g’s. These measurements reflect variations in wheel and tire
options as well as differences in mass. This two-seater is no slouch
in the braking department, either, with all trims tested recording
stops in the low-140-foot range from 70 mph.
The consistency of the 718 is what’s most impressive. One lap
around our 10Best loop is all it takes to divine how truly reliable the
718 chassis is; most editors use the Porsche as a benchmark for
the rest of the week’s driving. Unlike the ungodly grip levels of the
Corvette, the 718’s limits are almost approachable on two-lane
roads. By applying brakes to the inner tires in turns, Porsche’s
optional torque vectoring helps rotate the 718 ever so gingerly. Ride
compliance is astounding with any of the three different suspen-
sions offered, handling is nimble, and the electronically assisted
steering operates with pinpoint accuracy.
It would be reasonable to expect that a 1.13-g chassis may be
compromised over the battered and undulating surfaces of our
loop, but no: The Vette soaks up imperfections like a Shamwow
thanks to friendly spring rates and the bandwidth of the magneto-
rheological dampers. It’s smooth—maybe too smooth—as the high
levels of grip, composed chassis, and impeccable steering goad
drivers into carrying speeds far greater than even our elastic defi-
nition of what is sane. A look back at Lightning Lap No. 10 reveals
just how unhinged this bow-tied freakazoid can be. It’s a true track
car capable of leisurely Sunday drives, and it’s the greatest overall
performance value on the planet.
The Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport and the Porsche 718 family
should be the benchmarking tools for any manufacturer even con-
sidering using the word “sport” in its marketing, let alone building
a sports car. Both are paragons of the form and 10Best winners.
083
 Size doesn’t have to determine refinement,
driving dynamics, or fit and finish. Cars like
the new Kia Rio prove it.
Kia’s redesigned Rio earned its chance
in the second week with carefully con-
sidered design and execution. Now in
The Kia Rio hatchback and the entire its fourth generation, the Rio has trans-
family of Volkswagen Golfs prove that formed from an average B-segment car to
you needn’t spend a lot to experience a clear standout.
It starts with the exterior styling. Clean
the upper echelon of car design. and Germanic in its shape and detailing,

Cheap
by Tony Quiroga even on 15-inch wheels, the Rio would
look at home in an Audi store. The small-
est Kia’s appearance is no accident. Audi’s
former design boss Peter Schreyer has
directed the look of Kia’s vehicles for more
than a decade and has turned the Kia show-
room into a haven for buyers put off by the
clumsy proportions and mauled sheet-

Chic
metal that befalls Toyota’s and Nissan’s
smallest cars.
Functional and attractive design domi-
nates inside, too. There’s a pleasing symme-
try and lack of gilding in this Kia. The Rio
may be a bit too conservative and simple for
some, but against its direct competition,
this hatchback’s interior is refreshingly
tasteful and intuitive, even if its smallish
rear seat might cause a slight drop in your
Uber rating.

08 4 . 1 0 B E S T C A R S F O R 2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . J A N / 2 0 1 8
 A zero-to-60-mph time of 8.5 seconds for
the six-speed automatic version is a class- Kia Rio hatchback
competitive number, but the Rio’s off-the- VEHICLE TYPE: front-
engine, front-wheel-
line acceleration is weak. Hitting 30 mph drive, 5-passenger,
takes 3.0 seconds and points to a dearth of 4-door hatchback
BASE PRICE: $15,095
low-end torque. Kia fits every Rio with a ENGINE: DOHC 16-valve
naturally aspirated 1.6-liter inline-four 1.6-liter inline-4, 130 hp,
119 lb-ft
yielding 130 horsepower and 119 pound- TRANSMISSIONS:
feet, so you need to swing the tachometer 6-speed manual,
6-speed automatic with
to the loud side of 4000 rpm to see any manual shifting mode
meaningful thrust. Working the engine CURB WEIGHT:
2500–2584 lb (C/D est)
isn’t very rewarding, either; flooring the
Rio is accompanied by 82 decibels of C/D Test Results*
four-cylinder thrash. ZERO TO 60 MPH:
8.5 sec
Struts up front and a twist-beam rear 1/4-MILE: 16.7 sec
suspension take impacts in stride, and the @ 85 mph
TOP SPEED: 121 mph
stout structure keeps the suspension admi- (governor limited,
rably isolated. The steering is flavorless, but mfr’s claim)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
the Rio moves confidently, even if it lacks 182 ft
the verve of the Honda Fit or the Mazda 2 ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
clone, the Toyota Yaris iA. SKIDPAD: 0.79 g
The Rio we drove was a top-of-the-line FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
EX hatch with an as-tested price of $20,225. HWY: 32/28–29/37 mpg
That gets it loaded up with leather seats, a *Test results reflect
seven-inch touchscreen, a 3.5-inch LCD automatic-transmission car.
screen between the speedometer and the
tach, and some gloss-black trim on the cen- Volkswagen
ter console. Remove those extras and you Golf/Alltrack/
have the same basic goodness at just over SportWagen/
GTI/R
$15K, something we considered when vot- VEHICLE TYPE:
ing the Rio into the finals. front-engine, front-
or all-wheel-drive,
But above $20,000, the Rio’s value 5-passenger, 4-door
proposition breaks down as it begins to hatchback
BASE PRICE:
bump up against the VW Golf’s base price. $21,760–$40,635
Aside from the Rio’s handsome exterior, its ENGINES: turbocharged The Rio’s interior is Its road manners are impeccable, its
lack of power along with its noisy engine and intercooled DOHC cheery, but the Golf’s handling balanced in a way that now
16-valve 1.8-liter inline-4, cabin is roomier and
and B-segment fit and finish keep the little 170 hp, 184 or 199 lb-ft; better built. Even a escapes most cars. Harmony among all the
Kia from pulling off an upset. Expectations turbocharged and loaded Rio can’t match elements of the chassis ensures that the
intercooled DOHC the lowliest Golf’s
are higher at the next rung, and being a 16-valve 2.0-liter standard equipment. car changes direction with predictability
inline-4, 220 or 292 hp,
standout in the B segment isn’t enough by 258 or 280 lb-ft and eagerness. Its 170 horsepower and
itself to make a play at upward mobility. TRANSMISSIONS: 199 pound-feet of torque (184 pound-feet
5-speed manual,
Of course, this sounds a bit unfair. It’s 6-speed manual, for manual models) give the Golf seamless acceleration that
not necessary for a car to be able to stretch 6-speed dual-clutch doesn’t require spinning the engine past 4000 rpm. It will, how-
automatic with manual
into the next class, but it is the mark of a shifting mode, ever, happily churn past 6000 rpm and hit 60 mph in 7.7 seconds.
great car. Which is exactly why the Golf 7-speed dual-clutch As you’d expect from a C-segment car, the Golf’s fit and finish
automatic with manual
family, a collection of cars that does just shifting mode, is superior to the Rio’s. It exceeds expectations. Expensive touches
that, is a repeat 10Best winner. 6-speed automatic with abound, from the heft of the door pulls to the thunk of the closing
manual shifting mode
Put the $20,000 Rio against a base Golf CURB WEIGHT:
door to the rich carpeting and the tight graining of the instru-
and you’d expect to have to trade features 2984–3497 lb ment-panel plastics. We’ve said in the past that it’s like a little
for the space of the larger car. Indeed, the C/D Test Results Mercedes-Benz, except it’s actually a nicer car than Mercedes’ own
Golf has a bit more room, but aside from ZERO TO 60 MPH:
small cars.
leather seats, there’s not much difference 4.5–7.7 sec At its starting price of $21,760, the Golf is a bargain, and when
1/4-MILE: 13.2–15.9 sec
in the feature count. Even in base form, TOP SPEED: 124–153
the price creeps up to our SE test car’s as-tested $24,755, we start
the Golf comes with 15-inch alloy wheels, a mph (governor limited) eyeing the $26,415 GTI, which, of course, is also a Golf. If you want
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
6.5-inch touchscreen, Bluetooth integra- 156–175 ft to spend even more on a Golf, you can. There are Golfs all the way
tion, power front seatbacks, heated exterior ROADHOLDING, up into the $40K price range. If you want to go fast, you can do
300-FT-DIA
mirrors, and VW’s new six-year, 72,000- SKIDPAD: 0.83–0.95 g
that, too, with the 292-hp Golf R. Or opt for practicality with the
mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, which FUEL ECONOMY, Golf SportWagen, which also does a good impersonation of a
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
is longer than Kia’s. HWY: 24–29/21–25/
crossover as the Golf Alltrack.
The Golf has a wide breadth of capabil- 29–36 mpg The Rio might earn top marks in its class, but the Golf is the
ities. It’s almost a luxury car—refined, well valedictorian at a much more exclusive school. In fact, the Golf’s
equipped, and tastefully appointed. It just secret to 10Best success is its ambition: It’s not only the best and
also happens to be small, practical, and rel- most versatile car in its segment, every year it vies for the title of top
atively affordable. vote getter on our 10Best ballot.

085
 Mercedes-Benz
E400 4MATIC
wagon
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
engine, all-wheel-drive,

Station to
7-passenger, 4-door
hatchback
BASE PRICE: $64,045
ENGINE: twin-
turbocharged and
intercooled DOHC

Station
24-valve 3.0-liter V-6,
329 hp, 354 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION:
9-speed automatic with
manual shifting mode

C/D Test Results

The Mercedes E400 wagon and Volvo V90 prove the CURB WEIGHT: 4442 lb

essential rightness of the long-roof form. by Jeff Sabatini ZERO TO 60 MPH:

5.1 sec
1/4-MILE: 13.7 sec
@ 103 mph
TOP SPEED: 129 mph
(governor limited)
No, it’s not Camaro versus Mustang, but as we cycled through the BRAKING,
cars during the second week, many of us couldn’t resist staging our 70–0 MPH: 156 ft
ROADHOLDING,
own mini comparo between two of the best station wagons on the 300-FT-DIA
market. We’ve explained why the V-6 E-class lineup earned its spot in SKIDPAD: 0.87 g
FUEL ECONOMY,
Week Two, but what if the E400 wagon had to stand on its own? EPA COMBINED/CITY/
It could’ve gone up against no more formidable a challenger than the Volvo HWY: 21/19/25 mpg
V90 R-Design T6 AWD, which desperately wants to be taken seriously as a sport-
ing device. On its surface, the V90 seems more overtly performance oriented than Volvo V90
the E-class, what with its optional carbon-fiber interior trim and 20-inch wheels shod T6 AWD
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
with Pirelli P Zeros. Volvo’s supercharged and turbocharged 2.0-liter four is good for engine, all-wheel-drive,
316 high-strung horsepower and, with its drive-mode selector on Dynamic, this wagon is all 5-passenger, 4-door
hatchback
fast-twitch responses. Its throttle is hair-trigger, BASE PRICE: $56,945
the brakes are grabby, and the steering goes death-metal heavy. It’s If it sounds as if we’re weaseling our way ENGINE: supercharged,
turbocharged, and
absolutely fantastic-feeling for a tiny fraction of our 10Best course. toward a tie, understand that we do not kiss intercooled DOHC
The E400 4MATIC opts for a more traditional luxury-car our sisters. Look at the test numbers: The 16-valve 2.0-liter
inline-4, 316 hp, 295 lb-ft
approach. Its two extra cylinders and liter-greater displacement E400 blisters the quarter-mile in just 13.7 TRANSMISSION:
deliver only marginally more power—329 horses’ worth—but seconds, stops from 70 mph in 156 feet, and 8-speed automatic with
manual shifting mode
much more torque. Mercedes’ twin-turbocharged V-6 makes pulls 0.87 g on the skidpad. Apart from its
354 pound-feet starting at just 1600 rpm, compared with only weight advantage, the only figure the Volvo C/D Test Results
295 at 2200 rpm for the Volvo. This makes the E-class a more is able to top in our testing is in roadholding; CURB WEIGHT: 4247 lb
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
relaxed cruiser with an altogether greater powertrain bandwidth. but to deliver its 0.92 g of grip, the V90 6.5 sec
You don’t have to dial up Sport mode to make the Benz go, just flex comes with a brittle ride even in Comfort 1/4-MILE: 14.9 sec
@ 95 mph
your right foot. The E400’s controls all have that measured Ger- mode. So the Benz is the better perform- TOP SPEED: 132 mph
man feel, and the Benz rides softly regardless of drive mode. It ance car, despite the Volvo’s posturing. (governor limited)
BRAKING,
makes a fast 10Best lap feel like a Sunday drive with the family. The E400 never loses sight of its luxury- 70–0 MPH: 157 ft
Inside, both cars are posh to the point of perfection, with the first mission, though, even while breezing ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
nod going to the Volvo for its superior material beauty, layout, and through the ess bends on our 10Best loop. SKIDPAD: 0.92 g*
tech display, housed in its huge (but sometimes buggy) touch- Its balance of easy speed and confident han- FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
screen. Ditto the Volvo’s more stylish exterior. But this is a differ- dling means it deserves the same plaudits, HWY: 25/22/31 mpg
ence between an A and an A+ student, which, if they attended your and is as much a contender, as the other *Stability-control-
author’s alma mater, would both see 4.0 on their transcripts. E-class models on this year’s list. inhibited.

086 . 10BEST CARS FOR 201 8 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/201 8

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Ride Once distinct, the cars of three German luxury automakers are
becoming more and more alike as each company borrows the
brand character of the others, as the Audi A5/S5 Sportback, BMW
M240i/M2, and Mercedes-Benz E-class demonstrate. by Mike Duff

Automakers have long believed that the grass

is greener on the other side of the fence. Yet
an etymological investigation into the ori-
gins of this well-worn phrase reveals that
the literal translation is even more apt.
What the poet Ovid actually wrote in The
Art of Love—basically a how-to guide for
putative Roman pickup artists—was “fer-
tilior seges est alienis semper in agris,” or,
“the crop is always greater in the lands of
another.” Which neatly summarizes the
financial motivation behind the me-too
mentality that has sent Audi, BMW, and
Mercedes chasing one another’s tails—and
sometimes sniffing one another’s butts.
It hasn’t been long since the three lux-
ury automakers’ portfolios were as distinct
from one another as the numerous differ-
ent types of German sausage. BMW pro-
duced the archetypal sports sedan, keen
and responsive if short on practicality.
Mercs felt and often drove like bank vaults,
a perceived solidity that continued even when the brand went through its quality nadir in
the early naughties—an era that proved it was possible to make a door that would thunk
even when filled with rust holes. Audi was technical and slightly aloof, delivering grip and
performance without a huge amount of that distracting driver-involvement stuff. Each
carmaker had its fans and its own carefully guarded place in the world.
But now confusion reigns throughout the realm as the three, intent on grabbing mar-
ket share, mount hostile raids into one another’s territories. The big loser, on the evidence
of this year’s 10Best, has been BMW, and therefore us. While we don’t like to play favorites,
the company’s products used to be the encapsulation of everything we loved about the
sports sedan. The failure of the new 5-series to reach Week Two gives an indication of how
the mightiest have fallen. While the animation and fonts of its many menu screens are
beautifully rendered, the 5er has given up on such basics as steering feel in a seeming

092 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018

Sharing

093
attempt to chase Audi and Mercedes on technology and refinement.
So it’s left to the 2-series, the most junior model in BMW’s non-i
range, to fight the rearguard action for the brand’s dented values.
Both the M240i and M2 return by right of having made 10Best
last year, and their appeal remains compelling. The similarities
between the models get close to confusing; both wear M badges,
although the M240i is of the lesser M Performance line rather than
a true single-integer M car, and both are powered by turbocharged
3.0-liter inline-six engines turning (at least) their rear wheels. As
such, the $8200 upcharge for the M2 ($54,495 unoptioned) looks
at first sight like some kind of outrageous M tax.
BMW isn’t alone in trying to reinvent itself. Audi is determined
to move in the other direction with the new A5 and S5 Sportbacks,
prime examples of this BMW-ish aspiration. The brand’s senior
managers are always talking about increasing sportiness, though enough dynamic distinction between them to justify the difference
they are always somewhat vague about which exact sport is being in price. Not that the M240i is inferior; on a per-dollar basis, it’s
targeted; something European and complicated, we imagine. It’s more of a bargain. On the demanding topography of the test loop,
possible the Sportback dons Lycra to come to the office more often its softer suspension and less frenetic power delivery made it a
than it actually hits the gym. friendlier horse; these attributes allowed it to be worked at a higher
While the A4 sedan narrowly missed out on 10Best last year, the percentage of its abilities. Plus, you can only drive a car wearing
Sportback offers a lower and sleeker reworking of the same package. stripes like the ones on our test M2 so hard before they send up pur-
Styling sits in that nexus loved by car designers where sedan meets suit helicopters. The M2 is rawer, louder, and grippier—and needs
coupe, with a low roofline but four-door practicality so that Far East sharper reactions when it does get close to its ultrahigh limits.
markets will buy it. The A5’s turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder is an old Many of the week’s best fishermen’s tales were relayed by those
friend, and the S5 is packing the new turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 that who had just sprung from the huggy embrace of the M2’s sport
Audi developed to replace the characterful supercharged engine of seats and were often punctuated with the mimed action of a steer-
the last S5. Although carrying price tags ing wheel turned hastily to apply corrective lock. Like the best of
weighty enough to assure buyers of their The E43 combines the its M-badged predecessors, a large part of the M2’s appeal comes
premium status, both Sportbacks deliver solidity of Mercedes
with the AWD traction from its rawness, the sense that it’s just a roll cage and set of door
persuasive value versus their obvious rivals: synonymous with Audi numbers away from winning something.
$43,575 for the A5, and $55,375 for the S5. and an alert chassis But driving aside, the M2 struggles in such polished company.
that reminds us of
But it’s the Mercedes E-class that has BMW’s greatest hits. While it is 1.7 inches longer than the 1995–1999 E36 M3, expecta-
snuck farthest behind enemy lines. It looks tions have expanded in the last two decades, and the M2 will only
like a Mercedes and, to stick to the plot, work for those able to squeeze their life-
drives like one, too. The clever trick is that styles into its tight-fitting cabin. Com-
it also manages to mimic a Quattro-driven pared with the relentless consideration
Audi and, when the mood strikes, even does of the Mercs’ interiors, the BMW’s high-
a convincing impression of one of those mounted display suddenly seems small,
older BMW 5-series that we miss so much. and the buttons that are crammed
Last year, the four-cylinder E300 didn’t together in the center console appear
make the grade, but the new twin-turbo jumbled. It’s getting old, and although it
3.0-liter V-6 gives a far more appropriate remains a BMW like BMWs should be,
level of firepower, especially in the 396-hp the M2 has become an outlier to its clan.
E43, which is now positioned as an under- By contrast, our duo of Sportbacks
study for the V-8 E63 S that commands six excelled at all the nondriving stuff. Both
figures at the top of the range and is thus look sleek and handsome, the S5’s more
ineligible for our little competition. muscular bumpers giving it the visual
Mercedes is well aware of the all-around edge. We predict the pair will entice
excellence of the E-class, and it charges many a would-be A4 buyer into trading
enthusiastically for it. A $72,595 starting up. Rear space is still adult-usable, if
price for the E43 is on the cusp of outra- you’re prepared to duck low on the way
geous, and then the car that turned up at in. Both our test cars’ cabins were dark
10Best carried another $18,390 worth of but well finished, with Audi’s latest
options. Apart from the all-boxes-ticked MMI system and its Virtual Cockpit
$99,330 Corvette Grand Sport, it was the reconfigurable digital instrument panel
most expensive car here. The good news is remaining about the best user inter-
that it’s possible to excise almost all that faces there are.
without altering the driving experience to Of the two, the basic A5 Sportback is
any significant degree; our only must-have the more resolved car, as it doesn’t feel
would be the $1100 Acoustic Comfort pack- the need to be so self-consciously sporty
age that increases cabin insulation and all the time. The turbocharged 2.0-liter
reduces interior noise to a sepulchral hush. engine delivers 252 horsepower with
Our 2-series models retain their popu- minimal lag and an enthusiasm for revs
larity, driving like BMWs should and with in contrast to the top-end tightness of

094 . 1 0 B E S T C A RS F O R 2 0 1 8 . C A R A N D D R I V E R . J A N / 2 0 1 8
You can tell which car the similarly sized powerplant in the Alfa
is the winner because Giulia Ti. The regular A5 certainly doesn’t Audi A5/S5 BMW M240i/M2 Mercedes-Benz/
its interior is brown. Sportback AMG E-class
Coincidentally, the feel short of pace, with its seven-speed VEHICLE TYPE: front-
E43’s cabin also was dual-clutch automatic shuffling ratios VEHICLE TYPE: front- engine, rear- or all-wheel- VEHICLE TYPE: front-
the prettiest and nicest engine, all-wheel-drive, drive, 4-passenger, engine, rear- or all-
of the three cars. deftly in drive and delivering immediate 5-passenger, 4-door 2-door coupe wheel-drive, 4-, 5-, or
hatchback BASE PRICE: 7-passenger, 2-door
changes under manual control. Suspension BASE PRICE: $46,295–$54,495 convertible or coupe or
tune is well suited to the vagaries of the $43,575–$55,375 ENGINE: turbocharged 4-door sedan or wagon
ENGINES: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC BASE PRICE:
10Best loop, ably riding bumps. And the all-wheel-drive system and intercooled DOHC 24-valve 3.0-liter $59,895–$72,595
finds abundant traction, even when it starts to rain. It’s more than 16-valve 2.0-liter inline-6, 335 or 365 hp, ENGINE: twin-
inline-4, 252 hp, 273 343 or 369 lb-ft turbocharged and
good enough with the drive mode left in its Auto setting that lb-ft; turbocharged TRANSMISSIONS: intercooled DOHC
there’s little need for Dynamic, which adds aggression but no more and intercooled DOHC 6-speed manual, 24-valve 3.0-liter V-6,
24-valve 3.0-liter Miller- 7-speed dual-clutch 329 or 396 hp, 354 or
involvement. capable V-6, 354 hp, automatic with manual 384 lb-ft
The S5 turns up the volume but doesn’t change the tune. Even 369 lb-ft shifting mode, 8-speed TRANSMISSION:
TRANSMISSIONS: automatic with manual 9-speed automatic with
before Sport mode is activated, a base S5 is several notches further 7-speed dual-clutch shifting mode manual shifting mode
up the sportiness scale: The suspension is firmer, the steering has automatic with manual CURB WEIGHT: 3415– CURB WEIGHT: 4150–
shifting mode, 8-speed 3700 lb (C/D est) 4443 lb (C/D est)
acquired a gelatinous quality, and grip levels are even higher. This automatic with manual
single-turbo engine delivers huge performance whenever required, shifting mode C/D Test Results C/D Test Results
CURB WEIGHT:
although without the aural character of the old supercharged V-6. ZERO TO 60 MPH: ZERO TO 60 MPH:
3758–4017 lb 4.0–4.8 sec 4.2–5.1 sec
The deft torque juggling of the all-wheel-drive system enables 1/4-MILE: 12.5–13.3 sec 1/4-MILE: 12.8–13.7 sec
churn to be deployed without drama in places where the M2 would C/D Test Results TOP SPEED: 130–168 TOP SPEED: 128–131
ZERO TO 60 MPH: mph (governor limited, mph (governor limited)
be at the end of its leash. But there’s no increase in soul. 4.3–5.3 sec mfr’s claim) BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
Whereas the E-class barely broke a sweat winning its position 1/4-MILE: 12.9–14.0 sec BRAKING, 70–0 MPH: 156–161 ft
TOP SPEED: 130–155 152–171 ft ROADHOLDING,
in the second week, prolonged acquaintance didn’t diminish it any. mph (governor limited, ROADHOLDING, 300-FT-DIA
Look hard enough and it’s possible to find flaws, but closer consid- mfr’s claim) 300-FT-DIA SKIDPAD: 0.87–0.92 g
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH: SKIDPAD: 0.90–1.00 g FUEL ECONOMY,
eration relegates most to mere niggles. The handsome E400 coupe 158–159 ft FUEL ECONOMY, EPA COMBINED/CITY/
lacked the ultimate dynamism of the E43 sedan, feeling more like ROADHOLDING, EPA COMBINED/CITY/ HWY: 21–23/19–20/
300-FT-DIA HWY: 21–24/18–21/ 25–27 mpg
a slightly poorer man’s Bentley when asked to cope with some of SKIDPAD: 0.94–0.95 g 26–30 mpg
the bumpier parts of our test roads. Body control is good, but hard FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
cornering produces handle-scraping lean that discourages going HWY: 24–27/21–24/
fast. Some also thought that the less powerful version of the twin- 30–34 mpg
turbo V-6 lacked the brawn you’d expect from something wearing
a 400 badge, but the engine is tuned to deliver its best without
much effort from the driver, and it responds gamely to a flattened up beautifully and its throttle sharpening. Suddenly you’re chan-
throttle. The E43 feels far more keen, and, empirically, it is. We neling the spirit of an E39-generation BMW 5-series. The E-class
know from previous testing that it will run from zero to 60 mph is a depleted uranium fist in a cashmere gauntlet, and a reset point
in 4.2 seconds, with the 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system giving for its segment.
drama-free launches every time. If you really need the extra per- The Audi A5 and its S5 sibling are the most traditional cars here.
formance of the E63 S, then you must be very short on time or very If you like Audis, or the values the brand stands for, then you will
long on cash. The engine gets nicely zingy when pushed, and the like both. They feel as relentlessly well engineered as any of their
nine-speed autobox has a knack for always being in the right gear predecessors, if lacking the pulse-raising ability necessary for a
no matter what you want to do. The heavy gearchange paddles sports sedan to earn a 10Best spot.
behind the steering wheel are the best-feeling of the lot, too. The M240i and M2 drop off this year’s list. Both are fine cars
Color us enamored with AMG’s latest all-in chassis-tuning and endlessly amusing companions, but they also feel old and
strategy, despite the E43’s compromised ride, which can get a bit somewhat strained, as though they are the end of an era for BMW.
flinty at times, particularly on the cratered roads of the Snowbelt. Let’s hope at least some of their spirit survives into the brand’s con-
But the different modes of the Dynamic Select controller yield far nected, technology-led future.
greater changes than equivalent systems do. In its Comfort setting, You’ve probably guessed, but we’ve got a new favorite German
the E43 cruises almost as quietly as any other E-class, reducing sedan. Mercedes’ E-class makes 10Best not just on the general
cabin noise better than a pair of earplugs. Select Sport mode and excellence of its six-cylinder engine, but also on the astonishing
this E-class gets immediately firm and taut, its steering weighting bandwidth of the E43. Beating it won’t be easy.

095
Who’s
Zoomin’
Who?
Which of these Mazdas has more
Mazda, the Mazda Miata
or the Mazda 3? by Jeff Sabatini

Here’s something to make you feel old and maybe kind of sad: The
whispering kid who starred in Mazda’s original “Zoom-Zoom” ad
campaign has grown up, graduated from college, and become a law-
yer. Meanwhile, the slogan still features prominently in the com-
pany’s marketing, to say nothing of its self-image. Because, yes,
every Mazda has a little bit of Miata in it. But as we decided after
this year’s driving, maybe some of them should have a little more.
The fourth-generation MX-5 Miata has been on the market for
over two years now, and it’s been a success with customers and
critics alike. Sales in 2016 hit 9465 in the U.S., the model’s best since
2008, and through the first three quarters of 2017, Mazda had
already sold more than that, with sales up some 24 percent. We
named the Miata to our 10Best list in both 2016 and ’17. Making this
year’s cut would complete the hat trick.
In either its convertible or “retractable fastback” form, the
MX-5 is a standout among standouts. During these two weeks, it’s
one of the cars we drive for sheer enjoyment, without having to
make any deep analysis or think too hard about it at all. You know
going in that you will vote it somewhere onto your list. Sometimes
it serves as a palate cleanser: Throw back the top for a quick spin
right after, say, a particularly miserable lap spent stuck behind a
garbage truck in a subcompact. Other times it’s a celebration: Sign
out the Miata to drive home on a perfect 80-degree day knowing
that the top will stay down for the return commute the next morn-
ing. Either way, when you pull into camp with a big grin on your face
and a wind-mauled coif, another editor will be standing there,
eager to grab the keys.
With a zero-to-60 time right around six seconds, a curb weight
well below 2500 pounds, and a price that starts under $26,000, the
Mazda two-seater is the best affordable sports car on the market.
This is irrefutable. You can criticize the MX-5 for its tight, loud
cabin. You can complain that it has too
much body roll. You can even whine that it The Mazda 3 has
needs more than 155 horsepower. You become no less
attractive with age. But
would be wrong, but you could. And if we rejuvenated rivals
were feeling charitable, we would simply (read: Honda Civic) now
outgun the 3. The Miata
say, “Go ahead, then, buy something better still has no equal.
for the money.”

096 . 10BEST CARS FOR 201 8 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/201 8

“When you pull into camp with a big grin
on your face and a wind-mauled coif, another
editor will be standing
there, eager to grab the keys.” Mazda 3
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
Mazda MX-5
Miata/RF
engine, front-wheel- VEHICLE TYPE: front-
Mazda’s other products, however, do wide torque plateaus of those little turbo drive, 5-passenger, engine, rear-wheel-drive,
not own their niches. That’s why the cur- engines deliver noticeably better flexibility 4-door hatchback or 2-passenger, 2-door
sedan convertible or targa
rent-gen Mazda 6 managed to stick around in everyday driving and even substantially BASE PRICE: BASE PRICE:
10Best for only two seasons, and it’s also quicker zero-to-60 times. The manual- $18,970–$20,965 $25,790–$32,430
ENGINES: DOHC ENGINE: DOHC 16-valve
why we’ve said goodbye to the 3 this year. equipped 2.5-liter Mazda at 10Best just felt 16-valve 2.0-liter 2.0-liter inline-4, 155 hp,
The 3 is still a good—make that a great— underpowered in back-to-back drives. inline-4, 155 hp, 150 lb-ft; 148 lb-ft
DOHC 16-valve 2.5-liter TRANSMISSIONS:
car. But it’s seen the competition grow more Here’s the real kicker, though: With all inline-4, 184 hp, 185 lb-ft 6-speed manual,
formidable. Some of the same criticisms we those Civics uglying up the place this year, TRANSMISSIONS: 6-speed automatic with
6-speed manual, manual shifting mode
could level at the MX-5, things that matter doing front-wheel burnouts and kicking 6-speed automatic with CURB WEIGHT:
less in a sports car, continue to dog Mazda’s sand in the Mazda’s face, the 3’s defenders manual shifting mode 2309–2435 lb
CURB WEIGHT:
C-segment compact. There are quieter were left to look around camp in what was 2883–3071 lb C/D Test Results
options in the class. Its cabin feels smallish to be a vain hope that a Mazdaspeed model ZERO TO 60 MPH:
compared with those of its peers. And it not might show up. Instead, the only other 3 we C/D Test Results 5.8–6.4 sec
ZERO TO 60 MPH: 1/4-MILE: 14.6–15.1 sec
only needs more than 155 horsepower, but had was a 2.0-liter sedan with an automatic 6.8–8.0 sec TOP SPEED: 129–133
even the 184 horses of the 2.5-liter models that narrowly beat out the four-cylinder 1/4-MILE: 15.4–16.2 sec mph (drag limited)
TOP SPEED: 132 mph BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
have been eclipsed by the performance of Camry for “most desirable car to find at an (governor limited) 158–171 ft
turbocharged engines from Honda and Avis counter.” With both the Civic Sport BRAKING, 70–0 MPH: ROADHOLDING,
171–185 ft 300-FT-DIA
Volkswagen. Yes, the 3’s naturally aspirated and Golf offering more performance than ROADHOLDING, SKIDPAD: 0.88–0.90 g
powerplant looks good on paper, with the 2.0-liter 3, and with the Civic Si and 300-FT-DIA FUEL ECONOMY,
SKIDPAD: 0.82–0.87 g EPA COMBINED/CITY/
higher peak ratings than either the Civic’s GTI outpunching the 2.5-liter model, and FUEL ECONOMY, HWY: 29/26/
1.5-liter four or the 1.8-liter four in the Golf. with no Mazda in the same class as Honda’s EPA COMBINED/CITY/ 33–35 mpg
HWY: 30–32/26–28/
But when all three cars are similarly and Volkswagen’s R cars, the 3 became the 35–38 mpg
equipped with manual transmissions, the odd one out. We’re sad to see it go.

097
Pilgrims’
Progress
Finding religion
with the Alfa
Romeo Giulia and
Kia Stinger GT.
by Josh Jacquot

098
Rolling boldly into this year’s second week of 10Best are two four-doors enter-
ing what, for their makers, is wildly uncharted territory. Alfa hasn’t sold a
sports sedan in the States since the 164. That was in 1995. And its overall
­profile has been low despite, or perhaps because of, a 2014 U.S. relaunch that
came on the back of the 4C, a mid-engined, carbon-chassis driving tool
that was not exactly well suited to the carpool lane. The Giulia, a sedan
worthy of both sales and praise, changes that, bringing the Italian
carmaker closer to the mainstream. But Alfa’s ethos prioritizes the
merits of driving first and volume-selling second, which is a
respectable, if dangerous, approach for a brand trying to move
metal in a country that largely thinks of cars as toasters.

JAN/201 8 . CAR AND DRIVER . 10BEST CARS FOR 201 8 . 099


Kia’s strategy couldn’t be more different. Its game plan relies
on selling high-volume models to make an eccentric like the
Stinger possible. And make no mistake, the Stinger is eccentric,
defying categorization at every turn. But it is also a tower of enthu-
siasm from a brand built on the broad planes of value and pragma-
tism. It is original style, aggressive proportions, and serious speed
from a company whose best seller in the U.S. is a boxy crossover.
The Stinger is proof that the Korean company is willing to try any-
thing at least once.
The meeting of the Giulia and the Stinger in Week Two forced
us to look critically at the virtues a 10Best winner must possess—
mission fulfillment, driving enjoyment, and value—and to distill
these machines down to their fundamentals in order to make an
evaluation.
Both cars share a common goal: moving people from place to
place in reasonable comfort while providing the driver with an
experience that exceeds simply getting there. That mission starts
in the engine room. And in the Giulia Quadrifoglio, the hardware
is a huge part of the personality. A forged crankshaft and forged
pistons support the engine’s 175-hp-per-liter output. Certainly
there’s some puffing before this heavy-breathing twin-turbo V-6
reaches its 20 psi of peak boost, but when it does, all 505 horses
100 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
pound though the firewall. Their arrival is
accompanied by a swell of acceleration that
hardly tapers with speed. The eight-speed
automatic, if shifted at redline, keeps the
V-6 lit through every gear. As you find a
rhythm in the Giulia, the power is always
available to keep its tempo.
It’s a different story in the 280-hp Giulia
Ti. This trim comes with Alfa’s pedestrian
engine, and it reveals as much by halting
power production at a modest 5800 rpm.
But it is immensely tractable, chortling out
306 pound-feet of torque at 2000 rpm. The
lesser Giulia’s turbo four doesn’t lack enter-
tainment value, allowing 60 mph in 5.5 sec-
onds in all-wheel-drive trim. The Ti uses a
less robust version of the same eight-speed
automatic found in the Quadrifoglio, but
the transmission is equally obedient and
still fast-shifting.
When it comes to surprises under the
hood, though, the Stinger GT’s twin-turbo-
charged V-6 is perhaps more striking.
Shared with some Genesis models, it might
just be the world’s most character-laden
corporate V-6, if not the most powerful.
With 365 horsepower, the 3.3-liter huffer
propels our rear-wheel-drive Stinger GT to
60 mph in 4.4 seconds. The engine is truly
the soul of this car—flexible, smooth, ready,
and engorged with power. Sure, it lacks the
Quadrifoglio’s spleen-punching shock, but
it makes the rear-drive GT into a 12-second
car in the quarter-mile and endows it with
gusto befitting a 10Best winner.
But 10Best winners must possess a wide
range of virtues, power being only part of
the final calculus. And our 13.5-mile loop
exposes chassis deficiencies in one pass. In
the case of our preproduction Stinger GTs,
one rear-driver and one all-wheel-drive
model, those flaws manifest most obviously
On the drag strip, the as good old-fashioned creaks. “You can
Stinger GT has the hear the doors vibrating against their
firepower to hang with
its targets. But throw seals,” read Alterman’s notes. Sabatini’s
some curves into the were less forgiving: “Feels as stiff as
route, and the Kia
quickly loses ground. reheated lasagna.” Again and again the log-
book notes lamented the racket, many
charging the sunroof with the noise, others
blaming the doors. The consensus was that, after years of manu-
facturers telling us that every chassis is stiffer than the last, some
still aren’t stiff enough.
But the real blow to the Stinger, the one that sealed its fate,
came as we drove both cars to their limits. The Stinger strongly
resists such aggression by reacting with confusion. Unloading
its chassis midcorner reveals a lack of rear damping control more
common to prairie schooners and metronomes. It’s a telling look
at where the Kia’s priorities lie. As a GT car, the Stinger is happiest
when leisurely yet rapidly transporting its passengers down
smooth, relatively flat ribbons of tarmac. Turn up the heat on a road
with some real shape, however, and one’s mind turns to other
choices, cars with less propensity to shake their tail feathers. Ting-
wall’s notes said it best: “The Stinger’s chief virtue is ‘it has rear-
wheel drive.’ That was a crappy reason to buy a Dodge Charger,
Alfa Romeo Giulia/
Quadrifoglio
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
engine, rear- or all-wheel-
drive, 5-passenger,
4-door sedan
BASE PRICE:
$38,990–$75,095
ENGINES: turbocharged
and intercooled SOHC
16-valve 2.0-liter
inline-4, 280 hp, 306
lb-ft; twin-turbocharged
and intercooled DOHC
24-valve 2.9-liter V-6,
505 hp, 443 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION:
8-speed automatic with
manual shifting mode
CURB WEIGHT:
3636–3822 lb
C/D Test Results
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
3.6–5.7 sec
1/4-MILE: 11.9–14.3 sec
TOP SPEED:
149–191 mph (governor/
drag limited, mfr’s claim)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
143–186 ft
ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 0.79*–1.00 g
FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 20–27/17–24/
24–33 mpg
*Stability-control-
inhibited.
“High-fidelity steering and innately
easy response define the Giulia as it comes
to life in your hands.”
Kia Stinger GT
VEHICLE TYPE: front-
engine, rear- or all-wheel-
drive, 5-passenger,
4-door hatchback
BASE PRICE:
$39,895–$42,095
ENGINE: twin-
turbocharged and
intercooled DOHC
24-valve 3.3-liter V-6,
365 hp, 376 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION:
8-speed automatic with
manual shifting mode
CURB WEIGHT:
4004–4157 lb
C/D Test Results
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
4.4–4.6 sec
1/4-MILE: 12.9–13.2 sec
TOP SPEED: 167 mph
(governor limited, mfr’s
claim)
BRAKING, 70–0 MPH:
156–164 ft
ROADHOLDING,
300-FT-DIA
SKIDPAD: 0.91–0.93 g
FUEL ECONOMY,
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 21/18/26–27 mpg
(C/D est)

and it’s a crappy reason to buy a Stinger.”

The Quadrifoglio embraces the real-
road challenge with a 1.00-g chassis that’s
both compliant and controlled, turning
Michigan two-lanes into Tuscan fantasies.
If driving the Quad were riding a bike down-
hill, we’d be fully engaged—every finger
wrapped around the bars, eyes scanning far
ahead, never touching the brakes, and with
no fear of consequences. In other words,
committed. With hard driving, the edges of
the Quadrifoglio’s performance envelope
reveal themselves, the car’s ultimate limits
seemingly circumscribed. Then, as they’re
approached, they’re recast, pushed out
another inch. The net effect is that the more
one asks of this sedan, the more it delivers. The red-and-black offered only by headier machines. It’s a different car but one that
High-fidelity steering and innately easy interior might be a bit
much for some, but it elicits descriptors such as graceful, athletic, easy, and satisfying.
response define the Giulia as it comes to life suits the Quadrifoglio. It’s not as if we had to make a choice between the Giulia and the
in your hands. The efforts are never high, Itvertis the stylish extro-
of high-perform- Stinger—both could have made the cut had each merited a spot.
but a deliberate grip on the wheel is ance sports sedans. But 10Best forces us to think critically about what matters—inside,
required as the Alfa shifts and pulls, subtly outside, and from behind the wheel. And the wholesale excellence
but faithfully exposing where there’s grip of the Giulia easily outshines the rough edges of the Stinger, despite
and where there’s none. Acceleration comes earlier and earlier as the latter’s greater roominess, value, and putative reliability. But,
confidence builds. And even with iron rotors, our car’s brakes never hey, if you want a fridge, buy a Camry. There’s a reason we chose the
fatigued. The Stinger, in contrast, shimmied in protest as its rotors Quadrifoglio over the Mercedes-AMG C63 S, BMW M3, and Cadil-
soaked with heat. lac ATS-V in our recent sports-sedan comparo (“A Sports-Sedan
Even with the detuned Giulia Ti, you get a machine cast from Tragicomedy,” March 2017): It was a better driver’s car, period. And
the same Italian mold as the Quad. The all-wheel-drive model com- so it is when compared with the Stinger. Each has its place. And the
bines earnest communication with a flair of expression usually Giulia’s is on our 2018 10Best list.

101
 With a year’s worth of miles
driven and fates tempted,
these 10 cars emerge victorious.

The 10Best
Porsche 718
Honda Civic Boxster/Cayman
Sport/Si/Type R

Alfa Romeo Giulia/

Quadrifoglio

Chevrolet Corvette
Grand Sport

1 0 2 . 10BEST CARS FOR 2018 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018

Cars for 2018
Mazda MX-5
Miata/RF Volkswagen Golf/Alltrack/
Honda Accord SportWagen/GTI/R

Audi RS3
Chevrolet Camaro
V-6/V-8 coupes

Mercedes-Benz/
AMG E-class V-6s

103
 DO YOU
STEER CLEAR
OF BAD CAR
ADVICE?
Sources: Simmons Research, Multi-Media Engagement Study, Spring 2016; GfK MRI, Spring 2016.

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 Important Legal Notice from the United States
District Court for the Southern District of Florida
If you are a current or former owner or lessee of
certain Honda and Nissan vehicles, you could get cash
and other benefits from a class action settlement.
Si desea recibir esta notificación en español, llámenos o visite nuestra página web.
Settlements have been reached in a class action lawsuit alleging that consumers sustained
economic losses because they purchased or leased vehicles from various auto companies
that manufactured, distributed, or sold vehicles containing allegedly defective airbags
manufactured by Takata Corporation and its affiliates. The Settlements include certain
vehicles made by Honda and Nissan (the “Subject Vehicles”). Honda and Nissan deny
any and all allegations of wrongdoing and the Court has not decided who is right.
If you have already received a separate recall notice for your Honda or Nissan
vehicle and have not yet had your Takata airbag repaired, you should do so as soon
as possible. When recalled Takata airbags deploy, they may spray metal debris
toward vehicle occupants and may cause serious injury. Please see your original
recall notices and www.AirBagRecall.com for further details.
Am I included in the proposed Settlements? The Settlements include the following
persons and entities:
• Owners or lessees, as of September 19, 2017, of a Subject Vehicle that was distributed
for sale or lease in the United States or any of its territories or possessions, and
• Former owners or lessees of a Honda Subject Vehicle that was distributed for sale
or lease in the United States or any of its territories or possessions, who, between
November 11, 2008 and September 19, 2017, sold or returned pursuant to a lease,
a Subject Vehicle that was recalled before September 19, 2017, or
• Former owners or lessees of a Nissan Subject Vehicle that was distributed for sale
or lease in the United States or any of its territories or possessions, who, between
April 11, 2013 and September 19, 2017, sold or returned pursuant to a lease, a
Subject Vehicle that was recalled before September 19, 2017.
A full list of the Honda and Nissan Subject Vehicles can be found at
www.AutoAirbagSettlement.com. The Settlements do not involve claims of
personal injury.
What do the Settlements provide? Honda and Nissan have agreed to Settlements with
a combined value of approximately $703 million, including a 10% credit for the Nissan
Rental Car/Loaner Program and a 20% credit for the Honda Enhanced Rental Car/
Loaner Program. The Settlement Funds will be used to pay for Settlement benefits and
cover the costs of the Settlements over an approximately four-year period.
The Settlements offer several benefits for Class Members, including (1) payments for
certain out-of-pocket expenses incurred related to a Takata airbag recall of a Subject
Vehicle, (2) a Rental Car/Loaner Program while certain Subject Vehicles are awaiting
repair, (3) an Outreach Program to maximize completion of the recall remedy, (4)

THE
additional cash payments to Class Members from residual settlement funds, if any
remain, and (5) a Customer Support Program to help with repairs associated with
affected Takata airbag inflators and their replacements. The Settlement website explains
each of these benefits in detail.
WELL-APPOINTED
WRIST
How can I get a Payment? You must file a claim to receive a payment during the first four
years of the Settlements. If you still own or lease a Subject Vehicle, you must also bring it
to an authorized dealership for the recall remedy, as directed by a recall notice, if you have
not already done so. Visit the website and file a claim online or download one and file by
mail. The deadline to file a claim will be at least one year from the date the Settlements are Masculine, innovative, cultured
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What are my other options? If you do not want to be legally bound by the Settlements, look with the right combination
you must exclude yourself by January 8, 2018. If you do not exclude yourself, you of materials and styles from the
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settlement benefits. The potential available benefits are more fully described in the Collection.
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for attorneys’ fees of up to 30% of the total Settlement Amount and incentive awards of
$5,000 for each of the Class Representatives. You may appear at the fairness hearing,
either by yourself or through an attorney hired by you, but you don’t have to. For more E XCLU S IV E LY AT
information, including the relief, eligibility and release of claims, in English or Spanish,
call or visit the website below.

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What I’d Do Differently
Tim Allen, 64
He’s the voice of Buzz Lightyear. He’s
Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor. And he’s the
comic who grew up racing on metro
Detroit’s Woodward Avenue.
interview by J O H N P E A R L E Y H U F F M A N
C/D: How many cars do you own?
TA: More than I need.
You grew up in Birmingham,
Michigan, where Woodward goes
right through. And you were there
at exactly the right time.
So perfect that Jay [Leno] and
I are going back there to relive it
[for the CNBC show Jay Leno’s
Garage]. It was organic. It was
perfect. Quarter-mile stretches
with red lights. Four lanes wide. If
there was ever a safe way to street
race, that was it. We owned it.
You were in high school then.
What car did you have?
Nothing. I didn’t have any money.
My brother Dave had a 273 hi-po
Barracuda . . . It was weird. It had
that rectangular exhaust pipe, and
it was a four-barrel. But it didn’t
look like anything. It wasn’t an S.
The one that surprised me, my
brother Steve bought a [Corvair]
1 1 2 . CAR AND DRIVER . JAN/2018
Corsa, 140-horse. And I could beat
anything up to a 289 in it. Not out of
the chute—it would take me a while
to get going—but that was one of
those anomalies. In second gear, I
could get all four barrels to open up
at the same time. It would pull, and
it would hook up. I love Corvairs.
You have a restored turbo-
charged Corvair now, right?
It spools up slow, but it looks
good and it’s a collectible. I had
pieces of one that was the Corvair
GM should have built. But with all
my contacts, I can’t find . . . it’s
called the Cammer. A machine-
turned crinkle-coat [engine]; it’s
just a Porsche motor that GM
made. All my GM guys say that they
made more than one of them, and
it’s out-of-the-box 160-horse. I was
going to put that in a Corvair and
show what, if GM hadn’t given up on
the Corvair, it could have been.
What was your first fast car?
I worked for Munk’s Motors,
which is still just outside Keego
Harbor, and I built a Baja Bug. I was
more into that kind of thing. I took
that to college at Central Michigan,
where it was 400 below zero and I
had no heat. I never quite finished
that car. I had an SVO Mustang that
got stolen at the Detroit Zoo. A
great thief came in with a tow truck,
said he was supposed to pick up a
car that wouldn’t start, and they let
him in and he towed my car out.
They found it 12 hours later com-
pletely stripped. I never replaced it
and took the [insurance] money.
After that, I got a GTI, a Volkswa-
gen, which you couldn’t do much to.
I banged that into curbs all the time
because it understeered like crazy.
When the show-biz money hit,
what did you get?
A 330 Ferrari. A 1966 Ferrari
because I saw the movie Grand Prix
with James Garner, and whoever
played Enzo Ferrari drove up in the
car I’ve got. Silver, unrestored. That
was [my] first exotic. But that
wasn’t the fastest. The fastest was
the 500E Mercedes; they pounded
that huge motor into that little
flared fender. My manager still has
it; I sold it to him. Everything about
it was great, except these draco-
nian left-wing weirdos in Germany
wouldn’t let it go to first gear. You
jam on it, and it goes to second gear
immediately. They thought that
was too much for people. Let me
make that decision, thank you.
And you went racing with
Steve Saleen?
Yeah, for five years, I was their
third driver. I had some of the best
instructors between Skip Barber,
Steve Saleen, Bob Bondurant, and I
learned attrition very quickly. If you
take care of the machine and stay in
it long enough, you’re going to move
up five spots. But I was working on
Home Improvement, and I’d come in
on Friday, and everybody else had
Thursday to practice. With time
trials on Friday, I was generally at
the back of the pack.
Then you got into hot-rodding?
Well, I love prototypes. I’ve
learned a shitload about how you’ve
got to respect what the car compa-
nies do. Hot-rodding is an art form
that isn’t an engineering form,
meaning that I haven’t had a hot rod
that runs very well. Because we
don’t sort them out. We just build
them: “Wouldn’t it be great to make
that out of chrome, or put that big
engine in this shit?” Then you drive
it and it drives like a tank. My point
is, we build hot rods and we never
test. Ford, General Motors, and
pretty much all the car compa-
nies—I worked at the GM Tech
Center for a while—test cars five
years ahead of time. They’re not
idiots. Hot-rod people don’t do this.
Can you explain why so many
comedians are car guys?
Good question. What doesn’t
unite us is our personal lives, our
politics, or our view of what’s funny.
You know, we’re all different, but
what unites this group is each of us
likes cars but in different ways.
Is there anything you would
have done differently?
Oh, man, I wish I had had the
$9600 to buy that Cobra that was
at Stark Hickey Ford on Woodward.
It sat there forever. A 427 Cobra
without the flares and that was all
the money in the world. And no one
wanted it.
Where are you? Ann Arbor?
No, I’m in Santa Barbara, the
one person who works for Car
and Driver who doesn’t have a
connection to Michigan.
What the fuck?! This conversa-
tion is over.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
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CAR AND DRIVER® (ISSN 0008-6002) VOL. 63,
NO. 7, January 2018, is published monthly, 12 times
per year, by Hearst Communications, Inc., 300
West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019, U.S.A. Steven
R. Swartz, President & Chief Executive Officer;
William R. Hearst III, Chairman; Frank A. Bennack,
Jr., Executive Vice Chairman; Catherine A. Bostron,
Secretary. Hearst Magazines Division: David Carey,
President; John A. Rohan, Jr., Senior Vice President,
Finance. © 2017 by Hearst Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved. Trademarks: Car and Driver is a
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