Each 12 months a string of automobiles we are able to briefly name ‘our personal’ arrive at Autocar towers, able to be examined over a set of months and subjected to the rigour of a journalist’s on a regular basis life.
In getting attending to stay with them as in the event that they had been ours, we are able to dig into the less-obvious high-points and gritty flaws that solely increase their heads after an intensive interval of testing.
Some of our automobiles present a way more memorable expertise than others. Without additional ado (and deliberation), then, listed below are our picks of Autocar’s 2023 fleet.
The long-distance award
For the automobile we’d most wish to tackle a really lengthy journey
Winner: Bentley Flying Spur
Runner up: Toyota GR Supra
No want for a play-off or penalties right here: the Bentley Flying Spur was only a single vote away from having extra nominations than each different automobile on this 12 months’s fleet put collectively.
Steve Cropley sorted Crewe’s best and – unsurprisingly – “enjoyed every mile”. Chief sub-editor Kris Culmer loved studying about Cropley having fun with it a lot that he voted for the Bentley with out ever having pushed it…
Deputy highway take a look at ed Richard Lane marvelled at “the magical combination of connection to the machine but isolation from the road”, whereas Mark Tisshaw (that’s me, by the way in which) stated “nobody does seats like Bentley” whereas pondering the grammatical protocol for quoting oneself within the third particular person.
Lane’s highway take a look at desk colleague Illya Verpraet, all the time the iconoclast, was one to place ahead the Toyota GR Supra “for its excellent driving position, nice seats and good old ‘dumb’ cruise control that doesn’t have a mind of its own and which helps to make this a very relaxing long-distance car”.
I used to be stunned to not see extra votes for the Alpina D3 S, though in voting for it, Cropley’s My Week In Cars podcast co-host (new episodes each Wednesday out of your favorite podcast supplier) Matt Prior maybe defined why: “The Alpina D3 S, so long as it was on the continent so I didn’t have to stress about potholes.”