The title says it all: Here you’ll find a rundown of every Car and Driver 10Best Cars list from the inaugural awards in 1983 all the way through the latest crop of automotive greats. While the cars that win each year aren’t necessarily the newest, we strive to have our winners represent the absolute pinnacle of what’s available on your local dealer’s lot. What makes a 10Best Car? For that, we’ll let one of our past introductions do the talking:
"Every year the entire Car and Driver staff gathers at a rural site about 30 miles west of our home office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a week of driving and evaluating all the new cars. We judge the cars in three general areas: First, how well the car performs its intended functions. We expect sports cars to be fast and exhilarating, while we presume a family sedan will be practical. Second, we show a preference for the more engaging cars in each category; be it better driving manners, a double-take-inducing look, or a powerful engine. Finally, we are suckers for a good deal, so an inexpensive car that's fast, fun, and practical will certainly rise to the top of our list.”
One last note before you dive in and wonder where the heck all the Ferraris are: We always ensure that our winners are available at prices mere mortals can afford, because a car that pushes or exceeds six figures had damn well better be amazing.
1983 10Best Cars
Car and Driver isn’t the first magazine to bring you the ten best of something or other, nor will we be the last. We hope that we’re breaking important new automotive ground, however, by bringing you the ten best in ten different automotive categories. That’s a hundred of the best, right there, and when you throw in our seven sidebars—those boxes and panels that hold subcategories related to one or another of the ten basic biggies—it adds up to 170 examples of things excellent, noteworthy, and/or memorable. If not the best of everything, at least our choice for the best of Automotive America, 1983. FULL STORY >>
The Winners:
Pontiac 6000STE
Porsche 944
Toyota Celica Supra
AMC/Renault Alliance
Chevrolet Caprice
Ford Mustang GT 5.0
Honda Accord
Volkswagen Rabbit GTI
Mazda RX-7
Mercedes-Benz 380SEL
1984 10Best Cars
There’s a great deal of pleasure to be had in acknowledging things that really work well, people who’ve actually accomplished something, situations where everything seemed to go right. That’s what the second annual Car and Driver Ten Best issue is all about. Cars, parts, people, events, and places singled out for a little well-earned praise. Last year we decided to celebrate and commemorate the ten best in ten different automotive categories. The result was our January 1983 issue, which started the year off with a roar, one of the best-selling magazines of our entire year. So okay, if you liked last January, you ought to love this January. We get better with practice. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi 5000S / Turbo
Dodge Daytona Turbo
Honda Accord
Honda Prelude
Mazda 626
Pontiac 6000STE
Pontiac Fiero 2M4
Porsche 944
Toyota Celica Supra
Volkswagen GTI
1985 10Best Cars
It is January again, and we have come to praise and celebrate the best cars, people, and other noteworthy phenomena in our automotive universe. There was an embarrassment of riches from which to choose this year. Far more has gone right in the world of automobiles than has gone wrong. Mr. Reagan hasn’t fixed all that’s bad in the government’s relationship with the Republic’s cars and drivers, but neither has he done anything terrible to us, as did Mr. Nixon (the speed limit) and Mr. Carter (everything else). General Motors has given us a Corvette that not only will run faster than any other American production car in the past decade (150 miles per hour), but will also set records for lateral acceleration (0.84 g on the kidpad) and stop just as fast as it goes. GM must share the credit for these splendid achievements with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, but the fact that their collaboration was so successful is just another reason for us to celebrate. Five years ago, there was little to be hopeful about on the automotive scene. Now we’re deluged with wonders and delights. They’re even fixing our roads! FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi 5000S / Turbo
Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager
Honda Accord
Honda Civic/CRX
Honda Prelude
Merkur XR4Ti
Pontiac 6000STE
Porsche 944
1986_10Best_Cars
The fourth edition of our annual Ten Best fest is dedicated to the admirable notion that it’s never too soon to begin a celebration. In a few weeks, fans of the automobile all over the world will be toasting Gottlieb Daimler, Carl Benz, and everything automotive that has followed since they put us on this roll one hundred years ago. To give you party animals the proper excuse for a head start at the merrymaking, we’ve packed this special issue with the ten best stories we could muster. We hope it’s the first hurrah in a full year’s tribute to all that’s good about the automobile. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi 5000CS Turbo Quattro
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Taurus / Mercury Sable
Honda Accord
Honda Prelude
Lincoln Mark VII LSC
Porsche 944
Saab 9000
Toyota MR2
Volkswagen GTI
1987 10Best Cars
We modestly title our annual celebration of automotive excellence “Ten Best,” but this January issue is filled to the borders with more than a hundred examples of the greatest things in life. If you’re not already in a festive frame of mind, you soon will be: there’s more than enough inspiration here to lift your holiday spirit to the rafters and to keep you humming on a high plane well into the new year. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura Integra
Audi 5000/CS Turbo
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Mustang GT
Ford Taurus
Honda Accord
Mazda RX-7 Turbo
Pontiac Bonneville SE
Saab 9000 Turbo
Toyota MR2
1988 10Best Cars
Stoke up the yule log and pour yourself another cup of flog, because it’s that Ten Best time of year again. Ready or not, we’re back with another lapful of our best work to prove that there really is a Santa Claus. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura Integra
Acura Legend Coupe
Audi 5000
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Mustang 5.0
Ford Taurus
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Honda CRX
Saab 9000 Turbo
1989 10Best Cars
For the seventh consecutive year, it’s our pleasure to bring you Car and Driver’s annual Ten Best issue—the oldest and best of its kind. Each autumn, as the leaves begin to turn, we begin to assemble a field of automobiles from which our editors select—by secret ballot—our Ten Best Cars. We take this assignment seriously, and, judging from the flood of mail that our January issue generates, so do you. And so do the numberless newspapers, radio stations, television shows, and magazines who call us for interviews about our Ten Best Cars. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura Legend Coupe
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Colt Turbo / Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo
Ford Probe GT
Ford Taurus / Taurus SHO
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Lincoln Continental
Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo / Plymouth Laser Turbo
Saab 9000 Turbo
1990 10Best Cars
This is the eighth rendition of our annual Ten Best issue. Here at Car and Driver, no issue of our magazine receives as much attention as the one you hold in your hands. . . either from you or from us. To say nothing of the attention it now gets from other media. The Ten Best issue is not only our annual best seller, it is also the issue that requires the most work. That work, however, is labor freely given in the cause of bringing you, our subscribers and our readers, yet another Ten Best issue. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura Legend Coupe
Diamond-Star Turbos
Ford Taurus / Mercury Sable
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Lexus LS400
Mazda MPV
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Nissan 300ZX/300ZX Turbo
Nissan Maxima SE
1991_10Best_Cars
Welcome to the ninth annual Ten Best issue of Car and Driver, our traditional kickoff of the coming year. The toughest responsibility; we have to our readers, picking the Ten Best Cars, has been made more difficult, once again, by the increasing number of quality cars being produced worldwide. Not that it gets any easier to tell which is which. What has gotten easier to do is to tell you that cars are better than ever. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Diamond-Star Turbos
Ford Taurus / Mercury Sable
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Mazda MPV V-6 3.0i
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mercury Tracer LTS
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Toyota Previa
1992 10Best Cars
This is the tenth year we’ve winnowed the season’s new cars down to Ten Best. We regard it as a heavy responsibility, and yet—and yet—for a troop of car guys, what could be lighter work? FULL STORY >>
Winners:
BMW 325i
Cadillac Seville Touring Sedan
Eagle Talon TSi AWD / Plymouth Laser KS Turbo AWD / Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
Ford Taurus SHO
Honda Prelude Si
Lexus SC400
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Toyota Camry V-6
1993_10Best_Cars
As we open the second decade of Ten Best Cars selections, we’re bound to offer along with our selections the opinion that car buyers have never had it so good when it comes to the number of high-quality, exciting, and surprisingly cost-effective cars available for purchase. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
BMW 325i
Dodge Intrepid / Eagle Vision / Chrysler Concorde
Ford Probe GT
Honda Prelude Si VTEC
Jeep Grand Cherokee V-8
Lexus SC300
Mazda RX-7
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Toyota Camry
1994 10Best Cars
For the staff of Car and Driver, choosing the Ten Best Cars is the most difficult and most important comparison-test vote of the year. With almost 50 excellent nominations, covering the gamut from high-testosterone sports cars to cozy and cuddly minivans, selecting our Ten Best Cars always turns into an exercise in automotive hair-splitting. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura Integra GS-R
BMW 325i/325is
Chrysler Concorde / Dodge Intrepid / Eagle Vision
Ford Probe GT
Honda Accord EX
Honda Prelude VTEC
Lexus SC300
Mazda RX-7
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
1995 10Best Cars
This is the thirteenth time that we have mustered the far-flung staff of Car and Driver for the purpose of selecting the ten very best cars available on the American market. While this goal sounds eminently simple, culling ten winners from the 40 to 50 excellent nominees gets more difficult every year, as the world’s carmakers constantly intensify their Sisyphean struggle for market share. For guidance in this difficult process, we look to the set of simple rules governing this contest. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura Integra GS-R
BMW 325i/M3
Chrysler Cirrus LXi
Ford Contour / Mercury Mystique
Honda Accord
Honda Prelude
Lexus SC300
Mazda RX-7
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Maxima SE
1996_10Best_Cars
For most Americans, Labor Day signals the end of summer. Here at Car and Driver, however, our summer-ending ritual for the past 14 years has been the week-long Ten Best Cars pageant that we conduct in late September. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura Integra
Audi A4
BMW 328i/M3
Chrysler Cirrus / Dodge Stratus
Chrysler Town & Country / Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager
Ford Contour / Mercury Mystique
Honda Civic
Honda Prelude VTEC
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Nissan Maxima SE
1997 10Best Cars
For our fifteenth-annual Ten Best Cars competition, we’ve finally added pickups to the ranks of the cars, minivans, and sport-utility vehicles eligible for Ten Best honors. Contrarians familiar with our glacial thinking will take this as proof positive that truck sales have finally peaked. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura Integra
Audi A4
BMW 328i/M3
BMW 5-series
Chrysler Cirrus / Dodge Stratus / Plymouth Breeze
Chrysler Town & Country / Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager
Ford Contour / Mercury Mystique
Honda Prelude SH
Mercedes-Benz SLK
Toyota Camry V-6
1998 10Best Cars
In the 16-year history of Car and Driver’s 10Best Cars competition, there has never been a year when six new vehicles forced their way into our hearts and onto our annual list of favorites. Until now. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi A4
BMW 328i/M3
BMW 5-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Intrepid
Honda Accord
Honda Prelude
Lexus GS300/400
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster
1999 10Best Cars
Beatific calm often sets in after a period of tumultuous change, and that’s exactly what happened at our 17th Annual 10Best cars competition. Although a record six new cars muscled their way onto our list last year, there were only two new faces for 1999. But before getting into the details of the winners, let’s review the process by which they were selected. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
BMW 328i/M3
BMW 5-series
BMW M Coupe/M Roadster
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300M
Dodge Intrepid
Honda Accord
Lexus GS300/400
Mazda Miata
Porsche Boxster
2000 10Best Cars
With a U.S. record of some 17 million vehicles sold in 1999, coming on top of 75.8 million sales in the previous five years, the car industry is red-hot. And in the hope of keeping these sales churning, the industry keeps turning out new models. Which doesn't make our job of picking the 10Best any easier at all. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi A6 2.7T/A6 4.2
Audi TT
BMW 3-series
BMW 5-series
Chrysler 300M
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Honda S2000
Lexus GS300/400
Porsche Boxster
2001 10Best Cars
As this is written, new car and truck sales are running ahead of 1999’s record pace. This follows five fat sales years from 1994 through 1998. Moreover, U.S. buyers are spending more than ever on new cars and trucks with the average transaction price running at about $24,800. Record sales at ever-increasing prices might suggest that the carmakers have the upper hand in this market, but nothing could be further from the truth. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi A6 2.7T/A6 4.2
Audi TT
BMW 3-series
BMW 5-series
Chrysler PT Cruiser
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Honda S2000
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster
2002 10Best Cars
Amazingly enough, this issue marks the 20th occasion that the editors of Car and Driver have assembled to select the 10Best cars available in the U.S. market. Despite protests from manufacturers who are as outraged as proud parents that we've overlooked the beauty of their babies, we are back to select the 10Best cars once again. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura RSX
Audi A4
BMW 3-series/M3
BMW 5-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Honda S2000
Porsche Boxster
Subaru Impreza WRX
2003 10Best Cars
As we head into our third decade of selecting the 10Best cars sold in the U.S., the industry finds itself in a peculiar state. As of this writing, vehicle sales are heading for the second highest annual total in history, despite threats of terrorism and war, a general economic malaise, and not even a whiff of pent-up demand, thanks to sales of more than 97 million vehicles in the previous six years. This miraculous act of sales levitation is being supported by bribing buyers with ever-increasing rebates, low-interest loans, sweetheart lease deals, and free dates with Miss America contestants and Chippendales dancers — okay, that last part hasn't happened quite yet. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura RSX
BMW 3-series/M3
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Infiniti G35
Mazda 6 s
Nissan 350Z
Porsche Boxster
Subaru Impreza WRX
2004_10Best_Cars
It’s not easy being a car manufacturer these days. Factory capacity around the world is capable of spewing about 50-percent more cars than the markets can possibly absorb. At the same time, countries everywhere are propping up their automotive companies because the business is seen as a flagship industry and holds the prospect of great export earnings. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura TSX
Audi S4 Quattro
BMW 3-series/M3
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Focus
Honda Accord
Honda S2000
Infiniti G35
Mazda RX-8
Toyota Prius
2005_10Best_Cars
With the recent presidential politicking, the war in Iraq, and the surging price of oil, nobody complains anymore about the high price of new cars and trucks. And why should they? With consumer rebates running as high as $7000 on some models last year and numerous similar dealer incentives, it’s been a buyer’s market. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura RL
Acura TSX
BMW 3-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300
Dodge Magnum
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Mazda RX-8
Mercedes-Benz SLK350
2006_10Best_Cars
This year marks our 24th-annual 10Best Cars competition, and we've conducted the past 20 or so of these events at the same rural site about 30 miles west of our home office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over the years we've grown used to seeing camouflaged new models and convoys of competitive vehicle sets cruising around on these roads. But during this year's test week, we saw something new. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Acura TSX
Audi A3 2.0T
BMW 3-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300/300C Hemi/300C SRT8
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Mazda MX-5
Mazda RX-8
Porsche Boxster
2007_10Best_Cars
Every year the entire Car and Driver staff gathers at a rural site about 30 miles west of our home office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a week of evaluating all the new cars and, hopefully, avoiding cops. We judge the cars in three general areas: First, how well the car performs its intended functions. We expect sports cars to be fast and exhilarating, while we presume a family sedan will be practical. Second, we show a preference for the more engaging cars in each category; be it better driving manners, a double-take-inducing look, or a powerful engine. Finally, we are suckers for a good deal, so an inexpensive car that's fast, fun, and practical will certainly rise to the top of our list. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
BMW 3-series
Chevrolet Corvette
Chrysler 300
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Infiniti G35 Sedan
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazdaspeed 3
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen GTI
2008 10Best Cars
Every year the entire Car and Driver staff gathers at a rural site about 30 miles west of our home office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a week of evaluating all the new cars and, hopefully, avoiding cops. We didn't do very well with the latter this year, receiving a record number of speeding tickets that, unfortunately, cannot be expensed. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
BMW 3-series
Cadillac CTS
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Malibu
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazdaspeed 3
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen GTI
2009 10Best Cars
Autumn in the Midwest means cold cider and warm doughnuts to a lot of folks, but for the C/D staff, it also means the weeklong rousing of a few quiet burgs as we descend on a rural route about 30 miles from our Ann Arbor office in search of the coming year’s 10Best cars. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
BMW 3-series/M3
Cadillac CTS/CTS-V
Chevrolet Corvette
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Infiniti G37
Jaguar XF
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen GTI
2010 10Best Cars
This year, for the 28th running of our annual 10Best competition, the rules were simple. First, we raised the price cap from $71,000 to $80,000 (roughly three times the average transaction price of a new car) in the belief that 80 grand is the current point of automotive excellence’s diminishing returns. Cars get more expensive than that, but they don’t get much better. More important, raising the cap makes eligible nominees in two other vital categories: luxo-sport GTs and luxury sedans. Never mind that only two new cars qualified (and one was about to be replaced in a few months, so we left it out). FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi S4
BMW 3-series/M3
Cadillac CTS/CTS-V
Ford Fusion Hybrid
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazda 3 / Mazdaspeed 3
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen GTI
2011_10Best_Cars
From the dry lake bed of El Mirage, California, we present these pinnacles of automotive achievement; cars that affirm that, for all the hand-wringing about the coming electrified future, the dinosaurs and the mammals are playing together quite nicely. For the first time ever, we have an electrically powered car on the list, the Chevy Volt. You may have heard of it. But we haven’t forsaken its antipode, the Cadillac CTS-V. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
BMW 3-series/M3
Cadillac CTS-V
Chevrolet Volt
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Hyundai Sonata
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
2012 10Best Cars
Welcome to 10Best. The cars here don't have to be the newest, and they don't have to be expensive–nothing over $80,000 is allowed. They just have to meet our abundant needs while satisfying our every want. These are the best cars on the market. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi A6 / A7 3.0T Quattro
BMW 3-series/M3
Cadillac CTS-V
Ford Focus
Ford Mustang GT/Boss 302
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
2013 10Best Cars
Over one week in September, and over a distance of more than 15,000 miles, our editors drove every new 2013 model under $80,000, as well as our returning winners, to bring you this year's 10Best. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
Audi A6 3.0T / S6 / A7 3.0T / S7
BMW 3-series Sedan
Ford Focus / Focus ST
Ford Mustang GT / Boss 302
Honda Accord
Honda Fit
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
2014 10Best Cars
There are a lot of bests out there—best summer movies, best places to live, best pizza joints within two miles of your current location. Our 10Best award is not one of those. These are cars we’re talking about, people. We actually test these things. For a full week each fall, we lock the office, turn off our phones, and engage in the most comprehensive and focused driving in the car-evaluation business. FULL STORY >> Winners: Audi A6 / S6 / A7
BMW 3-series / 4-series
Cadillac CTS
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Ford Fiesta ST
Honda Accord
Mazda 3
Mazda 6
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
2015 10Best Cars
There are roughly 150 new car models on the market today, many of them only narrowly distinguishable from each other. The sedans are flame-surfaced affairs with elongated rooflines, and even the sporty coupes rely on huge grilles to trumpet their brand lineage. Most emit the same muffled calls, so you can’t reliably classify them by sound, either. This guide is intended to help you identify the 10 cars that, through a rare combination of strengths, stand apart. They reward close observation. We hope the following pages will tune you in to the attributes that mark the differentiation. Individual areas of noteworthiness are called out, but the assembled cars share the following traits: They cost less than $80,000, they excel at delivering value for the money, they have a strong mastery of their segment, and they are graceful in motion. These 10 will entertain and delight any driver, but only if you know how and where to spot them. FULL STORY >>
Winners:
BMW M235i
Cadillac CTS
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Ford Mustang GT
Honda Accord
Mazda 3
Mazda 6
Porsche Boxster / Cayman
Tesla Model S 60
Volkswagen Golf / GTI
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