Best Car Ever

Henry Ford III

Lancia Delta Integrale was a great car. Still is tbh.

fletch

RobAMerc wrote:

Really - The best car EVER ?

They are both good but come on.

Perhaps not the 535d, but RS4 for all round ability and practicality does it for me.

OKenora

whats to say there is no such thing as a best car?

The very reason there can be no best car you have answered yourself...

If one car is the best car to me but not to you

It's all personal preference and needs. Like a farmer might class the land rover as best ever as it's a rugged workhorse and goes anywhere, but try and get my missus into one heading out to a black tie affair by telling her it's the best car ever.....

rebel.ranter

I would highly rate a lot of the cars suggested here as having the title for Best Car Ever.

BMW E46 M3 - will own one, sometime
The Mini - had one
VW Beetle - had one
911 - on my to-do list (not necessarily new or even nearly new)
Land Rover - had 2
MkI Golf GTi - nice but other stuff is better
Ariel Atom - outlandish, I'd say loads of fun, affordable but I think I'll never get here
Ferrari F40 - childhood dreams stuff
W113 - really nice, a classic I would have among others wit my lotto winnings
Lancia Delta HF integrale - nice but way down to wish list
Bugatti Veyron - major corporate muscle flexing here
Rolls Royce - too young (right now), hopefully I'll always be too young
Aston Martin DB9 - Number 1 on 10 years time wishlist


However my vote for best car ever goes to the current M5, a super car with 4 doors & back seats.

If I had my choice if woudl be an M5 for myself, Range Rover Vogue for the missus, DB9 for the weekend & a lovely W113 for those sunny evenings!!
(Instead of 525, Land Cruiser & 320 conv, but I'm workin' on it!:D )

Blue850

The Merc W123 is one of the greats

rowanh

Id say ferarri f40 if thre is no need for compromise, honda nsx if you need something semi practical but the r32 skyline gtr as the best car ever.

Volvoboy

Toyota Hi-Lux, When they were exploring the western world they used these:)



-VB-

Rovi

fletch wrote:

...but RS4 for all round ability and practicality does it for me.

Being the proud occupant of a 'sturdy frame'(:rolleyes:), I'd say the RS6 for the same reasons.

Revelation Joe

Model T Ford Mini Citroen 2CV VW Beetle Land Rover VW Golf GTi

were all 'defining' vehicles.

For luxury, I can't see past a Rolls-Royce Phantom
For performance, McLaren F1 - still the fastest car roadtested by Autocar

colm_mcm

mike65 wrote:

The Land Rover! Does everything and anything.

Mike.

yup, does turbos, diffs......

Vegeta

JHMEG wrote:

Toyota Carina E 1.6 GLi Lean Burn, with towbar. Has to be.

Nail on the head.

If there truly is a best car ever then there would have to be scoring system. Like price, economy, performance, practicality, reliability,revoutionary etc etc.

While I would love some of the super cars mentioned they simply would only be good in a few select situations and therefore score in the middle.

Even if I won the lotto last Saturday i'd find it painful to have to put petrol into some of those cars let alone try and drive one to work in city traffic.

If someone else was paying the fuel bills/tax M5 would be very tempting. As someone else has already said it has awesome power but 4 doors and a big boot.

If I did own one of those cars i'd be scared sh1tless or parking it anywhere incase someone tried to rob it or mark it while trying to park beside it.

peasant

Why does nobody ever mention the Renault 4 when it comes to "defining" cars?

First ever mass produced small hatchback ...and what a success it was!

Quint

The Renault 4 is a class car! But the DB9 just beats it.
Coolest car ever is the GT40, followed by the Volga v12 Coupe. You have to be a gangster to drive it though.

faceman

The Datsun Cherry was great.

Plug

For me it has to be the MK 5 Golf GTI.

Its a very practical car, 5 doors, big boot, powerful engine, sexy looks etc.
It dosen't drink alot fuel either.
Its the type of a car you can leave there that people will think is good but won't be keyed.

Anan1

Plug wrote:

For me it has to be the MK 5 Golf GTI.

Its a very practical car, 5 doors, big boot, powerful engine, sexy looks etc.
It dosen't drink alot fuel either.
Its the type of a car you can leave there that people will think is good but won't be keyed.

If you want a Golf, look up the 1989/90 Golf Limited.

alias no.9

Has to be the 00 to 07 model nissan almera. Revolutionary. The first car to feature a curry hook.

jellybean520

There is no best car ever, merely subjective opinions on same.

However as already mentioned I think the Porsche 911 ticks most boxes in terms of class, longevity, performance, image, (p-magnet!) etc.

Plug

Anan1 wrote:

If you want a Golf, look up the 1989/90 Golf Limited.

www.hpamotorsport.com
Now thats a golf....

colm_mcm

mine would either be Citroen DS............

or Tatra T87, nothing majorly revolutionary about it, but I think it's amazing looking

MAYPOP

Honda NSX, because it changed the whole direction of every subsequent supercar for the better, and it is still more than capable of matching supercars of today twenty years later.

Biro

Revelation Joe wrote:

Model T Ford Mini Citroen 2CV VW Beetle Land Rover VW Golf GTi

were all 'defining' vehicles.

For luxury, I can't see past a Rolls-Royce Phantom
For performance, McLaren F1 - still the fastest car roadtested by Autocar

You're wrong! The Veyron is! I have the issue that they state this. They were also amazed by how much faster it was too.

Best car in the world? Depends on who's asking the question!
For me, all round, NSX.
On the overall look at the industry, I'd have to go with the radical new thinking ones. Examples include :
Fiat 500
Audi Quattro (the reason the integrale, impreza, evo etc exist!!)
NSU RO80
Ferrari F40
Silver Ghost
Model T

Plug

MAYPOP wrote:

Honda NSX, because it changed the whole direction of every subsequent supercar for the better, and it is still more than capable of matching supercars of today twenty years later.

Ahh now, the last sentance perhaps a bit to harsh?

JHMEG

Plug wrote:

Ahh now, the last sentance perhaps a bit to harsh?

Tis true. It's quicker than even the current V10 powered M5 around the 'Ring. And they say that from it Ferrari actually learned how to build a supercar (it trounced everything Ferrari had built up till then).

Altho, I still stand by my vote for best all-rounder: Carina E GLi 1.6 Lean Burn, with tow bar. Probably the best A-B car ever built.

Biro wrote:

NSU RO80

Only cos it had a rotary engine, and a sh!t one at that. And a sh!t car! Hence they went bust.

unkel

JHMEG wrote:

they say that from it Ferrari actually learned how to build a supercar

Oh dear. Ferrari finally learned how to build a supercar from the Honda NSX? :eek:

eamon234

McLaren Mercedes SLR - just for looks alone....

And the Octavia VRS

...and the Triumph TR6

JHMEG

unkel wrote:

Oh dear. Ferrari finally learned how to build a supercar from the Honda NSX? :eek:

Yeah, you should read about it. This is a very good book on the topic. It was probably spurred on by Honda's press stunt: when they were showcasing the NSX they took it everywhere with a 355 and a 911 for motoring journalists to do comparisons. That didn't go down well with Porsche or Ferarri...

It was even acknowledged on Top Gear and Fifth Gear not so long ago that the NSX showed the others how a supercar could be.

Trivia: Ford were one of Honda's early customers for the NSX. Unfortunately they cut it in half, right down the middle (i.e. dissected it), and placed it on stands in one of their R&D facilities in the US.

nastysimon

MAYPOP wrote:

Honda NSX, because it changed the whole direction of every subsequent supercar for the better, and it is still more than capable of matching supercars of today twenty years later.

That's why 911's are mid engined (oh, so they're not, silly me), Ferrari also moved their layout too (oops, sorry, they were there before Honda). If anything, as good as it was, and it did challenge Ferrari and Porsche, it was wholly remarkable that for such a good car it left very little legacy and was completely un-revolutionary (Ferrari did a V6 mid-engined sports car back in the 70's, Porsche had reliable cars before Honda had even thought that building a supercar could be a good idea).
It's such a shame that they didn't keep up the good work. The rivalry between Porsche and them could have produced some great sports cars, but instead, they developed it (17 years ago, not 20) and did very little to improve it over its 15 year life time.

eggplantman

The ferrari f50 is the best car ever

JHMEG

nastysimon wrote:

That's why 911's are mid engined (oh, so they're not, silly me), Ferrari also moved their layout too (oops, sorry, they were there before Honda). If anything, as good as it was, and it did challenge Ferrari and Porsche,

At the time (1989) it was considered to be better than anything Ferrari or Porsche had.

nastysimon wrote:

it was wholly remarkable that for such a good car it left very little legacy

That's more a product of the badge it was wearing, and not of the car itself.

nastysimon wrote:

and was completely un-revolutionary (Ferrari did a V6 mid-engined sports car back in the 70's, Porsche had reliable cars before Honda had even thought that building a supercar could be a good idea).

Ferrari did really bad cars, in many ways: reliability, handling, and driveability.

nastysimon wrote:

It's such a shame that they didn't keep up the good work.

Wait till next year, when the all new V10 NSX debuts. It'll probably be as far ahead of other V10s as the original was over every other V6 at the time

nastysimon wrote:

The rivalry between Porsche and them could have produced some great sports cars, but instead, they developed it (17 years ago, not 20) and did very little to improve it over its 15 year life time.

Honda did lots of incremental improvements, what with the 3.2 in 1997 and the Type-R versions. And the NSX introduced VTEC to the world.

Bear in mind the NSX has always been a halo car for Honda: they've lost money on every one they've sold, and it was never anything other than a "look what we can do". For a car that they never really wanted to sell they didn't do too bad, having sold over 21,000 of them.