The very best cars of the year: welcome to the 2026 TopGear.com Awards

Welcome, one and all, to the best cars of the year. It’s that time where we pick the world’s very finest machines, present them to you and explain why. Hopefully, it’ll help you avoid buying a snotter in the year ahead and keeps the car industry honest.

Because if your car has what it takes to scoop a golden cog, you’re on the right track. If it doesn’t, you’ve got a year to fix it.

So, without further ado, the winners are…

“The Celestiq is a fabulous creation. A worthy new celebrity of the American car industry – much more of a landmark EV than the Cybertruck. And by a distance it’s America’s greatest luxury product.

“But Cadillac used to call itself ‘the standard of the world’ and this isn’t the Super Bowl, where you can be a ‘world champion’ by only playing US opposition. If you won’t settle for less than the finest automobile on Earth, the Cadillac of luxury cars is still the Rolls-Royce.”

“It rides with a supple yet well damped and quiet gait. Its steering has a lovely oiled progression, given purity by rear drive. Its seats are superb. The cabin interface is pleasing, both operationally and aesthetically.

“As a car to accompany you through life, it’s utterly superb.”

“It also helps if you design something that people will actually want. Maximising interior volume means that you very quickly end up with a cube shape, and minimising overhangs is a good idea.

“Dacia happily concedes that the Hipster is a block on four wheels. A block with a cheerful face.”

“EVs get a bad rep for being tedious white goods, so Renault is doing itself, and everyone else, a huge favour right now."

“Estates are cooler than SUVs… it’s a fact. And no estate demonstrates this more clearly than the Audi A6 Avant – the most relentlessly capable wagon launched in the past 12 months.”

“Why is the Land Rover Defender Octa our off roader of the year? Well, it’s a Defender with a 626bhp V8 that loves to fly through the air. Congratulations and good night.”

“The 296 Speciale raises the bar yet again in all the key measurables, and plenty that aren’t algorithmic.  A sublime mix of analogue and digital.”

“It’s a clarity of thinking, a relentless energy to improve and innovate and an ability to harness the deep talent within Weissach and unleash it on perfectly conceived projects that propels the GT department to ever greater heights.

“Although we’re pretty certain he’s not done yet…”

“It’s joyous to drive. The driving position is commanding – more like being at the helm of a ship than the wheel of a car – ride and refinement are plush, and crucially it’s got the feelgood factor we fawned over in the VW ID Buzz.”

“Quirky, well sorted little EV with decent range. It’s well thought through, but with an excellent dose of character, and fold flat seats work very well. Mighty thinking packed into a model package. A grown up small car.”

“The first time you see an F80 on the road, you’ll be a believer. Not many £3m+ hypercars exceed expectations, but Ferrari hasn’t just popped up with a cool name, some turned aluminium trim and a mid-engined wedge of carbon fibre.

“This is hypercar engineering at the cutting edge intertwined with pure passion.”

“Retro done right is a complicated proposition. But Renault in the middle 2020s seems to be walking the line with some grace.

“In a world full of serious faces and downbeat headlines, it feels like a glorious attack on the grey. More of this please, Renault.”

“The EVO37 won our hearts with its lightness, its energy, its absorbing, addictive assault on the senses drive. And it never broke down once – because when it comes to new age Lancias, they don’t build them like they used to.”

“Childish? Us? Never! This isn’t just noise though, it’s physical, lumpy soundwaves, so robust you can chew on them. A rasping V8 roar that might be commonplace in the US, but to everyone else registers as a glorious F-you to all the church mouse EVs.”

“Beating Bugatti at its own game was seemingly just the beginning for Yangwang. Already it’s broken the lap record for the fastest production electric sports car around the Nürburgring with a time of 6m 59.16s. Breaking 500kph (311mph) is the next target.

“World, you have been warned.”

“The DBX is almost an archetype. With just a few adjustments, the S brings the edge that the 707 as a blunderbuss of a thing does not. It’s feral, noisy, brutish. But also precise enough, insanely fast and perfectly practical.”

“The Tourbillon’s masterstroke is knowing precisely what its customers, and car enthusiasts, want, and that’s an experience that’s richer than a straight line party piece.”

“The Neue Klasse was a series of saloons and coupes from 1962 onwards. They saved the company. Now we have the first of another Neue Klasse. This iX3 is wholly new. Above and beneath. Bumper to bumper. Ground to cloud.

“From now on pretty well all of the electric BMWs, Minis and Rolls-Royces will use this technology.

“The iX3, and indeed the concept car for the related i3 saloon, get off on the right foot. After years of mucking about, BMW’s stylists have now got it right.

“The furniture is beautifully tranquil. It drives like a BMW ought to. Not like a bulky EV crossover, or soulless digital first zombiemobile.

“What matters to BMW matters to the rest of us because its cars have always been at the tip of mainstream excellence. Just as well the iX3 absolutely, as the kids say, smashes it, and snaffles the biggest prize of them all.”