21 of the best ever car adverts

Remember when the RS6 was understated? This 2013 ad celebrated its inconspicuous power, likening it to a boxing referee presiding over a heavyweight clash. Not an ad you could make today, given the cartoonish brashness of the modern RS6 - that’s less modest ref, more Tyson Fury wearing a suit of his own face.

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Rather than actually showing the car (a poor sales strategy considering what a snooze it was) Honda instead highlighted its passion for precision and detail by creating a Rube Goldberg machine from the new Accord’s parts. The mesmerising end result is one of the most celebrated car adverts of all time. Contrary to popular belief, use of CGI trickery was minimal - most of what you see is real, filmed across four days and 606 agonising takes.

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VW ads tend to centre around a fundamental truth. Here, it’s the undeniable fact that, in the 2000s, the Golf was the yardstick by which all similar models were measured. It’s clever - we would however like to flag an infuriating plothole: isn’t that modified purple car the lads are under the bonnet of a Mk4 Golf? Why then do they say it’s “like a Golf”? And why do people keep turning to face the other way whenever we bring this up at dinner parties?

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The German legacy marques have a long, illustrious history of giving each other the business through ad spots. For example, in 2019 BMW released this film congratulating long-serving Mercedes board member and Lorax doppelganger, Dieter Zetsche on his retirement, with a deliciously cheeky twist.

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Proof that Merc can give as good as they get. Simple, concise and sassy.

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Watching this back in 2025 feels a bit like that scene in Interstellar where Matthew McConaughey watches his own past through tears, desperately wishing he could change it but unable to do so. You see, this ad’s immense popularity was instrumental to the commercial success of the Qashqai, which in turn played a huge part in bringing about the crossover-ification of absolutely bloody everything we see today. No, you take your tin foil hat off!

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Wonderfully juvenile, this ad aimed to show Merc’s cheeky side and appeal to a younger audience. How? “Your mum” jokes, of course (upon close inspection, we’re pretty sure those are meant to be the boy racers’ mothers in the back seat).

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In 2018, JLR showcased the capabilities of the Range Rover Sport with a series of stunts, including sending one up the 999 steps leading to Heaven’s Gate on Tianmen Mountain in China. The baby Rangie made it look almost too easy. Thankfully, Chinese carmaker Chery was kind enough to provide some context by attempting to replicate the feat with wince-inducingly crap results.

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Clearly stung by its omission from the 2007 Transformers movie, Citroen decided to make its own. One wonders if, upon transforming into a sentient, dancing robot, the C4 also became aware of how mushy its own gearshift was.

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The phrases “Jaguar marketing” and “bunch of absolute villains” have been seeing rather a lot of one another lately, but here’s an old ad where they combine in a more literal sense. Jag chucked the kitchen sink at this 2014 Superbowl spot, enlisting a cast of Hollywood’s most beloved British bad guys to smoulder and sneer down the lens while the F-Type burbles away in the background. Simpler times, eh?

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A toast to the ad creative who was mad enough to stand in front of a room of Merc execs and pitch an ad involving a chicken, Diana Ross and absolutely no car. Jaguar’s retaliatory parody ad (in which the chicken gets eaten by a big cat) is worthy of mention here, but it’s not a patch on the original.

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There are many ways an ad can stick in your mind. This one unconventionally achieves it by being deeply unsettling. We had to rewatch it, so now you do too.

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Absolutely no food telly tricks were employed in the creation of this 1:1 Fabia sponge: eight bakers created the entire thing from edible foodstuff with no practice run, and in the ad you genuinely see them doing so - those aren’t actors reassembling it for effect. So chaotic and drawn out was the process that by the time it was finished, the cake had already gone off. Nothing hurts us quite as much as dessert wastage, but it’s a wonderful ad nonetheless.

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So iconic. The big reveal, followed by the “fastest saloon on the planet” slogan has to be one of the heaviest mic drops in advertising history. One of the coolest ever car ads, for one of the coolest ever cars.

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Have you ever looked up Fiat CEO, Olivier Francois on social media? You really ought to - his output is extraordinary. Very few cars, many highly improbable celeb selfies. His frequent pictures with Shaggy are always enjoyable, but his snap with both Pharrell and the Pope is a special example of the oeuvre. Anyway, what we’re trying to say is, he’s a colourful character. So it seems only right that he starred in Fiat’s campaign celebrating the decision to retire grey from the selection of available paint colours on its cars.

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The whole “insert your product into an old iconic film scene” schtick feels hacky these days, but this was one of the first examples of it - and in fairness it’s beautifully executed. We can’t help but think car lover and man’s man, Steve McQueen would’ve rather liked the Puma, what with its engaging handling and regular opportunities to practice your welding.

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No overthinking was done here. The ad agency clearly (and correctly) concluded that nothing they might come up with could possibly be as captivating as the raw sound of the Audi R8’s new V10 - so they simply let it do all the talking. Best of all, this one played exclusively at movie theatres, with the full surround sound experience.

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The memeification of F1 has been a joy to behold in recent years - with driver age plummeting, the historically self-important sport has come over all silly in the TikTok era. But the elder statesmen aren’t above silly goosery either, as demonstrated by this masterpiece of a performance from multiple constructors' championship winner and mullet enthusiast, Valtteri Bottas.

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In a golden age of Honda engineering, this ad showcased the staggering breadth of vehicles contained in the brand’s portfolio in a gorgeous (even, dare we say, moving?) sequence. Minus points for the absence of the Mk2 Jazz and ride-on mowers.

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Another reminder why VW is regarded as the maestro. The Mk2 GTI’s iconic Casino ad was part of a series that riffed on the absolute dependability of the VW Golf, even when all else in life is falling apa- hang on, did they just refer to his wife as a “sex kitten”?

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Nope, it’s not CGI. That really, actually is Jean-Claude Van Damme straddling two reversing Volvo lorries. In a box split. To Enya. It can barely be described as an advert - the exact point of it is so unclear that it has to actually be explained in writing at the end - it’s simply a strange, wonderful little piece of art designed to create a viral moment. 126 million views later, we’d say it succeeded.

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