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The top 10 for 2010: our testers say what's ace and why

Autocar's testers have picked their top 10 cars for 2010.

The selection includes everything from a £10,000 Toyota iQ at one end of the scale to a £200,000 Noble M600 at the other. We had all the cars in our studio for an exclusive photo shoot, which revealed the cars in stunning detail. You can see the gallery by clicking on the link below.

Autocar's Top 10 for 2010 - see the exclusive studio pics

Find out what our testers chose - and why - below. We've also included our top used car of the year.

Porsche 911 GT3 - Matt Prior

"A GT3 is probably the only place beyond a Caterham or a Lots where you are allowed to remain so utterly in tune with what is happening mechanically, through the contact patches of your hands. Few are the cars whose responses are so telegraphed and so linear as the GT3's. It is purposeful. It is pure. It is quite, quite brilliant.

Skoda Superb estate - Hilton Holloway

"Skoda is parking itself on Volvo's old territory by offering a hugely spacious, classy, tightly made, upmarket mainstream machine at a sensible price. It is, as Volvo might say, a car for life."

Renaultsport Clio 200 Cup - Vicky Parrott

"The Cup offers the kind of feedback and forgiving responses that can teach a beginner how to get the most from a grippy front-wheel-drive car without an embarrassing phone call to insurance underwriters at the end of it. It is affordable to buy and run, endlessly entertaining in any situation, and you can get the kids in the back and the weekly shop in the boot. That is all any enthusiast can ask of a £16k car. "

Volkswagen Scirocco R - Steve Sutcliffe

"Pound for pound, the R was probably the most well rounded front-drive performance car we drove in 2009. Which is saying something given we drove the Ford Focus RS in February and loved it. If there is such thing as a thinking man's performance car, this is it. And in blue, on 19in wheels, it also happens to look bloody sensational."

Jaguar XFR - Richard Bremner

"This car is cooked to a recipe Jaguar has been serving since it introduced the six-cylinder supercharged XJR in1994: a compelling mix of svelte luxury and pile-driving power. The XFR is the best performance Jaguar yet, and by a margin fat enough to fend off all comers."

Noble M600 - Jamie Corstorphine

"It may not be politically correct to say so, but if we're being honest, fast is fun. Fun in childish way, fun in an exciting way and fun in a dangerous way. And if it's the fastest fun you're looking for, the Noble M600 is where it's at. You can forget Gallardos, 911s and Astons; the M600 serves up 'fast' in portion sizes previously only seen with the McLaren F1 and Bugatti Veyron."

Toyota iQ - Steve Cropley

"To me, the beauty of the iQ is easy to see. Just study what it's supposed to do, then assess its fitness for purpose. The way I see it, Toyota's people 'get' Smart-sized cars, but also realise that two seats aren't enough for many users. They note that, even for a city car, the tail-heavy Smart rides strangely and is particularly rubbish in crosswinds."

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Ford S-Max - Ed Keohane

"Three years after winning, the 2007 Car of the Year is still my top car of the past 12 months. It's not just my opinion; every time I have ever carried passengers in a Ford S-Max, they have asked what kind of car it is and said, "I like this."

Lotus Evora - Matt Saunders

"The Lotus Evora is an outstanding car whatever way you look at it. In the light of the past year it is, by some distance, the most impressive sub-£50k sports car we've seen. It is nothing short of brilliant and deserves to be in our Top 10. In fact, if it isn't in our overall Top One then something's gone badly wrong."

Mercedes-Benz E350 CDI - Andrew Frankel

"For many years, a Mercedes was claimed to be "engineered like no other car in the world", a slogan abandoned when it became all too clear that it no longer withstood scrutiny. But I know of no other competitor that feels as luxuriously over-engineered as this."

Used car - BMW E46 M3 coupe - Steve Sutcliffe

"I have fond memories of the E46 BMW M3, partly because a colleague and I drove like madmen for two days straight to reach the launch of the thing in southern Spain in 2000. That seems like a long time ago, yet the car itself has lasted the test of time astonishingly well."

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Anonymous 9 January 2010

Re: Britain's best new cars

Sorry if we're being 'biased' but we prefer to drive a car and make sure that it's on sale before we nominate it as one of our Top 10 cars. Which is why an Alfa that will go on sale in mid-2010 is not included here. It may appear in next year's list though...

ambs123 9 January 2010

Re: Britain's best new cars

Where is Alfa Guilietta? Common Autocar, if your "best car" tag is just dependent on the how the car performs (Thats why I can see the Renault in the list) then this list may be fine but Alfa should be included in this list... A typical Autocar BIASED stuff!!!!

Lanehogger 9 January 2010

Re: Britain's best new cars

Regardless of whether it topples the mighty S-Class or not, I have no doubt the new Jaguar XJ will be car of 2010 and best car in the world in Autocar's eyes. I have no qualms about the new XJ and think it looks fab and may well be brilliant, but somehow you just know what the verdict will be.