Merc1

Pontiac Solstice

American car companies aren’t known for building small cars that people want to buy, particularly those with sporting intentions. Pontiac, of all marques, challenges that reputation with the Solstice, as demonstrated by a first-year waiting list. It’s the sexiest Pontiac since the ’69 Firebird, a striking visual foil to the awkward sheaves of body cladding hung like vinyl clapboards that defined the brand for over a decade. The Solstice not only looks like a much more expensive sports car but also, in direct-injected, turbocharged GXP trim, hauls biscuits like one.




Toyota FJ Cruiser

Travel to the most remote reaches of the Amazon or Africa, and there’s a good chance you’ll spend a portion of that trip in a 1970s or 1980s Toyota FJ40 or Land Cruiser, among the most rugged and dependable vehicles ever built. If Toyota were to resurrect the holy FJ moniker, it had better have the vehicle to back up that image. By keeping the price low, Toyota’s retro-styled FJ Cruiser should remain a favorite of trail enthusiasts and mall rats alike. In a comparison test, it proved far more adept at negotiating boulders than freeway cloverleafs, however. But when torrential downpours come, we know which car in the fleet we’ll run to.




Chrysler 300*

The 300 was a huge breakthrough for Chrysler, one that, for a time, set it apart from the two other Detroit automakers. The fact that the car is a dynamic go-getter based on a Mercedes rear-drive chassis and is available with the rambunctious 340-hp Hemi V-8 has little to do with its iconic status. The thing looks like a million bucks, exploiting every inch of its bold, Rolls-Royce–like styling. The 300 was instantly embraced by urban and suburban culture, and few are off the lot for more than a day before wearing large wheels, a custom grille, or at the very least, tinted windows.




Ford Shelby GT500

Few people in the car business deserve the icon moniker more than Carroll Shelby, who, in addition to racing success and constructor greatness, could carry the title on force of personality alone. Shelby Mustangs produced during the Johnson administration fetch well into the six figures now, so one could surmise that the current Shelby offering, the most powerful production Mustang ever, is not a terrible investment at about $40,000. The GT500 swings its performance-enhanced 500-hp bat like Barry Bonds, thanks to a Roots-type supercharger. There’s simply no less expensive way to join the half-G horsepower club, and few better ways to celebrate American bravado.




Lotus Elise

Few cars ask drivers to make as many compromises as the Elise, yet Lotus has had no trouble finding people to make them. You’d better have a modest rump and strong forearms and be hemorrhoid-free if you even want to sit in the thing. Make your sacrifices to the god of comfort, however, and be rewarded with the closest thing to a formula-car experience that wears a license plate, at least on these shores. High-school physics lessons are jogged the first time you pour the car into a bend, an unrivaled and immediate demonstration of force, mass, and even acceleration.




Porsche Cayman

The first production mid-engined coupe in the company’s history, Porsche’s Cayman was an instant darling of the press and public, unsurprising as there is nothing it doesn’t do well. Thanks to the Cayman’s engine placement and stiff body, it is arguably a better handler than the more expensive 911, and also a more amicable companion at the limits of adhesion. The Cayman is particularly easy on the eyes, sporting a unique profile set off by zaftig haunches and an inspired B-pillar. Unlike some more forgettable Porsche shapes, like the 924's, we think this one is here to stay.




Range Rover Sport*

Were a proper British gentlemen to be born of steel, he’d be a Land Rover product. The company’s king-of-posh Range Rover is still one of the most competent machines off-pavement, should you ask of it, even if no one does. The Land Rover LR3 is even more of a mudslinger, but perhaps not swanky enough to compete in the quite-profitable niche occupied by SUVs like the Cayenne and X5. Enter the Range Rover Sport, built on the LR3 platform, but sporting duds downsized from those of the full-size Range Rover. Few SUVs are as elegant, as all-around capable, and, particularly with Jaguar’s supercharged 4.2-liter V-8, as desirable as the Sport.




Mercedes-Benz CLS*

There’s a reason beyond scarcity and mechanical or dynamic greatness that some pre-1970 cars command the same kind of big money as period art: Many are damn good sculpture. Whether it was the soul-squashing brutalist movement in architecture or the influence of Pierre Cardin leisurewear, there’s been little automotive magic in the interim that stokes our fires. Enter the Mercedes CLS, which shares chassis and mechanicals with the E-class but could be powered by a go-kart engine and we’d still want one in our driveway. The brushstroke-on-wheels doesn’t just look slippery, it is—the Brabus-tuned CLS rocket is good for 225 mph. Although the Mercedes “four-door coupe” moniker is a bunch of marketing hooey, the idea has nonetheless spurred competitors to design similar vehicles. Hey, sex sells.





Audi R8*

No company has better embraced lessons from the world of industrial and product design than Audi, and few serve great design to customers in packages as complete and well integrated. Audi’s history of innovation, rejection of nostalgia, and choice of a path less traveled have served it well. The R8 will cause similar reevaluation of design, user experience, and performance. Audi birthed a no-compromises supercar on its first try—an objective hammered at for decades by companies like Porsche—blessing it with not only exceptional usability but also a unique form that draws crowds like a supercar should.




Bugatti Veyron 16.4*

Yes, we know, you’ve read too much about the Veyron. It is, however, the machine with the mostest: The most powerful, fast, quick, and expensive production car ever made. That’s a quadfecta that may not be surpassed until cars fly, as the decision by VW to produce the car cost the company a third of a billion dollars in research-and-development losses, which isn’t likely to be repeated by anyone in the near future. It’s fitting that the fastest and most powerful production car in the world should also be the most expensive, with a price tag approaching the GDP of Tajikistan. That price is justified by four turbochargers, 16 cylinders, 1001 horsepower, and a top speed of 253 miles per hour.

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*Denotes a Merc1 favorite.

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