As we ready ourselves to spend the next couple of weeks in food- and drink-induced stupors, it’s time for the inevitable 2024 retrospectives to begin. And where better to kick off with the very best cars we’ve driven this year?
It’s been a turbulent year for the industry, but cutting through the noise has been plenty of brilliant cars. From budget-friendly SUVs to proper, thoroughbred supercars, we’ve driven a whole heap of brilliant metal this year, and it was hard to narrow down our very favourites, but that’s what we’ve done here.
Three of these stood out among the rest, and we got them together to decide on an ultimate Car Throttle Car of the Year (or CTCOTY, as it’ll henceforth be clumsily referred to), but before that, here are the new cars that impressed us most this year, plus one second-hand hero we couldn’t help but spotlight.
Aston Martin Vantage
If we gave out an award for ‘Most Improved’, it would surely have to go to the Vantage. The old one could never quite cut it among the 911s, AMG GTs, and McLaren Sports Series of the world, and Aston evidently took this to heart when it came to update time.
Tempting as it is to call this a facelift, the fact is that 80 per cent of the car is apparently new. With 656bhp and a 3.4-second 0-62mph time, it’s now unquestionably a proper supercar. More than that though, it finally has the handling to back up its glorious AMG-sourced engine, and the interior has gone from being a dated mess to one of the best in its class. Astons have always felt special, but the new Vantage actually is special.
Read our Aston Martin Vantage review
Dacia Duster
The third-generation Dacia Duster renders the scores of bland, copycat crossovers it competes with totally irrelevant. From the way it looks, to its low weight making it surprisingly fun to drive, to the fact that the 4×4 version is a genuinely handy off-roader, it offers way more to like than any of its rivals, and for a chunk less money.
Finally on a bang-up-to-date platform, and available with some excellent new powertrains, we can’t think of anything else on sale that offers so much character for so little money. Yes, bits of the interior feel cheap, but you’ll very quickly stop caring – especially once you’ve gone on a really nice holiday with the money you saved on getting this instead of a Nissan Qashqai.
Read our Dacia Duster review
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N
The Ioniq 5 N felt like a watershed moment. There’d been glimmers before, but it felt like the first car to truly convince us that a performance EV could be just as much fun as an equivalent petrol car.
We can go on about the way the torque vectoring makes some truly ridiculous cornering feats possible, the spookily convincing simulated shifts, or the sheer addictive shove of its 641bhp dual-motor setup. The biggest compliment we can give the 5 N, though, is that when you’re cracking on, the fact that it’s powered by batteries and not an engine quickly fades into the background. There is hope.
Read our Hyundai Ioniq 5 N review
Lamborghini Revuelto
Lamborghini Revuelto
Come on, it’s a big V12 mid-engined Lamborghini, and only the sixth such car in its near 60-year bloodline. Could we really have left it off the list? The fact that the Revuelto is a plug-in hybrid and can be driven modest distances on purely electric power is incidental – it still has a gargantuan, wailing naturally aspirated V12 in the middle, has doors that open straight upwards, and makes a grand total of 1001bhp.
In other words, it has all the theatre, and indeed quirks, that you expect – nay, demand – from a flagship Lambo. And it’s still chuffing fast. But unlike the cars that came before, it’s not a total pig to drive, and as long as you have a Shell loyalty card, you might actually be tempted to use it semi-regularly. Turns out you can have it both ways.
Read our Lamborghini Revuelto review
Porsche 911 S/T
Porsche 911 S/T
We don’t think it’ll be particularly controversial when we say the Porsche 911 S/T could well be the best sports car ever made. The decision to unite the GT3 RS’s sensational free-breathing 517bhp flat-six with a manual gearbox and a gorgeous, wingless, retro-inspired body, then ditch some weight, was never exactly going to have many detractors, was it?
Sure enough, there aren’t really enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe how good this thing is. In fact, there’s only really one glaring fault: you (probably) can’t have one. Porsche only made 1963 of them, and they all quickly sold out. Funnily enough, it seems that the people who did end up with one are quite eager to hold on to them.
Read our Porsche 911 S/T review
Toyota GR Yaris
Toyota GR Yaris
It’s been four years, and we still have to keep pinching ourselves to remember that the GR Yaris is a real thing. When most manufacturers are abandoning hot hatches at a frightening rate, Toyota’s kept the faith with a rally-derived little bull terrier of a car, packing a throaty three-cylinder and one of the most entertaining applications of four-wheel drive we’ve ever seen.
We didn’t think there was much room for improvement, but Toyota found some with this year’s facelift: more powerful, a bit more focused, a better interior, and now with the option of a very well-sorted automatic gearbox. You should still have the manual, though.
Read our Toyota GR Yaris review
Volkswagen ID Buzz LWB
VW ID Buzz LWB
2024’s update for VW’s retro electric people-hauler wisely left the good bits alone: the hugely lovable looks, decent driving experience, and superb comfort and interior ambience. Even a couple of years on from its launch in Europe, it’s still a car that turns heads and makes you smile.
What the update did was sort the things that needed sorting, namely the half-baked infotainment, weedy motor and the fact that such a van-shaped car only seated five. With a bit more grunt, a far better user experience, and space for seven, the Buzz might now be the ultimate chic family wagon. Assuming you’re part of a fairly well-off family, mind you.
Read our VW ID Buzz LWB review
Used car of the year: Mazda MX-5 NC
The Mazda MX-5 has long been the go-to for cheap, dependable rear-wheel drive fun. The thing is, tidy NAs and NBs that don’t have sills like pizza crusts are getting ever harder to come by at decent money, and the ND’s price hasn’t really dipped into bargain bin territory yet. Enter the third-generation NC. The runt of the litter. The middle(ish) child. The MX-5’s Porsche 996 moment.
Except just as people are finally starting to appreciate the 996, we think the NC’s moment in the sun is due. No, it’s not as ultra-crisp to drive as its predecessors, but it’s a more grown-up, refined car, and far less prone to rot. And as our own Alex Gassman has ably demonstrated, there’s still plenty of scope for rear-drive shenanigans. Throw in the myriad tuning options, and the fact that decent examples can be picked up for very, very low four-figure prices, and we reckon 2025 is the perfect year to jump aboard the good ship, erm, HMS NC.