Weblog Bas – My car of the year

Are you going to date, do it with this one. Women melt in that car. Oh how nice, those yellow door panels and that yellow dashboard. For the sake of beauty, he should have had round headlights, says one. Couldn’t, I guess. The ID brand face cannot be tampered with. But even with those cross-eyed, his peacefully angular appearance is rock solid. Finally a crossover that doesn’t look like a Marvel warrior. And despite some practical limitations – no third row of seats – it is a desirable car.

But what is his contribution to progress, or to the good of the general? The transport version of course makes sense. The added value of the passenger bus is marginal, however commendable its role as a joy-maker and connector. My test car costs 75. A family is just as well off with an ID4 of fifty. Which cars pass a strict relevance test? The Buzz is one of the fifty new models I got to drive last year. Which one really added something in terms of space, architectural intellect, energy consumption and innovation, in the sum of its properties?

To answer that question you will first have to turn off your lover emotions. Otherwise you will be destroyed by the inner battle between mind and feeling. It didn’t get any more pointless than the SL 63 AMG, the Porsche Cayman GT4 RS or 911 GT3 Touring this year for this tester, while I thoroughly enjoyed every kilometer. But what you’re looking for is the car that overwhelms you with its unexpected genius.

Then the flush gets thin, as I go through my test list chronologically. My first car of the year was the amazing Mercedes EQS, which with its daring streamliner design finally gives aerodynamics the place that electric technology deserves, but does not set any new standards in energy consumption – because Tesla is still leading the way in this area. The Skoda Fabia, the Cupra Born, the Volvo C40, the Toyota Yaris Cross, the Citroën C5X or the Opel Grandland also revealed no new vistas below the line, although I did not suffer in any of them.

The astonishingly comfortable, mouth-watering Range Rover may be the pinnacle of enjoyment in its genre, the proof of the pudding in a historical perspective, the electric. I thought the Kia Niro EV was fantastic, but you are used to that from the Koreans. As happy as the charmingly simple Dacia Jogger made me, a huge bucket of unpretentious space for around 23,000 euros, it does not deserve the innovation prize.

The real surprises again came from the Chinese. Perhaps nothing exceptional about the BYD Atto 3, its average level is disturbingly high for the competition. Apart from the silly toy strings in the doors, and also fencing for your junk in the door pockets, there is nothing wrong with that car. The Nio ET7 was an even more impressive demonstration of Chinese ambitions. It is fantastically comfortable and finished to a high standard, technically it seemed faultless at the first meeting, and that once failed Better Place battery exchange system could well fall into place with Nio.

For example, according to the strictest standards of those fifty cars, only two remain. The ET7, plus my Japanese favorite of the year. It’s not a supercar, not a fancy crossover, not a mischievous bus. It’s not even fully electric, but in its clever mix of good features and its intelligent hybrid technology with the main role for the electric motor, it’s the most surprising newcomer I drove. Fast, comfortable, economical, attractive, modest and not even unaffordable if you know how the prices for electric driving are currently skyrocketing.

My personal Car of the Year is the new Honda Civic. Had I accidentally walked into a Honda dealer this month looking for a new car, I would have had one by now. God, that thing drives great.