about the car itself, especially if you're a fan of the spartan teutonic style, but really, this rig is all about fuel-economy. One caveat, finding a gas station that sells diesel can be a bit of a hassle at present, and there will inevitably be a lineup of JDM Mitsubishi Delicas in front of you when you do get there. However, such inconveniences are minor when you consider that the time between fuel stops falls into the "Oh look, it's February, time to fill up again," category.
- Best Performance Car For Under $25K: The Nissan Juke
This is a weird one but hear me out: Nissan's little toadlet has a face only Jar Jar Binks's mother could love, but talk to anybody who's actually driven one and, well, let's just say beauty is in the eye of the steering wheel holder.
Any automotive designer's Holy Grail is to craft an entire new segment of vehicles that sends the competition scrambling to catch up, and no doubt that's what Nissan's gurus were up to when they came up with this Sports Activity Crossover Sports Cross Utility Active Sporty Cross or whatever the hell they're calling it.
But when the marketing guys popped off for lunch, all the nerdy engineers snuck in and built one of the best (if ugliest) driver's cars around. With a 1.6-litre turbo that just begs to be revved, hyperactive steering and rally-car cornering, the Juke is the car the Mini Countryman is trying to be - and the Nissan is half the price.
Best Juke to get for under $25K? How about the base SV front-wheel-drive stick-shift model for the same price as a moderately-equipped Versa. Tuck some of the cash you saved aside and wait for the upcoming NISMO motorsports upgrades, like lowering springs for better handling and software updates for more power.
- Best Performance Car $25-50K: The Subaru WRX
It's an open secret that I've got a soft-spot for Subaru. In the Canadian market where all-weather capability actually counts for something, the WRX is rightly deserving of such affection: not only is it blisteringly fast, but it's also blisteringly fast under any conditions.
Obviously, Subaru's STi is the king of the dirt hill, but the WRX remains the performance bargain at just over $32K to start. What's more, it gets slightly better fuel-economy than its bigger brother and the insurance is cheaper.
Compromises? Oh, there's plenty. The WRX is a bit rough around the edges and the interior won't win any design awards. However, for usable everyday performance, you can't get more bang for your buck.
- Best Performance Car Over $50K: The Ford Mustang Boss
Technically speaking, the Boss tucks in at just under 50K, but if you're going to buy 444 horsepower worth of rear-drive muscle car that's dubbed "the Boss," you don't buy it without checking the box on the optional sport seats and limited-slip differential packages.
So, performance? Well, it don't say Boss on the side 'cause Ford was marketing this car to Bruce Springsteen fans. It says "Boss" because it's in charge. Emphasis on "charge."
The BMW M3, the Mercedes-Benz CL AMG, the Audi S4: these are all fast, luxurious German performance coupes that have had to go and hide in a corner because the bluecollar Yank is making fun of them. Never mind muscle car, the Boss Mustang is a proper track-prepped race car capable of embarrassing much more costly metal.
- Best Luxury/Prestige Car: The Nissan Leaf
While I toyed with the idea of placing these laurels 'pon the hood of a big diesel Mercedes with all-wheel drive, the concept of prestige has changed somewhat over the years. Specifically, a big, black S-Class is just going to send the message that you're a limo driver.
Drive around in an allelectric Nissan Leaf, however, and people are going to stare. And maybe even applaud.
Admittedly, it's not a very good-looking car or even particularly distinctive. It looks a bit like frog DNA was spliced into a Versa.
However, even folks who know nothing about the automobile know exactly what the Leaf is and what it does.
Drawbacks? Well, the limited range might be a bit of an issue if you live far out of town. Other than that, it's basically a normal compact car that you just happen to plug into the wall. It's a bit expensive, but most of all, very exclusive: mere money won't get you one of these, you had to be paying attention early on.
- Green Car of the Year: A Dodge Challenger SRT8 392 and a Transit Pass
Self-explanatory. Take the bus Monday-Friday, drive the 392 on Sunday, burn less gas than your colleague who daily commutes in a Prius.
Not much less, but still. ? Best Car of the Year: The Cadillac CTS-V Wagon
Okay, so perhaps there's a slight limit to the practicality of a rear-wheel drive, manualtransmission, 556 h.p. station wagon. Also, the chances of you ever actually glimpsing one of these things on the road are somewhere between sighting bigfoot and seeing Elvis riding a unicorn.
There's also a running debate in the auto-journo world as to whether this car is a cynical PR exercise, designed to win over kooky motoring journalists with a car that only a lunatic would ever really buy. Cadillac is making some absurdly low number of them, and reputedly has plans to sell hardly any.
Here's the thing though: three decades down the road, when electric diesel hybrids rule the Earth and everybody telecommutes using their iBrain anyway, the CTS-V Wagon will be the "Do you remember?" car. It's this decade's Hemi 'Cuda/Buick Grand National/Supra TwinTurbo, and I love the fact that it even exists.
- Best SUV: The Mazda CX-5 It may seem the height of conjecture to give the award for best SUV to a car you can't even buy yet, but the early results are in, and it's easy to put together a sketch of Mazda's upcoming small crossover. Spoiler alert: it's going to be good.
Now, Mazda's old crossover wasn't the greatest car in the world; it was just a Tribute. In fact, it was just a Ford Escape with the word Ford crossed off and Mazda written on it in crayon. This new car is 100 per cent pure Mazda, and that means a little more zip.
So it's going to handle like a biggish Miata and boogie through the curves like Alexandre Bilodeau through the moguls: we'd expect that. What you might not be expecting is Mazda's host of clever new fuel-saving technologies.
Dubbed Skyactiv, this entire suite of tech covers everything from highcompression engines to more direct feeling automatic transmissions to a Lotus-like focus on weight savings. Having driven the partialSkyactiv Mazda3 recently, I can tell you that this new crossover from Mazda should be good, clean fun.
Follow Brendan on Twitter: @brendan_mcaleer, or submit your own auto oddities to [email protected].
