The car industry finds itself in an interesting and often tumultuous place in 2025, but despite that, there are still some cracking things emerging from the world’s car factories. As we pass the halfway point of the year and everyone disappears on holiday, it seems like a ripe opportunity to look back at the cars we’ve driven so far that have put the biggest smiles on our faces.
BMW M5
It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s controversially gone hybrid and it’s not particularly pretty. The G90 is a new kind of BMW M5, but it still does what an M5 should. It’s relentlessly fast when you fancy playing the touring car drive, comfy and refined when you don’t, and thanks to lots of electronic trickery, still just about as playful and spirited as an M car should be.
Maserati GranTurismo Trofeo
Maserati may keep popping up in headlines for all the wrong reasons at the moment, and that’s a shame, because it rather overshadows the fact that its cars are the best they’ve been in years. The 542bhp V6-powered GranTurismo Trofeo combines a corking engine and sparkling chassis for one of the best grand touring cars on sale right now.
Land Rover Defender Octa
Trying to turn the rolling tower block that is the Defender 110 into a sports car should be an exercise in total futility, but Land Rover somehow pulled it off with the Defender Octa. That’s thanks in no small part to a 626bhp BMW V8 and fancy-pants hydraulically crosslinked suspension, both of which imbue the Octa with a hilarious turn of pace and handling totally at odds with how high you’re sitting. Oh yeah, and it’s an absolute hoot off-road too.
Abarth 600e
The Abarth 600e’s close relative, the Alfa Junior Veloce, impressed us last year, immediately becoming one of the best-driving electric cars on sale. The 600e pairs that same platform, complete with that crucial limited-slip diff on the front axle, with a dash of lurid paint and old-school hot hatch attitude that you can’t help but smile at – and it's cheaper than the Alfa, too. It’s far from the most practical small EV you can buy, but for pure fun, not much else in its class comes close.
Skoda Superb Estate
Our time with the 261bhp, all-wheel drive Skoda Superb Sportline coincided with a 1000ish-mile Easter road trip to the Scottish Highlands, and the big red estate didn’t miss a beat. It was comfy and efficient and on the motorway bits, quick and surefooted on the twisty Highland roads, and provided enough room for four adults and all their clutter. It may not be very sexy, and you might still be the butt of the odd Skoda joke, but for a car to just handily slot into your life and do everything brilliantly, there’s not much better on sale.
Aston Martin Vantage Roadster
We loved last year’s updated Aston Martin Vantage so much that we nominated it as one of our 2024 Car of the Year finalists. The Roadster takes everything we loved about it – thunderous V8, massively improved interior, spectacular ride and handling and jaw-dropping looks – and lops the roof off for an added bit of drama. What’s not to like?
Audi RS6 GT
It’s a 621bhp, twin-turbo V8 estate car dressed up to look like an old IMSA GTO racer – need we say literally any more?
We do? Okay. The Audi RS6 GT takes the already phenomenal outgoing RS6 and just makes everything slightly better – a bit lighter, a bit more responsive, a bit harder edged, all without losing the key all-rounder appeal of a big, fast estate. But most importantly, stripes.
Renault 5
It’s not that often the world’s motoring press and its car buying public are in such unanimous agreement on a car, but the reborn electric Renault 5 is a rare exception, and with good reason. It looks fantastic, it’s affordable, and it’s better to drive than any electric supermini realistically needs to be. Moreover, its arrival feels like a real BMW Mini or new Fiat 500 moment, and seems to be proving to lots of doubters that hey, EVs can be cool too. And if you’re still not convinced, there’s always the ludicrous Turbo 3E to look forward to.
Morgan Supersport
We went into the Supersport expecting the usual Morgan hallmarks – beautiful handcrafted interior, trad looks and a vibe that makes every drive feel like an adventure. That’s all there, but what we weren’t quite ready for was how bloomin’ excellent it is to drive. More than any Morgan that’s come before, it feels like a properly serious, modern sports car, but without sacrificing what makes the brand so special.
Bentley Blower Jnr
It costs as much as a BMW M3, will get dusted in the performance stakes by most city cars, and is really only usable for sunny day jaunts to the pub. When you perch behind the big wheel of Bentley and Hedley Studios’ 85 per cent scale electric recreation of the Le Mans Blower, though, none of that matters, because it just makes you smile uncontrollably. That, above any kind of rational consideration, is what we look for in a car.
BMW 330ci E46
This isn’t a new car, but that’s kind of the point. The 20-year-old BMW 330ci we recently drove, complete with a few unobtrusive modernisations from eBay, was a reminder of how sweet even relatively normal cars could be not that long ago. A buttery six-cylinder engine, rear-wheel drive, a manual gearbox, no ADAS bleeps and bloops and handsome, understated looks. Today’s cars may be more capable and advanced than ever, but this little silver Beemer was a reminder that that’s not always a good thing.
