Making a list of the best cars of all time can be difficult. Designating any such list is a subjective process. So is interpreting the word “best” itself. Is the best car the best-performing track car? Is it the most engaging driver’s car? The best car could also be the car that best read the market and foreshadowed where things were heading.
With this best cars list, we’re looking for the most influential cars, the cars that mattered. These cars broadened ideas about what a car can mean and shaped what became the modern car market. Supercars and sports coupes deserve their recognition. But so do SUVs and trucks, which are now the default vehicles most people buy.
We restricted this list to cars that entered the market from 1970 onward for ease and modern relevance. Tracing technological developments back more than 50 years can get a bit tenuous, as undoubtedly influential as inventions the Model T’s mass production process or the Volvo’s three-point safety belt were to the modern automobile’s development.
From fuel-sipping hybrids to spectacularly powerful combustion performance beasts, here are the ten best cars from the 2000s.
NOTE: We want to hear from you. Feel like we missed anything significant? Leave us a note in the Comments section below!
The Best: Porsche Cayman (2005)
Porsche gave the entry-level Boxster a coupe version, the Cayman, in 2005. With a rear mid-engine layout, it was lighter and had more optimal weight distribution than the 911, and stiffer than the Boxster. It also may have been the best handling car on the road — and there’s a reason Porsche didn’t give it more power to provide the 911 with genuine competition.
Original MSRP: $59,695
