Best car ever? I see it popping up on playground, in pubs, online forums, any place where opinions matter or need sharing anyway. Everybody is talking about it, about the ‘best’ performance car, luxury car, economical car, family car. In fact, pretty much everything has to be ‘best’ on these occasions. But before we crown or banish any car, we really need to unpack what best actually means when applied in this way.

So without getting our hands dirty sorting best from worst, good to amazing maybe a simple way is to try and peel the bonnet off the language that surrounds the topic. If we can do this, we’ll begin to realize that by looking deeper into the words we use when we think and talk about our vehicles, we might be able to decipher what is actually important in our decision. We’re not doing this to make an “ultimate car list”, it is however about seeing why we think specific cars achieve an outstanding status.

Essentially what we will be dissecting here is the idea of why one person considers that specific automobile to be best, this is about interpretation and not always a universally agreed or acceptable answer. In actual fact it’s far removed from just good and it is about that intangible something else.

1. Superior: Quality You Can Feel in Every Detail

The bests first attribute is being superior. Now being slightly better than other, is hardly being superior, so I am talking about being in a completely different sphere. In cars superiority is something you can feel from the first instance you enter one a closed door which slams with that reassuring solidity rather than the hollow tinniness of lesser models, while the touch of a dashboard with materials that feel good from the moment you touch them rather than like scrap from the rubbish tip are indications that what you’re dealing with has an extra certain something.

What Makes a Car Superior:

• High quality materials that feel special
• Precise switchgear with a reassuring click
• Suspension that balances comfort and sharpness
• Hidden engineering that rewards daily use
• Every interaction elevates the experience

The hallmark of an exceptionally good car is discovered in the little extras, the seemingly insignificant subtleties that are born out of an uncompromising obsession with quality, from under the skin engineering to the spring-like suspension, the engine that performs with certainty and efficiency, and, of course, the very simple art of steering. A truly excellent car does more than simply transports you, it actually puts a grin on your face with every turn you take.

2. Supreme: The Benchmark That All Others Are Judged Against

Should excellence be a measure of quality, supreme then is quite frankly, a matter of dominance. A superlative, used when one not only holds an exceptional level of position or quality, but a position which leaves everything else struggling far behind the very highest peak achievable. In the automobile arena, for instance, supreme not only refers to vehicles that will compete at the top, but is also the criterion against which every vehicle is evaluated and is ultimately to be deemed inferior.

Defining Supreme Automotive Excellence:

• Sets the benchmark all competitors measure against
• Dominates in speed, luxury or technology
• Reputation precedes it without shouting
• Has truly earned the title of most excellent
• Commands respect from rivals and owners alike

There’s no shouting required to establish that a supreme car is supreme-there’s just earned reputation and undisputed recognition in the eyes of the people who live and breathe the particular niche. These types of supercars offer their driver a kind of deference above the normal numbers the car is known for in sales and press that can’t be earned any other way and would be hard for anyone involved to deny even if you weren’t a gearhead.

3. Unsurpassed: A Legacy That Rivals Have Never Managed to Dethrone

And no single word truly captures the idea of legacy like this one. To be unsurpassed means to define a benchmark by which absolutely no challenger has ever come close, or been able to surpass you. An unsurpassable car is a vehicle whose supremacy has never truly been matched or usurped despite years of determined efforts and deep-pocketed competitors. While opponents have certainly come tantalizingly close on some benchmarks, no challenger has ever truly displaced the ultimate game-changer of its day.

What Unsurpassed Really Means:

• Sets a mark no rival has ever matched
• Pioneered a concept and perfected its formula
• Imitators exist but produce pale copies
• Still celebrated decades after its launch
• Reshaped industry expectations permanently

Most of the time this excellence emerges in machines that were such early adoption, or the sheer perfection of what such a machines had to offer that subsequent machines could not come any where close. It’s a sports car that handled like it could read your mind and is still admired today for it’s driver-feel and that’s saying something over several decades of development and refinement. Perhaps it is the definitive executive car that’s refinement rendered it silent enough to permanently redefine noise level expectations within the car manufacturers. These are not cars that achieved standard, but were instrumental in its setting.

4. Top-Notch: Complete Competence With No Rough Edges

Although, with the first one, high and rarefied there could be the implication of top-notch is more prosaic, having the confidence of all-out-reliable functionality at every point of the vehicle’s circumference not one area that fails to impress. It’s a top-notch motorcar where, whatever they tried to do, they’ve achieved perfectly, without compromise. Everything works; everything has been done right.

Hallmarks of a Top-Notch Car:

• Infotainment that works flawlessly every time
• Seats perfectly supportive on long journeys
• Engine powerful and efficient without compromise
• Build quality that inspires total confidence
• Truly second to none in every department

This is the one that has been sorted. One in which the infotainment can be fiddled with and it all sings a clear song; the seats support you like an old, comforting hug but they still have the resilience to make this your driving position. This is the engine that has been tuned both powerfully and frugally without ever having to try too hard and without being forced to choose. And, of course, although it will not be the quickest in this sector, this will be one of the best engineered in its league and the one that you will trust to always be in your corner.

5. Cream of the Crop: Rising Above the Competition on Pure Merit

In the realm of automobile sales the fight for pre-eminence is particularly fiercely contested. The term best implies better than everything in a given classification and when such an assertion is being used against automobiles the idea goes much higher than competent build. A truly superlative auto needs the ability to face competition in direct head to head shootouts or within the perceptions of people who pay money as well as observe.

What Defines the Cream of the Crop:

• Tested against peers and consistently wins
• Earns awards and lasting expert respect
• More fun, practical or comfortable than rivals
• Clear choice in a crowded segment
• Success built on merit not marketing

The car that sits above them all has been pushed, prodded, and provoked more ruthlessly and meaningfully against a variety of rivals and has been found wanting time and again only in the positive sense of the word. This car wins awards, gets nod from people that drive these cars for a profession and garners almost fanatical devotion from its ownership base that experiences their machine on a day to day basis. It’s been the logical conclusion of thoughtful design and purposeful execution thus making it a no-brainer as a car buyer attempts to navigate through a choppy, churning ocean of pretenders and aspirants.

6. Inferior: A Car That Broadcasts Its Own Shortcomings

When you know it’s just a cheap car is when it has a million and one ways to remind you of that, whether you like it or not. You just feel it all over the car. You feel it in the door when it’ll shut with this sort of sad-ish/hollow ‘thump’, or the plastics in the dashboard just really feel like they’ve been repurposed from the bin or something that’ll get easily scratched just by simply existing. And it isn’t that the car lacks any sort of luxury, just the basic ability to be a well thought out car that isn’t designed with shortcuts and flimsy.

Signs of an Inferior Vehicle:

• Doors that close with a hollow thud
• Dashboard plastics that scratch instantly
• Controls that feel flimsy and unconvincing
• Engine that groans under normal acceleration
• Ride filled with persistent rattles and shakes

The controls creak to the touch, the engine protests the strain of gaining speed, and the overall driving experience is an incessant symphony of bumps and clunks that pursue you like an angry band of tin cans. But an objectively worse car doesn’t simply disappoint; it screams its inadequacies to its occupant in an endless stream of creaks and knocks, a constant and depressing reminder that you’d be so much happier having opted for something other than this vehicle.

7. Mediocre: The Sin of Inspiring Absolutely Nothing

Despite that though, perhaps an even more awful crime than simply being bad-designed is mind-numbingly dull. It’s a car which no, none at all, brain matter will get stimulated and quite blandly, mind-numbingly bored will do the owner for a ride to be the owner for a life from a dealership to your home until that life ends, soon really. It is the automatic equivalent of an inoffensive automatic beige car; designed by a committee to annoy a large majority as little as possible therefore not interested the slightest amount anyone.

Characteristics of a Mediocre Car:

• Inspires zero emotional response either way
• Gets you there with zero passion or flair
• Forgettable the moment you step out
• No character or joy in its handling
• Completely and utterly devoid of soul

When the journeys are over, it’ll deliver you to your destination with all the same panache and exuberance that a dishwasher will, once it finishes its run in the kitchen. Forget the moment that you even climb out of a ‘meh’ car and walk towards it; it has no distinguishing marks to speak of. It is a car that will leave you unmoved by its ride and unfazed by its styling. Indeed, in car terms, it has nothing at all of a personality.

8. Substandard: Failing to Meet Even the Basic Benchmarks of Its Era

Being a “substandard” car means not just poor quality, but the worst kind being so obviously bad it’s clear someone somewhere must have had no bloody clue what they were doing when it comes to designing a vehicle, at least from a practical perspective. This is a car with massive gaps, with outright failures in the very heart of automotive engineering, in every essential. This is the car that rates a zero-star safety on your new five-star-min-standard auto.

What Substandard Looks Like in Practice:

• Safety ratings far below era expectations
• Electronics that behave erratically and illogically
• Suspension unsettled over ordinary road bumps
• Brakes that feel vague and uninspiring
• Engineering that feels unfinished or careless

This is engineering that feels unfinished or, in the worst cases, simply careless in its approach to the problems it was supposed to solve. A substandard car is not just a poor choice in a competitive market; it is a machine that actively fails to meet the minimum requirements expected of any modern and dependable vehicle. It feels like a throwback to an era when cars were simply not held to the standards that drivers today rightly expect and demand as a baseline.

9. Second-Rate: The Imitator That Can Never Hit the High Notes

In second-best terms, the imitator is just that a tribute act desperately trying to be more but ultimately failing the performance badly. A car that so evidently wants to be something that it’s not typically a more respected, popular competitor with neither the wit, cash nor the both to carry it off. You could almost trace its ambition through its styling lines and curves, often nicked from an altogether more attractive motor, only with an altogether heavier and less convincing execution.

How a Second-Rate Car Gives Itself Away:

• Design borrowed from rivals but executed clumsily
• Touchscreen present but laggy and illogical
• Leather seats that feel thin and cheap
• Every detail reminds you of a better car
• Driving it is a constant compromise

Inside, the premise repeats itself bad execution following what should, at first glance, have been good intentions. There might be a huge touchscreen but the interface is sluggish and nonsensical. There are leather-effect seats, but the texture feels cheap and insubstantial the instant you lay hands on it. Driving a subpar vehicle is a painful and incessant barrage of compromises: you’re perpetually aware of the better car this vehicle wishes to be; you can never simply be pleased to take it in for what it is.

10. Poorest: The Complete Package of Automotive Misery

And finally, at the very end of the pack, at the bottom of the barrel, there is. The Poor Car. Now, The Poor Car is not merely a vehicle with a few outstanding problems; The Poor Car is the entire bundle and parcel of terrible automotive dom rolled into one automobile. It’s the nadir of what the motoring public can produce in terms of an actual automobile; it’s The Inferior Car’s shoddy construction, put together with the mind-numbing blandness of The Average Car, applied with the idiocy of The Substandard Car, and layered with The Second-Rate Imitator’s imitation appearance.

Why the Poorest Car Is in a Class of Its Own:

• Combines every negative quality into one
• Unreliable, unpleasant and uncomfortable together
• Often alarmingly unsafe on top of everything else
• Makes you question your choices every drive
• Actively subtracts from your quality of life

The saddest ride on this list, on the other hand, is a disharmonic orchestra at the opera’s loudest. You will never fully trust it on the road, you’ll regret getting behind its wheel, and you will frankly fear sitting inside it, too. Not only will your worst car have zero redeeming virtues, but it will also demonstrably and dramatically degrade your acceptable comfort level per each of your driving miles. If only we’d come anywhere near what the 2-generation best of it came up with, let alone this lot.