Scottish Field presents its top Cars of the Year

Neil Lyndon reveals his top 10 cars from a range of classes, naming the Volvo XC40 his 2017 Car of the Year ‘without a shadow of a doubt’.

The Isuzu D-Max
Pick-up

Isuzu D-Max Arctic Trucks Double Cab Rough, tough utility meets pimp-my-ride ostentation. Go anywhere off-road capability meets hardcore Miami cruising. Muscles abound: flared wheel-arches for 35” tyres that can float over slush; chunky steps; and sports bar for that blinding array of spotlights essential to let your date know that you have arrived. Utterly ridiculous yet completely endearing.

Price Range: £37,995-£38,838.

Click HERE to find out more from Isuzu.

Performance cars

Kia Stinger. No joke, despite the name. Rear-wheel drive and limited slip differential declare in no uncertain terms that this is a serious performance car. Near supercar acceleration and top speed from the most powerful version and sophisticated suspension to match make this car genuinely enjoyable to take out for a hurtle. Meanwhile seats for four adults also make it a genuine grand tourer. A stunning achievement.

Price range: £32,025-£40,535.

Click HERE to find out more from The Leven Car Company.

4x4s under £30,000

Skoda Karoq. The replacement for the dearly-loved Yeti turns out to be even better: not only is this practical, adaptable five-seater the best value-for-money among compact SUVs but it’s the best in class overall. Ineffable comfort, composure and quiet. Battleship build quality. Massive luggage load space. Generous standard specification with quirky add-ons. The best buy is the 1.5 TSI with 50+ mpg and pulling power like a Clydesdale.

Price range: £20,880-£32,005.

Click HERE to find out more from West End Skoda.

Smaller family cars

Volvo XC40. Volvo’s regeneration reaches its apotheosis with the smallest car so far in the range. Like its predecessors, the new 90 and 60 models, the XC40 combines reassuring excellence of engineering and Volvo’s everlasting safety obsession. To that appealing mix, it adds exuberant, youthful styling and a knockout interior. Designed to appeal to women, this car also performs like a son of a gun.

Price range: £27,610-£40,070.

Click here to find out more from Strathmore or Clelands.

Hybrid/electric

Nissan Leaf. A much improved version of the original, world’s first all-electric family car (which has achieved one of the highest customer satisfaction rating of any car in mass production). The range from larger 40 kWh battery pack now theoretically extends to 250+ miles per charge but is more likely to be 150+. Now also with quicker acceleration and bigger boot but retaining superb build quality.

Price range: £27,290-£32,890.

Luxury Cars

Audi A8. A car so nearly perfect that it hardly needs a driver. The first European car with hands-free autonomous capability built-in (ready for the laws to catch up). The hybrid Audi A8 takes the chairman’s luxobarge to a new stratosphere of technological innovation and communications wizardry, with unmatched comforts and performance. A Bentley at half the price.

Price range: £69,415-£77,905 (and the rest).

4x4s over £30,000

Range Rover Velar. A masterpiece of clarity in design, where minimalism triumphs both externally and internally. The best-looking, most aerodynamic Range Rover for 30 years, with all clutter of buttons and switches swept away from the dashboard in which two 10-inch colour touchscreens work in tandem. Most agreeable on-road handling and dynamic qualities ever in a Range Rover yet including all the mud-plugging capabilities inseparable from the brand.

Price range: £45,145-£85,490.

Estates

BMW 5 Series Touring. This might just be the best estate car not just of the past year but in living memory. You could spend a year with this car before you found a fault. It has supreme driving dynamics, perfect ergonomics and a loadspace like a hearse when the rear seats are folded. The 520d version offers 60+ mpg, 114 g/km and enough oomph to outrun a cheetah.

Larger family cars

Peugeot 3008. Not exactly an SUV (lacks four-wheel drive), not quite an MPV (lacks seven seats), the Peugeot 3008 doesn’t fit easily into any fixed formula. It is, however, categorically the most attractive family car on the market today. For eye-catching presence on the motorway and on the drive, its swanky exterior appearance is complemented by its stark, classy interior with shrunken steering wheel and digital dials.

Price range: £25,120-£35,470.

Small/City Cars

Ford Fiesta. The best-selling car in the UK for 40 years gets even better in its eighth generation. This Ford Fiesta embodies all the brand’s enduring tributes – economical to buy and run, entertaining to drive, fun to look at – along with cutting edge tech and driver aids. It boasts build quality to put the Japanese and Koreans on their mettle. The three-cylinder 1.5 ST is a blast.

Price range: £13,695-£22,245.