Forbes.com list of Best Cars of 2005
It seems everyone wants to put together a 'Car of the Year' this or a 'Best of' that...Forbes.com is no exception.
This year they've named enough 'Best of' categories that I'm wondering if they managed to leave any car unrecognized. I mentioned this list was coming in my post about their 'Worst Cars' list - so for the sake of completeness, here's a quick run-down of the plethora of categories and their winners (these are the actual names Forbes uses for the categories):
New Car That Most Lived Up To The Hype - BMW M5
Greatest Driver's Car - Ferrari F430
Greatest Driver's Car (yep, they named two) - Aston Martin DB9
Most Outrageous Car Ever - Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Best Reason To Buy American - Ford GT (Oh, come on, this is the best category name you could come up with? How about "best mid-engined performance bargin to blow away both of your 'greatest driver's cars'"?)
Best Way To Blend In With Celebrities - Bentley Continental GT
Best Way To Make Celebrities Jealous - Lamborghini Murcielago
Fastest Car - SSC Ultimate Aero
All-New But Still The Sub-$40,000 Gold Standard - BMW 3 Series (You would think they could they have tried harder to make this look like something other than a category invented just to give the 3-series a prize)
The Ultimate Executive Ride - Maybach 62
Ultimate Minivan - Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna (Apparently Forbes.com is too wishy-washy to actually pick a best minivan, or they just can't tell these two non-luxury brands apart.)
Ultimate Pickup - Dodge Ram SRT-10
Best All-Around Wagon - Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG (Strange, you'd think there'd be some other wagon category if there is this one for 'all-around' wagon - but there isn't.)
Best Selling Luxury Car (sic) - Lexus RX Note to Forbes.com - tall, two-box designs w/ AWD are typically called by a new-fangled name 'SUV' - not car.
Safest Car - Volvo S80
Best Hybrid - Lexus RX Hybrid (They liked the RX so much, they gave it two prizes.)
All told, a pretty fluffy piece of automotive journalism. Though, I guess that would be a bit too much to expect of a non-automotive magazine/web site.
This year they've named enough 'Best of' categories that I'm wondering if they managed to leave any car unrecognized. I mentioned this list was coming in my post about their 'Worst Cars' list - so for the sake of completeness, here's a quick run-down of the plethora of categories and their winners (these are the actual names Forbes uses for the categories):
New Car That Most Lived Up To The Hype - BMW M5
Greatest Driver's Car - Ferrari F430
Greatest Driver's Car (yep, they named two) - Aston Martin DB9
Most Outrageous Car Ever - Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Best Reason To Buy American - Ford GT (Oh, come on, this is the best category name you could come up with? How about "best mid-engined performance bargin to blow away both of your 'greatest driver's cars'"?)
Best Way To Blend In With Celebrities - Bentley Continental GT
Best Way To Make Celebrities Jealous - Lamborghini Murcielago
Fastest Car - SSC Ultimate Aero
All-New But Still The Sub-$40,000 Gold Standard - BMW 3 Series (You would think they could they have tried harder to make this look like something other than a category invented just to give the 3-series a prize)
The Ultimate Executive Ride - Maybach 62
Ultimate Minivan - Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna (Apparently Forbes.com is too wishy-washy to actually pick a best minivan, or they just can't tell these two non-luxury brands apart.)
Ultimate Pickup - Dodge Ram SRT-10
Best All-Around Wagon - Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG (Strange, you'd think there'd be some other wagon category if there is this one for 'all-around' wagon - but there isn't.)
Best Selling Luxury Car (sic) - Lexus RX Note to Forbes.com - tall, two-box designs w/ AWD are typically called by a new-fangled name 'SUV' - not car.
Safest Car - Volvo S80
Best Hybrid - Lexus RX Hybrid (They liked the RX so much, they gave it two prizes.)
All told, a pretty fluffy piece of automotive journalism. Though, I guess that would be a bit too much to expect of a non-automotive magazine/web site.