Reaching pole position: The Irish Examiner's top cars of 2024
Duster Examiner Of Year The Dacia Irish The Car
The annual – and much coveted – Examiner Motoring Car of the Year awards are with us. We look back at the cars we’ve driven over the past twelve months and pick the best of them.
There’s a couple of surprises here, so sit back and take it all in.
It has been a good year for Renault as you will see further down these columns, but we had an early run out on the latest version of the Clio back in January and quite the stunner it was.
Although only a facelifted beast, the latest Clio is a real head-turner (inside and out), has an excellent hybrid engine option, is wonderfully economical and has specification to burn.
It is also a really nice car to drive.
Much attention has been paid to the revised Renault 5 (not to mention the Renault 4 which has also been brought back to life) which we will see in the flesh here next year, but the Clio has been given an excellent lease of new life and with the Ford Fiesta no longer with us, it is closer to the top of the pile in the Supermini segment than ever.
The Avenger was not originally intended to run with anything other than electric power, Jeep (and many others) changed tack when EV sales plummeted during the course of this year.
Petrol and Hybrid options are now available in the range and will undoubtedly boost sales of the 2024 European Car of the Year.
Economic to run as well as on price point, the Hybrid we drove back in November added further gloss to a car already renowned for its good looks, awesome practicality and value for money.
The saloon segment has died on the vine in the face of the incessant SUV onslaught, but with this car VW showed it can still cut the mustard after the relative disappointments of the ID.3 and ID.4 models.
OK, so it might be more of a fastback than a saloon, but it is exceptionally large, supremely comfortable, great to drive and has a huge range by comparison with many of its SUV rivals.
It’s pricey, for sure, but it is possibly the best thing Wolfsburg has produced in quite a while.
The smallest SUV made by Lexus, the LBX is also one of the best things the marque has done in a while. As an entry level model to the brand, it might have been that the manufacturer shirked the luxury end of their modus operandi, but that was not the case here.
Although a different take on the closely related Toyota Yaris Cross (a gong winner here last year), Lexus were very careful to put their own unique stamp on it.
‘Sophistication’ is a key word here and the LBX just oozes it and when we drove it back in May we were really taken by the amount of magic dust Lexus had managed to sprinkle on what might have been a rather ordinary car.
This year will be a very big one for LBX sales and rightly so too.
Although Renault has not admitted as much, the Scenic has gone from being an MPV to an SUV, but the level of tech they have installed in the EV version of the car (including a battery with individually replaceable modules) and the overall sophistication of the design saw it deservedly win COTY awards all over the place.
This is as good an EV as we have yet seen, with excellent range, great get-up-and-go and comfort levels you would expect in much more expensive machines.
It is one of a generation of new cars from the French which are really making people sit up and take notice.
I’m predicting too that the excellent visual presence of the new Scenic will stand it in good stead rather longer than you traditionally expect from a Renault.
Quality is a tangible thing and this car has it in spades. Not alone is it a great looker, but it oozes class whatever way you want to look at it – from a design standpoint, from an EV aspect, from the practicality of it and from the astounding quality of the build and comfort levels.
A pleasing departure from the whole SUV thing, this estate will not alone take the eye out of your head with its achingly good looks, but it is fantastic to drive as well.
The range is a little bit ‘meh,’ but it is as honest an EV as is out there and if it tells you it is good to go for 400km, then generally it will do just that. It ain’t cheap but, damn, is it good.
It’s gotten bigger down the years as Honda’s SUV product line-up has expanded, but the latest CR-V is one of the smoothest and comfiest of its kind out there.
We tried the PHEV version and while not necessarily a speedster, it was engaging enough to satisfy demanding drivers and it will also impress with its economy too.
Not quite as big as some of the contenders in this class, it nevertheless has immense presence. It also has as solid a fanbase as any car you’re likely to find these days.
It has loyalty levels other manufacturers would kill for and owners, generally, are a very smug lot and only too willing to expound at length about how sensible they are for buying one. Try one out and you’ll see why.
One of the prettiest cars of any era, the new CLE might not be the most muscular coupe Mercedes has ever produced, but it is certainly one of the most beautiful.
A replacement for both the C-Class Coupe and the E-Class Coupe – killing two birds with one stone – the CLE might also be one of the last cars from the Stuttgart giant with an ICE under the hood.
With Mercedes planning to stop making petrol or diesel engines from next year, this one could be historic.
The one we had, the 220d, is the only diesel in the line-up and will probably be the big seller here in Ireland.
A Coupe diesel might seem a bit anachronistic, but this one is a ripper – as they say in Australia – and packs plenty of punch as well as excellent economy. Oh, and did I say it was good-looking? Yes, I did. And it’s worth repeating because this is a beauty.
We here at hate – let me repeat, hate – SUV Coupes. If ever a breed of car was thought up that was going to incite such passion, it is this one.
But this Renault gave us pause for thought. We have already noted that the ‘Regie’ is on something of a roll lately, both in terms of engineering and design with, it would appear, much left to come.
This is a big car, but something of a rarity given its graceful lines and the really neat design touches from the 3D grille to the LED lights in the seats (I swear).
The four-wheel steering and the hybrid propulsion system add a touch of engineering elan. But this is also a ridiculously practical machine and its raison d’etre as a family cruiser belies that damned coupe look.
The boot too is vast. But as a different philosophical take on an unliked genre, this beast is a welcome and beautifully left-field interpretation of a questionable automotive genre.
We’re being a little disingenuous here, describing this thing as a van, but that’s what VW have labelled it and sell it primarily through their commercial operation.
It is not really a van, although it can be. Rather it is the cutest thing on four wheels there is out there right now. The designers took their cues from the legendary VW Type 2 microbus and the Buzz is thus immediately recognisable and strikes a retro chord with anyone who happens upon it.
Nominally a five-seater with cargo capacity, but you can expect to see many variants springing up. It is overly expensive and it is also electric, neither of which characteristics will suit everyone, but it still manages to live up to its name because it really is a buzz.
Now this is a bit of a shocker. Not only because it has only hit Irish streets in recent weeks and will not truly impact the motoring scene here and elsewhere until well into the new year, but also because we’ve not yet had time to write a full appraisal in the paper.
Nevertheless, we have one at this very moment and from the second we set eyes on it, we knew it was the best Duster – ever.
Having gained a reputation for being hard-working and – most importantly – cheap, the Duster has found a happy home in many driveways, despite a public perception that it was made up of disparate bits from the (parent company) Renault’s used parts bin.
This belief was unfair and unwarranted, given the value for money it represented, but that’s the way it is in an upwardly mobile society.
Dacia has actually milked a zeitgeist among buyers who respect its values and care less about its ancestry. The new one is an eye-opener, however, and not only is it still ridiculously cheap by any standards, but it is now packed with clever design, has hybrid engine options and loads of spec.
Ok, so some of the styling might have been aped straight from the Land Rover playbook, but that only makes it look better value for money. It drives really well and has few vices I’ve been able to find. This is a massive step forward for the company and that will tell very shortly in its sales figures.
A bit of a gem, this one. It is also in line for next year’s European Car of the Year prize and I would not be shocked if it won it.
We’re just ahead of the posse.