There is no better cure for what ails us than a long drive in the country. We take a lot of them, but none longer and more rewarding than the week we spend as a team with the best cars in the world. This year, we took a day to drive our Automobile of the Year and All-Stars candidates down to Kentucky and another day to get them back. The three days spent in between, on the rural roads of Kentucky and Tennessee, were simply exhilarating. The best cars, the best roads, the best people-what could be better?
The weather, for one thing. But after Florida's tag-team hurricanes and the rest of the country's cold, wet summer, it would be churlish to complain about a downpour every now and then. Every single day, actually. Frankly, the Brits among us never noticed, and I had the wide-open Lotus Elise in the dry. (Perhaps it was the rain that reminded us what a fair-weather friend the Elise would be. Otherwise, the sheer joy of driving it may have swept us right away.)
There are certainly more great cars out there than the handful to which we awarded trophies (see page 44). As far as I'm concerned, any car that was honored with an All-Star vote from one of my esteemed colleagues is worth owning, especially this year, when we've cut the number of awards by 30 percent.
The Mazda 3, a driver's car with the world's most perfect shifter and the second-highest vote getter for Automobile of the Year, comes to the top of the must-drive list. Experience the love on page 57, and understand it all. Mini Cooper lovers gave it a run for the title.
Another Mazda, the lovely 6, almost took the Family Car class for the third year in a row, but a surprise winner came to the fore. There were some other heavily contested battles. The Porsche 911 was a ferocious contender for Sports Car. You could say that the independents who voted for the Boxster split the Porsche vote, allowing a new champion to emerge (page 59).
The battle for All-Star Pickup raged between last year's winner, the Nissan Titan, and both the Dodge Ram and the Ford F-150. All were beaten by a brand-new player in a new size . . . well, that's on page 62.
Interestingly, the only vote getters in the Coupe category were BMWs-the perennial favorite 3-series (a big player in Luxury Car, too) and the much-appreciated 6-series-though the M3, a car that has a trophy case of its own dedicated to All-Stars awards, took the landslide victory.
The most difficult balloting came when it was time to decide the All-Star SUV. Not only did we roll three categories-small, mid-size, and large-into one, but it's also the biggest group from which to choose a winner. In the end, the be-all, do-anything Land Rover Range Rover came in second, with mentions going to the BMW X5, the Ford Explorer, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Porsche Cayenne, and the Volvo XC90. Just goes to show you how differently each of us likes our utility delivered up.Other cars we loved enough to cast votes for: Audi S4, Infiniti G35, Jaguar XJ8, Mercedes-Benz C55 AMG and S-class, Nissan Quest, and Volvo S40.
That ought to give you a pretty comprehensive shopping list in every possible category into which your dream machine might fall. We stand by these recommendations.
Lastly, we had so many great candidates for Man of the Year that we've formed an All-Stars slate of very important players, from racing drivers who blow our minds to captains of industry who make a difference where we think it counts.
You should have been there. But then, we'd have been arrested for sure. Feeling magnanimous, we've decided to share a teensy bit and let you in on one of Automobile Magazine's favorite driving legs in Tennessee, a set of roads described in detail starting on page 46, and presented in road-rally form at automobilemag.com for you to download.
You're welcome. Watch for dogs, don't harass the locals, and try not to get a ticket. Oh, and try the cake at Sherrie's in Spencer. It's heavenly.