Driving Top Picks: Our 20 favourite cars we drove in 2025 – driving.ca
Out of the dozens of new models we tested this past year, these 19 in particular stood out as some of the best
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We’re a diverse crowd here at Driving.ca, with diverse tastes: ask 10 of our writers and editors for a favourite car, and you’ll get 25 different answers. That’s not a joke, that’s pretty close to the actual arithmetic behind the list below. We asked 11 of our contributors to pick out which ride this past year they most got a kick out of, and, yeah, they just couldn’t choose, tallying up two dozen fave vehicles between them, if you include the classics they got a chance to wheel, too.
Stripping the older cars away and leaving just the new, they still landed on 20 or so new cars that really got their motors running in 2025. And that’s saying something. These authors drove somewhere between 15, 20, or 30 cars each over the past 12 months, so stand-outs are few and far between.
But here’s what they settled on, a truly diverse selection of cars from different segments, wearing different body styles, and powered by different drivetrains. Like I said, we’re a rather interesting bunch here at Driving. Do one of our faves line up with one of yours? Let us know in the comments below.
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I know this is about as cliché as it gets, picking the fast Audi wagon, but this was no gimme. I drove the Audi RS 6 Avant GT back to back with BMW’s M5 Touring, and to be honest, the RS 6 completely overshadowed the very responsible and technically advanced BMW. Whereas BMW piled on the weight with a plug-in hybrid system that improves efficiency and low-speed manners, weight is no friend of performance, so Audi went on an aggressive carbon-fibre weight-reduction campaign and slathered the swan song of this RS 6 generation super-wagon with a decal package paying tribute to one of the loudest and proudest Audi race cars ever.
3.63
out of 5
MSRP $52,190 to $110,125
3.80
out of 5
MSRP $33,685 to $45,305
3.80
out of 5
MSRP $52,250 to $76,900
3.80
out of 5
MSRP $36,975 to $43,375
3.25
out of 5
MSRP $24,520 to $32,840
The graphics drew all the attention, making me feel like an absolute rock star for the week, but the lighter weight and purely focused performance suspension made the GT a truly fabulous performance machine that felt engaging and fun to drive despite the lack of a third pedal and manual gearbox that would have been the coup de grâce for this incredibly rare special edition. Tip of the hat to the incredible photos by Elle Alder for this one, too!
Honourable mention also goes to the Jeep Wrangler 2-Door Rubicon that I got to drive through the Hell’s Revenge trail outside Moab, Utah. It was a bucket-list drive that showed me that the stock Wrangler capabilities are even wilder than I ever expected, and I was repeatedly wowed by the obstacles it simply walked right up and over.
The 2026 Toyota RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid got even more all-electric range and better fuel economy while being even more powerful than its predecessor. A neat trick only diminished by the fact it’s a Toyota, and we’ve come to expect such exemplary engineering from the world’s largest automaker. But what set it over the top is how much more refined the powertrain was. Previous Toyota hybrid-gas engines sounded like a can of marbles banging around in an oil drum that’s being pummelled in a cement mixer. Their performance and fuel economy might have impressed; their soundtrack not so much.
Now the things feels so darn sophisticated, it could be a sweet-singing Honda VTEC. Okay, not quite, but an amazing improvement nonetheless. Throw in a much-improved interior and that’s pretty much all the previous-generation RAV’s problems corrected. Oh, and Honda promises 80 kilometres of electric autonomy, but I managed 105 klicks in one urban crawl. Like I said, impressive.
I faced sensory overload when I jumped into the 2025 Range Rover Sport SV. It looks unbelievably cool without resorting to a silly “coupe-like” profile, and sounds even better thanks to its massive turbocharged V8. It takes off in an instant, and responds surprisingly well. Is it really a track-capable SUV? I don’t really doubt it, thanks to the biggest carbon-ceramic brakes I’ve ever seen, and some of the quickest shifts I’ve experienced in a two-tonne ride.
How could they stuff all this excitement into one ride? It’s silly, it’s fun, it’s loud and obnoxious, and I loved every chance I got to take it around; whether it was to drop off my kid at daycare, go around the block for some milk, or take a long road trip into the countryside, it was a fantastic experience that kept me smiling.
Quite a few of your favourite contributors here at Driving.ca are members of AJAC, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada. In addition to the week-long test drives we perform all year long, many AJAC members are also invited to TestFest, a rapid-fire test-drive event hosted by the association each October where we drive 15 or more cars over two days. (Think speed-dating, but with cars.)
This is what led to my 30-minute rendezvous with a BMW M2 CS, the most blissful dance I enjoyed this year behind the wheel. Sliding into the skin-tight bolstering in the driver’s seat feels like climbing into an anime-style mecha suit. You don’t drive this car so much as you become one with it; the eight-speed automatic delivers the 3.0-litre turbo inline-six’s 523 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque to the pavement as though it’s reading your mind. (It’s a shame the manual from the base M2 isn’t available on the CS, but such is life in 2025.)
As beautiful as the roads are in Ontario’s Hockley Valley, they could offer only the most tantalizing hints of the M2 CS’s enormous capability. Still, I’m grateful for even this briefest of encounters. As SUVs continue their incessant march, cars like this remind us of what it means to be alive.
Honda got flak from nerdy gearheads living in their parents’ basements over the new Prelude, thanks to a random and poorly produced YouTube video out of Japan that incorrectly suggested the thing would take over 9.0 seconds to accelerate from zero to 100 km/h. Rubbish. I drove a pre-production example that easily did the trick in a repeatable 7.3 seconds with cold tires on a frigid and rainy Detroit day. Any manufacturer should be applauded for producing a stylish coupe in this era of SUVs, and the Prelude, which has never been about outright speed, checks a lot of boxes.
Other winners? The new Ford Expedition for its dandy interior (which we hope is translated to the F-Series); the Dodge Charger Sixpack, for putting a real engine under the hood of that model; and the Toyota GR Corolla for being a surprisingly good road-trip companion.
Oh, decisions, decisions. Keeping in mind I’m a dedicated gearhead, let me offer a trifecta of vehicles for your consideration, depending on your automotive interests.
Most enjoyable EV: Without a doubt it was the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N. Even without its software trickery, it is an excellent AWD sport sedan, capable of tackling twisting roads with relish, or scorching pavement with its 600-plus-hp powertrain. Activate its N e-Shift software and the 6 N will fool you into believing it’s a gas-powered sports car. Simply amazing!
Most enjoyable sport coupe: BMW’s longstanding reputation for building “ultimate driving machines” is not what it once was. The M240i xDrive sport coupe goes a long way to restoring the company’s rep. It’s the smallest car BMW sells in Canada, but it’s one with a potent powertrain and an abundance of M goodies, imbuing it with a refinement that exceeds in recapturing the fun of its forebears.
Best really expensive SUV: Aston Martin decided its ferociously fun DBX707 and its mighty 697-hp twin-turbo V8 required a brawnier stablemate. Thus, the introduction of the DBX S (about $320K to start), its 4.0-litre boosted to 717 hp thanks to technology transferred directly from the Valhalla supercar. Keeping in mind the S is a 2,200-kg SUV and not a sports car, it offers inspiring handling. It will also hit 100 km/h in just 3.3 seconds, with a top end of 311 km/h.
I loved the old truck’s wheezy powertrain, but the new-gen Toyota 4Runner is a huge advancement over its predecessor. Though an admittedly niche product line, the TRD Pro’s new powertrain makes for an unexpectedly spritely everyday drive even before you start exploring the off-road readiness.
Rather fittingly (and more importantly to Canadians at large) the new Toyota RAV4 matches this with refinements on the same overall sensibility as in its prior generation, but with the benefit of standard hybridization that benefits economy and eases the strained-sounding clatter of the old 2.5-litre inline-four. This new RAV4 is a great example of how under-taxing a more powerful engine can afford a nicer drive no matter how you use it; that it also seems to improve so much else makes this classic go-to recommendation just that much better. This better win Utility Vehicle of the Year.
By far, my favourite car I drove this year was the Lexus IS. Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with the car itself, but rather its childhood-memories-inspired wrap. Seeing and hearing young children amaze at the rainbow colours is one of the highlights of my Driving career.
This is gonna sound like a real cop-out, but my highlight drive of 2025 was a quick canyon run in a Porsche 911. Well, of course it was. It’s a Porsche 911. It’s pretty hard to have a bad time in a Porsche 911, unless you have an unexpected encounter with a tree, a deer, or the unamused long arm of the law.
Thing is, this was a basic 911 with slim options, and I’d just got driving the Carrera S model. Also in the parking lot was the Carrera T, the stick-shift version intended to be the enthusiast offering at the lower end of the 911 scale. The base Carrera was a boring silver, less powerful than the S, and had but the two pedals. Nevertheless, it was excellent, and had weirdly been optioned with the long-range fuel tank. Think of the road trips!
In slightly more practical fare, the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally was hugely likeable over a week spent in domestic duties. Like the greatest rally hits from Mitsubishi and Subaru, it turned ordinary carpool and grocery runs into something fun, the Sega Rally theme music playing in my head the whole time. Right three over crest into parking lot.
In terms of vintage metal, highlights included the chance to drive a stately original Lexus LS400; a shortened Alfa Romeo Guilia sedan grafted to a Miata chassis; and a squadron of fast Euro Fords. The widebody Escort Mexico from that trio still haunts my dreams.
There is absolutely no question that the half-dozen cars I rode in or drove at Chrysler’s 100th anniversary event – including Walter Chrysler’s 1924 prototype, Lee Iacocca’s personal convertible, and one of the three or four still-running 1963 Turbine Cars out of the nine that even still exist – were my absolute favourites. But my editor knows they would be my picks, and so he specified “preferably new” cars that consumers might be able to drive as well. And so I will replace those antique-tin favourites with two impressive new vehicles that I piloted: the 2026 Honda Civic Hybrid and 2026 Hyundai Elantra Hybrid.
For one thing, I like hybrids overall. They’ve been around long enough that their once-futuristic gas-electric systems are now pretty much bulletproof; most of them are quite satisfying to drive; and of course there’s the fuel economy. With these two, I like that they’re sedans in a world of SUVs. Both are very well-done, with excellent ride and handling, and both are a pleasure to drive. And then the Elantra further impresses with a starting price of just $31,500, even though it’s the premium Luxury trim. Both are very worthy of this list.
This year there was a clear winner for me, although driving the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster was, and will remain, an enduring memory from 2025. It is a beautifully crafted Grand Tourer with equal measures of grace and pace!
However, earlier in the year I had the chance to track the Audi RS 3. It is an extraordinary machine with power and driving dynamics to spare. Audi’s 2.5L turbo-five twists out 394 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque anywhere between 2,250 and 5,600 rpm, so it pulls really hard across the power plateau. The engine drives all four wheels through a seven-speed twin-clutch transmission with blindingly quick shifts.
The secret weapon, however, is the RS Torque Splitter rear differential. It delivers real-time torque vectoring, which turns the RS 3 in with less steering input, less understeer and a much keener response. For good measure, the “RS Torque Rear” mode can send all of the power to one of the rear wheels, which allows the tail to be flicked out and held out there in a glorious tire-smoking drift!
All of this ability is underpinned by an adaptive suspension and speed-sensitive power steering that’s progressive and turns in with a rare tenacity. However, what makes the RS 3 so special is regardless of whether it’s challenging a twisty section of a race track, cruising suburbia, or running the highway, there is a mode and driving style for that environment—it is a full-on race car and a family car at the same time.
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