The 12 Best Cars, Trucks, SUVs and Motorcycles We Drove in 2024
BY ALEX LAUER , BENJAMIN HUNTING and BASEM WASEF
I have to be honest with you: most “best cars of the year” lists are just not that interesting to me. If you’ve got a panel of people voting on the cream of the crop, as some awards and automotive outlets do, then oftentimes it’s the least offensive models that rise to the top. Meanwhile, if you’re looking at the inventory of best-selling vehicles of the year to get an idea of what people are actually buying, you’re more accurately getting a picture of what vehicles were best positioned to sell. And I’ll be the first to tell you: the cars in my driveway weren’t acquired because they’re the best of the best.
So why should you even keep reading right now to see what Benjamin Hunting and Basem Wasef, two of our esteemed automotive correspondents, chose as the best vehicles they drove this year? For one, they drive a truly absurd number of new cars every year, across a huge swath of price points and vehicle types (from two-wheeled runabouts to six-figure supercars). Moreover, they test these newfangled machines the way you want them to be tested: Benjamin is often taking his loaners on long road trips and towing his race car with various trucks and SUVs to get a true sense of the utility, while Basem can usually be found doing triple-digit speeds on some hallowed racetrack or driving off-road over rocks and through the muck.
But most importantly, the vehicles they’ve picked as their favorites of the year are ones they’d actually like to own. Whether or not you have the garage space or the bank account to follow through on their suggestions is an open question — but if you do pick up the keys, we can guarantee good, nay, great times ahead.
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