In the grand tapestry of 2024, one thing is consistent: everything is way too expensive. Inflation is down, not out, and the cost of everyday goods remains absurdly high. In the automotive world, new car prices rode that rocket to a peak of $49,771 for the country’s average transaction price in December 2022, a ridiculous 25% jump from just two years prior.
Since then, it’s come down a bit—about 2%, to be exact. That’s better than continuing to rise with inflation, but a plateau where the average person is shelling out almost 50 grand for a new car isn’t where we want to be. And sure, cars today are bigger, more capable, more efficient (sometimes), and more tech-packed than those from even five years ago. More for your money, they say, but you’re also spending more money, and are you really getting something of value in return?
This question was on our minds as we set about picking the nominees for The Drive Awards from the dozens and dozens of cars our team drove over the last 12 months. And I think it’s an important one, because value is such an adaptable word. Most of the finalists started over $50,000, so how can we celebrate these cars while calling for lower prices? Value. If you’re going to spend $57,000 on a midsize pickup—and plenty do—it damn well better be special, like the Ford Ranger Raptor is. If you’re going to spend $80,000 on an off-road luxury SUV, it has to be an unbeatable package like the Lexus GX. And if you’re going to spend $30,000 on a fun, fuel-sipping, faithful daily driver, it really should be The Drive’s Best Car of 2024: the Honda Civic Hybrid.
Following the Prius in 2023, this is the second year in a row where a cheap hybrid took top honors. I guess we have a type. But the reasons are actually pretty different. The Prius won because it paired a radical redesign with a tried and true powertrain right as EV sales slowed and interest in hybrids spiked. Meanwhile, the Civic Hybrid is a classy little economy car with a two-motor hybrid system delivering 200 horsepower and 232 lb-ft (that’s more torque than any other trim sans the Type R) and 49 mpg combined. I’d say that’s more for your money, and just an unbeatable value in today’s market.
Runner-Up: Ford Ranger Raptor, The Best Truck
Ford’s careful treatment of the Raptor brand over the last 15 years sets high expectations for any truck bearing its name, and yet the Ranger Raptor blows past them with astonishing ease. Between the right-size footprint and its “flattering to the novice and rewarding to the expert” manners, as the vehicle’s development manager put it to exec editor Andrew Collins during his test drive, it’s just a phenomenal all-rounder. I’ll let Andrew explain the context of the above photo:
“The beauty of Baja mode is that it doesn’t just cut all driver aids for you to spin tires into oblivion. It optimizes the vehicle’s responsiveness to all inputs for running in soft conditions at speed. Right in the first corner, where the first photo in this review was captured, I gave the truck a little boot in the gas and countersteered then came off-throttle … not particularly elegantly, but it felt spectacular. The engine’s anti-lag system kept the turbo boost up, so when I stepped back into power as I straightened out it was boiling instantly and slingshotting me ahead.”
More important: the value. Andrew’s conclusion was that at its mid-$50K starting price, it’s flat out one of the best deals on any kind of new performance vehicle period. It reminds me of the debut of the first F-150 Raptor back in 2010, back when the idea of a major manufacturer building a full-size Baja truck seemed ridiculous. The Ranger Raptor brings the same sense of discovering something special.
Runner-Up: Audi RS3, The Best Performance Car
I don’t think people appreciate how precious the Audi RS3 is. This is the most capable compact performance sedan on the market, and what it manages to do with an admittedly limiting form is breathtaking. The wickedly sharp chassis, rear-biased AWD, five-cylinder engine, and brutal grip add up to a sublime backroad carver that can handle a midsummer track day with ease and also transform into a regular A3 for your commute. It is the most fun car Audi makes since the R8 went down and easily the most worthy heir to some of the greatest Audis of the last 30-plus years.
I loved it when I sampled drift mode a couple of years ago, as did deputy editor Jerry Perez when he tested the latest version this year:
“The RS3 quickly jumped to the top of my list of favorite cars; but more importantly, it also now lives on the list of cars I would actually buy with my own money… On paper, the RS3 may seem like a lot of money for the ‘roided-up version of a compact Audi, but it’s so much more than that. Trust me.”
Also, the RS3 scored some bonus points for keeping the sedan flame alive. It’s our show, we can do that.
[Ed. note: The Audi RS3 also takes home the honor of being our Best Car People’s Choice winner. In a series of polls on The Drive‘s Instagram, it was the most popular finalist of this bunch. Congratulations, Audi. —CT]
Runner-Up: Lexus GX, The Best SUV
Lexus hits one into the upper deck with the new GX, which went from an anachronism to a totem of the future overnight. It’s got the best design to come out of the recent wave of retrofuturism because it’s not slavishly copying the past; instead it’s connecting the past to the future to make something fresh and familiar in a way that, I don’t know, makes me feel like things will be OK. Then you pair that with Lexus quality, a swank interior, and the off-road chops of the new Land Cruiser platform? For well under $100K? Sign me up.
The Lexus GX is a staff favorite around here, but it’s senior editor Caleb Jacobs who’s had the most exposure to it, driving a pre-production prototype in Japan in 2023 and recently testing a $70,000 GX Overtrail for a week in the Ozarks. At that lower trim, Caleb found it a far superior choice than any optioned-up dedicated off-roader because of the balance of luxury and capability it brings.
“I’m here to tell you that if you’re cross-shopping this thing with a spruced-up Jeep Wrangler or Ford Bronco, there’s simply no contest. Lexus every time. If your immediate response is to question those comparisons, press pause. I know that other car mags have pitted the GX against upscale trucks like the Land Rover Defender 110. Heck, the GX didn’t even win that match-up in Car and Driver. But that was a fancier Overtrail+ model with an as-tested price of $80,915. You can—and I’d argue, should—get into a regular GX Overtrail for $10,000 less. That’s when the value is best and the competition crumbles.”
Runner-Up: Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, The Best EV
Fun times, fun times. Hyundai’s winning streak with N performance continues unabated with the Ioniq 5 N, which is straight up the most entertaining EV you can buy. Apart from cost, the biggest hurdle EVs face with consumers is an identity. When the driving experience is so similar, design and tech can only go so far to substantively differentiate two basically-interchangeable electric crossovers. It’s going to feel hollow past a certain point.
That could’ve happened with the Hyundai Ioniq 5, but the N version gives it a fresh, wholly-deserved identity as an absolute goddamn riot. The trick is leaning into the simulation. It feels like it knows what it is in an era where automakers are stuck on defining their EVs, and performance EVs in particular, in opposition to gas cars. Different names, different sounds, all this talk of how much quicker the electric version is. It’s different but cool, you’ll see! The Ioniq 5 N shows what magic can happen when rewarding ICE enthusiasts with a familiar experience behind the wheel is the mission brief, not a reluctant add-on. Here’s an EV that burbles and does fake shifts and is fully capable of tricking your brain into doubting it’s actually an EV at all. Or if not, at least having a ridiculously good time. As reviews editor Chris Tsui said after lapping Laguna Seca in one:
“All of this is, of course, a complete and utter fabrication. A farce; a mere video game masquerading as real motoring. The Ioniq 5 N hoodwinks, the Ioniq 5 N bamboozles, the Ioniq 5 N leads astray, the Ioniq 5 N runs amok—the Ioniq 5 N flat-out deceives. However, for all its digitized, electric lies, the Ioniq 5 N might just be the greatest video game on Earth because when the rubber meets the road, it is extremely, almost disturbingly convincing. Honestly, if someone put me in this car blind and told me to judge it based on driving experience alone, I probably wouldn’t think it was electric at all.”
Winner: Honda Civic Hybrid, The Best Car
With value emerging as a winning trait, it was almost inevitable that the Honda Civic Hybrid would take the ultimate crown. It’s a perfect car for a huge swath of people: cheap to operate, easy on the eyes, fun to drive, and dependable as anything. The two-motor hybrid powertrain cribbed from the CR-V Hybrid is available in both the sedan and hatchback Civics, with further choice between the lower-cost Sport and high-end Sport Touring trims. Somewhere in those four versions is a Civic Hybrid for you, or if you’re not in the market, for the next person who asks you what car they should buy.
Another company might’ve plopped in the hybrid system with bare minimum accommodations and called it a day, but Honda retuned the suspension and strengthened the chassis to account for the increased weight (+282 pounds), power bump, and lowered center of gravity. Special attention was paid to making the regen brakes blend flawlessly with the friction pads. The e-motor hitting the wheels covers for the CVT by filling in at the low end and delivering strong, linear, EV-like acceleration. It’s planted and punchy and so much more composed than it needs to be. The value is unquestionable. As Chris said in his review, when he declared it the auto industry’s best shot at dethroning the Prius as the default inexpensive hybrid:
“Even before you compare it to anything else, though, the Civic Hybrid is an excellent car. Honda boasts that it is the most powerful non-Si, non-Type R Civic there’s ever been. As a daily driver, I’d argue that it’s also the best non-Si, non-Type R Civic there’s ever been.”
So, thanks to Honda for finally coming to, ditching the old Insight, and replacing it with The Drive’s Best Car of 2024.