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Since the start of 2008, no fewer than 524 new cars have been subject to our gruelling, industry-leading road test.
Over the course of those ten years our testers have deemed a sum total of 22 worthy of a perfect five-star verdict. Or, to put it another way, just 4.2 per cent of the cars we’ve tested in the last decade have been awarded a five-star rating. The Autocar five-star club is a very exclusive one indeed.
In this feature, we’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to put a five-star car on your driveway. There are supercars, of course, but also entry-level sports cars, SUVs, diesel saloons and even a three-wheeler. Naturally, a number of those 22 cars are fantastically expensive to buy - in more than one case you’ll be forking out far in excess of £1m.
The very cheapest car on the list, however, can be snapped up for as little as £8000, which proves an important point: you won’t need to rob a bank to nab yourself a flawless car.
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Ariel Nomad - Tested on 24.6.15
It might not have four-zone climate control, adaptive LED headlights or a suite of level three autonomy functions, but the Ariel Nomad is worthy of a five-star verdict nonetheless. You see, a five-star rating doesn’t necessarily indicate a perfect car. No vehicle that cheerfully slings mud in its occupants faces, as the Nomad does, could ever be described as perfect.
Instead, what a five-star score signifies is a car that is so roundly accomplished at the task it was designed for that we could find no good reason to mark it down. It’s called fitness for purpose. The Nomad is built to be a joy machine, pure and simple. Those chunky off-road tyres and the long travel suspension hint at muddy fields and rocky forest tracks - no mistake, the Nomad is in its element on the rough stuff - but Ariel’s second model is actually every bit as fun to drive on the road, or even a race track.
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Ariel Nomad - Tested on 24.6.15
As we wrote in our read test, ‘plenty of our testers would pick a Nomad to play with on a circuit before they’d consider a dozen high-profile sports cars and supercars’. It’s almost three years since the Nomad first went on sale, priced at £33,000. It’s still such a sought after car that you’ll have to search high and low to find a used example for sale today.
In fact, we could find only one, listed on Ariel’s own website. It’s a 2016 car that’s covered 2200 miles, with an asking price of £54,995. Evidently, you’ll save money by ordering a new car and sticking your name on the end of the 14-month waiting list. Oh, and it might be prudent to factor in the cost of a few hectares of farmland to that purchase price.
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Bentley Bentayga Diesel - Tested on 5.4.17
It’s only been 12 months since the diesel Bentayga was put through its paces in our road test, so you won’t save a huge amount on the £135,800 asking price for a new car.
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Bentley Bentayga Diesel - Tested on 5.4.17
We did find an early car with 4000 miles behind it up for £127,950, however.
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BMW 320d Sport - Tested on 22.2.12
According to our own definition, a five-star rating can be awarded to a car that is ‘brilliant, unsurpassed. All but flawless.’ Back in 2012 that’s exactly what we thought of the BMW 320d Sport, despite it having one or two minor shortcomings.
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BMW 320d Sport - Tested on 22.2.12
Six years later, they start at around £8000. The vast majority of 320ds BMW sold were EfficientDynamics models, so you’ll trawl through dozens of those before finding a Sport. Persevere, though, and there’s a good selection of well-cared for, if slightly leggy, examples with four-figure asking prices.
The ‘N47’ diesel engine can be prone to timing chain problems, so check the car’s history to be sure the chain has been replaced.
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Ferrari 458 Italia - Tested on 18.8.10
‘A landmark car’ was how we described the Ferrari 458 Italia eight years ago. We took issue with the lack of a manual transmission and the rather punchy asking price - at £178,000 it cost £50,000 more than the F430 it replaced - but otherwise, we had only praise for the Ferrari’s latest V8 berlinetta. 'It can hold its own in handling terms with some of the best-handling cars we’ve ever driven,’ we wrote, ‘while its performance is at a level that matches, and in many cases beats, hyper-expensive and hyper-exclusive supercars from not that long ago.'
In fact, it was the 458 Italia that sparked today’s supercar power race. Rated at 562bhp, the 458 outgunned its predecessor by almost 80bhp, and from there the exponential bhp leaps just kept on rolling in; see the turbocharged Ferrari 488 GTB, with 661bhp, and more recently the McLaren 720S, good for 710bhp.
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Ferrari 458 Italia - Tested on 18.8.10
Getting on for a decade after it was first unveiled, the 458 has held its value remarkably well. There are left-hand drive cars in the UK being offered for less than £120,000, but if you want a right-hooker you’re looking at £140,000. Feedback from owners suggests the 458 is one of the most reliable Ferraris ever built - which explains, in part at least, its strong residual values - with no major problems being widely reported.
No mid-engined supercar will be cheap to run - expect a set of tyres to cost £1000 - but the 458 was offered from new with a number of transferable maintenance packages. Annual servicing costs may still be covered by the seven-year Ferrari Genuine Maintenance programme, while many used 458s still have warranty cover; owners can pay to extend the warranty each year until the car is 12 years old.
ANDREW FRANKEL: Among those I’ve spoken to who’ve driven both I am in a minority of one who preferred the Italia to the Speciale. It was 95 per cent as good to drive, which meant it was bloody brilliant, but quiet and comfortable enough to want to use all the time. The best looking Ferrari of modern times too.
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Ferrari 458 Speciale - Tested on 20.8.14
The Ferrari 458 Italia may have been a benchmark car that set new standards for the supercar sector, but the very instant the intoxicating 458 Speciale arrived, the Italia seemed about as desirable as food poisoning (unless you're Andrew Frankel). The problem was, the harder, faster Speciale wrapped its fingers around your adrenal gland and squeezed so hard that it immediately became the only 458 you ever wanted to drive.
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Ferrari 458 Speciale - Tested on 20.8.14
So special was the Speciale, in fact, it actually caused our road testers to wonder if ‘Maranello will turn out anything quite like it ever again’. What was a £250,000 car four years ago is actually closer to £300,000 today. That’s how sought-after the Speciale has become.
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Ferrari 488 GTB - Tested on 25.5.16
The Ferrari 488 GTB doesn’t match the Speciale for outright thrills (that’ll be a job for the forthcoming 488 Pista) but with 661bhp it's significantly faster.
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Ferrari 488 GTB - Tested on 25.5.16
The 488 lists at £183,000, but demand is still so strong that even two-year old cars with a few thousand miles behind them are fetching £200,000 on the used market.
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Ford Focus RS - Tested on 4.5.16
The third-generation Ford Focus RS isn’t without its fair share of shortcomings - the engine is no better than average, the low speed ride is tight and the driver’s seat is set far too high - but these were all things we were happy to overlook. Simply put, we reckoned the RS was ‘the most fun you can currently have in a hot hatchback’.
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Ford Focus RS - Tested on 4.5.16
Values have hardly slipped in the year and a half the car has been on sale - you’ll still pay £26,000 for a 15,000 miler - and that’s despite many owners reporting head gasket failures. Ford has responded by offering a free repair for any car built between August 2015 and July 2017.
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Jaguar XFR - Tested on 27.5.09
Back in 2009, the Jaguar XFR brought a level of performance, dynamic ability and long distance comfort to the super saloon sector that we simply hadn’t witnessed before.
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Jaguar XFR - Tested on 27.5.09
The best part of a decade later it’s been surpassed in every one of those areas, but the XFR is arguably one of the best value cars in this entire list. Today, you can pick one up for £12,000.
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McLaren P1 - Tested on 7.5.14
When McLaren first unleashed the P1 several years ago, the company’s stated aim was for its hybrid hypercar to be the best driver’s car in the world. This wasn’t some hushed-up, need-to-know internal objective. In fact, McLaren announced this goal to the entire world. Talk about setting yourself up for a fall.
Will history remember the P1 as the best driver’s car of its era? It’ll make the shortlist, no doubt, but the trouble for the P1 - not to mention McLaren’s somewhat cocksure ambition for it - was that it arrived at more or less the same time as the Porsche 918 Spyder and Ferrari LaFerrari, a pair of similarly powerful, similarly expensive hypercars that were almost certainly built with the same objective in mind.
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McLaren P1 - Tested on 7.5.14
Independent tests found the P1 to be the fastest of the trailblazing trio around a circuit, but that hardly equates to it being the world’s best driver’s car. We may have stopped short of endorsing McLaren’s claim - though we didn’t rule it out completely - but the P1 did blow our testers away with its enormous performance, high-quality finish and remarkable agility. We concluded by saying, ‘if we had 100 cars, there would be many days when only a P1 would do.’
Given its limited build numbers - just 375 P1s were ever sold - and unqualified hero status it’s little wonder the hypercar fetches somewhat more than its £866,000 original asking price today. In fact, you’ll need to spend around twice that to get one. There is one more unanswered question that surrounds the P1 as it enters its adolescence, however; will the deterioration of its batteries over time - and, perhaps, the need to replace them at enormous cost - prevent values from soaring any higher?
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McLaren 570S - Tested on 30.3.16
It might give up more than 300bhp, an electric motor and a stack of batteries to the P1, but the McLaren 570S really does deliver a good chunk of the hypercar’s driving experience. The basic carbon fibre tub is shared between the two cars, of course, and so is the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine architecture. The 570S feels monstrously quick in its own right, too, and it steers with all the precision of the P1.
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McLaren 570S - Tested on 30.3.16
That's extremely good news for those of us who’ll never be able to afford a P1. The 570S isn’t exactly swapping hands for pocket change, but with early cars trading for £130,000, you’ll pick one up for a tenth of the price of a P1.
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McLaren 720S - Tested on 24.5.17
By toppling the mighty Ferrari 488 GTB, the McLaren 720S shot straight to the top of the supercar class and became the third Woking wonder to clinch a five-star rating.
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McLaren 720S - Tested on 24.5.17
‘The McLaren has now taken the crown,’ we wrote a year ago, ‘and lauds it over the 488, Ford GT, Lamborghini Aventador S and Huracan LP610-4.' Today, pre-owned cars start at £230,000.
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Mercedes S-Class - Tested on 16.10.13
We may have had one or two reservations about the Mercedes S-Class, but, as we wrote at the time, none of them had anything to do with ‘performance or fitness for purpose.’
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Mercedes S-Class - Tested on 16.10.13
The five-star verdict applied across the range, but today it’s the S400 Hybrid that offers the best value; you’ll pay £34,000, half its original value.
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Morgan 3 Wheeler - Tested on 6.6.12
Rather like the Ariel Nomad, the Morgan 3 Wheeler proves that a demonstrably imperfect car can nonetheless earn a perfect rating. You’ll take stones to the forehead and get bugs in your teeth - and if there’s a strip of loose gravel along the centre of your lane, swept in place by all those pesky four-wheeled cars before you, it’ll oversteer like a drift car - but you’ll never stop grinning.
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Morgan 3 Wheeler - Tested on 6.6.12
The 3 Wheeler cost a little over £30,000 when it was new several years ago. Has it plummeted in value like a wire-spoke wheel rolling down the side of a Malvern Hill? Hardly. Prices start at £28,000 for six-year old cars.
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Porsche Cayman GT4 - Tested on 23.9.15
The Cayman GT4 is the car that, for a long time, Porsche said it would never build. When it did eventually arrive in 2015 the GT4 won accolades across the globe. There are a handful of factors that will ultimately stop it from being as revered as any 911 GT3 you care to mention, however.
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Porsche Cayman GT4 - Tested on 23.9.15
For one thing, its 911 Carrera-sourced 3.8-litre engine was sweet, but no match for a GT3 motor. The hardcore Cayman was built in relatively large numbers, too, and - most significantly of all - it just isn’t a 911. Values are holding firm at £80,000; roughly what the GT4 cost when new.
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Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) - Tested on 12.5.10
Some say the second-generation 997 GT3 RS is the best of the lot. It was the last of the breed to feature a manual gearbox, hydraulic steering and the buzzsaw-like Mezger flat-six, three reasons why they’re so in demand to this day.
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Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) - Tested on 12.5.10
ANDREW FRANKEL: Surely noone would argue the 911 was the greatest sports car of all and of all 911s this RS was the greatest of the great. I drove one in Scotland last year and still could not think of a single thing I’d change. Engine, steering, gearbox, chassis... it really did have it all. Eight years on from its launch, the GT3 RS fetches £160,000.
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Porsche 911 GT3 RS (991) - Tested on 19.8.15
It may have ripped up the patented GT3 RS blueprint with all the recklessness of a common vandal spray-painting over Banksy original, but, somehow, the 991-era 911 GT3 RS got away with it. Out went the manual gearbox in favour of a twin-clutch item and gone was the Mezger engine. Even the steering junked hydraulic assistance in favour of EPAS. The ride and handling magic, however, was very much still intact.
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Porsche 911 GT3 RS (991) - Tested on 19.8.15
‘The GT3 RS is truly outstanding and deserves our categorical praise,’ is what we wrote at the time. Today, you won’t pick one up for less than £190,000.
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Porsche Cayman 981 - Tested on 24.4.13
The original Porsche Cayman, launched in 2005, was a very difficult car to find fault with, but its slightly limp styling and total lack of visual tension was every bit as hard to overlook; the mid-engined coupe wasn’t exactly a stunner to behold. The second-generation ‘981’ model, which arrived eight years later, was every bit as brilliant to drive, but it had the appearance of a junior supercar; there was purpose in those haunches and muscle in those flanks.
In awarding the Cayman a five-star rating, we noted, ‘it may not be the quickest sports car on your shopping list, but for those whose tastes are mature enough to care less about how fast they go than how they go fast, the Cayman makes for an utterly dominant class champion.’ That perfect score applied to both the entry-level 2.7-litre version and the 3.4-litre S, which meant you needn’t have stretched for the more expensive model to enjoy the Cayman at its best.
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Porsche Cayman 981 - Tested on 24.4.13
That remains true to this day. The S is faster, of course, but that doesn’t make it more rewarding to drive. The 2.7 is significantly more affordable now, however, with prices starting at £29,000 compared to £36,000 for the 3.4.
You’ll read countless scare stories of terminal engine failure relating to the original Cayman. Of this later version, there are no such worries. In fact, there aren’t any serious problems being reported whatsoever. What you should look out for, then, is any sign of abuse, shoddy maintenance or accident damage. It’s worth checking out the tyres, too; a diligent owner will only fit Porsche-approved tyres, denoted by N1, N2, N3 etc markings on the sidewall.
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Porsche 918 Spyder - Tested on 22.10.14
Of the three hybrid hypercars that were launched in parallel half a decade ago, it’s the Porsche 918 Spyder that’s the most affordable today. Affordable is, of course, an entirely relative concept.
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Porsche 918 Spyder - Tested on 22.10.14
You’ll still need £1.2m. The 918 earned its five stars thanks to staggering straight-line pace and massive - yet accessible - circuit performance.
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Porsche Panamera 4S Diesel - Tested on 1.2.17
‘Still not exactly beautiful’ is how we described the new Porsche Panamera. In just about every other respect, though, it was beyond criticism.
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Porsche Panamera 4S Diesel - Tested on 1.2.17
Our preference was for the 4S Diesel, which has since been cut from the line-up. Used cars can be picked up from £73,000, though.
ANDREW FRANKEL: The number on the readout seemed so implausible I had to do the test again. But there it was: 9.3 seconds after first turning a wheel this diesel powered car was doing 100mph. When I started in this business there wasn’t a diesel that would reach half that speed in that time. What a shame so much nonsense spoken about diesel has denied the public this incredible car.
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Range Rover Sport SVR - Tested on 15.4.15
By earning a perfect five-star rating the Range Rover Sport SVR - the very first model from Special Vehicle Operations - proved that Jaguar Land Rover’s newly-formed department had hit the ground running.
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Range Rover Sport SVR - Tested on 15.4.15
Having cost £96,000 when new, the earliest cars are valued at £68,000 today.
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Rolls-Royce Phantom - Tested on 4.4.18
Our most recent recipient of a five-star road test verdict, the new Rolls Royce Phantom is, in the words of our testers, ‘the best car in the world'.
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Rolls-Royce Phantom - Tested on 4.4.18
It starts at £360,000, but if it follows the trajectory of its predecessor it’ll shed value in the coming years like a Fabergé egg drop-kicked into an open sewer.
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Toyota GT86 - Tested on 4.7.12
Only the BMW 320d Sport is more affordable than Toyota’s lightweight coupe in this list today, although the BMW can hardly be described as a sports car. With the GT86, Toyota demonstrated that even a real-world performance car can be so expertly judged, so precisely fit for purpose, that it can merit a five star rating.
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Toyota GT86 - Tested on 4.7.12
‘The Toyota GT86 is a gem,’ we wrote in our road test, ‘and we adore it’. Several years have passed since the ’86 was first launched, which means values are creeping steadily downwards. For now, prices start at £12,000. For ‘the affordable performance car we’ve all been waiting for’, that really is a bargain.
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