With a ladder but
no snakes, the only
game in town is (^) snap
48 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 2 1 AUGUST 2019
Can these really be the five best
c a r s on s a le i n t h i s c ou nt r y? A l mo s t
certainly not, for that is not what
we set out to find. They are not the
greatest driver’s cars, nor the ones
that most exceed expectations, or
come from that curious confection
where cars appear to be without
reason somehow greater than the
sum of their constituent parts.
There’s only one superlative that
appl ie s t o t h i s g r oup: t he y ’r e si mpl y
t he c a r s w e l i k e b e s t.
Which is how you get to see a
Ford Fiesta and McLaren 600LT
sharing space on the same page.
How a four-door diesel saloon comes
t o du k e it out w it h a m id- e n g i ne d
two-seat coupé, and how the
presence of the perennially most
versatile sports car of them all comes
to brood over them.
That all qualify as ‘fun to drive’
should surprise few reading this
magazine. There are plenty of
cars we really admire that got
nowhere near even the top 50, let
alone this top five, because driving
entertainment didn’t make their
‘to do’ list. For us, enthusiasts to our
toe nails, to go top five you have to
go top fun, too.
Ta ke t he Fiest a. Yes, we’ve
c ho s e n a n ST a nd it ’s he r e i n it s
own right, but also to represent
all Fiestas. Last year, Ford sold 50%
more Fiestas in the UK than the next
best-selling car, a fact that makes
u s v e r y h app y. A nd , of c ou r s e , t h at ’s
because the car is attractive and
affordable to run and the deals are
good, but the repeat business must
i n s ome pa r t c ome f r om t he f u n it
provides. I know a district nurse
who has just given up a rival car for a
1.0-litre Fiesta and is utterly smitten.
She knows nothing and cares less
about cars but insists “I just really
like the way it drives”. And that is
e nou g h for Ford t o k now it h a s done
its job well.
Haring across Wales in the ST and
s e e i n g how e a si l y it k e e p s up w it h t he
pokier members of our happy band
is instructive, not to mention highly
entertaining. If you did the same
jou r ne y ba c k i n 1981 i n t he f i r s t f a s t
Fiesta, the original XR2, you’d see
`
Seeing how easily the Fiesta ST
keeps up with the pokier cars
here is highly entertaining
a
The top five shootout
t h at i n c h a r a c t e r, i f v e r y l it t le e l s e ,
not much has changed. There’s an
infectious cheerfulness about this
car, a willingness to be wrung out,
hurled, f lung and booted from
place to place.
More than any other here, it’s a
car you drive on its throttle pedal
because none is more inclined to
adjust its attitude according to its
opening. And, to us, that’s pretty
muc h t he de f i n it ion of f u n. G e t t he
car into the corner by keeping off the
ga s , le t t he ba c k go lo o s e i f t h at ’s w h at
it wants to do, because the moment
y ou’r e at t he ap e x a nd on t he p ow e r,
it all falls beautifully back in line and
you rocket away, grinning like a loon.
And that’s pretty much the reason
the BMW 320d has come from
nowhere to make the top five of
t h i s l i s t. W he n w e p e r for me d
this exercise last year and despite
excluding all cars costing more than
£50k, its predecessor didn’t even
make the top 10.
There’s plenty I’d choose to
criticise about the 320d: on sport
suspension, the ride quality sits on
the challenging side of comfortable,
the engine no longer has that bizarre
willingness to rev of previous four-
cylinder BMW diesels (blame WLTP,
I suspect), and if I was going to be ◊
A110 has the ability
to outshine faster,
pricier supercars
BMW 3 Series has
found its mojo as
a driver’s car