The Irish Times top 50 cars for 2021

• Author: Neil Briscoe, Michael McAleer
• Published date: 25 November 2020

So here are our top 50 cars for 2021. We're sure you're going to disagree.

Not all carmakers and importers have yet completed their price lists for the new motor-tax and VRT regime that begins in January. We have attempted to provide the most up-to-date pricing for each model possible, but please regard all prices as indicative rather than as absolute.

50. Kia Niro

You could accuse the Kia Niro of being a touch bland to look at. Certainly, if it were parked between the much more striking e-Soul and the smart-looking Proceed or XCeed in a Kia showroom, you'd possibly struggle to pick the Niro out. But it's one of those cars that are better under the skin than they are on top. You can have it as either a plug-in hybrid (the old plain hybrid model has been dropped) or as a fully electric car, and both have their charms. The fully electric model, with its big, 64kWh battery, will easily travel between, say, Dublin and Cork on a single charge of the battery (it has a quoted range of 420km), so takes the range anxiety out of electric motoring (assuming you can charge at home). The plug-in hybrid version is for those who want to dip a toe in the electric-car market without full immersion just yet: charge it up and it'll go 65km on its battery, but it also has a normal petrol engine for longer journeys. Pleasingly, it doesn't get too thirsty when running as a hybrid: 4.5 litres per 100km is possible. Fun to drive? Not really, but it's roomy and satisfying, so focus on the ecofriendliness instead.

Best model: e-Niro 64kWh Long Range, for €37,634.

Price range: €31,850 to €37,634. Finance from €338 per month.

CO2 emissions: 0g/km to 31g/km.

Summed up: Lacks for thrills but has small bills.

49. Ford Mustang

The Ford we're waiting for, possibly the car for which we're most on tenterhooks in 2021, is the Ford Mustang Mach-E, an all-electric SUV with styling pinched from the Mustang Coupe, which wants to take on Tesla at the top of the electric-car world. However good (or bad) it proves to be, there will always be one caveat to this new electric star: it's not a proper Mustang. Then again, few cars are. You can make so many arguments against the Mustang. That it's cheap inside but expensive to buy. Fast but not especially fluent. Impractically small in the back. Shown up by the likes of a BMW 4 Series or Porsche Cayman dynamically. That, with a choice of a 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo or a 5.0-litre V8, it's hardly at the cutting edge of engine development. That it's, bluntly, a rock ape of a car. All true, and all entirely missing the point. The unending appeal of the Mustang is down to that muscular shape, that V8 whoofle, that sensation of sheer joy as the next gear in the hefty-feeling manual gearbox (please don't buy an automatic Mustang…) slots home. Crude? Yes. Old fashioned? Absolutely. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Best model: Mustang Bullitt, for €79,935.

Price range: €52,201 to €79,935. Finance from POA per month.

CO2 emissions: 204g/km to 287g/km.

Summed up: Outmoded, outdated, out of time. But never out of our hearts.

48. Aston Martin DBX

Yes, the DBX is yet another in the long list of recent high-end SUVs with large, profligate engines and sybaritic cabins. Clearly, the world's carmakers have cottoned on to the fact that the 1% like sitting up high and going fast, and by gum they're going to fill that need. The thing is, the DBX feels a little different from most. Unlike, say, the Porsche Cayenne, or the Lamborghini Urus, or the Bentley Bentayga, it doesn't use a cast-off Volkswagen platform. Instead it uses Aston Martin's own, bespoke aluminium-and-carbon chassis, which makes it feel far more agile and far lighter on its toes (well, for a 2.2-tonne SUV) than those rivals. It's properly fun to drive but also refined and soothing on a longer run. The big black mark against it is that, right now, there's only a single 4.0-litre V8 engine option (lovely though that is, sourced from Mercedes-AMG). The better news is that plug-in hybrid and, eventually, fully electric versions are on the way. Hugely roomy inside but perhaps not quite so well made as a Bentley. Styling is conspicuously sexy – ignore those who say it's just a posh Ford Kuga.

Best model: Only one for now.

Price range: Circa €280,000 imported. Finance from POA per month.

CO2 emissions: 323g/km.

Summed up: Room for Bond and half of Spectre.

47. Audi Q3

Audi's midsize crossover is a surprisingly decent device. We say surprisingly because the original Q3 was very far from being one of our favourites. It was a little dumpy to look at and rather tight on space in the back. This time around Ingolstadt has made no such mistake: the Q3 looks sharp on the outside and has plenty of room on the inside. Indeed, you'd start to wonder if it's worth the extra outlay to upgrade to the larger Q5. You'll especially wonder that when you've driven the Q3, as it's really quite good – not a tall hot hatch or anything, but willing and precise. The 1.5-litre turbo petrol TSI engine is the sweet spot of the range, providing plenty of power yet getting good economy on longer journeys. The Q3 also has the benefit of having a cabin that looks smooth and sleek rather than the slightly overdesigned interior of its closely related brother, the new A3 hatch and saloon. The chopped-top Sportback version is actually very appealing, and we normally don't care for such SUV-coupé-type things.

Best model: Q3 Sportback 35 TFSI S-Tronic SE, for €42,690.

Price range: €39,400 to €57,155. Finance from €330 per month.

CO2 emissions: 144g/km to 206g/km.

Summed up: A truly satisfying compact SUV.

46. Tesla Model X

The big Tesla is as brilliant as it is frustrating. Or perhaps that should be as frustrating as it is brilliant. No one else has yet cracked Tesla's code for getting as much range out of its batteries, so if you want to have an electric car, right now, that can cope with pretty much any journey you throw at it, then the Model X is probably your best bet. It helps that Tesla's own-brand "Supercharger" charging network makes most national networks look pretty hopeless in terms of speed, availability and reliability. Then there's the sheer level of drama and entertainment, from the Star-Trek-like "falcon" doors that open up and out, to the games and even the whoopee-cushion fart noise built into that vast central touchscreen. Oh, and let's not forget the Porsche-bothering 0-100km/h times, either. Then come the frustrations, though. Persistent quality glitches. Annoyingly uncomfortable seats. The top-heavy handling and ride. The persistent overselling of the Autopilot system, which no matter what Tesla says is just cruise control with knobs on. The sensation that you're almost buying into a cult as much as you're buying a car. Still, though: spend a happy morning bothering BMWs away from the lights before topping up the batteries at a super-rapid Supercharger and you'll see that this is closer to the future of motoring than most.

Best model: Model X Long Range Plus, for €89,490.

Price range: €89,490 to €104,990. Finance from €1,338 per month.

Electric range: 548km to 561km.

Summed up: Brilliant in many areas, bloody annoying in some.

45. Dacia Duster

If you're not buying your Dacia Duster in absolutely bog-basic spec – white paint, with steel wheels and not a single adornment – you're doing it wrong. Yes, the Duster, in this second-generation form, has become much more sophisticated, with versions that even come with leather trim (!), a touchscreen (!!) and a surround-view camera (!!!), but the whole point of the Duster is that it's cheap, simple, rugged motoring. So do yourself a favour and forget any notions of blinging one up: just buy the simplest, cheapest Duster there is. For less than the price of a basic Ford Fiesta you can have a Duster with all the bits you need (daytime running lights, Isofix child-seat points, trip computer, air conditioning, plenty of airbags, a speed limiter and roof bars) and none of the stuff you don't. Plus, because Dacia has ramped up the Duster's sophistication under the skin, you now get the nice 100hp three-cylinder petrol turbo engine, from the Renault Clio, on that cheapest model, not the wheezy old 1.6-litre petrol you'd have previously been saddled with. Is it fun to drive? Aspirational? Capable of inducing jealousy in a neighbour? No, but that's not the point. It's transport, basic, simple transport, and for that price you'll not be complaining.

Best model: Duster 1.0 TCe Essential, for €17,946.

Price range: €17,946 to €25,138. Finance from €149 per month.

CO2 emissions: 128g/km to 149g/km.

Summed up: Simple is as simple does.

44. Mazda MX-5

When the final history of the motor car comes to be written, a whole chapter is going to have to be set aside for the Mazda MX-5. The little roadster from Hiroshima has been around since the first Bush administration (for those who like measuring things in US presidencies), yet right now we need it more than ever. With a triple whammy of legislation, environmental pressure and autonomous tech threatening to forever remove the fun from motoring, the MX-5 – better in its current, fourth generation than it's been since that pop-up-headlight original – remains a perfect touchstone of distilled motoring. It's fantastically good to drive, with steering, suspension and grip working in near-perfect harmony, but can be had with a delightful little 1.5-litre engine that isn't going to put much of a dent in anyone's iceberg. It's practical enough to use every day yet feels right at home on a racetrack. And, by driving one to the frozen northernmost tip of Norway in the dead of winter, we've proved that it's as versatile as any 4x4.

Best model: MX-5 1.5 Roadster, for €31,345.

Price range: €31,345 to €36,945. Finance from POA per month.

CO2 emissions: 142g/km.

Summed up: The sports car, distilled.

43. Volvo S60/V60

Although, like so many other brands, Volvo is concentrating ever more on its SUV and crossover...