Which company, above all others, made the most truly brilliant cars

[XS_Rich]

You're all wrong.

Answer me this. How many companies have actually made a car that could travel through time?

Just the one:

DeLorean.





On a more serious note, it's perhaps unfair to pick out the smaller companies as they don't face the same market pressures as the big boys, however...

I'd like to put a vote in for Caterham. Is there a Caterham model that doesn't paint a mile wide grin across your face?

[[XC] Oj101]

Mercedes until the 90s

[gallardo]

It's pretty difficult to choose. Ferrari has made good cars constantly. Lamborghini has made fantastic, wild cars for a while now. Mercedes made iconic models like the Gullwing and the SLR, Ford made the Model T and the GT40. Porsche made one great car, the 911... but they've been making it for 40 years. BMW has made fantastic driving machines, but nothing really, trully iconic.
Honda made fantastic little cars which were made iconic by the Fast&Furious crowd (Civic, S2000, etc).
Nissan with the Skylines and now the GTR...
Dodge with the Charger, Challenger and Viper.

It's impossible to choose. Until you really think about it and realize that there can be only one manufacturer of great cars: Rolls Royce. Every car they made was great.

[don_xvi]

Guys, M-B S-class. The current model alone has so much brilliance in it so as to trump everything that's been done before ! Here's a primer for you: http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/#/expl...V&vc=S&yr=2010

Rolls isn't a bad thought. But are they brililiant cars ? Or just the British equivalent of the 70s American living room on wheels ?

[trance565]

in america i would have to go with chevy, i mean, who else makes a 5.7-6.2 liter engine that gets 20+ city and 27+ frwy, and runs 12's stock?
aston martin is my fav euro brand, i love the db9 and dbs.
for the japo's i'd have to say nissan or toyo. the gtr is great, but i love the lexus brand as a whole, and the is-f is damn nice.

[Machinus]

I would choose lamborghini but they are not old enough to have made the "most" good cars. Honestly I think the germans will win this one.

[[XC]thewildblue]

Lotus, Jaguar, Land Rover...in fact if you look at landys, have any really failed, the freelander was a bit pants but still did what it said on the tin....defender is superb, rangie and disco arent bad either.

But I suspect that it may be lancia they choose as we saw some clips of them ripping round in an old stratos.

I would imagine it wont be anything american...or porsche as Clarkson isnt keen on them. Alfa may be in there as he loves them and they say your not a petrolhead unless you owned an alfa....

Caterham is a good call, but there are so many variants...hence the caterfield tag they all get lumped in.

[Kai Robinson]

Yep - i'd vouch for Land Rover as well. Aren't something like 85% of them EVER MADE are STILL out there doing what they were designed to?

I'd vote for Ford UK as well - they never produced anything MEGA fantastic, but they brought us the Cosworths...the Escort/Fiesta RS's and XR's, the Capri....the Granada - they had a car in every segment that was class leading. Vauxhall, at the time, looked like it was standing still, until about the 1990's when they brought out the Lotus Carlton *droooool*

[BlaZ1n.IVXX]

For me it's Ford/Carol Shelby era and the cars they made togeather. Like the 427 Cobra and Daytona Coupe.

[Starscream]

Brilliant is kind of difficult.

Like we al know the Lambo Countach and see it as a brilliant car.
We see it as brilliant cause of its looks and cause of the reputation it has as being the dream car of every boy/man back in the 80s.
But then again how many of us have actualy driven it?

On Top Gear they once talked about old Super Cars like the Countach and F40 and said that despite the Countachs rep it was actualy a very bad car.

Clarkson put it as Nice to look at but you wouldnt want to own one.


Id say Ford. Over the years they managed to perform in every sports clas and market.

[Hampti]

For me it's Ford/Carol Shelby era and the cars they made togeather. Like the 427 Cobra and Daytona Coupe.

Yohoo. My words. I want to say the same but Autocraft in combination with Ford/Shelby. Not only the 427 Cobra also the ACE and the 281 Cobra.
And my design award gone to Alfa Romeo.

[Jokester_wild]

Its hard to say, because so many companies have had proper cars and also lemons.

For example:
I like the Ford GT, but most of the other models from Ford are just garbage.

[MetalRacer]

I’m going with the manufacturer of the fastest production vehicle of all time Bugatti.

[trance565]

I’m going with the manufacturer of the fastest production vehicle of all time Bugatti.

koenegg beat them over a year ago i believe

[zanzabar]

Its hard to say, because so many companies have had proper cars and also lemons.

For example:
I like the Ford GT, but most of the other models from Ford are just garbage.

i dont know about that, as of now in the line they have to fusion, torus and the trucks that are great, they dont have anything bad, the only bad ones that i can think of are the 90's fiesta and the IIs (mustang and early bronco, the late bronco II was good), the focuses arnt that good anymore since they changed the platform but its being phazed out by the euro fiesta this year and that is a great small car.

[GTSRboy]

koenegg beat them over a year ago i believe

it was some american car that beat it by 1mph or something, called the ASC aero something something.

Im guessing Top Gear will pick some odd-ball company on sunday

[[XC] Lead Head]

Yep - i'd vouch for Land Rover as well. Aren't something like 85% of them EVER MADE are STILL out there doing what they were designed to?

I'd vote for Ford UK as well - they never produced anything MEGA fantastic, but they brought us the Cosworths...the Escort/Fiesta RS's and XR's, the Capri....the Granada - they had a car in every segment that was class leading. Vauxhall, at the time, looked like it was standing still, until about the 1990's when they brought out the Lotus Carlton *droooool*

Yeah sure, after you fix them - - for the third time - - - - - - that week.

[[XC] riptide]

Yeah sure, after you fix them - - for the third time - - - - - - that week.

Dam.. I always thought they were reliable. Although they have a rep for overturning easy when pushed hard on rough ground.

[[XC] Lead Head]

Dam.. I always thought they were reliable. Although they have a rep for overturning easy when pushed hard on rough ground.

At least here in America, they constantly get scored the worst on reliability, even below Chrysler is many cases. The way I understand it, its not really anything really major that goes wrong, but they are constantly in the shop for one minor thing after another.

[[XC]thewildblue]

The old landys do keep going, we had an old series 2 it was, close to 40 years old, would always start just kept on going. Wouldnt do much above 40mph though....hehe.

[shoopdawoopa]

Regular car- Audi
High end car- Lamborghini
Super car- Caparo

[Starscream]

it was some american car that beat it by 1mph or something, called the ASC aero something something.

Im guessing Top Gear will pick some odd-ball company on sunday

they wil probably come up with a good list of pros and cons of every manufacturer and then discard all of that and pick their favourit.

I doubt it will be a manufacturer that only makes super cars orso because they all got the 1 big flaw that most people cant afford them.

[Jokester_wild]

i dont know about that, as of now in the line they have to fusion, torus and the trucks that are great, they dont have anything bad, the only bad ones that i can think of are the 90's fiesta and the IIs (mustang and early bronco, the late bronco II was good), the focuses arnt that good anymore since they changed the platform but its being phazed out by the euro fiesta this year and that is a great small car.

Oh I was talking about the cars. My family has had Ford trucks all the time. I drive one currently. Best trucks in the world.

The new Ford cars seem to be improving allot. The older ones just didn't seem really quality. In Canada anyhow.

[[XC]thewildblue]

Hmmm what about radicals, ace trackday road legal cars that eat just about everything.....well 15mins and its top gear time !

[[XC] riptide]

Oh I was talking about the cars. My family has had Ford trucks all the time. I drive one currently. Best trucks in the world.

The new Ford cars seem to be improving allot. The older ones just didn't seem really quality. In Canada anyhow.

IN the UK and Ireland the Mondeo is very often a company fleet car. And a pretty good one by all accounts. I drove a nice Mondeo LX for a while. It needed a new pair of tyres every 3 months