Top 10 best cars for driving experience

• Covering: Acceleration, quietness of engine, smoothness of gearbox
• Winner: Toyota GR Yaris
• Score: 96.14%

Winning the ride and handling category and being declared as the best handling car is probably a necessary rite of passage for our best sports car, and the GR Yaris duly obliges. It does so in some style, too, with a first place for braking response, a second place for handling and third for overall driving pleasure. It’s not so good on ride quality, though, where that stiff suspension means the GR Yaris can only manage 27th. 

Counter-intuitively perhaps, it’s the Land Rover Discovery Sport which takes second in the category, including a first overall for driving pleasure and a second for steering response. It’s a useful reminder that these scores don’t objectively compare measurable parameters, but instead reflect the level of owner satisfaction with the performance provided. Owners clearly feel the Discovery Sport delivers exceptional ride and handling for a large SUV.

Third in the category table is the Citroen C4, which takes a first place for its smooth ride quality and a trio of seventh places for all the other category attributes, on its way to overall victory in the 2023 survey.

Your view

“Wonderfully engaging with amazing grip and traction. Fast enough, and as good as one could hope for these days, total fun.”

Ride and handling top 10

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