Carbuyer UK is a publication based mainly on the consumer. Usually, auto journalists choose cars over one another over a tenth of a second difference in 0-60 times. This is largely a useless metric for actually consumer advice, being that on the road, in real life, no one will ever notice that difference. However, real consumers will notice comfort, practicality, interior storage, fuel economy, price and, most importantly, fun. So the folks over at Carbuyer came up with a video of the top ten best sports cars currently on the market today, based on these basic metrics.
If you’ve ever seen a Carbuyer video review, they’re largely pragmatic. They don’t tend to rely on the typical numbers game and rarely talk about 0-60 mph times. It’s typically how the car feels, how it is to drive, how practical it is and how fun it is, all relative to cost. So you’re getting real consumer advice, not just gearhead advice which, as much fun as it is, is relatively useless.
Sports cars typically are judged by these useless metrics, however. So, often times, it can be difficult to choose the proper sports car. One magazine might say “Sports Car A is better than Sports Car B because it’s faster by two tenths of a second in the quarter mile and is more exciting on a twisty switchback that are so incredibly common in the US” (If there was a sarcasm font, that last bit would have had it). But that doesn’t really matter to Average Joe Sports Car Buyer, because those are unusable performance metrics. What sports car buyers need to know is the “smiles per dollar” metric. Which car is the most fun while providing the best practicality for a reasonable price, that’s what car buyers need to know and that’s what this video provides.
Being a sports car list, naturally, BMW is going to be on it. And the Bavarians do make the list. Two of them to be exact. Coming in at number 10 is the BMW M4. It’s fast, fun and relatively usable everyday. In fact, it is no less usable than the average coupe, but it puts down performance numbers of supercars from a decade ago. It’s a fantastic overall car. The only thing that knocked it really was the noise, as it’s not very exciting sounding. That’s true, it isn’t the best sounding sports car in the world, but I think it should be higher than 10, as it provides fantastic performance and reasonable practicality all at a relatively affordable price.
The BMW i8 comes in a number 6, which is actually quite impressive for a car that starts with a six-figure price tag. This test is all about performance:value and the i8 is very expensive so it must be a great sports car. Admittedly, though, the price and basically unusable rear seats are the only knocks against it. But its incredible looks, excellent performance and good fuel economy put it high on the list. Higher than the Porsche 911 even. Take that Stuttgart.
The rest of the list is actually surprising, but it’s worth checking out. I was surprised to not see a mention of the BMW M235i, as many of us feel that it’s a better performance bargain than the BMW M4. It has about 80 percent of the M4’s performance for a much lower price and is even cheaper to run. The M235i is certainly the best performance bargain within the BMW line, so naturally it would make the list before the M4 and insanely expensive and exclusive i8. However, it was left off the list. Let us know if you agree with the rest of it.
