Auto website Jalopnik selected the best 10 cars of the decade. Let's take a look at those vehicles and find out why these cars were chosen.
These 10 cars picked by Jalopnik are within reach of ordinary consumers with a manufacturer's suggested retail price capped at $200,000. Those cars have to be comfortable to drive, and the website editors only chose cars sold in the US between 2000 and 2010, and not hybrids.
BMW M Coupe
Years Produced: 1999 - 2002
Base Price When New: $45,990 (2002)
Engine: 3.2-liter I-6, 240 hp, 3.2-liter I-6, 315 hp
Curb Weight: 3230 lb (2002)
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 10.25 lb/hp (2002)
M Coupes made in 1999 and 2000 featured a version of the E36 M3's 240-hp S52 six-cylinder. And they're cheaper than 2001-2002 models.
Chevrolet Corvette (C6)
Years Produced: 2005 – Present
Base Price: $48,930 (2010)
Current Engines: 6.2-liter V-8, 430 hp; 7.0-liter V-8, 505 hp; 6.2-liter V-8, 638 hp
Curb Weight: 3175 – 3333 lb (2010)
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 5.2 lb/hp (ZR1)
The sixth-generation Corvette is smaller, lighter, and faster than its predecessor. The looking-good vehicle offers better fuel mileage than any Corvette before it.
Audi R8 (V-8 only)
Years Produced: 2006 - Present
Base Price: $114,200
Engine: 4.2-liter V-8, 420 hp
Curb Weight: 3450 lb
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 8.2 lb/hp
Audi's first mid-engined production car is fast, comfortable, oversteer-happy. The R8 is the first car from Ingolstadt to offer widespread appeal, an uncompromised chassis, and rally-car-meets-land-speed-record soul in an exotic shell.
The V-10 is arguably the better machine — it's faster, more entertaining, and serves up more bang for the buck – but the V-8 car was there first.
Honda S2000
Years Produced: 1999 - 2009
Base Price When New: $34,995 (2009)
Engine: 2.0-liter I-4, 240 hp (@8300 rpm); 2.2-liter I-4, 240 hp (@7800 rpm)
Curb Weight: 2781 lb
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 11.6 lb/hp
It is a Honda: Legendary reliability. A four-cylinder that spins to ungodly speeds. An interior full of sensibly designed, relatively sturdy components. Parts of it feel expensive; parts of it feel cheap. In a nutshell, the S2000 is everything that Soichiro's minions know about building cars, albeit honed and sharpened. It's also a rear-wheel-drive relic, an homage to a time when sports cars required their drivers to pay attention.
The S2000 was launched to commemorate Honda's 50th anniversary, and it did so in one hell of a fashion – it combined a stiff chassis with an 8900-rpm four-cylinder and handling that former Car and Driver editor Csaba Csere once called "daringly neutral." The 2.0-liter four made its peak power at 8300 rpm, but an uber-slick gearbox and the joys of wailing VTEC meant that you didn't mind winding the piss out of it. Later cars gained displacement and various refinements but lost little charm.
Mini Cooper (R50)
Years Produced: 2001 - 2006
Base Price When New: $17,450 (2006)
Engine: 1.6-liter I-4, 114 hp
Curb Weight: 2524 lb
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 22 lb/hp
Like the original Mini, the new one transcended status and income levels; like the first Volkswagen GTI, it possessed giant-killing performance that also happened to be perfectly suited to the vast American landscape. Europeans decried it for being too big, too thirsty, and too space-inefficient, but Americans didn't care: They bought the little buggers by the truckload. The Mini was fun and fast.
Porsche 911 GT3 (996)
Years Produced: 2004 - 2005
Base Price When New: $99,900 (2005)
Engine: 3.6-liter H-6, 375 hp
Curb Weight: 3050 lb
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 8.1 lb/hp
The 996-chassis GT3 was the first GT3 produced, and while it came before the heretical Cayenne and Panamera (Europe first got the model in 1999), it would have been a one-time experiment without their financial support.
This is the purist's Porsche, the 911 for apex hounds with brake dust on the brain. Weissach named the GT3 after the FIA GT racing class that it was intended for, and with good reason – it was little more than a race car for the street. An 8200-rpm, 375-hp, naturally aspirated flat six lived in its tail and spit out a spine-chilling wail. Weight was down, options were minimal, and the suspension was track-oriented.
The 996-chassis GT3 was the first of its kind, and while it is no longer the fastest or newest GT3, it's for sure the coolest.
Ferrari F430
Years Produced: 2004 - 2009
Base Price When New: $188,425 (2009)
Engine: 4.3-liter V-8, 483 hp
Curb Weight: 3200 lb
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 6.6 lb/hp
The F430 is the first prancing horse to make its stablemates look tame, and the first base Ferrari to offer the streetability and manic presence that you expect. Whether yowling around town or rocketing up a mountain road, the 430 speaks to us like no Lamborghini or Maserati ever has. It is the Ferrari of the past ten years, and that makes it the best Italian car of the decade.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution (Evo VIII/IX)
Years Produced: 2003 - 2006
Base Price When New: $31,994 (2006)
Engine: 2.0-liter turbo I-4, 286 hp
Curb Weight: 3338 lb
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 11.67
If the first American WRX was a relatively refined stage-stormer, then the Evo was its foaming-at-the-mouth redneck cousin. It didn't offer Subaru levels of solidity or interior quality, but it provided killer steering feel, better dry-pavement handling, and a more bonkers vibe. With both manufacturers officially out of world-championship rallying, the battle is essentially over, though the Evo and WRX live on in showroom form. Both cars are better than ever and yet, oddly, both seem to be past their prime. Where the rally-car wars are concerned, the Evo VIII and IX remind us, in loud, vivid tones, of just how good it got.
Pontiac G8 GXP
Years Produced: 2009
Base Price When New: $39,995
Engine: 6.2-liter V-8, 415 hp
Curb Weight: 3800 lb
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 9.59 lb/hp
The G8 GXP was a cut-rate version of BMW's V-8-powered E39 M5 and nothing less than the most compelling sport sedan to ever come out of Detroit. A 415-hp LS3 lived under the GXP's hood.
Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
Years Produced: 2010 - Present
Base Price: $38,995
Engine: 5.4-liter V-8, 310 hp
Curb Weight: 6000 lb
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 19.4 lb/hp
It's a much-tweaked Ford pickup with long-travel suspension, a relatively low price tag, and the ability to bomb over washed-out terrain at 80 mph. Nor is it akin to a lifted, worked-over Jeep or Land Cruiser; it can handle rock-crawling and trail-poking, but that's not its forte. No, it's happiest pounding over desert washes at 80 mph.
The Raptor is a frivolous project at a time when Ford has no business screwing around with frivolous projects.
