Our Favorite Cars We Drove in 2024

• We look back at 2024 and pick our favorite cars we drove this year.
• Whether it was a perfect drive, something that made life easier or just beautiful to look at, all of these cars made core memories.
• From Ferrari to Tesla, we have some truly great cars here.

The end of the year is naturally a time of reflection, and we're reflecting on the best cars we drove this year. The brief was simple: Talk about your favorite drive from the last 12 months. The car itself didn't have to be particularly excellent or revolutionary; it just had to be special. Our responses are varied to say the least, but each and every one of them is a gem in some way or another.

Ferrari 812 GTS

The best car I drove this year was, without a doubt, the Ferrari 812 GTS. I spent a day driving a friend’s stunning Vintage Rose example around the canyons of Malibu, and wow, what a car. The naturally aspirated V12 sounds incredible — especially with the top down. It pulls hard anywhere in the rev range, and the rear-wheel steering feels completely natural but still gives the not-small 812 an incredible sense of agility in the twisties. I expected rear traction to be a bit finicky given every one of the 812’s 788 horsepower is routed through the rear wheels, but as it turns out, I was totally wrong. The 812 GTS provides an exhilarating, confidence-inspiring driving experience that isn’t quite replicated by anything else in the market.

— Ryan Greger, senior strategist, social media

Lexus LC 500 Convertible

I've had more than a few memorable car experiences this year, but perhaps with a little irony, the car I'm ending the year with was the first one I drove in 2024. The LC 500 Convertible is by far and away the most charming car to wear the Lexus badge since the legendary LFA. The exhaust note of its V8 is so beautifully tuned, so delicious to listen to, that you accelerate to hear it and immediately slow down to do it again. Wherever there's a tunnel in Los Angeles, I found it just to make some gorgeous V8 noise rumble off its walls. It's juvenile in the best way. Oh, and the interior's gorgeous, and it's a rolling sculpture and I had unlimited headroom. Over and over again, I found myself making excuses to get out and drive it, and if that isn't the sign of something truly brilliant, I don't know what is.

— Nick Yekikian, senior editor, news

2006 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640-4 Coupe Versace

The car was a 2006 Lamborghini Muricelago LP640-4 Coupe Versace and the location was the Italian countryside around the Lamborghini factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese. Most car companies don't let you see the stuff they keep hidden away in their 3D scrapbooks, let alone drive them. So when Lamborghini rolled out the rarer-than-most LP640-4 Versace edition of its menacing Murcielago, opened up the iconic scissor door and told me to take it for a run, I had one of those … moments.

It was equal parts terrifying, exhilarating, humbling and the stuff of dreams. I barely fit, I couldn't see, and yet I was in control of a 1-of-20 museum piece. The howl from the 640-hp V12, the brutal shifts from the "e-gear" automatic transmission, and the always-too-narrow roads filled with tractors and Fiat Pandas should have been enough to slow me down. But my teenage self would have none of it. I went for it and I'm a cooler guy because of it. At least, I think so.

— Kurt Niebuhr, senior editor, vehicle testing

Mercedes-Benz G 580 EV

I'm already a mega Geländewagen stan, and a fully electric powertrain suits this go-anywhere luxury SUV to a T — or, you know, to a G. It's as quick as the last AMG G 63 we tested while being able to off-road with the best of 'em, and it looks the business inside and out. One of the absolute best drives I did all year was when Mercedes-Benz invited me to France to drive the electric G-Class and threw me the keys to some classic models while I was there. I got to do a 360-degree G-Turn in a mud bog in the French countryside. Can't say that about anything else I drove in 2024.

— Steven Ewing, director, editorial content

Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato 

This was not the best car I drove this year (if you can believe it), but it was my favorite. Clearly, the raised off-road variant of the Huracan is not the ideal one to pilot around our test track, but it was my last chance to spend some time with the Huracan lineup for the final time and I am incredibly fond of it. The Temerario that's replacing the Huracan will certainly be as fast with its newfangled hybrid powertrain, but it won't have the same yowl that the Huracan's naturally aspirated V10 offers. Sitting in a Huracan with those 10 cylinders firing off just a few feet behind my head made for an unforgettable experience, whether in a Sterrato or an STO. I'll miss the Huracan deeply, and I was grateful to get one last dance with an old friend.

— Brian Wong, senior editor, reviews

Mercedes-Benz CLE 450 Cabriolet

The true test of a luxury car is if it makes you feel special for driving it, and on that front, the 2025 Mercedes-Benz CLE 450 Cabriolet pushed my buttons exactly. Mercedes makes no bones about the CLE being anything other than a luxurious drop-top way to get around town, and it's been optimized for that mission. It's a veritable cocoon, even at highway speeds on a chilly night. It's quick enough with the six-cylinder engine that I didn't wish for more power, and the technology was thoughtfully integrated into the cabin. Sure, I could nitpick a few things here and there. But when in its role as a top-down cruiser with an outstanding luxury vibe, the CLE 450 Cabrio had me coming back again and again.

— Keith Buglewicz, managing editor

Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe

This year my favorite car that I drove, much to my shock, was the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe we bought for our yearlong testing. It was a car that I was actually very nervous about even borrowing in the first place since it had broken down several times already. But once I got behind the wheel, all my fears lifted. It was spacious and comfortable, even somewhat luxurious, and it drove silky smooth over the rough LA freeways and their many potholes. The multitude of screens impressed my friends, family and especially my niece. It made my trips around SoCal for the Thanksgiving holiday much nicer, and I would totally borrow it again, electrical gremlins and all.

— David Lucio, post production coordinator

Fisker Ocean

This may surprise some of you but … my favorite drive of the year was our endlessly problematic, unceasingly frustrating, charmingly terrible Fisker Ocean. I took the one and only product that came from Henrik Fisker's latest now-bankrupt marque on a 600-mile solo jaunt up the Pacific Coast Highway for Thanksgiving weekend. I drove until I reached the end of the road (literally). Sections of asphalt crumbled into the ocean following one of California's recent bouts of heavy rain. Pacific by my side and salty winds flowing through the cabin, I quickly forgot the Fisker's countless flaws and enjoyed my most memorable drive of 2024. There are objectively better cars for that road, but my blustering, memorable, lonely drive north was a fitting farewell.

— Duncan Brady, script writer

Tesla Cybertruck

The Tesla Cybertruck has been much-maligned because it doesn’t look like your father’s pickup truck but is actually quite amazing when you’re behind the wheel. Steer-by-wire means it’s as tight as a drum and turns on a sixpence. It's got ride quality so good it can handle the surface of the moon (or Wilshire Boulevard) without flinching and a nag-free highway driving assist system that nobody else can come close to. This is the truck you’ll buy because you’re happy living in the future and not beholden to legacy mores.

— Andrew White, executive director, social media