Porsche Cayman has walk-up start in race for car of the year

AFTER a few hours over a long lunch, the judges of The Weekend Australian Best Car of 2014 made their choice.

Carsguide 6870m Porsche Cayman and Cayman S (yellow) 2013

AFTER a few hours over a long lunch with a two friends and using an objective, emotional, rush-of-blood-to-the-head process, the judges of The Weekend Australian Best Car of 2014 made their choice. We went straight to the Porsche Cayman ($120,000).

The Cayman is the hard-top version of the world’s best real (i.e. convertible) sports car, the Boxster. But who wants wind blowing over where your hair should be and you looking like you can’t afford a Porsche 911?

While most of the best cars on our list are half the price in the US, the Cayman is also half the price of its big sister, the 911, in Australia.

The 911 used to be the gold standard by which every other sports car was judged. Ignore the old. Go to your local Porsche dealer, watch him load the accessories on, swipe the Amex Black, hop in, switch on the engine, and suddenly that life you led of quiet desperation is barely a memory.

Best cars of 2014

In no particular order, runners-up are the Mazda BT50, the Mercedes CLA45 AMG, the Porsche Macan and the Toyota 86.

After 6000km and two exhaustive days of rigorous testing of 10 cars, six judges gave the ­CarsGuide Car Of The Year award to the Mercedes-Benz C200. Their runners-up included the Falcon XR8 and the Honda Jazz. While the C200 ($67,000) is great value in the Australian context, and a nice car, who really wants nice when you can have bad?

The smaller but more expensive CLA45 AMG ($86,900) is Mercedes nice on the outside and in the quality department, but really bad when you hit the loud pedal.

For those who remember MGBs, Triumph Stags and Sprites, the Toyota 86 is today’s equivalent. Unlike the British builds, the 86 won’t leak oil, break down regularly or have electrical issues.

Like those old favourites, it is underpowered, but at $32,000 who cares?

The Porsche Macan S ($100, 000) is the answer to the perennial South Yarra cowboy/girl ­dilemma. You want an SUV that fits Luca, Jayden and Willow and their ski gear, but you don’t want to look like just another private school bus driver. The Macan is a Cayenne that’s shrunk in the German wash. It can actually go off piste, handles like a dream and has the right badge on the bonnet.

On the other hand, the Mazda BT50 dual cab ($48,000) is meant to be a tradie-only ute, but in terms of performance, handling, squeezing in lots of people and their junk, it kills just about anything double its price.

It’s really big and it’s ­diesel, but think of the street cred when you pull up outside Double Bay Grammar in something straight out of Breaking Bad.

CarsGuide is a joint venture of News Corp Australia, publisher of The Weekend Australian.