The 9 New Cars (and 1 SUV) We’re Most Looking Forward to Driving in 2017
In decades past, automakers would release a lineup of all-new models every September. So pressing was the public’s anticipation that dealerships used to have to paper over their picture windows to keep prying eyes from spotting next year’s cars before the designated date. In our always-on, always-probing contemporary information cycle, a notion like being able to control a single culminating moment around which to organize such a launch seems almost quaint. Automakers understand that. New cars are now rolled out on a constant basis, often muddling seemingly straightforward designations like model year.
But December 31 is still a hard stop to this calendar year, and January 1 the concrete beginning of the next. These ten cars are slated to become available to consumers in 2017, and we're more excited about getting behind their steering wheels—or their self-driving interfaces—than just about anything else in the coming annum.
1/9Alfa-Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio/Stelvio
Having reentered the American market in 2014 with the exotic 4C sports car, Alfa-Romeo is now ready to begin its full press. In 2017, this means the arrival on our shores of two vehicles: a compact sport sedan (left) and a compact crossover/SUV. Built on the same underpinnings, each can be had in the same racy spec, featuring heritage-inspired “phone dial” wheels, Formula One–developed carbon-ceramic brakes, and a howling twin-turbocharged V6 engine derived from a Ferrari. Sounds like the makings of an ideal two-car garage.
2/9BMW M760i xDrive
The BMW 7-Series is an understated yet elegant full-size car. But while the Ultimate Driving Machine brand has applied it sporty “M” magic to just about every other vehicle in its lineup—including the iconic M3 and M5, and our beloved M2 coupe—it has never made an official M7. This is, finally, that. With a twin-turbocharged, 600-horsepower V12 engine, enhanced wheels and tires and suspension, and upgraded interior bits, this big, bad executive sedan will execute sprints from zero to 60 that will beat a Porsche 911 coupe. We will ask the chauffeur to take the day off. Maybe forever.
3/9Bugatti Chiron
In the automotive world, Bugatti is among the highest echelon. It is the ne plus ultra—the fastest, the most exclusive, the most expensive—and has been since the marque was founded 108 years ago. So in following up on the brand’s superlative Veyron, designers and engineers were up for a challenge: how to make the best better? This is their answer, and we think it’s the correct one. More aggressive, more beautiful, more potent, more expensive (think $2.7 million), The 16-cylinder engine makes 1,500 horsepower, accelerates the car to 60 m.p.h. in under 2.5 seconds, and tops out at over 260 m.p.h., the precise speed at which overkill meets hyperbole.
4/9Ford GT
The original Ford GT was developed back in the 1960s, reportedly as a spite move against Enzo Ferrari for refusing to sell his eponymous car company to the Ford family. It went on to trounce Ferrari at the legendary Le Mans endurance race. A retro revival version arrived in the mid-aughts, a brutal performance bargain at $150,000. This futuristic update on the concept will come to fruition, and select customers, this year, with 600 horses of supercar power, and design, engineering, and a price to match: We’ve heard numbers cresting $400,000, colonizing Ferrari territory once again.
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5/9Lexus LC 500
Toyota’s luxury brand is not known for building sporty cars, but it has long wanted to change that, since sportiness confers upon a marque a certain authority, as well as excitement and anticipation. If early reports are to be believed, this stylishly ovoid coupe is precisely the vehicle to help confer that status. With a roaring V8 engine (or a V6 and a couple electric motors in the 500h hybrid variant), a sophisticated ten-speed transmission, and a technologically inspired but legible interior, it is already inspiring enthusiasm in our enthusiastic hearts.
6/9Mercedes-AMG E63S 4MATIC
Four doors. Four-wheel-drive. A four-liter twin-turbo engine. And four coats of blacked-out badassery on the grille, wheels, front air intake, and side strakes. This stealth, 600-horsepower sedan picks up the mantle of the brand’s famous “Hammer” muscle cars of the 1980s, so named because of their ability to bring power down everywhere and immediately. Our obsessive desire for do-everything vehicles means that we have an all-consuming longing for the five-door wagon version to reappear, but until it does, we’ll force ourselves to make do with this delightful hooligan.
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7/9Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo
We just told you that we love wagons. And what’s not to love? All the positives of a regular car, but with added storage capacity and a roofline that often completes the design in a complementary fashion. The all-new Porsche Panamera sports one of the most sophisticated interiors of the current crop of superfast executive four-seaters. This hatchback version, likely to arrive first as a plug-in electric hybrid, gives the exterior a similar bump, and generally gives us goose bumps.
8/9Tesla Model 3
The Tesla Model S is not just an incredible electric car; it is an amazing car in any category. Handsome, soberly luxurious, long-ranging (300-plus miles of battery power in its highest-test form), and featuring technological and semiautonomous advancements a standard or two deviation above the norm, it gives us pride in American ingenuity. The Model 3 will attempt to translate all of those qualities into a package that is affordable to an average car buyer. CEO Elon Musk has promised that he’ll deliver Model 3s to consumers in 2017. We’re very anxious for him to keep his word.
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9/9Volvo V90
When we say "Volvo," you probably think "wagon." And you’re not wrong. The Swedish brand built its reputation here on durable, safe, boxy family schleppers. Though it ran from this pedigree recently in its quest to head upscale, it’s back with a vengeance, and we’re very happy about that. Handsomely modern inside and out, the V90 updates the brand’s utilitarian Scandinavian heritage for our more refined and luxe era with unvarnished open-pore wood alongside a giant iPad-esque center console, and a flowing exterior design that somehow makes boxy both swoopy and swoon-worthy.
