TTAC's Ten Best and Ten Worst Car Nominees Are In (Vote Now for the Finals)

Here they are – the nominees for the Best and Worst Cars of 2018, as chosen by TTAC staff and readers.

If you need a refresher on the original guidelines and rules, click here.

If not, CLICK HERE TO VOTE.

You have until Friday, November 2nd, at 5 p.m. Central time to cast your ballot. We have 20 nominees in each category, but only 10 will make the cut. You can only vote once.

Yes, I know, the original cutoff was Halloween, but I wanted to give you a couple days of extra time. You can thank me later.

I will go into greater detail on the nominees later – I don’t want to influence the votes upfront – but I do have a few thoughts:

• The nominations aren’t shocking. We know what you like, you know what we like (and don’t like), and the numbers played out in a fairly predictable manner.
• The Chevrolet Silverado and Jeep Wrangler were probably the most divisive vehicles – the Wrangler was one vote the other way from being in the other column. The Silverado did end up just missing the cut in both categories.
• There’s no exact science when it comes to separating performance models from their pedestrian stablemates. Same goes for bodystyles that share platforms. So I went with the “you know it when you see it” reasoning, and tried to keep trims and bodystyles together. This is why the Civic Type-R is grouped with all Civics and the GTI, Golf R, and Golf wagons are in the same group. There were exceptions – the Regals were separated – but none of those vehicles got enough votes one way or another make the cut. The Fiat 500 vehicles – 500, 500L, and 500X – were separated due to variations in their respective missions. The 500 Abarth was included in the 500 tally.
• Speaking of that, I’ve made note of it on the poll, but all trims should be considered for each nominee. So, for example, the base Corvette and the ZR1 are both included.
• The Mitsubishi Outlander is different than the Outlander Sport.
• As you’ll see by looking at the list, Fiat and Mitsubishi need to do some soul-searching. So does Nissan, although the company may just be in a weird place in its product cadence that’s causing some vehicles to be long in the tooth.
• Your reasoning was interesting. Some of you went by sales numbers, some by looks, some by value, applying these criteria to both categories. Many of vehicles getting “worst” votes aren’t bad, per se, but outdated.
• I am aware of Bark’s counterpoint that this shouldn’t be a popularity contest. And maybe in the future, we’ll limit it to only cars you’ve driven. However, I do think doing things the way we are opens the field up – and you’d be on the honor system about what you’ve driven, anyway.
• Some of you can’t follow instructions, and some of you would be ashamed to face your English teachers today. At least one of you was trolling me/us, as well. Tsk, tsk.
• On a related note, I threw out votes for entire brands. I get the sentiment, but it’s a massive hassle to go through a full-line automaker and add the tallies for each model for each of you who did that. Maybe I should’ve been more specific, but c’mon people…
• Also, some of you voted for cars you can’t buy in the U.S., despite the fact that a car needed to be sold here to qualify.
• An incorrect vote didn’t disqualify entire ballots. So if you voted for or against an entire brand, but the rest of your ballot was A-OK, it counted. Ditto if you just voted for one or two entries instead of 10 each.
• We had 50 survey responses and five staff responses. At a later date, after voting, I’ll have a post with staff voting.
• I will also have a post with a deeper dive into your nominations at a later date. I do not want to influence voting.
• ONLY POLL VOTES WILL COUNT. EMAILING ME OR THE STAFF WILL NOT CUT IT. USE THE SURVEY LINK.

So that’s it. Go vote here. Do your car-enthusiast duty and make your voice heard.

For those too lazy to click the link, here’s the list.

BEST

• Audi A5
• Chevrolet Bolt
• Chevrolet Corvette
• Chrysler Pacifica
• Dodge Challenger
• Dodge Charger
• Ford F-150
• Ford Mustang
• Honda Accord
• Honda Civic
• Jeep Wrangler
• Kia Stinger
• Lincoln Navigator
• Mazda 6
• Mazda CX-5
• Mazda MX-5 Miata
• Porsche 911
• Ram 1500
• Tesla Model 3
• Volkswagen Golf (including GTI, R, and wagons)

WORST

• Acura ILX
• Buick Cascada
• Buick Envision
• Chevrolet Trax
• Dodge Grand Caravan
• Dodge Journey
• Fiat 500
• Fiat 500L
• Ford EcoSport
• Ford Taurus
• Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
• Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross
• Mitsubishi Mirage
• Mitsubishi Outlander
• Nissan 370Z
• Nissan Frontier
• Nissan Sentra
• Nissan Versa
• Tesla Model X
• Toyota C-HR

[Image: Shutterstock user 3dfoto]