15 new vehicles that moved the needle in 2023
Subjective? You bet. Any list of the most important vehicles introduced this past year is definitely open to debate. This has been a banner year for debuts, including sports cars, trucks, luxury EVs, and more. If we got it wrong, there’s a comments section down at the bottom where you can set us straight. Here are 15 vehicles we think moved the needle in 2023, or will soon in 2024. They are organized alphabetically, rather than ranked in any particular order. By the way, if you think we’re leaving out vehicles such as the new BMW M2, Toyota GR Corolla, Kia EV6 and the Toyota Prius, we covered them in our 2022 list. Click here for a refresher.
Acura Integra Type S: What do you know, there’s life at Acura after all. Based on the Honda Civic Type R, Acura injects 320 horsepower into the Integra’s engine bay, gives it an active-damping suspension, and an appropriate interior. Yes, it’s well over $50,000, but probably worth it. Check out our review here.
Buick Envista: This hatchback-looking sedan is perhaps the biggest surprise of the year. Yes, it’s built on the same platform as the Chevrolet Trax and is powered by a modest three-cylinder engine, but the designers and engineers who worked on the Envista did a remarkable job of creating a handsome, fun-to-drive car that should bring some younger buyers to the brand while satisfying current Buick customers who don’t want an SUV—and yes, stunningly, those people do exist. Nicely done, Buick. Read our review here.
Chevrolet Blazer EV: This was a good year for SUVs, and the fact that the Chevrolet Blazer EV won Motor Trend magazine’s SUV of the Year award speaks well to what Chevy has done to the previously vanilla Blazer. Based on the Ultium platform, the Blazer EV will soon be available with an SS package that makes 557 horsepower for those not content with the 288 horses powering the AWD dual-motor RS. Handsome on the outside, and functional on the inside, the Blazer EV is a solid step forward. Here’s our review.
Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray: The first production all-wheel-drive Corvette did not disappoint, and even traditional Corvette loyalists can’t help but read the performance figures of the hybrid and marvel at the fact that it challenges the mighty Z06 model. Here’s our review of the E-Ray.
Dodge “Last Call” Challengers and Chargers: While the Chevrolet Camaro went out this year with a whimper, the Challenger and the Charger went out with a bang, thanks to a series of “Last Call” special editions that showcased the Hemi V-8, marketed as your last chance to get a true, proven performance car (at least until the electric Dodges come out). Here’s our take on the Dodge Charger Super Bee.
Ferrari Purosangue: With a 715-horsepower naturally-aspirated V-12 under the hood, Ferrari’s inevitable SUV and first-ever four-door has the proper look and feel of a Ferrari, and has a very Ferrari-like $400,000 price tag. Here’s our review of the Purosangue, which is Italian for thoroughbred.
Ford Mustang Dark Horse: Yes, we covered the 2024 Ford Mustang in this list last year, but we hadn’t had a chance to drive the lineup yet. We have now, and they are all worthy of the Mustang name, but there’s something about the 500-horsepower (it feels like more) Dark Horse model that deserves a shoutout here. We’ve lost the Dodge Challenger and the Chevrolet Camaro, making the Mustang Dark Horse the last of the pure-ICE-engine breed. Check out our review here.
Kia EV9: Sit in the EV9 and look around, and you can tell the designers spent a long time making it modern inside, but still familiar enough that someone who has never driven an electric vehicle before will feel immediately comfortable. Our test car was roomy enough for six adults—middle-seat passengers are catered to with a pair of very comfortable captain’s chairs—while rear-seat passengers have ample leg room. It drives well, has decent horsepower (up to 379), and corners with competence. An electric SUV with very few flaws.
Lucid Gravity/Air Sapphire: Lucid operates on the principle that if you build it, they will come. “They” of course meaning customers, who are thus far taking their time discovering the brand. Too bad. Lucid introduced two new electric models: The Gravity SUV, available with up to 800 horsepower, should start at about $80,000, with upscale models that will be priced way into six figures. And there’s the 1234-horsepower Air Sapphire, which starts at over $250,000. We’ve liked every Lucid we’ve driven—check out our review of the Sapphire—and we’re looking forward to the Gravity.
Mercedes-AMG S 63 E Performance: What’s not to like about the most powerful S-Class ever? It retains all the ultra-luxury features you expect, and the hybrid powertrain pumps out a combined 791 horsepower and 1055 lb-ft of torque, delivered to all four wheels. Our test vehicle was priced at an estimated $240,000. Read the review here.
Tesla Cybertruck: The most talked-about vehicle of 2023, the Cybertruck is an absolute love-it-or-hate-it vehicle, and certainly the top candidate to become a complete flop or a major hit. Hagerty.com was among the first to get a test drive of the Cybertruck: Click here for our video review.
Toyota Land Cruiser: Maybe it isn’t the vehicle that dedicated Land Cruiser fans were hoping for, but it’s still worthy of the name. Powered by a 326-horsepower hybrid powertrain made up of a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and a single electric motor, it will at least be cheaper than the last Cruiser, a 2021 model, which cost about $87,000. Toyota says the new Land Cruiser will start in the mid-$50,000 range.
Toyota Tacoma: Toyota finally replaced its ancient Tacoma with a thoroughly modern if somewhat pricey pickup this year, and so far it seems to be a big success. The Tacoma has long been the gold standard of smaller pickups, routinely the benchmark that other manufacturers weigh their own products against. Toyota will send some of them back to the drawing boards with this new version. Read more about the Tacoma here.
VinFast VF8: Yes, of course, the VinFast VF8 and the other VinFast SUVs were the worst-reviewed vehicles of 2024, with the consensus being that they simply aren’t ready for America. But you have to tip your hat to the bombastic way the seven-year-old Vietnamese company entered the U.S. market, with a surprisingly wide selection of electric models (possibly adding a $20,000 electric SUV to its lineup), plans to build a $2 billion plant in North Carolina, and stock that’s already trading on Nasdaq (and not doing all that bad). Is VinFast’s vehicle lineup why they made the list? No. But this is: You can bet there are a lot of Chinese companies that would love to come to the U.S., and they are watching this VinFast experiment very closely.
Volvo EX30: With a base price of $36,245, including shipping, Volvo’s small electric SUV checks a lot of boxes. It’s pretty, comfortable, quick (268 horsepower for the single-motor base model, 422 for the twin-motor version), and has the advantage of being a premium-branded product. Deliveries have been delayed a bit, so don’t expect to see an EX30 until late spring or summer of 2024. When it finally does show up, the little car could make some big noise. Read our review here.
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I agree with your comments. The EPA hasn’t changed in quite some time. There is cars that can give us 75 to 100 mpg . I’ve heard of the urban myth stories… Instead they are going to push all their expensive electric cars .. Look up how many used electric cars are setting in vacant lots, acres of them..
Not to mention the landfills that are going to be full of the discarded non recyclable batteries and salvage yards full of EVs junked because of dead batteries since it costs more to replace them than the car is worth. Only a fool would buy a used EV or hybrid.
No Emira? I suppose it’s not quite new to 23, but given we still don’t have it stateside I think it’s worth a mention. Maybe next year? 🙂
Not interested in EV’s at all. This list is cr@p. What is happening to the auto industry? And Chevrolet should be absolutely ashamed of what they have done to the blazer.
Just curious, sir…how old are you?
The author of this article needs to seriously re-think his motives. Readers of Hagerty want stories about real cars and trucks, not some thinly-disguised push-off to electric cars. Look at the comments – everyone hated this article – folks who read Hagerty are true auto-enthusiasts. This means “ICE”, as you put it. We love internal combustion engines. We see a future where internal combustion exists. Trying to make us see a future for all-electric vehicles is absurd, given the negative aspects of the industry in it’s infancy, and our desire for (efficient) real cars with engines.
Half of the vehicles on the list are ev or hybrid. Toyota has announced that they are
out of the ev business. Hundreds of Ford dealers want out. This article was not nearly
up to your usual standards.
I think a lot of car manufacturers are hiring their designers from Maytag or LG…
NAILED IT!!! An endless sea of SUVs that all look the same.
Tough crowd but agree with them 100%. EV’s are going eventually like the horse and buggy. The Buick Envista rear looks very similar to the Hyundai Veloster. Which Hyundai dropped from their line up. Copy cat GM designers. Bring back the Pontiac. Resurrect John DeLorean. We need a designer not cartoon artist.
There is nothing on this list that I am remotely interested in. What happened to Chevrolet? There was a day with a tomato car for every Market. They had the Corvair the Chevy 2 the Malibu the Impala and all these cars had upgraded versions of that segment. But today everybody’s building a RAV4 and calling it high tech. The problem I see is there’s no car people running the car companies. And I’ve given out plenty of arguments on one electric vehicles are the worst idea ever. But we also need to keep in mind that the generation below the Baby Boomers have no loyalty to any American car companies. They bought little throwaway cars Toyota Corollas Etc and they’ve stayed with the brand loyalty. If you want to see what the car market is really doing go to bring a trailer and see all of the rebuilt classic cars bringing in tons of money because people are going to spend good money they want a car that they can fix.
I’m Gen X, and I have never bought Toyota, Honda, etc. I was a diehard General Motors guy until 2008 when I switched to Mopar. Not interested in much of anything offered these days.
What a crappy list of cars to give free advertising to.
All I can say is this is sad. This is why the collector car market is so hot right now.
We would rather spend money on a 60 year old car than this EV crap they are trying to ram down our throat. We are turning into robots and that’s what they want.
Just sad.
As an older observer, I have difficulty telling one car from another, they all look pretty much the same to me, (did the designers all go to one school?). Indeed, they are pretty fancy, with all the high-tech gizmos and gadgets, features that overwhelm me and never knew I needed, but I guess that’s progress. Nice cars all of them, but will any of them be classics one day? I wonder.
It all has to do with the safety and crash standards- the only way to pass those is to build a structure that fits in that relatively narrow band of a few inches one way or another.
You can only hide so much of that with sheet metal and plastic, all wanting the best aerodynamics…and now they all look quite similar
I think it is funny that the most interesting thing about the Buick Envista is its side profile and Hagerty chose a head-on view photo as its illustration.
Sounds like there won’t be many barn find EVs fifty years from now! Bummer.
Would I love to get a new Lightning probably! Would I give up my 93 no! Just imagine the power outages from all the EV’s charging!
Agree with the eRay’s inclusion, but get back to me on its “all-weather capability” once you’ve made a few Winter road trips across any of the Sierra, Cascade, or Rocky Mountain passes with one. It would be interesting to see how it stacks-up against a 911 Turbo or R8 in the snow….not that many folks are driving these in the snow anyway. 🤷🏻♂️