2005 Cars Of The Year

Can you feel it? The heat is on in the car business. Enormous pressure from globalization and new technology has spurred designers to trash decrepit corporate traditions. Engineers have been freed to design for singular perfection--if it isn't sexy, no one wants it. This year a decadelong flirtation with electronics culminates in new standards for adhesion, performance and safety. Automobiles have never before been so able to give you what you ask for or what you need, Playboy's role in this renaissance was to choose the most appealing new cars for 2005. We assembled an experienced team of car writers with a bias for things that go fast and hug the road but also for cars that take the drudgery out of daily driving. We put countless miles on scores of new cars and judged them everywhere from switchbacks north of Turin to traffic jams in downtown Tokyo. Our feature ends with Playboy's choice of the best of the best, our car of the year. As you'll see, we were players in a no-limit game.