Favourite Drives

Motoring correspondent Philip Nolan drove 57 cars in 2023. In his year-end round-up, he selects a few favourites

ISN’T IT IONIQ

Full battery electric cars now hold an almost one-fifth share of the market, despite the reduction this year of the SEAI grant from €5,000 to €3,500, and the price cap at €60,000. New entrants to that space in 2023 included the Chinese GWM Ora Funky Cat, a quirky looker but overburdened with verbal warnings to keep your eyes on the road, and the BYD Seal, a very convincing saloon boasting a lot of kit even at entry level.

A late arrival is the Kia EV9, available with six or seven seats, but the best was the all-conquering Hyundai Ioniq 6 (below), recently named Continental Irish Car of the Year, and World Car of the Year, for 2024. A long, sleek saloon with the most front passenger space in any Hyundai to date, the craftsmanship throughout is impeccable.

Writing about it, I used a word I don’t employ very often, but it’s entirely appropriate – this car is perfect.

WHAT A PERFORMER

We all know the writing is on the wall for internal combustion engines, but we’ll enjoy them while we can. Already, though, the move to at least some sort of hybrid power is gaining ground, not least in the monolithic BMW XM, with a mighty V8 twin-turbo petrol engine and an electric motor combining to produce a whopping 653hp. The €193,727 sticker price makes it a niche purchase at best.

My preference is for the BMW M2 (above), a straight-six twin-turbo boasting 460hp and a 0-100kph sprint of 4.1 seconds. The exhilaration is tempered by the fact we have a 120kph speed limit, when this beauty is capable of 285kph if you pay extra for the M Driver’s Pack that overrides the 250kph governed limit. Try either and you’ll lose your licence, so the painful pleasure here is the tantalising knowledge of what the car actually can do, rather than you ever getting to experience it.