You’d be hard-pressed to find a better mid-size sedan than the Honda Accord. The handsome four-door appeals to a broad range of buyers thanks to a bevy of trims. Whether opting for the enthusiastic Sport trim, the luxurious Touring model, or the high-value LX trim, every Accord includes such goodies as a touchscreen infotainment system, dual-zone automatic climate control, and adaptive cruise control.

The Toyota Corolla may be old and outclassed, but it’s made a reputation for itself as one of the most reliable new cars you can purchase today. Factor in standard niceties such as automatic front braking, adaptive cruise control, and automatic high beams, and the compact Toyota sedan is able to make a case for itself as a reasonable purchase decision. While we’d recommend looking at newer competition, we can’t fault the Corolla for its solid reputation and long standard features list.

The Honda Civic is one of the best compact cars sold today. Replete with a solid chassis and a lineup of lively four-cylinder engines, the Civic is a favorite among enthusiasts and savvy shoppers alike. 

At the top of the Volkswagen Golf totem pole is the high-performance Golf R. Armed with a 292-horsepower (218-kilowatt) turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four and a six-speed manual transmission, the Golf R is more fun to toss around than a bean bag at a corn-hole tournament. It’s also not cheap, and its $39,785 starting price is nearly double that of the standard Golf. Still, the Golf R’s luxurious cabin and eager dynamics make the hot-hatch worth just about every penny Volkswagen asks.

Green is good, and the plug-in gasoline-electric hybrid Chevrolet Volt is one of the better ways to flash your environmentalist credentials without cramping your day-to-day needs. Thanks to a small four-cylinder engine mounted under its stubby hood, the Volt is able to travel a total of 420 miles—53 of those on electricity alone. Factor in the Volt’s versatile hatchback shape and its reasonable starting price of $33,220, and the plug-in Chevy makes a solid case for itself as a car that’s a jack of many trades, albeit a master of none.

Where would hybrid cars be without the Toyota Prius? Toyota’s ubiquitous gasoline-electric hybrid is as synonymous with fuel efficiency as Kleenex is to tissues. No wonder then Toyota has little trouble moving this strangely styled hatchback onto consumers eager to get their hands on a new car that sips – rather than gulps – gas.

Despite nearing a half-decade of sales, the BMW i3 remains as polarizing as the day BMW unveiled the electric hatchback. While the model has continued to improve with age (a higher performing i3s is new for 2018), the i3’s limited electric driving range means newer, less luxurious models such as the Chevrolet Bolt and the Nissan Leaf are arguably better buys relative to the BMW. 

The smaller and more affordable Tesla Model 3 may be getting the bulk of the media’s attention, but the Model S is arguably the best Tesla available today. Years of development have turned this full-size hatchback into a well-developed product that can keep up with the best in the business.

Admittedly, the Toyota Prius C is not very good. It’s underpowered, small, and feels even cheaper than its $20,630 starting price suggests. Still, it’s affordable in the grand scheme of modern gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, and the EPA rates it at a combined 46 mpg. In theory, we understand the appeal of the Prius c. In practice, we don’t.