Happy New Year! Notice anything different?
We’re heading into the new year with our biggest makeover yet, and we have even more exciting changes planned for you all in the coming months. But before we set off on the road ahead, we’re looking back at the automotive highlights from 2023 to crown the DoubleClutch.ca Car of the Year winner — and more.
As always, we spent much of 2023 behind the wheel of the newest and shiniest sheet metal automakers have to offer. Our diverse yet extremely particular team of automotive experts sampled everything under the sun, and we’ve come together to create this list of what we consider to be the best of the best from 2023.
We considered a mix of objective and subjective factors — performance, value, comfort, practicality, and how certain cars tug at your heartstrings a certain way — in picking our year-end award winners. So, without further ado, here are the recipients of our Annual Awards for 2023.
Crossover of the Year: 2024 Mazda CX-90
Mazda has a lot riding on the CX-90’s broad shoulders. It needs to be Mazda’s bread-and-butter, three-row mainstream family hauler while also giving far more expensive luxury SUVs a run for their money. To say Mazda succeeded would be an understatement; the CX-90 blends a variety of first-class powertrains (including a plug-in hybrid) with sublime road manners, excellent fuel economy, a genuinely luxurious interior, a much more usable third row and cargo hold over its predecessor, and of course, Mazda’s staple: sprightly driving dynamics. Few three-row family haulers offer a package as well-rounded as the 2024 Mazda CX-90, our Crossover of the Year.
Premium Car of the Year: 2023 BMW 7 Series
Sometimes, you don’t want to drive — you want to be driven. And for those occasions, we can’t think of a more suitable vehicle than the BMW 7 Series, the recipient of our Premium Car of the Year award. Available in two distinct flavours — the V8-powered 760i or the all-electric i7 — the redesigned 7 has something for everyone. As a C-suite exec riding in the back, you’ll appreciate the sumptuous atmosphere, and as a chauffeur, you’ll appreciate the 7’s athletic nature that belies its sheer size and weight. We’ll admit its styling was a particularly contentious debate around the office, but you can’t argue this thing doesn’t make a statement wherever you go — or perhaps more accurately, wherever your chauffeur takes you.
Premium Crossover of the Year: 2024 BMW X5 xDrive 50e
There are two ways to rationalize a plug-in hybrid: it’s either a compromise between gas and electric performance, or the best of both worlds. BMW takes the latter approach with our Premium Crossover of the Year winner, the 2024 BMW X5 xDrive 50e. The X5 is updated for 2024 with freshened styling inside and out, new tech, and a number of powertrain tweaks across the board. For the X5 plug-in hybrid, that means a 100-horsepower bump, a bigger battery lending to more electric range, and improved fuel economy. It’s easy to go bananas over the X5 M Competition, but it’s the PHEV that stands out as the most well-rounded model in the X5 lineup.
Performance Car of the Year Under $50,000: 2023 Toyota GR Corolla
The 2024 Toyota GR Corolla is one of those rare enthusiast cars that have been hyped up since day one — and when the covers came off and we finally hopped in, it not only lived up to our lofty expectations, but exceeded them. It channels the same kind of scrappy, rally-car energy as the dearly departed Subaru WRX STI hatchback — a raucous turbocharged engine, a six-speed manual, and an advanced all-wheel-drive system — shoehorned into a package that clearly values driving thrills and engagement over creature comforts. That kind of energy is all the more astounding considering we’re talking about Toyota here, and it’s enough for the GR Corolla to comfortably skid off with our Performance Car of the Year Under $50,000 award.
Performance Car of the Year Over $50,000: 2024 Acura Integra Type S
Breaking news: The 2024 Acura Integra Type S is our Performance Car of the Year Over $50,000. In other news, water is wet and the sky is blue. More at 11.
Like the GR Corolla, the Integra Type S lived up to every ounce of hype the moment we laid eyes on it. Though it shares many similarities with the Civic Type R on which it’s based, it also stands out with more subtle yet muscular styling — those fender flares are to die for — while also retaining what we love about the spiciest Civic — most notably that delicious shifter and otherworldly levels of grip. The Civic Type R may be the ultimate track weapon, but the Integra Type S is the ultimate backroad burner.
Truck of the Year: 2023/24 Chevrolet Silverado lineup
Our Truck of the Year winner is a bit of a two-fer. Earlier this summer, we sampled the 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country. It proved to us that a bit of honky-tonk ain’t so bad: beyond its remarkably handsome looks and well-appointed interior, it’s satisfying to drive, easy to live with, legitimately capable, and impressively efficient, all built on proven engineering without any gimmicks. And at comfortably below $100,000 as-tested, it represented relatively good value among other luxe trucks.
But the one that really surprised us was the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD. Among the current crop of heavy-duty, three-quarter-ton pickups, the Chevy stands out as the best blend of capability, refinement, and style. The Ram 2500 may be the nicest, and the Ford F-250 Super Duty may have all the torques, but the big-boy Silverado is the jack of all trades.
Green Vehicle of the Year: 2023 Toyota Prius
Forget everything you know about the Toyota Prius. We still can’t get over how much of a glow-up the 2023 Toyota Prius lineup is over its milquetoast predecessors. Sure, it’s still no hot rod, but it’s efficient and punchy, all-wheel-drive is now standard across the lineup, plug-in hybrid versions can do more than 70 kilometres on electrons, and here’s the wildest part — the Prius actually looks good. What a world we live in. It’s little wonder the thoroughly glowed-up Prius is our Green Vehicle of the Year for 2023.
Car of the Year: 2024 Acura Integra Type S
Drumroll, please! And the winner of the DoubleClutch.ca Car of the Year for 2023 is … the Acura Integra Type S! Not only is the reborn ‘Teggy Type S the kind of car that makes you want to take the long way home, but it handily captures the spirit of the original, albeit with a few modern-day twists. It’s the return to form — not to mention the automotive nostalgia trip — for Acura that ’90s kids were hoping for.
