1: The Honda Insight Mk1
Back when it was released in 1999 the first mass market electric hybrid it was otherworldly and strange. And the cooler for it. A decade on it is retro progressive and quaint. Dig the clamp-busting rear wheels, too.
2: Land Rover Defender
The vast majority of all of these proper Landies are still on the road. Easy to maintain and fix with an adjustable spanner and a hammer. If something falls off, just bolt it back on. Utilitarian and future proof.
3 My Grandad’s Granada MK1
Not only are the words ‘Granada’ and ‘Grandad’ (almost) an anagram of one another, but my Grandad’s Gas Guzzling Granada outlived the old boy by a decade and officially ran for nearly 300,000 miles. Had he been that way inclined, he surely could have had it in the record books. And it was green.
4 Audi A1 Etron
Obviously taking design cues from the game changing Fiat 500, Audi’s electro-hybrid city car looks as sweet and fun as the Italian Shetland stallion but comes with a leccy motor too.
5 Puch Magnum
The farty little moped with the butch moniker is popular amid the emerging craze of caffing up 50 cc buzzers. Eternally cheap to run, determined to live on in our backyards and as fun as candy floss to thrash. Respect.
6 Caterham 7
Taking the micro manufacturing ethos to its most accessible conclusion, the lightweight flexible flyer treads ever so lightly whilst giving maximum automotive pleasure. If this is your only car, your footprint is going to be tiny.
7 Hindustani Ambassador
Ubiquitous on the subcontinent and manufactured constantly there since 1958, the ‘Amby’ is an object lesson in life cycle extension.
8 Bristol Fighter
Taking small volume manufacturing to its most inaccessible conclusion, Mr Bristol will only sell you a car if he likes you. Bespoke motoring in extremis, this. Still made in England and reeking of leather and walnut. This may be the future.
9 Cinelli Gazzetta, 2010
There’s no contradiction in drivers digging bikes. Dedicated road cyclists are after all intimates of the texture and camber of tarmac. Keep one in the back of your motor and there’ll be no need to sit in a traffic jam those last couple of miles to work ever again.
10 Honda CRZ
Whether a brand new car calling itself green is a contradiction or not, we love the look of Honda’s forthcoming ‘sporty’ hybrid.
