Motor Authority's Best Performance/Luxury Car To Buy 2011

Motor Authority's Best Performance/Luxury Car To Buy 2011

The 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show will host a number of world and North American debuts, and among them will be the first annual luxury/performance Best Car to Buy Award from Motor Authority.

Our award joins Best Car to Buy awards from our sister sites within High Gear Media, The Car Connection and Green Car Reports.

Motor Authority's Best Car to Buy award is designed to recognize the new cars each year that we think strike the right balance of performance, luxury, value, and style to end up in our own garages. The winner is the car we'd most recommend buying, as well as the one we'd most like to own ourselves.

Why add our voice to the already-long list of "best" car awards? Because we think most of those awards miss the point: the "best" car isn't necessarily the fastest, most expensive, most exclusive, or even the best-built.

The true best car is one that delivers to some degree on all accounts, with the added factor of being the best one to own--a subjective factor that we evaluate on the basis of cost, enjoyment, utility, and cachet. The Motor Authority Best Car to Buy award balances all of these considerations to yield our choice for the year's smartest purchase for the luxury and performance enthusiast.

Starting with all new 2011 model-year cars available for purchase by January 31, 2011, we then narrow the list to those cars made available to our editors for a review prior to November 18, 2010. The list is pared further on the basis of our own experiences with the cars, yielding a short list of nominees for the award. This year, six cars made the cut for final consideration.

The nominees for Motor Authority's Best Car to Buy are:

2011 Aston Martin V12 Vantage

2011 Bentley Mulsanne

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe and Wagon

2011 Ford Shelby GT500

2011 Hyundai Equus

2011 Infiniti M56

We'll be detailing each of the nominees in the days to come, so look forward to posts on each car, and follow us on Twitter @therealma, on our Best Car to Buy awards #BestCarToBuy, and at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show at #LAAS.

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