MotorTrend

Best Cars of the Geneva Show

From Ultra Luxury To Hatchbacks, A Lot To Like
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The Geneva Motor Show is the place to find exotic, exclusive, and often -- if you live in America -- unobtainable sheetmetal. The 2016 show was no exception, delivering all the supercars and forbidden fruit we've come to expect from one of the biggest shows on the international auto show circuit. Here are our favorite debuts from this year's Geneva show.

Officially, Volvo is calling it the V90. But we like Brown Volvo Wagon better. And mamma mia, is she pretty! Why do you need an SUV again? Right, you don't. Since you're not off roading, we can make the argument that you're morally obligated to purchase Volvo's hot new wagon. Come on, you know you want it. We're nearly dying to get ours, especially after learning just how good the S90 sedan is. Also, yes, a silver V90 was parked next to the brown one, but we only glanced at it in passing.

Sure, power is up (to more than 800 horses) and weight is down (Pagani is claiming 2,600 pounds), but like all things built by Horacio, it's the little things that matter most. Should you ever get a chance to see one up close, you should walk around to the back and check out the tiny titanium rivets holding the rear wing together. Every other company in the world would just use glue. Not only are bolts stronger, but having a little bit of metal breaking up the large hunk of carbon fiber looks better, too. Dream car? Every single inch of it.

Wow. Look, the DB9 is quite possibly the prettiest production car of the past quarter century. If the DB11 were half as good looking, especially in this era of unyielding safety regulation, we could tell Aston "job well done." After spending the good part of an afternoon checking out nearly every angle, it's safe to say that Aston's hit a century. That's cricket terminology, meaning they've done really well. We were gonna say "hit it out of the park," but that didn't seem very British. Let's try this—James Bond will be thrilled. The DB11 is stunning, both inside and out. It had to be. Well played, Mr. Palmer.

Act two of the Volkswagen Group's revival of the famed French brand has arrived and is quite impressive. Fifteen hundred horsepower is of course the big number, for now. Bugatti still hasn't figured out what the Chiron's actual top speed is: 275 mph? 280? Higher? We know that inside you'll find an analogue speedometer that reads to 500 km/hr. That's 310 miles per hour to us red-blooded American types. On the stand, the two-tone blue Bug wowed the crowds at Geneva. We can't wait to see what it does on the test track. Stay tuned.

Built to meet the 2017 FIA R-GT rally regulations, the 124 Abarth Rally all but stole the show from the road-going 124 Abarth unveiled at Geneva. Under the hood is a 1.8-liter turbo-four tweaked to deliver 296 hp and driving the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential shift manual transmission and mechanical limited-slip differential. Color scheme and hood-mounted driving lights recall the Abarth 124 Rally from the 1970s. All we need now is the FIA R-GT Cup series to include some gravel events, and we'll have rallying like it used to be—sideways everywhere.

Yes, it did seem odd that Range Rover was the first JLR brand to be given the SVR high-performance treatment by its Special Vehicles Operations shop, but now it's Jaguar's turn. The F-Type SVR boasts 567 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque, and with standard all-wheel drive it's capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, Jaguar says. Top speed? Two hundred mph. In addition to tastefully edgy styling tweaks from Ian Callum's design team, the F-Type SVR gets lots of carbon-fiber bits plus weight-saving forged alloy wheels and a titanium exhaust system.

The Mercedes-Benz juggernaut just keeps on rolling. The stylish C-Class cabriolet joins the new C-Class sedan, coupe and—sadly, only in Europe—wagon for the 2017 model year. The design language borrows heavily—and successfully, despite the downsizing—from that of the gorgeous S-Class coupe and cabrio but in a package that's much more affordable. U.S. customers can expect similar engines to C-Class sedan and the option of 4Matic. No C63 cabrio yet, though. Instead you'll have to make do with the C43, powered by the 362-hp, twin-turbo, 3.0-liter V-6.

Compact crossovers are red hot in Europe right now, and premium brands are circling to pick off customers who want something with the cachet of the right badge. The Q2 rides on the same MQB architecture as the Golf. It's shorter overall than an A3 hatch but has more interior room. Engines in Europe start from the 114-hp, 1.0-liter TSFI three-cylinder and stretch to the 187-hp, 2.0-liter TSFI four, plus a couple of diesels in between. Front drive is standard, but Quattro versions are available with adjustable suspension giving up to 7.9 inches of ground clearance.

Porsche's engineers know PDK-equipped 911s are quicker, but Porsche marketers know there are still a bunch of customers who think snicking a shifter and dipping a clutch pedal are essential to the experience of driving. Oh, and they don't want turbos, either. So the 911R features a short-throw six-speed stick shift mated to the naturally aspirated, 493-hp, 4.0-liter engine from the GT3 RS. And as maximum torque—339 lb-ft—is developed at 6,250 rpm, there'll be plenty of shifting for drivers to do. The stripped-down 911 R—no radio, no air-conditioning, and no rear seats—weighs about 110 pounds less than a GT3 RS.

As much as we like the Corvette Stingray, we've been rather lukewarm on the Z06, as it's struggled to put all its power into effective action. The Grand Sport promises to be our Goldilocks, matching the Stingray's useable power with the Z06's handling, braking, and aerodynamic improvements.

We're suckers for shooting brakes, and Italdesign has delivered. Up front, it's something of a mature Lamborghini. Out back, it's a modern interpretation of the classic Volvo P1800 ES. Right in the middle: crazy doors, just for good measure. It's equal parts sensible and sensational, and it's entirely appealing.

Crazy one-off Lamborghinis are now a fixture of the company's business plan, and the Centenario carries the Veneno's torch perfectly. It's wild, but by pulling influences from motorsport rather than fighter jets, it retains an aura of purpose and functionality. It doesn't just look fast. It looks like it'll take a race down a peg.

GM's teasing us with a compact, rear-drive sports car again, and we don't know how much more we can take. Opel says it's just a fantasy, but we'd really like to see them make this dream come true. A baby Corvette for the working class sounds like a winner to us.

The Honda Civic is in the middle of a comeback tour and has decided to treat the fans to a hot new single. Sure, the Civic Hatchback is ostensibly about practicality, but the styling assures us this car is about driving, too. Honda tells us the production model will look very similar, and we can't wait to see it in hot hatch Si and Type R trims.

Most people looking at the hulking six-passenger Mulsanne are going to miss its best bits. Sure, the Grand Limo is more than 3 feet longer than a standard Mulsanne—the Extended Wheelbase version is a miniscule 8 inches longer than normal, and Bentley had to develop new tooling just to build the roof. Yes, the glass partition goes from clear to opaque at the touch of a button. Amazingly, the same wealthy customer purchased all 12 examples. (The gentleman is rumored to also own four Pagani Huayras.) But what sets the big dog Mulsanne apart is that it has both a champagne fridge and a whiskey cabinet. Moreover, Bentley can happily add both a humidor and a caviar chiller. Something we're sure they'll do for theMotor TrendEdition Gran Limousine, right boys?

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