With 60 new cars under his belt in 2003, motoring correspondent Ian Lamming tries to sort the best runners from the also-rans with his top five cars of the year.

1. The Smart Roadster

The best car of the year simply has to be the Smart Roadster.

With a price tag of under £13,000, you would happily hand over twice as much for this amount of fun on two wheels.

Quirky looks and a stylish interior are all well and good but it's the way the little Smart drives that enchants. The dinky 700cc three-cylinder engine, that buzzes so willingly behind your left ear, puts out 70bhp, more than enough to send the lightweight body along with alacrity.

The steering is Gillette-sharp and grip huge from the over-sized, gorgeous alloys. The latest generation semi-automatic sequential gearbox is now a peach with quick, smooth changes.

The added bonus is that just being there in the Smart brings a smile to everyone's life, whether they like cars or not. It's the only car of the year I would consider buying.

2. Volkswagen Touareg

Awesome is a much over used word but the only one that will do in the case of the Touareg. Ten cylinders stacked in a V, five litres and a couple of turbos thrown in for good measure, make the VW off-roader just about the most powerful thing on the road.

Torque figures don't mean a lot to many people but with 750Nm on tap, take it from me, that is an unbelievable amount of pulling power and enough to tow a small town.

Okay, it doesn't look that pretty but the interior is plush by any standards and the thing handles more like a car than a 4x4. The only downer is the price tag, which is around the £50,000 mark.

3. Subaru Impreza Turbo

It's not that I'm a power junky, but how can you avoid including this rally car with number plates?

The quick facelift has given it some personality for the first time and the dull interior is almost passable.

None of this matters when you get behind the wheel to enjoy that turbocharged boxer engine, which simply is one of the most endearing on the road today.

And before anyone complains, it's not about haring around at breakneck speeds in a thoroughly anti-social manner. It's about having the power to choose and to overtake when you want and climb steep hills without having to come down the box.

It's about having the freedom to negotiate tricky road conditions in perfect safety and having a car with a bit of soul.

4. Chrysler Grand Voyager

See, I can be people-orientated, though I must admit it's the unbridled sack of toys that comes with Chrysler's Grand Voyager that sticks in my mind. How about a button on the key fob to open the back door. Sounds good, but it doesn't stop there. You can also open the two sliding side doors electrically too. I had so much fun using these - especially to scare the postman - it's a wonder I didn't flatten the battery. Add in a pretty useful diesel engine and more interior space than my house and all of a sudden the Voyager is a car worth a mention.

5. Seat Leon TDi

The last in the list could so easily have been the Z4 with its radical looks, super interior, hood down charm and sweet 3.0 six cylinder except Seat's hatchback the Leon just has to be mentioned. Why?

Well a booking mix-up saw two cars standing on the drive one particular week, the Leon TDi and a 60 grand Range Rover Vogue.

The two cars couldn't have been more different in terms of driving enjoyment and cost.

The Range Rover lost hands down and I clocked up many more miles in the Seat, which was simply a joy to drive.

There's no logic to it at all. How can a budget hatchback be this great to drive? Don't ask me, it just is. Go and have a go.

The Turkey - Range Rover Not really a turkey, but if it can't give a Seat a run for its money, despite costing four times as much, then it's a poor job.

It looks the part, up-market and expensive, a thing to be driven by celebrities or royalty.

The interior is nicely designed taking styling queues from Italian powerboats and yachts.

But no car has left me colder to drive than the Range Rover and the fuel figures are a joke. Offroad it grinds, pops and wheezes its way round in a most unseemly fashion, definitely one for the High Street.