From SUV To Dream Machine, The Ultimate Motors To Buy

Can a new car ever truly be considered an investment? It all depends on how you look at it.

- Andrew Chesterton

Sure, the rarest of new models might actually increase in value, but you’d need a fully functioning crystal ball to pick the right one, and even then you’d have to lock it safely away somewhere rather than drive it – and where’s the fun in that?

It’s probably wiser to consider the right new car as less of a financial investment and more an investment in your own happiness. Then the returns can be very high indeed.

And from all-electric green machines to performance icons reborn, 2019 is shaping up as a stellar year in the world of new cars. Read on for a preview of the most exciting models due to launch over the next 12 months.

BEST RETRO REVIVAL

ALPINE A110

The fact that weight is the sworn enemy of performance is no secret, but few live and breathe the mantra with the same dedication as French carmaker Alpine.

Once a minuscule stand-alone brand, the specialist sports car manufacturer is now owned by Renault, and the stunning A110 is the first new Alpine since 1995.

The two-seat coupe tips the scales at an impossibly light 1,103kg in its heaviest guise, which is astonishing. Its closest competitors, the Audi TT and Porsche Cayman, are around 300kg heavier, and it’s not as if either of those are carrying much winter fat.

Its weight is extremely important, as under that futuristic bonnet lurks a pretty pokey (on paper) engine: a midmounted and turbocharged 1.8-litre unit producing 185kW and 320Nm, which is about the same as your average hot hatch. But fitted to something as feather-light as the A110, the result is truly magical.

It’s enough, in fact, to push the Alpine to 100km/h in just 4.5 seconds, and to keep on pushing to a flying top speed of 250km/h. And we do mean flying; there are gliders that weigh more than the A110, and at that speed you’ll feel like you’re about to take off.