Best Cars 2012 : 10 Best Concept Cars in 2012

While most modern concepts are just thinly disguised versions of near-term production vehicles, some of them still kick serious aesthetic ass. Witness the Alfa, Jaguar, and Scion below. (Of course, they often get toned down on the way to the dealership. Witness the, er, Scion below.) Thankfully, dream machines have their place, too, and the imposing Cadillac Ciel, the très-funky Citroën Tubik, and the Italianate Bertone B99 all wowed us at shows this year. Presenting our 2012 10Best concept cars: Let’s hope they build ’em all.

Mid-mounted blown four, rear drive, curb weight under 2000 pounds—think of this as an Italian-built Lotus Exige. The body—a sort of  thinned-out 8C-looking thing—is carbon fiber and integral to the car’s structure. Production is scheduled for 2013, but the 4C’s availability in the U.S. depends on Alfa selling any cars here. Our Magic 8 Ball says, “Ask again later.”

At precisely the moment Jaguar broke away from the sedan styling it had adhered to for 60 years, Bertone suggested it go right back, trotting out this Geneva concept as a proposed design direction for a Jag 3-series fighter.  As it turns out, the Italians do retro Jaguar better than Jaguar. There was even a second version festooned with splitters, spoilers, dive planes, and a mondo rear wing. Jaguar politely declined.

Unveiled at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Ciel fit right in among some of  history’s automotive greats, the upswept nickel-plated band along its rocker a nod to the classic tapered-tail look. Best of all, this might preview the Cadillac flagship of  the very near future.

This retro-futuristic robo-pig looks like it’s here either to save or enslave mankind, depending on its own moral code and prevailing mood. The driver sits in what Citroën calls the “cyclotron,” a large vertical hoop that contains the seat, steering wheel, and pedals and looks like an escape pod. Maybe that’s the designers crying out for an escape from France.

To us, that grille says Aston Martin, which is a fine thing for a grille to say. Ford says the Evos is where its global design is headed; not just the Anglophilic grille, but the fastback body style, too. The Evos—along with the Hyundai Sonata and the Kia Optima—would seem to suggest that we are entering a new era of cool-looking mainstream sedans. Finally.

We’d call Jaguar unimaginative if the C-X16 wasn’t so heart-achingly beautiful. The proportions are a rehash of  XK themes, but the shorter wheelbase and wide hips give this a poised-to-kill look. The C-X16 is the Aston Martin V-8 Vantage to the XK’s DB9. The smaller Jag at least diverges from its big brother in the engine bay, where a blown 375-hp V-6 is backed by a 94-hp electric motor.

The next development out of  South Korea will be a rear-drive Kia sports sedan, and it should look something like this. The phrase “four-door coupe” makes us twitch, but we’re almost willing to forgive that.  As a stylistic theme, it reliably leads designers to some of the most alluring shapes on the road.

Mazda’s chief designer says his goal with this L.A. debut was to “build the car I want to buy and drive.” Seems like an obvious approach, but we’re pretty sure nobody considered it when designing, say, the VW Jetta. We’ll have our chance with the Shinari: Tone down the swoopy, low-slung styling a bit, and you’re looking at the next Mazda 6.

Between the two of them, Toyota and Scion have now shown multiple concepts of the eventual rear-drive coupe that will stem from the Camry company’s collaboration with Subaru. Toyota will sell its version as a Scion in the U.S.; this concept, shown in New York, is our favorite. Too bad we were told the production car will look a lot tamer and more like, well, a Toyota.

We miss the Microbus. So does VW. In 2001, it rolled out a larger concept—call it the “Macrobus”—and the Geneva debut of the Bulli proves the Volks still pine. Built on the bones of VW’s tiny European Up!, the Bulli is an electric micro-Microbus resurrected for the Scion xB lover. VW might build it. You know the company wants to.