McLaren 540C - Autocar's favourite cars of the year

The McLaren 540C is my favourite car this year for the two reasons that matter most. First, I had one of my finest-ever driving days in it. Second, in my dreams I could just about afford it.

The driving day was a brisk but simple troll on all the rolling Cotswold roads I've spent the last 30 years enjoying. We didn't go excessively fast, just fast enough to prove that the mid-engined layout (at least expressed in the McLaren way) remains optimal for performance driving. This may be the lowest-powered Macca, but its 200mph top speed and 3.6sec 0-60 mph sprint has got to be enough for anyone.

On ownership, what catches my eye is McLaren's surprising personal leasing offer: carve £35,000 off your mortgage and you can have one of these for three years at £1000 a month, doing 10,000 miles a year, and have enough left at the end of the period to go around again. Not saying I'm going to do it (the Steering Committee might have something to say) but I certainly find the idea exciting.

Check back tomorrow for another of our favourite cars of the last year.

Read John Howell's choice - the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Cabriolet - here

Read Mark Tisshaw's favourite here - the Lotus Exige Sport 380

Sam Sheehan chose the McLaren 570GT as his 2016 favourite

The Suzuki Ignis was chosen by Rory White - read his entry here

Steve Cropley

Title: Editor-in-chief

Steve Cropley is the oldest of Autocar’s editorial team, or the most experienced if you want to be polite about it. He joined over 30 years ago, and has driven many cars and interviewed many people in half a century in the business.

Cropley, who regards himself as the magazine’s “long stop”, has seen many changes since Autocar was a print-only affair, but claims that in such a fast moving environment he has little appetite for looking back.

He has been surprised and delighted by the generous reception afforded the My Week In Cars podcast he makes with long suffering colleague Matt Prior, and calls it the most enjoyable part of his working week.