Top 10 Cars for Architects

Guess what, Jeff is obsessed with cars. Here's his current top ten list of cars that are great for life in the city.

Small and beautiful spaces are my favorite things in architecture. The articles that draw my attention are inevitably the ones that focus on gorgeously detailed spaces that maximize every single square foot. I’ve written about this before but what is really exciting to me is how this “smaller yet better” approach is starting to trickle down into the mainstream. More and more clients are excited about not adding quantity to their homes but quality. This, my friends, is where stuff gets awesome. The same things have always excited me about cars.

Invariably these clients have some pretty great taste, live in the city, and love design. They have cool phones, appreciate objects that are designed, and drive some pretty damn awesome cars. Cars, you see, are one of my other loves (don’t get jealous LEGO, there’s enough love to go around). What I’ve always hated though was that carmakers had historically forced you to get some land yacht if you wanted a NICE car. Quantity equaled quantity in their book and that was ridiculous. Europe led the way but now, thankfully, America is embracing the small luxury car. And some are even fun to drive!

Years past if you wanted a special small car your options were pretty limited. The VW GTI was small, very special, but not particularly luxurious. I guess you were “un-American” if you wanted quality interior finishes in anything but a car so big you could stretch out in the back. It was always an either/or proposition. Too bad. Now, though, there are such great small cars coming out I can barely stand it. Here is a look at some of my favorites in no order and for totally different reasons:

Mercedes CLA Relatively low price, gorgeous, and special. I think this will be a runaway hit for Mercedes and truly elevate their brand.
Anything Mini This much is obvious, but Mini has done an outstanding job making small cool AND luxurious. But, please, oh please, why can’t they move the window switches to the doors on all their cars like they’ve finally done on the updated Countryman.
Cadillac ATS Cadillac more than any other American manufacturer has stuck to one design vision (for better or for worse) for the past decade. It has been quite wonderful to watch them. When a company has a vision and sticks to it great things can happen. Sure the ATS is in many ways a carbon copy of the last generation BMW 3 Series but dammit if they haven’t done a great job producing a gorgeous car that feels special on the inside and drives incredibly. Kudos to Cadillac on this one and for keeping the ATS small and light.
The Mazda CX-5 All vehicles right now are upping the luxury quotient but this is one beautiful SUV that drives wonderfully (excepting that it is slow until the new engine jumps in this year) and just feels special. Zoom zoom or not, Mazda’s have a bit of soul and aren’t afraid to be themselves. Let’s hope it pays off for them.
Buick Encore Yes, a Buick. Buoyed by the fact that China buys Buick like mad (really, I’m not joking) Buick survived the elimination of brands that General Motors did when they went through bankruptcy. Saturn, Hummer, Saab, and Pontiac may be gone but good ol’ Buick is still here. The Encore is something pretty crazy for an American car company especially Buick. It is a SUPER small SUV that is plenty roomy on the inside, and beautifully finished on the inside. I haven’t driven one yet but it is supposed to be quite nice. Good on Buick for trying to carve out a new niche for the market instead of just creating another massive SUV.
Audi A3 Well this is an oldie and it is about to lose what I think makes it so special (the wagon aspect) but this was pretty much the ONLY car if you wanted something remotely practical, beautifully designed, and fun to drive for many years. I’m disappointed to hear that Audi is only bringing the sedan version of the new A3 to America.
Fiat 500 I don’t love this car necessarily (although we drove an absurdly fun convertible version as a rental car in Edmonton Canada of all places) but I love what it stands for. Small cars shouldn’t be a penalty box and this one proves it.
Volkswagen GTI This one is a classic and rightly so. It is crisply detailed and drives amazingly. The current automatic version has a killer feature where you can do burnouts on command. Still, the 6-speed manual is the way to go. The new one coming our way (and already available in Europe) looks waiting for. The four door is my favorite.
Range Rover Evoque It is gorgeous. I don't even know or care how practical it is but I could just look at this one all day long. Not really a recommendation and more of a comment on how alluring good design can be.
Volvo S60. I love this car. I think it has some classic lines and isn't too big. I only wish the V60 wagon available in Europe was available over here. I think a good 1/3 of my pictures from Europe recently were of the V60. I want this one so bad.

Those are my favorites for the moment. Honorable mentions go out to the Tesla Model S, Chevrolet Volt, and the Cadillac ELR, and the Infiniti Q50 (most of which are electric by some random coincidence). What other cars out there suit the design-conscious urbanite / Architect? You tell me.