Photos: Zerin Dube

We’re living in the golden age of the automobile right now. You can buy purpose-built enthusiast versions of just about every kind of vehicle these days, from sedans to pickup trucks to wagons, and they all do a pretty good job of putting a smile on the driver’s face when pushed hard.

There is another tier that sits above those vehicles, though. A tier where just the thought of driving these vehicles gets the serotonin flowing, and a great sense of happiness overwhelms you. These are vehicles like the Mazda Miata, Porsche 911 GT3, anything with a Hellcat engine, the Jeep Wrangler or Ford Raptor, and a handful of other no-compromise performance enthusiast vehicles. These vehicles are all over the spectrum as to what they are good at, but they all exist to do one thing – bring the driver maximum joy when being used as designed.

Here recently, I had the opportunity to spend a week with the 2021 MINI John Cooper Works (JCW) GP, and the same feeling of immediate joy overcomes me a month later whenever I think about driving it. There are many reasons I shouldn’t like the car on paper but put rubber to the road and all that goes out the window.

The Mercedes-Benz AMG GLB35 4MATIC is new for the 2021 model year in the GLB lineup and takes one of the best compact SUVs on the market and turns it into a performance hot box on wheels.

Photos: Kia USA

The 2021 Kia K5 is an all-new midsize sedan in the Kia lineup and replaces the Kia Optima that occupied the Kia midsize lineup for the past two generations. While Kia K5 is leaps and bounds better than the previous Optima in every way, Kia wasn’t satisfied to stop there. With its hot new look inside and out and hot rod turbocharged engine, the K5 sits at the top of the entire midsize sedan segment.

The 2020 Hyundai Sonata is already one of the best family sedans on the market today, with a combination of killer looks and some of the best technology you can find in any car, at any price. Not content with that, Hyundai upped the Sonata’s game with the Sonata Hybrid and its fantastic hybrid powertrain, which includes a really futuristic solar roof.

The best part? Pricing for the Sonata Hybrid Blue starts at just $27,750 while our Limited trim tester tops out at a very wallet-friendly $35,300. Surely there’s a catch to get this much car for the money, right? In our eyes, there are no catches, and the Sonata Hybrid is truly a no-compromise family sedan that delivers in almost every way.