Kunal D’souza
First choice: Honda Civic
The Canadian auto industry is facing tough times but there are still some excellent products built right here in our backyard, chief among them, the Honda Civic. It’s been built at the Honda manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ont. since 1988 and has earned the title of Canada’s best-selling passenger car for 26 of the last 28 years.
The current generation is the biggest one yet, pushing awfully close to mid-size-car territory, but it’s still as great to drive as ever and just as practical. With clever packaging that yields a ton of passenger and cargo space, nimble handling and fuel-efficient powertrains, including an excellent hybrid option, the Civic’s formula is tough to beat. Its cabin is also a clinic in how to create modern ergonomics without putting every function into a touchscreen.
There’s a hatchback model that’s made in the U.S., so that version doesn’t count for this list, but all the sedans, including the sporty Si, are made here.
The Civic might be the easiest compact sedan to recommend but its pricing has crept higher every year. A base model now starts at $31,416 before taxes.
Even with only 200 horsepower, the Civic Si is the best driving experience in its class.Kunal D'souza/The Globe and Mail
Second choice: Dodge Charger Scat Pack
The Dodge Charger Scat Pack is one of the few large sedans left in the world and it still looks like it’s from another generation, but that might just be the best thing about it.
Even though it’s now pinned on a completely new platform with all the modern electronics and safety aids, a full-size, rear-wheel-drive sedan with exaggerated proportions and restomod design cues feels old school. Like the electric Daytona version, the Charger is made in Windsor. It starts at $62,390 before taxes for a two-door R/T model, while the two-door Scat Pack starts at $72,390. Four-door models cost an extra $3,000.
The four-door version of the Dodge Charger Scat Pack.Courtesy of manufacturer
Mark Richardson
First choice: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid
I own an older RAV4 and would recommend it to anyone looking for a compact SUV, though the competition is close these days with the Canadian-made CR-V (which my aunt owns, and would also recommend to anyone). Toyota’s huge Ontario assembly plants in Cambridge and Woodstock have made more than four million RAV4s since 2009, and every RAV4 sold in Canada is built there, except the plug-in hybrid RAV4s, which are made in Japan. The Canadian plants export to the U.S. as well, though RAV4s are also built at Toyota’s just-as-massive plant in Lexington, Ky., for the American market.
The RAV4 is now in its sixth generation and is sold only as a hybrid. In the previous generation, non-hybrids did not sell well against the hybrid: they used one-third more fuel (7.9 litres per hundred kilometres, compared to 6) than the more powerful hybrid, which was only a couple of thousand dollars more costly to buy.
Toyota’s reputation for reliability means the RAV4 holds its value well as it ages, especially because there’s usually a waiting list of several months to order a new one, despite the Ontario plants working to full capacity. Even so, it was the top-selling vehicle in Canada last year that was not a pickup truck, and few people who buy one say they regret it – including myself.
The 2026 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is powered by a 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine and an electric motor.Petrina Gentile/The Globe and Mail
Second choice: INKAS armoured vehicle
Toronto-based INKAS Aerospace & Defense built its reputation on making armoured vehicles for whatever needs protection: cash deliveries to banks, soldiers to battle, executives to their corporate jets. Shady characters around the world who don’t mind doubling their vehicles’ weight and fuel consumption with bullet- and grenade-proof steel and glass have surely appreciated the quality of INKAS’s work, too.
There’s a huge market for INKAS products, unfortunately, and the company just announced it will more than double the size of its production facilities in Toronto and the U.S. by the end of this July. One of the vehicles it plans to build is the M1, a mine-resistant armoured vehicle made in a collaboration with the Canadian and French defence departments, for use by NATO forces. “We’re trying to be good Canadians,” the company’s chief security officer Andy Ellis told The Globe and Mail recently. “We’re trying to open up new markets.”
The INKAS M1, a mine-resistant armoured vehicle.Courtesy of manufacturer
Miranda Lightstone
First choice: Chrysler Pacifica
The crown for the quintessential Canadian vehicle belongs to the Chrysler Pacifica. Yes, a minivan. Hear me out:
Built at the Windsor assembly plant, the Pacifica is a masterclass in domestic engineering. Windsor has been the beating heart of Chrysler minivans since 1983. The Pacifica nameplate officially rolled off the line in 2016, and it has since cemented itself as the definitive family hauler.
The Pacifica offers a highly capable all-wheel-drive system that handles our winters with the kind of confidence you’d normally expect from a bulky SUV. It’s practical, too. Thanks to the clever Stow ’n Go seating, you can transition from hauling your child and their friends to carrying lumber for a weekend home-renovation project in a matter of seconds. It’s a comfortable living room on wheels that transforms easily into a cargo van.
The 2026 model starts at $52,195 before taxes, scaling up to $72,695 for the top-tier Pinnacle.
It doesn’t try to be something it’s not. The Pacifica is unpretentious, well-designed and proudly Canadian-made. If you want a vehicle that genuinely fits the rhythm of our family lives – from a neighbourhood morning coffee run to a cross-provincial road trip – this is it.
A Stellantis assembly worker works on the interior of a Chrysler Pacifica at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. January 17, 2023.REBECCA COOK/Reuters
Second choice: Bricklin SV-1
If we’re talking about Canadian automotive history, we have to talk about the spectacular, gull-winged fever dream that was the Bricklin SV-1.
Built in Saint John in 1974 and 1975, the SV-1 (which stands for Safety Vehicle One) was the brainchild of American entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, backed by millions of dollars in provincial government funding. It was designed to be the safest sports car on the planet. It featured an integrated roll cage, massive energy-absorbing bumpers and a composite body made of colour-impregnated acrylic bonded to fibreglass. It couldn’t rust and scratches could simply be sanded out.
Sure, it had its quirks. The heavy hydraulic gull-wing doors were notoriously slow, like the car itself, and rampant production issues forced the company into bankruptcy after building fewer than 3,000 cars. But today, the SV-1 stands as a rare cult classic and one of the most audacious chapters in our national manufacturing story. It’s an undeniable head-turner that dared to do something completely different.
If you want to own this quirky piece of Canadiana, a used SV-1 will set you back anywhere from $15,000 to $45,000 today, depending on its condition. For a rolling conversation starter, that’s a bargain.
Malcolm Bricklin poses with his gull-winged sports car, the Bricklin SV1, during the Toronto International Auto Show in Toronto on June 24, 1975.Hamilton Spectator
The Bricklin SV-1 was supposed to turn New Brunswick into a manufacturing hotbed. Instead, the project sapped the province’s coffers.
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