Each year experts in the automobile industry come up with their lists of the top ten vehicles of the year. Some experts put the vehicles through a series of tests, while others create their lists purely on market and consumer response. Vehicle choice is certainly a personal one, but experts like Cars.com, Consumer Reports magazine, Automobile magazine, and Car and Driver magazine, are certainly worth listening to. What did they have to say this year?

Well, the Cars.com list of most popular vehicles in 2005 was topped by the Honda Civic. Cars.com analyzes the vehicular market to come up with the most popular new car models based on consumer interest (i.e. on the number of email requests for price quotes sent to dealers) and not car tests. Here's their top ten list for 2005:

1. Honda Civic 2. Honda Accord 3. Toyota Corolla 4. Honda Odyssey 5. Toyota Camry 6. Toyota Prius 7. Toyota Sienna 8. Honda CR-V 9. Toyota Highlander 10. Toyota Tacoma

The Consumer Reports magazine list was also topped by a Honda, only this time it was a Honda Accord Hybrid, but the method of choosing the top cars is very different. Consumer Reports magazine took 200 vehicles and put them through 45 tests. At the end they chose the top cars according to nine categories. For example, the Subaru Forester was the best "Small SUV", the Lexus RX330 was the best "Midsized SUV", the Lexus LS430 was the best luxury sedan, the Subaru Impreza was the "most fun to drive", and the Toyota Prius was the best "green car." Meanwhile, Automobile magazine chooses the top vehicles in 13 different performance categories, such as, Coupe, Family Car, Luxury Sedan, Minivan, Pickup, Small car, Sports car, Sport sedan, amongst others. They come up with one "ultimate vehicle" and this year it was the Chrysler 300C.

According to Car and Driver magazine, the Chevrolet Corvette topped the list as a best "performance car" and the Ford Mustang was the best "muscle car".

About The Author: Dylan Miles, journalist, and website builder, lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.autocarplanet.com on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.