The car brands that make drivers smile

For many of us a car is about much more than the A to B – it’s an expression of personality, brand affiliations, ambition and much more. So, it goes without saying you want a car that makes you feel good and, yes, want to smile while driving it. Which brands do that best? Well, Autotrader has analysed Instagram posts of owners sharing pictures with their cars and used facial recognition tech to measure the size of their smiles. Really! And the brand with the most smiley owners wins. You can read the results of that here but we also thought we’d ask our team of expert reviewers to drop their steely roadtester faces for a moment and share which brands make them smile the most. It’s an eclectic mix as well, taking in supercars to budget brands alike.

“To my mind Volvo is the automotive equivalent of George Clooney”

With its big chunky buttons, dogged loyalty to the estate car, celebration of brown paint, and embodiment of effortless Scandinavian cool, Volvo makes me very happy. If there is one brand that has always appealed equally to men and women, it's Volvo. Forget power and handling. Volvo is about pine forests, windswept beaches and tired children. It's about picnics and swimming and the joy of life. As for the models, it's hard to choose between the XC90, the most spacious and comfortable seven-seater ever, and the V90, a sleek, luxurious estate with its quiet, understated interior. Added to that you've got Volvo's history of safety innovation, with the invention of the three-point safety belt at its pinnacle. An invention that was issued patent-free, for the good of, well, humanity. To my mind Volvo is the automotive equivalent of George Clooney: handsome, intelligent and caring. Sigh!
Browse Volvo on Auto Trader

“The unpretentious fitness for purpose in its cars always makes me smile”

Dacia might seem a surprising choice for a self-confessed petrolhead. But the unpretentious fitness for purpose in its cars always makes me smile. They are cheap, for sure, and sometimes on the basic side. But they have a chunky style about them I really like, and I appreciate stuff like unpainted (and now recycled) plastic for wheelarches, bumpers and other bits of the car vulnerable to the knocks and scrapes of everyday motoring life. You don’t have to be precious about a Dacia – you can just focus on the more important things in life. I also like the way models like the Duster and Jogger are all lifestyle friendly, whether it be wipe-down surfaces and rubber mats for family life or easy to install sleep packs turning the interior into a bed for improvised trips away into the great outdoors. And I love the spirit of the brand and the folk who work there, especially the attitude of its boss in his willingness to confront tricky issues like the prickly relationship with safety testing body NCAP, which has penalised Dacia for not including some of the often annoying bleepers, buzzers and warning systems seen on other cars. On a recent press launch the man at the top was unapologetic, basically saying the brand’s cars ARE safe where it matters and if you want to spend more money on one that bongs at you all the time by all means do so. But Dacia will always build cars for people who put value for money over gimmicks. Cocky. But the kind of no-nonsense attitude that makes me smile.
Browse Dacia on Auto Trader

“The first time I ever sat in one – a Huracan about 10 years ago – it was absolutely everything I wanted it to be”

I love Lamborghini. It’s the class clown at the Volkswagen Group Christmas party, all fake tan, Turkey teeth and tight trousers, throwing shapes in the middle of the dance floor and winking at everyone while referring to itself as “The Lambo-meister”. This is the attitude that brought us the Countach, the most supercar-ish supercar ever made. And the Urus, the most ridiculous family car ever made. Although not so much the Miura, the most stunning car ever made. That was a beautiful blip. Lamborghini’s origin story, about how a tractor-maker called Ferruccio bought a Ferrari and thought it was so rubbish that he decided to make a better car himself, is amazing too. The first time I ever sat in one – a Huracan about 10 years ago – it was absolutely everything I wanted it to be. There, outside my little townhouse, about to drive this mad yellow thing to Lidl and pretend it was mine, I had one of those “how comes I get to do this job?” moments. So, I did what absolutely everyone does the first time they drive a Lamborghini: played There’s No Easy Way Out really loud and drove through a big tunnel, looking all moody and thinking about what a terrible person Ivan Drago is. Then I bought knock-off biscuits.
Browse Lamborghini on Auto Trader

My first car was a Ford Fiesta, so my love for the brand has been with me since I was 17. At the ripe old age of 40-plus, that affection has only grown stronger with my professional interest. As a commercial vehicle reviewer, Ford’s products are a staple of my writing diet with the Transit Custom being one of my favourites. But for me, it’s the way Ford never shies away from taking its experience of making cars and putting it to good use in vans, not least when it comes to comfort and driver-friendly features. To that end it’s not an overstatement to say that Ford’s van cabins are the benchmark in commercial vehicles, and not just because their cup holders are of a decent size. Ford knows making a van as easy to step into as a family car is critical in today’s marketplace. I’m not saying other van manufacturers don’t understand this, it’s just that when I see the blue oval on a van I know that inside I’ll be getting all the features, tech and comfort I need. And that makes me smile!
Browse Ford on Auto Trader

“Mazda always puts a smile on my face because of the unique way it does things”

My love of Mazda goes back 11 years to the day I picked up my 2009 MX-5. It was love at first drive, and the car quickly became affectionately known as Margot the Mazda. We still have her in the family, and I recently used her as my wedding car. It sounds cliché, but Mazda really does make you feel connected to its cars. I love the precise manual gearboxes and, of course, the thrill of putting the roof down in my MX-5 regardless of the weather. Over the years I have also owned a Mazda2 which was a brilliant little car, but I eventually swapped it for the latest generation MX-5 I have today. Whatever it does, Mazda always puts a smile on my face because of the unique way it does things, and the plucky spirit of the brand.
Browse Mazda on Auto Trader