The 10 best German cars to buy in 2025

07th July 2025

Russell Campbell

Home to companies like Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen, Germany has built some of the best cars on the planet. The likes of the Volkswagen Beetle come from the more mundane end of the market, but here we’re focusing on the fast stuff. Germany's unlimited autobahns give the homeland's manufacturers a unique insight into high-speed performance, and barnstormer saloons dominate this list. These are the ten best German cars to buy in 2025.

BMW M5

The new M5 might not have the drama of the old model (especially in CS specs), but it's an easier car to live in. The hybrid M5's ability to patter about on electric power alone turns the raging super saloon into a silent A to B car that can run for a useful number of miles on pure electricity. Even with the turbocharged V8 sparked into life, it can return mighty fuel economy for something with this much performance.

The downside of adding this extra layer to the M5's character is the weight it brings. At 2,435kg the M5 is not light, it's even more than 400kg heavier than the old model. That said, BMW has done well in hiding its new M5's weight using rear-wheel steering and clever four-wheel drive to mask the fact that this is more than 5,000mm long. It never feels like a dainty sportscar, but selectable four-wheel drive means lurid powerslides are still on the menu. A combination of petrol and electric gets the BMW from 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds and on to an 189mph top speed.

Audi RS6 GT

The Audi RS6 GT is a surprising car not just because it's a sensible family estate with a tuning magazine cover paint job and a menacing body kit, but also because it was built by the purveyors of all things sensible, Audi. This car is Audi's answer for the old BMW M5 CS, taking the (already not really that) sensible Audi RS6 and making it even more loony tunes. It's a mad machine. Audi hasn't upped the power — with 630PS (463kW) and 850Nm (627lb ft), it doesn't need to — but it has chopped the standard air suspension for manually adjustable coil springs.

That may sound like a crazy thing to do in an everyday road car, but it transforms the RS6, giving it one of the most mobile rear ends you'll find in any Audi. Finally, the RS6 has the cornering fun factor to match the straight-line performance of its twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8, which is good for 0-62mph in 3.3 seconds and a 190mph top speed. Sadly, all 60 RS6 GTs allocated to the UK are sold, but if you can find one to buy, you'll pay around £180,000 for the privilege.

BMW M3 Touring xDrive

The G80 BMW M3's controversial weird face is entirely forgiven after a long-awaited estate version – the M3 Touring xDrive introduced at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. Behind that toothy snout, the M3 in general has turned out to be a far better-resolved performance car than its predecessor. All that turbocharged torque is sent through a capable chassis for a driving experience that’s more fun than fearsome.

Still, that twin-turbo six-cylinder engine is a meaty machine even in the new car, which is where BMW’s xDrive system comes in. The M3 xDrive is praised from all sides for how it handles that tower of performance and how the powered front wheels only add to the experience. Yes it’s heavier, yes it’s bigger, but it seems the M3 has evolved into quite the all-round package, especially now you can have it in estate car form.

Volkswagen Golf R

The Golf GTI is credited with making hot hatches respectable (and mainstream) and has a longer heritage, but in recent years the Golf R has become the fast VW of choice for its understated looks, turbocharged performance and all-wheel-drive traction. In short, the R is the 911 Turbo S of hot hatches, with the latest Golf R based on the latest eighth-generation Golf, building on the success of its predecessor.

The formula remains similar, power now up to 333PS (245kW) and the 0-62mph sprint blitzed in just 4.6 seconds. Perhaps acknowledging the previous one was a little one-dimensional, as there’s a new all-wheel-drive system able to do more exciting things with the torque split, up to and including a Drift Mode with the optional R Performance pack.

Porsche 911 Carrera

Our head says we should put the all-electric Taycan here for its electric reinvention of Porsche’s brand values. But the 911 arguably is Porsche as far as most people are concerned and, while the latest 992 version isn’t beyond criticism, it remains perhaps the single most iconic German car on sale. And its bandwidth is huge. The Turbo S is a horizon-shrinking monster with hypercar pace in a daily driveable package.

But the purest expression of its character is arguably in its most basic form – the entry level 911 Carrera. All things relative this is now an £82,000-plus car dripping with tech and, against the 650PS (478kW) Turbo S, the 385PS (283kW) from the rear-mounted turbocharged six sounds modest. But for all the attempts to polish the rough edges, the 911 remains a car of unique and beguiling character.

The 10 best Japanese cars to buy in 2025

Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series

Mercedes-Benz builds everything from small hatchbacks and limousines to SUVs to luxury coupés and, on its current run of form, pretty much any would stand inclusion here. The 730PS (537kW) AMG GT Black Series is perhaps the least representative model of the brand’s entire output. But we love it for that, and for all its wild aero, muscle car vibe and Nürburgring lap records.

The valedictory send-off for AMG boss Tobias Moers before he upped sticks to run Aston Martin (now part owned by Mercedes), the GT Black Series is an extreme embodiment of his single-minded approach to making fast cars faster, which now goes a long way beyond just levering a massive V8 into an unsuspecting Mercedes.

Audi RS3

You can’t beat the swagger of an Audi RS, with its big shoulders, parping oval exhausts and frowny fascia. Yet in spite of almost always looking great, these cars haven’t always actually been good. Happily in the case of the latest RS3, we have a good one. A really good one. With a clever diff at the rear that’s not afraid to take most of the RS3’s 400PS (294kW), this is a hyper hatch from Audi that will actually dig in and dance.

Then there’s what has to be one of the most charismatic engines still on sale, the 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbocharged engine that delivers that spectacular performance. With 500Nm (369lb ft) and all-wheel-drive, it’ll get to 62mph in a supercar-humbling 3.8 seconds. Woof.

Ruf CTR Anniversary

Another 911 you say? Actually no, as Ruf’s status as a manufacturer in its own right means its Porsche-based products stand apart. And in the case of the CTR Anniversary the resemblance literally is only skin deep, this being a ground-up car based on Ruf’s own carbon fibre chassis and wrapped in retro style bodywork made of the same.

Inspired by the legendary CTR Yellowbird of 1987, the CTR Anniversary uses a Porsche-based 3.6-litre flat-six built by Ruf and deploying a mighty 710PS (522kW) to the rear wheels via little more than a manual gearbox and limited-slip differential. All with a dry kerbweight of just 1,200kg, or nearly half a tonne less than a 911 Turbo S. If you’ve ever seen Stefan Roser’s legendary ‘ring lap in the original Yellowbird that hairy-chested combination will make total sense – slip on your loafers and get ready to burn some serious rubber!

Wiesmann Project Thunderball

To call Wiesmann the German Morgan would be a little inaccurate, the retro styling of its original cars clearly owing a lot to a bygone age but the engineering is anything but old-fashioned. It's true that, like Morgan, Wiesmann is associated with using BMW engines, but its cars have always been about serious performance. Shifting a kerbweight of little over a tonne, this made for some stonkingly fast cars, the MF5 of 2008 using the E60 M5’s mighty V10 engine with over 500PS (368kW) before switching to the later turbocharged V8.

It all went south in 2014 but it returned in the 2020s with that quintessential retro style and, instead of M power, E power, in the form of electric motors and a battery pack. Project Thunderball moves the incredible Wiesmann retro-futuristic style and electrifies it. It’s probably one of the most exciting EVs out there, without resorting to delivering more than 2,000PS.

Apollo IE

Evolved from Gumpert, the eponymous supercar brand founded by ex-Audi Sport engineer and rally boss Roland Gumpert, Apollo has adopted the name of the car he built and recently announced a buy-out by a conglomerate of entrepreneurs from Macau, China and Hong Kong. Gumpert himself is no longer involved but the Intensa Emozione that stunned crowds at its Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard debut in 2018 has German engineering at its heart, thanks to the involvement of HWA in its 6.3-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine and the car’s set-up.

Should those credentials be in doubt, HWA are the initials of founder Hans-Werner Aufrecht or – to put it another way – the original ‘A’ in AMG. Following the construction of ten IE models, Apollo is promising to turn its expertise to “revolutionise the mobility industry from a foundational perspective” and “disrupt the status quo and antiquated legacy structure of the automotive industry.” Strong words. But an amazing car.