Forty cars, five slots—this is CarGuide.PH’s Top 5 Picks of 2025. As part of our year-end tradition, we’re naming the five best cars we’ve driven this year. And compared to how other publications do it, we make sure not everyone’s a winner.
Instead of coming up with special awards or categorizing them to try to reward everyone, we lump everything together—from A-segment mini hatchbacks to luxury SUVs—and shortlist them to the five cars we thought were outstanding in the past year.
As always, our method is simple. First, we should have driven it extensively and on the roads that we’re familiar with. This means no around the block test drives (including track days), no “first drives,” and no junkets, local or overseas. Second, it’s something we’d be willing to spend our own money own, and we’re willing to put in our own garage. Finally, it should be somewhat attainable. For that, we’ve capped the price to P 5-million.
And now, here is our Top 5 Picks for 2025.
And now, here is our Top 5 Picks for 2025.
5. Hyundai Elantra N
Elantra is not really a nameplate that’s synonymous with performance. More than anything, it’s a sensible commuter—practical, comfortable, and durable. But leave it to Hyundai’s high-performance division, Hyundai N to work their magic. As it turns out, the Elantra N becomes a real performance sedan in every sense of the word. It’s wacky, gimmicky, but it’s also got genius intelligent and can do ballet too.
Elantra is not really a nameplate that’s synonymous with performance. More than anything, it’s a sensible commuter—practical, comfortable, and durable. But leave it to Hyundai’s high-performance division, Hyundai N to work their magic. As it turns out, the Elantra N becomes a real performance sedan in every sense of the word. It’s wacky, gimmicky, but it’s also got genius intelligent and can do ballet too.
Read the full review.
4. BYD Seagull
Typically, your expectations can’t be high for any car priced below P 900,000, let alone a battery electric one; but that’s before the BYD Seagull came to town. Not only has it managed to upend not just what entry-level BEVs are capable of, but in the process, managed to do the same for all sub-B-segment hatchbacks. Not only does it achieve what it’s designed and intended to be: an urban runabout, but it does so with very high marks.
Read the full review. Watch our full review and fuel economy experiment.
Typically, your expectations can’t be high for any car priced below P 900,000, let alone a battery electric one; but that’s before the BYD Seagull came to town. Not only has it managed to upend not just what entry-level BEVs are capable of, but in the process, managed to do the same for all sub-B-segment hatchbacks. Not only does it achieve what it’s designed and intended to be: an urban runabout, but it does so with very high marks.
Read the full review. Watch our full review and fuel economy experiment.
3. Tesla Model 3
In a lot of ways, Tesla has upended how traditional automakers work and operate. At times, it feels childish with things like fart sounds for the car’s lock/unlock chirps. But strip those away, and it’s more than just the sum of its memes. Not only is it genuinely good to drive, packed full of tech, quick, and even reasonably practical, it’s also competitively priced too.
Read the full review.
2. Toyota bZ4X
Essentially, the antithesis of what Tesla is, the Toyota bZ4X is full electric mobility without the steep learning curve. Typically, BEVs like some shock-and-awe when it comes to their implementation of in-car technology. At times, it becomes almost a case of shoving in needless tech just for the sake of it. Refreshingly, the bZ4X avoids that trope. It offers proper buttons, switchgear, and controls while still offering a solid level of tech. Ultimately, its performance is also approachable too. Its perky, solid, and perfectly at home to the less-than-perfect roads of the Philippines.
Essentially, the antithesis of what Tesla is, the Toyota bZ4X is full electric mobility without the steep learning curve. Typically, BEVs like some shock-and-awe when it comes to their implementation of in-car technology. At times, it becomes almost a case of shoving in needless tech just for the sake of it. Refreshingly, the bZ4X avoids that trope. It offers proper buttons, switchgear, and controls while still offering a solid level of tech. Ultimately, its performance is also approachable too. Its perky, solid, and perfectly at home to the less-than-perfect roads of the Philippines.
Read the full review. Watch our first impressions.
1. Toyota GR Yaris
However you put it, the Toyota GR Yaris is truly a special machine. It’s quite special in that it’s built from the ground up as a rally car first. As a result, it’s small and light with punchy dynamics and a gusty motor. More importantly, it does an outstanding job of prioritizing the drive. It allows you to enjoy every stage of a corner. It’s not just about carrying speed in and managing power on the way out. You can chuck the GR Yaris into corners as hard as you like, and as soon as you get on the power, you’ll feel it hook up and slingshot you out of the bend. It gives you the confidence to explore the car’s limits in a way you might not in a larger, more intimidating performance car. Plus, it’s pretty elastic too when it comes to its talents in that it’s both a hoot, and despite its packaging limitations, practical.
Read the full review.
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