What Vehicle Is Best for Your City?

Don't worry, most of our choices aren't as obvious as this classic city car. But for the most densely packed of U.S. cities, the MINI is the inevitable choice. It's the appropriate size for parking and for squeezing past herds of double-parked offenders, but without being golf-cart small. What it lacks in cargo space (most New Yorkers aren't hauling around lawn fertilizer and sheets of plywood), it makes up for in retro style. Since performance is wasted on the Big Apple's cab-choked streets and cramped highways, stick to the base 1.6-liter 121-horsepower 4-cylinder trim, possibly in a hatchback for those biennial trips to IKEA or the beach out east.

View Pictures:  2012 MINI Cooper Coupe

There are a lot of places where the Leaf isn't worth the cost, or the hassle of finding public car-charging stations, or the stigma of driving something that makes a Prius look sexy. In L.A., none of the above apply. In a city defined by standstill traffic, the all-electric Leaf qualifies for the prized HOV sticker (standard hybrids no longer do). Finding chargers within the Leaf's 100-mile range is easy, and the SL trim can be fast-charged, cutting refuel time exponentially. In a city brimming with sports cars, this Poindexter of a compact is sort of sexy.

Read:  High-Mileage Cars to Beat Gas Prices

The Windy City's drivers don't care about a stiff breeze. Rather, the nemesis of all car-owning Chicagoans is the cratered, moonscape condition of its potholed roads, among the worst in America. This compact SUV can handle snow and slick roads, and survive year-round abuse from below. Honda's CR-V has the all-wheel drive to handle wintry commutes, enough elevation to clear the deeper chasms and, in one of the only comprehensive studies on pothole damage, Hondas came out on top. So what if the study was based in the U.K.? Any hope is better than none.

Read:  2012 Honda CR-V: First Drive

There's nothing particularly punishing about Houston's weather or roads — a Camry would do. But Texas is truck country, where well-appointed 4-door pickups were born to roam. The Sierra doesn't have the towing capacity of a Ford F-150, but it's able to pull 9,600 pounds with its 6.2-liter V8 engine, more than enough to trailer a boat down to Trinity Bay. And it's the classiest cargo-hauler in the business, with standard Bose speakers, heated and cooled leather seats, a remote starter and other features almost too fancy for any self-respecting truck.

View Slideshow:  Pump-Wise Pickups

Warmer and less cluttered than New York, but more quintessentially American in its history, Philly deserves a city car that's more than a little patriotic. The Ford Fiesta is our pick, a car from the one Detroit automaker that didn't ask for federal charity, and whose financial resurgence has a lot to do with its bold new designs, including the Fiesta. The critically acclaimed compact now gets up to 40 mpg on the highway with the more aerodynamic Super Fuel Economy package and, despite its entry-level sticker price, it comes standard with a voice-activated SYNC system.

View Slideshow:  10 Cheapest Cars to Own

The criterion for a vehicle in a desert city is pretty simple: heat-bouncing, lighter-hued interiors. There's nowhere to tow your personal watercraft, no sane reason to go camping and no weather to sully the long stretches of blacktop carving through the dunes. So you can drive whatever boring thing you want, or you can channel your inner Mad Max with the Challenger SRT8. It's pure, vintage muscle on 20-inch, 5-spoke aluminum wheels. Its only shortcoming is that the 6.4-liter 470-horsepower Hemi V8 engine doesn't punch right through the racer-striped hood.

View Slideshow:  Manly Machines

Miami might get the attention, but Jacksonville is the bigger city (with more than 800,000 residents, more than double Miami's population), and it is surrounded by more diverse day or weekend destinations. So, for transitioning from open-air highway driving to powering through swampy conditions to rolling right onto the beach, the venerable Jeep Wrangler just makes sense. It's the only 4x4 convertible, becomes the ultimate beachcomber with the doors fully removed, and it can ford up to 30 inches of water. But remember, this is gator country — don't go fording with the doors and roof off.

Watch Video:  2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

The unpredictability of New England weather is so bad that it's long been a point of pride for local residents. It's also why Subaru, and the Outback, specifically, have always been so ubiquitous in the area. And so it goes for Boston, where the Outback and its symmetrical all-wheel drive is as adept at gripping rain-clogged streets as it is at forging through mud-spattered New Hampshire trails and snow-swept Maine roads. The 3.6R, with its 256-horsepower boxer engine, isn't a necessary upgrade, but the rumors are true: Whether in rain, sleet or snow, Boston drivers go fast.

View Slideshow:  Wagon Roundup 2012

For rainy Seattle, we could have just as easily picked the Subaru Outback again for its proven performance on wet roads, but the Volkswagen Tiguan is a capable all-weather traveler. VW's power-juggling 4Motion all-wheel drive, and an off-road drive mode that's exclusive to this model, provide more precise torque control, improved braking on loose surfaces and automatic speed adjustments during hill climbs and descents. The Tiguan has room to spare for outdoor gear, but it's also a relatively luxe ride, with built-in iPod connectivity, leather two-toned interiors and a hipper overall look than its competition at Subaru.

Compare: VW Tiguan vs. Subaru Outback vs. Hyundai Tucson

The Evoque is a renaissance Range Rover, equally at home charging up and down the Rockies as it is cruising through downtown Denver's LoDo neighborhood. This crossover won't even ruffle the feathers of the famously environmentally active locals, with a fuel economy that is a rather commendable 19 mpg city/28 mpg highway. It's not the rugged outdoors vehicle that other Range Rovers are, but it's a snowy-weather road warrior, and the most stylish SUV on the market.

See: Fuel-Efficient SUVs

For more information on any vehicle in this slideshow, click the links below:

-MINI Cooper
-Nissan Leaf
-Honda CR-V
-GMC Sierra
-Ford Fiesta
-Dodge Challenger
-Jeep Wrangler
-Subaru Outback
-Volkswagen Tiguan
-Land Rover Evoque

Compare: All 10 Cars

Based out of the Boston area, Erik Sofge is frequent contributor to Popular Mechanics and Slate.com. He specializes in everything scientific and technical.

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