Tell us: what’s the coolest car of this decade so far?

We’ve been having a small debate in the TG office. A couple of broken chairs. A minor desk-fire. Nothing serious. And it’s all the fault of this apparently innocent question:

What makes a cool car?

A simple question on the surface, but one that unravels rather quickly when you start to pick at it.

Cool, after all, is not the same as ‘fast’. Or ‘expensive’. In fact - at least in these modern times - a lot of the time it’s the exact opposite. A fluoro-green McLaren 675 LT, for example, is unquestionably a magnificent car – biblically fast, technically near–flawless – but it’s a bit… serious to be truly cool, isn’t it? Maybe not.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Land Rover Defender is not, by modern standards, a particularly, um, modern thing. But it is, in its bare-bones, back-to-the-Fifties way, rather cool, no?

Perhaps we’re utterly wrong. It does seem to be rather subjective, this whole ‘cool’ thing. Factions of the TG office have, in the last half-hour, argued the indisputable coolness of cars as diverse as the BMW i8, Dacia Sandero and Tesla P85D. You may choose to loudly disagree.

Which is why we need your help. Specifically to answer this question: what’s the coolest car of this decade so far?

Click through the images above to take a look at a few of the TopGear.com team’s suggestions… and then tell us below which you agree with, which we’ve got utterly wrong, and the coolest cars of the 2010s (The Onesies?) we’ve entirely forgotten about.

And make sure you tell us exactly why your suggestion is properly icy-cool. If your defence is eloquent enough, we might just include it – and your words of wisdom – in a glitzy poll-thing later this week.

Let us know your thoughts. There’s no such thing as a wrong answer here. Oh, apart from ‘Toyota Auris hybrid’…

UPDATE: 12pm, Tuesday 18 August

Thanks for the amazing response so far, all. Much better than our pitiful suggestions. The most popular choices so far, in no particular order, look to be:

Volvo S60 Polestar (nominated by Nick B)
Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 (nominated by ATSR)
Citroen C4 Cactus (nominated by Rick Moritz)
Mercedes G-Wagen 6x6 (nominated by... um, lots of people)
Aston Martin Vanquish (nominated by Oscar Taylor)
Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat (nomated by quite a few of you)

Also several votes for the Singer 911 and Eagle Speedster, but do they strictly count as 'of this decade'? Can of worms, all sorts of open.

Anyhow, we'll be closing the nominations process fairly soon, so get your votes in now. Still no love out there for the Auris Hybrid, we notice...

Why it’s cool: It’s a British brute with an air of villainy, a rip-snorting muscle car in a tailored designer suit. Fifty years after the first, the world has a real Jaaag sports car again.

Jaguar F-Type Coupe review

Why it’s cool: OK, it might not end up being a better car than the German saloons it aims to match, but the Giulia is rare-groove and brawny and packs a 500bhp V6. Also Italian, which never hurts.

Paul Horrell: Will Alfa's big 2018 masterplan succeed?

Why it’s cool: Because what else is this fun to drive whether you choose to take it on road, on track, in a swamp, or across a desert?

TG mag goes off-roading in the Ariel Nomad

Why it’s cool: Concept car looks alone tick the box, though beneath lies everything BMW has learned about dragging the sports car into the digital age.

TG on ice: We drive the BMW i8 from the UK to Sweden

Why it’s cool: Most supercars are too darn… serious to be truly cool. But the Zonda’s evolution from upstart supercar into bona fide hypercar – not to mention its sheer rareness – means the LM transcends its class.

Photo: John Wycherley

Why it’s cool: Because it shows you don’t take yourself too seriously, and nothing’s cooler than not caring how you look.

TG mag drives the Morgan Three-Wheeler

Why it’s cool: It’s a fantasy parts-bin special: M3 chassis bits and big power squeezed into a tiny 1er body, complete with heroic wheelarches. A thug of the best sort.

TG drives the BMW 1M

Why it’s cool: The Sandero is motoring pared back to its simplest. No bells, no whistles: just about everything you need, and nothing you don’t.

Top Gear's big budget car track test

Why it’s cool: The Phantom limo makes a case for being world’s best car, but its rakish, more raffish coupe sibling edges it for sheer icy cool factor.

951 miles in the Rolls Royce Wraith

Why it’s cool: Hypercars are often too ostentatious to be truly cool, but the 918’s clean lines and even cleaner emissions give it an air of intelligence and taste well beyond top speed and downforce bragging rights.

Porsche 918 vs LaFerrari vs McLaren P1

Why it’s cool: OK, so ‘of this decade’ is stretching it a little, but the soon-to-die Defender’s timeless utility is a welcome antidote to the modern swathe of ‘lifestyle’ 4x4s.

TG goes racing in a Land Rover Defender

Why it’s cool: It’s an underdog. It’ll scale a volcano without breaking sweat. And what’s cooler than sticking it to The Man (or in this case, every bloated, pricy 4x4) by beating it in its own back yard?

TG drives a Panda 4x4 up Mount Etna

Why it’s cool: The big, beautiful, graceful Merc storms into the twenty-first century, caring not for the weak or poor in bi-turbo V12 guise. The ultimate excess express?

Mercedes S-Class Coupe review

Why it’s cool: Because it proves that Car 2.0 will, when the oil runs out, be fast and genuinely amazing to drive. Who doesn’t want a car with a Ludicrous Mode?

Speed Week: Tesla Model S P85D vs BMW i8

Why it’s cool: Just look at it. A coachbuilt modern Italian classic, created not for lap times or sales targets, but for the joy of making something beautiful.

TG drives the Touring Disco Volante