Each forthcoming car, truck, and SUV is an as-yet-unrealized promise,
but none emerges wholly from the ether. Clean sheets of paper are found
at Staples not car companies, whose planners juggle plants,
partnerships, powertrains, and platforms to feed global sales channels.
This guarantees a high likelihood of product success, but often also a
bland if competent uniformity. So, when something reaches off the page
and slaps you in the face, when a just-launched online configurator has
you rushing to check your bank balance—that’s amazing. We are
celebrating that here.
These are the vehicles that make news each time they shed a bit of camo
or whenever a jet-lagged executive reveals a detail about a redesigned
wiper stalk. Mere rumors of their existence accelerate competitors’
product cycles. The wait to drive them—one, two, sometimes even three
years—is rewarded with hoped-for revelations in advanced technology,
structural integrity, mass reduction, fuel economy, features, and
acceleration. Fun, too.
Curating this stream of information is nearly as fraught as managing the
billions it takes to develop a new model. We beg and borrow insights
from around the business, tap sources, and hold our bladders until after
the wine glasses have been cleared from the dinner table before asking
questions. This year we are even ranking them, counting down to the one
that’s most worth waiting for.
For injoy 
