► Parkers New Car Awards 2025
► Hyundai Ioniq 5N is named Best Fun Car
► Renault retains prize for best finance
Parkers – the definitive resource for car buying advice in the UK – has once again partnered with CAR magazine to bring you the award for the Best Fun Car and Best New Car finance in its prestigious Parkers New Car Awards 2025. This year’s sporting winner is the Hyundai Ioniq 5N, and is one of a total of 10 award-winning cars revealed today.
This year’s best fun car award couldn’t have gone to any other car, as the battery-powered hot hatch is the year’s biggest leap forward the judges had witnessed in electric car technology – and it’s the only EV that could persuade the most devout petrolheads to flip from pumps to plugs.
Luke Wilkinson, deputy editor of our sister website, explains: ‘Why is the Ioniq 5 N such a clear-cut winner? Well, it does an exceptional impression of a petrol-powered hot hatchback. Hyundai has coded a phoney double-clutch gearbox for the car, which is supported by a digital engine note – and it’s remarkably convincing in how well it replicates the violence of a full-throttle upshift or the sensation of high-rev downchange.
‘But the best thing about the car is that doesn’t take itself too seriously. You get the impression it was designed by people who love driving. So, the Ioniq 5N has a drive mode whose sole purpose is to make the car do skids – and you get a button on the steering wheel that throws all 650bhp at the wheels for overtaking. It’s hilarious,’ he adds.
The winning car has been tested rigorously by the Parkers.co.uk team, which judged the best fun cars cars on a combination of feedback, performance, style, cost-per-month on finance deals and sheer desirability.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N vs Tesla Model 3 Performance twin test
And Britain’s best new-car finance provider is…
Renault once again picks up an award for Best New Car Finance in the 2025 Parkers New Car Awards. Last year we waxed lyrical about how Renault had remained committed to 0% APR deals and kept its low base rates against industry-wide rises. This year is no different, the best Renaults still being available with 0% APR and really tempting monthly payments.
Then there’s the generous deposit contributions available across the board that further help make Renault an industry-leader. Renault even offers zero-deposit options on new cars. The value for money for a new Renault is difficult to overstate.
Editor Keith Adams says: ‘In this year’s Parkers New Car Awards, more than half of the winners – as well as our overall champion, the Renault Scenic E-Tech – are electric, which shows a huge shift in the competence and usability of these cars. But we also acknowledge that EVs still won’t work for enough people until we have better and more widespread on-street charging, so the awards are peppered by lots of highly commended petrol and hybrid alternatives.’
Now in its eighth year, the Parkers New Car Awards reflect the constantly-evolving views of Britain’s car-buying public, with winners decided by a combination of the site’s expert reviewers’ verdicts in thousands of miles of road testing and the purchasing habits of the website’s 2.3+ million users actively involved in the car-buying process.
More details about the Best Fun Car and Best New Car Finance awards can be found alongside all the winners in the Parkers New Car Awards 2025 on the Parkers website.