Singapore – How do you decide between Chye Tow Kway and Char Kway Teow, Nasi Lemak and Chicken Rice, or Boston Lobster and Chilli Crab? You shouldn't. They're all good and because they're different, you can't even say one's better than the other... or that one's the absolute best of them all.

Likewise, when you're talking fun cars, it's not as simple as ticking items off a quantitative checklist to decide on a single winner (again, why would you?), because it's all about the emotional engagement, and a lot of that comes from the heart, not the mind.

Different aspects of the different cars available in Singapore in 2018 made us go "Mmmm...!", and like the previous five iterations of our Cars of the Year, you're not going to see a bunch of arbitrary categories from us, if only to conveniently pigeon-hole 'winning' cars – in case it’s not clear, that’s why we dub it ‘Cars of the Year’ and not ‘Car of the Year’.

Since we first started this story arc some years ago, it's become a lot more challenging to round-up a compilation of cars that still has ‘soul’, as well as is capable of striking an emotional enough chord to give us the ‘feels’. However, gems that make us go “Mmmm” can still be found if you look hard enough.

(Click HERE to find out what we got up to during the Cars of the Year 2017)

(Scene at the carpark during our COTY2018 shoot... whoever said you could only have one?)

As always, we cut across absolute performance figures, price point, and even snob appeal, because ‘greatness’ transcends all of that – just look to the Kia Stinger and Megane R.S. in our winners for instance.

Of course, the cars have to be available for sale in Singapore in the qualifying year, and we must have driven the candidates at some point, because you can’t determine a car’s level of ‘soul’ from vital statistics alone....

In no particular order of ‘greatness’ (well, they have been arranged alphabetically, but that’s it!), here are our fave-eight from one-eight...

1) Click HERE for the Audi RS 4 Avant

2) Click HERE for the Bentley Continental GT W12 Coupe

3) Click HERE for the BMW i8 Roadster

4) Click HERE for the Ferrari 488 Pista

5) Click HERE for the Kia Stinger 3.3 GT

6) Click HERE for the McLaren 600LT

7) Click HERE for the Renault Megane R.S.

8) Click HERE for the Rolls-Royce Cullinan

PHOTOS Zotiq Visuals