What’s the Best Car to Import in 2023?

Photo: Alexandre Prévot from Nancy, France, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

That big, light-up sphere in Times Square is just days from dropping, rolling a new digit onto our annual odometer and making it impossible to correctly write dates for at least two months. But that inconvenience comes with a benefit: 2023 brings us a whole new slew of cars to import.

Here in the U.S. of A., we can’t bring in cars that are less than 25 years old. But 2023, improbably, marks 25 years since 1998 — the release of Titanic, the end of Seinfeld, and the debut of “One Week.” Also, just a few fun cars hit the market. But which would you import?

Photo: Norbert Aepli, Switzerland, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

I’m a simple person, of simple interests. I like things that are good, and you know what? Porsches are good. But why settle for any old 996, when 1998 gave us the 490 horsepower Ruf TurboR? The last of the classic 993 body style, and the last of the air-cooled era, all worked over by Ruf body designers into something sleeker, meaner, and more capable.

The TurboR was a gap-filler, sure. It was meant to give the company something, anything to sell while it worked up the 996-based CTR2. But I’ve always been a sucker for that 993 exterior, and I’ll gladly take the horsepower and torque hit to get those beautiful looks.

My pick for a car to import in 2023 is the 1998 Ruf TurboR, but what’s yours? Do you have dreams of Alfas, of Peugeots, or of Renaults? Leave your top picks in the comments below, and we’ll collect our favorite answers in the new year.