Seven hot cars for Valentine’s Day

It’s Valentine’s Day, and those “sexiest cars” lists are rolling in. Silly? A little, but it’s too much fun not to play along. We looked at 2011 cars that were attainable (sorry, Dr. Porsche, Jaguar, Tesla), not overly obvious (Chevy Camaro, Ford Mustang, BMW 3-series), and sporting a noticeably new look. We like the Volvo C30, but it didn’t much improve a reliably pretty fleet. I haven’t driven all these vehicles, but over several years of test-driving I did race through several of these cars’ predecessors. You can still see the skid marks. Here, in random order, are my seven hot cars for Valentine’s Day 2011:

- Clay Collins, Staff writer

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The Volkswagen CC (which stands for Comfort Coupe) is a lithe and über-Passat. (ZUMA Press/Newscom/File)

1. Volkswagen CC

This lithe beauty is an über-Passat, and then some for Valentine’s Day. And it can serve as a symbol for an impressive suite of redesigned VWs that also includes the Jetta TDI – a highly accessible, high miles-per-gallon (m.p.g.) diesel – and the new Passat. (The colossal VW flagship, the Phaeton? That one we don’t quite get. You want to enter that rarefied realm, just make the leap and get into an Audi A8. Or S8. But now we’re flirting with hot cars in the supermodel category.)