What should I look for in a toy car?
There are always lots of toy cars on the market - they never go out of fashion - so choosing the best option for your child will depend on both age and interest level.
Age
If you’re buying for a very young child, always look at the age suitability as some cars may have tiny pieces that could be a choking hazard for under-threes. Little'uns will also want to be able to manipulate their cars easily so go for chunkier versions for very young children, and leave the opening doors and car boots for slightly older kids, for whom that kind of thing can help with fine motor skills.
Durability
Regardless of age, look for cars that are sturdy and like they’ll stand up to a bit of rough and tumble. They’re going to be hitting a LOT of skirting boards at speed, and may even get taken out into the back garden.
It’s worth paying a little more for the well-known brands if you can, because these will manoeuvre better, won’t fall apart and have wheels that stick.
Type of play
Consider how the toy car will be played with too. If it's for a keen vehicles fan, you might want some unusual or vintage-type designs that are more of a collector’s item than a toy. If it's for a race enthusiast, pull-back friction cars, push-and-go vehicles or toys with some track (like the Hot Wheels sets) are particularly fun. If you’re after a toy garage, or your child has one already, you’ll want free-wheeling cars that will run smoothly down different slopes.
Interest
It’s also worth looking for familiar faces that your child might know. The Disney Pixar Cars franchise is perennially popular and a young Cars fan will be thrilled to have Mater, Lightning McQueen and co in their collection. But there are also cars with superheroes, Star Wars characters, Polly Pocket and evenPaw Patrol and Peppa Pig about, so play to your audience and go for characters they know and love.
While we’ve mostly featured cars in our roundup, there are lots of diggers, buses, trains, trucks and other vehicles that might take your child's fancy - even tractor fans aren’t left out, with entire ranges of John Deere merch available to buy.
Which toy car is best?
For a please-all present for Christmas, or any time of year, we think the generous box of 36 Hot Wheels Cars, in every shade and style you can think of, are the best toy cars to buy right now. Hot Wheels cars are always a favourite with Mumsnet parents for their robustness and child-pleasing designs, as well as car-loving children of different ages.
How we chose our recommendations
Recommendations from real Mumsnet users
Before we recommend new products, we always ask our trusted Mumsnet users, of which there are more than 7 million each month. That’s a lot of honest, impartial advice.
We sought out the trusted opinions of Mumsnet users, to get their feedback on their kids' favourite toy cars, including the brands that they rate and recommend. To find the toy cars that came with the most recommendations, we first searched the Mumsnet forums to create a long list of approximately 50 toy cars that had been popular with Mumsnet users and their children.
Expert opinions
We then looked at which toy cars had impressed parents on toy review sites - including both industry reviews and customer feedback. We cross-referenced this with the original list to shortlist 20 toy cars and sets that both Mumsnet users and reviewers had loved and, from there, we chose a final 10 products suitable for every age and stage.
Authentic consumer reviews
Finally, to bring you our definitive list of the best toy cars on the market, we thoroughly investigated genuine, in-depth customer reviews on retailer sites such as Amazon to get wider consumer experiences regarding the products on our shortlist.
About the author
Poppy O'Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet and a mother of two. She's been researching and reviewing baby and child products for 2 years, with a particular focus on baby essentials, toys and books for toddlers and outdoor play equipment. From potties to paddling pools and bunk beds to bedtime stories, she loves to deep-dive into research and find the best products out there.
Why you should trust us
We work hard to provide unbiased, independent advice you can trust, prioritising recommendations from real parents who tried the products themselves and cared enough to share their opinions on Mumsnet’s Talk forums. We do sometimes earn revenue through affiliate (click-to-buy) links in our articles. This helps us fund more helpful reviews like this one.