Our writers test and research products independently. When you buy through a link on our site we may earn a commission but this never affects our product choices.
The best toy cars for kids of all ages 2024
Vroom vroom! Beep beep! Mind out the way! We’ve got the best toy cars for all ages coming through.
By Poppy O'Neill | Last updated Jun 13, 2024
If you haven’t yet broken your ankle by skidding on a Matchbox car, are you really even a parent? Don’t worry: we’ve listed the best toy cars and vehicles of all shapes, sizes and skills to please all manner of mini petrol heads, recommended by expert toy reviewers as well as real parents who've been there and got the injuries to prove it.
From big-gift toy cars to pocket-money versions for a ‘just because’ treat, our guide to the very best toy cars will have exactly what you’re looking for. So buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Here are the best toy cars for kids to buy in 2024.
If you're looking for more honest toy and tech recommendations from real parents, check out our guides to the best tablets for kids, best phone for kids and best games consoles for kids.
Best toy cars: at a glance
Overall best toy car: Hotwheels 36-Car Pack | £47
Best toy cars on a budget: KandyToys Kids Diecast Toy Cars | £12
Best wooden toy cars: Melissa and Doug Wooden Toy Car Set | £14
Best pull-back toy car: B. toys Mini-Wheeeels 3-Mini Toy Vehicles Car Set | £13
Best toy car for babies: WOW Toys Dynamite Daisy | £10
Lots of cars for your money
Well made
Small, so liable to get lost easily
Price on writing: £47
Hot Wheels cars are always popular with Mumsnetters. They’re well-made, so will stand up to as many skirting board pile-ups as your child involves them in, and they come in a multitude of different styles and types.
This 36-car pack is sure to please tiny car fans with its range of classic and new models, including cars, racers, vans and monster trucks. Each car is scaled at 1:64 and comes decorated with Hot Wheels’ usual authentic detailing. The set would make an excellent Christmas gift for a young child just getting into cars toys or for an older collector too.
Read next: Discover the best board games for kids of every age in our handy round-up.
Lots of cars for little over a tenner
Not as highly-detailed or well-made as Hot Wheels
Price on writing: £12
If you want to give your child's collection of cars a big boost without breaking the bank then this box of 36 die-cast models works out at mere pennies per car and will provide hours of whizzy, vroom-y fun.
While they’re not quite as well-made as Hot Wheels, if you want a bunch of cars that your child can hurl down the patio, or would like to increase their car stock without spending a fortune, then this is a great selection. These cars will also make great weekly rewards for star charts and the like.
Read next: Best toy storage solutions for a clutter-free home
Not plastic
Traditional designs
Easy for little hands to grasp
Doors and boots don't open
Price on writing: £14
Melissa and Doug’s wooden toys never fail to impress Mumsnet parents for their chunky charm and gender-neutral appeal.
This set of nine wooden vehicles includes a police car and a New York-style taxi cab. All are pleasingly easy for little hands to manipulate and manoeuvre really well, particularly on hard surfaces. There are lots of Melissa and Doug toys available that these cars would be compatible with, and they'd also be ideal for use on a roadmap rug.
Related: The best trikes for babies and toddlers, tried and tested by Mumsnetters
Cheerful characters
Good value
May be a bit babyish for some tastes
Price on writing: £13
Friction-powered cars are lots of fun. They’re great for racing (with one in each hand), but are also ideal if a child is playing with someone else.
This fun set of Wheeeels from B. toys is cute, colourful and hardy enough to endure slamming into feet, furniture, walls - you get the idea! Children can practice those all-important skills of making friends, taking turns and losing and winning graciously.
Related: Looking for a kids' tablet with tailor-made, age-appropriate content? Check our our review of the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet.
Chunky
Colourful
Figure can be removed
Older children will find the design too childish
Price on writing: £10
A baby's toy car needs to be nice and chunky so that it's easy to pick up, and this stylish pink racing car with a removable figure for pretend play would make a lovely first car for children of 12 months and up.
Daisy hops in and out of her car easily and, when she’s ready for the off, the friction push-and-go motor sends her speeding quickly away. The car has a magnet on the back so it can be hooked up to other Wow Toys cars too.
The car contains no BPA or small parts, making it suitable for younger petrol heads, and is designed to improve motor skills as well as encourage interactive and creative play.
Read next: Discover our pick of the best toys for 2-year-olds.
Cool dinosaur designs
Great for racing
Chunky and easy to hold
Dinosaurs aren't to everyone's taste
Price on writing: £16
What could be more fun when you’re a toddler than toy cars and dinosaurs? Toy car dinosaurs, obviously!
DINOBROS toy cars are super-scaly, realistic-looking dinosaur heads on wheels - literal monster trucks - which pull back and whizz across the floor like extinction never happened.
They’re lovely and chunky to hold and should have massive appeal for dinosaur fans as well as kids who love cars, adding an extra pretend-play dimension to their games. This pack of four is great fun for racing with friends or siblings and includes a T-Rex, Triceratops, Dilophosaurus and Carnotaurus. No batteries required.
Related: The best books for 3 year olds, according to Mumsnetters
Green Toys Car Carrier Vehicle Set
Made from recycled bottles
Can be washed in the dishwasher
Pricier than other options
Price on writing: £29
Green Toys are, quite simply, beautifully made. Pleasing to the eye for parents keen on sustainable alternatives, and brightly coloured and chunky enough for children to enjoy, they’re made from recycled milk plastic bottles, contain no BPA, phthalates or PVC and can even be slung in the dishwasher to give them a proper clean - you can’t do that with wooden toys.
This vehicle carrier set comprises a lorry cab, detachable two-storey trailer, two working ramps and three differently coloured cars to load up on it. Good for playing with alone or with a friend, it’s also robust enough for outdoor play.
Read next: Best outdoor toys: get your kids active with great toys and games for your garden
Flashing lights and sound effects
There are lots of cars in the Toot-Toot Drivers range to add to your collection
Only comes with one car included
Price on writing: £40
VTech is famed for its bright and appealing toys with lots of lights, sounds and buttons to push, and the VTech Toot-Toot Drivers Fix & Fuel Garage is no exception. It comes with a stock car, but you could easily add more VTech cars to join the pack.
Little ones can drive the tow car around the two floors, travel down the ramps, fuel up and even take the truck to the car wash with spinning brushes.
There are open-and-close gates and spinning gears to bring on fine motor skills, and three light-up buttons that introduce colours and a few objects. The garage also has six interaction points which you drive over for sound effects. All in all, there’s lots to do and we think this would keep children of one to five years busy for hours.
Read next: Boost your child's learning all year long with the best online tutoring ranked by real parents.
Adds an exciting element to playing with toy cars
Takes up space
Price on writing: £35
One for more experienced toy cars fans, this triple graduating loop set from Hot Wheels allows you to build gravity drops, create jumps and race the Hot Wheels car that comes with the set all over the Triple Loop.
It's great toy for slightly older children to help extend the life of their toy car enthusiasm - as well as help them a few very useful things about physics.
Read next: Best skateboards for kids as recommended by parents
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.