Best of the 'Bowl: Cars.com's Favorite Super Bowl Ads

CARS.COM — Last Year’s Super Bowl attracted an estimated 114 million viewers, which is why CBS, the game network this year, can charge advertisers a reported $5 million for the amount of time it takes to reheat your coffee in the microwave. At those prices per 30 seconds, companies are going to do their darndest to make an impression, rolling out their best advertising for a championship game even non-sports types will watch for the commercials.

Related: More Super Bowl Ads Coverage

Cars.com has been checking out automakers’ Super Bowl 50 commercials — cars are the biggest ad category in the game — as they were revealed in recent weeks, highlighting them in our coverage along the way. So in the spirit of a good ol’ gridiron faceoff, we lined up eight of our favorite ads and let them smash helmets to determine the Best of the ‘Bowl.

Here are the top three:

3. “First Date,” starring comedy superstar Kevin Hart, who takes helicopter parenting to new heights with the help of the 2016 Hyundai Genesis.

2. “Walken Closet,” starring that icon of oddness, Christopher Walken, trying to convince us in his sock-puppet soliloquy not to be beige but instead to stand out like the 2016 Kia Optima.

1. “Commander” took a commanding lead in Cars.com’s Super Bowl survey with its touching story of a son taking his nostalgia-stricken pop on the next best thing to a space-shuttle mission — a drive in the $190,000 2017 Audi R8 V10 Plus supercar, to the tune of “Starman” by the late, great David Bowie.

We’re still getting misty just thinking about it.