2014 Super Bowl car commercials

What’s the best part of the Super Bowl? The crowning of an NFL (National Football League) champion after a hard-fought season? The extravagant and star-studded half time show?

Nope. It's the commercials.

It costs around $US4 million for 30 seconds of ad time and many of these commercials are 60 seconds long, and as a result car company's spend tens of millions of dollars using star power, clever ideas, humour or just tugging at the heart-strings to make them memorable. Here's how we ranked them:

1. Kia surprised us this year with a very clever way to promote its new K900 (aka Quoris) luxury sedan. The commercial features the indelible Laurence Fishburne, reprising his role as Morpheus from the Matrix trilogy. He challenges the idea of what people perceive to be luxurious, much like how he challenged perceptions of reality in the Matrix movies.

2. In second place was Toyota's commercial for its new Highlander (aka Kluger. This ad presented the popular movie star, Terry Crews, and the Muppets bursting into song and dance, highlighting all the storage space the Kluger includes.  We’ll be honest here; this commercial gets a few nostalgia points for using the Muppets, but also underscores the versatility of the Kluger and is another step away from the 'boring' image Toyota is often saddled with.

3. Although the Volkswagen commercial had nothing to do with its hilarious short teaser, this ad is still among a handful of the best at the 2014 Super Bowl. With VW engineers sprouting wings whenever one of its cars hits 100,000 miles (that’s 160,934km), this ad highlights the reliability of Volkswagen vehicles. Not a bad one, but still a far cry from the now classic Darth Vadar kid commercial from a few years back.

4. Jaguar’s commercial this year features the combined star power of Sir Ben Kingsley, Mark Strong, Tom Hiddleston and most exciting of all, a Jaguar F-Type coupe. It’s no small feat to outshine these three brilliant actors, but the Jaguar oozes desirability and appeal. And what do all four have in common? They're all British - and apparently villains too. "It's good to be bad" is the tag line here.

5. Hyundai had two ads for the Super Bowl this year and they're both pretty good. The better of the two is this one, for its Genesis sedan, which is on its way Down Under later this year. The TV commercial It highlights a safety feature in its new car, namely the auto emergency braking, and will have nostalgic appeal for parents.

6. The second commercial from Hyundai is all about its Elantra. It features Johnny Galecki, famous for playing Leonard on The Big Bang Theory, trying to charm a lady who happens to be driving the same car. It's entertaining, but not as clever as some of the others. Oddly, it failed to capture our imagination despite the flames and explosions.

7. This year Audi crafted a tale about compromise and what could happen if we gave into it. Thus, the monstrosity known as the ‘Doberhuahua’ is born, which terrorises everyone. Seriously, this thing is still haunting our dreams... For all the wrong reasons. With humour that falls flat and little information about the featured car, the A3 sedan, this ad was unforgettable in all the wrong ways.

8. It has a certain country charm to it, but the Chevrolet Silverado commercial is clearly not for everyone. It features a man taking a bull on heat across the country. That’s pretty much it. We’re sure the ad was crafted to highlight all the rugged and lonely Americana elements that might appeal to Silverado buyers, and maybe there is a cultural divide here, but there's no payoff after sitting through 60 seconds of average footage.

What was your favourite? Let us know in the comments below.