***** STAND BY FOR HURLING OF DERISION!*******
Actually, Oldman, to be honest, until I got my Felt my favourite bike in the last 10 years has been my 1999 Trek USPS OCLV. <Note that I didnt say it was the BEST bike, just that it was my favourite one> It has become the bad weather training and long distance cruising bike for me and I actually rode it to work this morning.
Look, a lot has been said about Trek not being that great and poor value for money etc, and of course there is the Lance association. The thing is, I raced on that Trek in the better part of my cycling career - won some races on it and did some monster (300km+) group rides on it. I was always completely secure and stable on it on mountain descents as well as crits.
It is definitely a bit splashy now in comparison to modern carbon but it is absolutely bomb-proof for me in high speed riding and riding no hands etc. Never ever twitches on me. I am more nervous on 90kph+ downhills now than I used to be but that is my age and family impact - not the bike.
This all reinforces my earlier comment - What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for others. I don't think you can create a definitive Top 10 manufacturers as such because every brand sells at least one pig. That leaves you with the top 10 frames. And THAT begs the question - top 10 to do WHAT and with WHO on board?
That said, I would be amazed if I ended up purchasing a bike from a company that hasn't already been mentioned above this post in this thread!
To paraphrase the old quote: "Ride 'em all and let your behind sort 'em out!"