Labeled as the Mazda5 (the digit represents the summation of cabin portals including two swing-out doors for front seats, two side sliders plus a hatchback lid at the tail), Mazda's mini-minivan in new generational format for 2012 is marketed as a multi-activity vehicle (MAV). The compact platform of Mazda's pavement-hugging and curve-craving Mazda3 four-door sedan supports the wedge-shaped structure of a tall little wagon rigged with the sliding side doors of a minivan and a long cabin lined with three pairs of adjustable flip-and-fold seats with 16 different configurations for a capacity of anywhere from two to six passengers. Read More »

The fact that this particular Mazda bears an extended roofline encasing the boxy back end of a long-body 5-door hatchback and its form looks more like a carpooler's sled than a racy sports machine casts an image in-congruent with this lively performance attitude, yet Mazda has never followed the conventional path in automotive design and the 2012 Mazda3 5-Door confirms the point. Read More »

Our test car -- the Lexus IS 350 with F Sport trim -- looks like a high-strung rally car, ove-rsized wheels pegged at the corners and a contoured body characterized by the low arching profile, flat side panels and a blunt prow and tail with scant overhangs. It behaves like a road-hugging German touring sedan, a taut suspension tuned to allow tires to dance around curvy mountain corners on the narrow and snaky Arkansas 5 as a powerful V6 engine pushes tall torque to the rear rollers. Read More »

Boxy square with a flat roof pitched over angled windows and roly-poly shoulders circling pint-size wheels, Kia's hatchback Crossover SUV features bold styling that begins up front at a stubby prow housing a narrow chrome grille and oversized headlamp clusters. Below is a gaping lower grille with cutouts for air intake ports. It joins flanking thick strips of body-colored fascia which wrap around front corners and arch over front wheels as articulated muscular shoulders. Read More »

Rio 5-Door in long-roof hatchback format spins off Kia's Rio 4-door notchback sedan, which has been rebuilt for a third generation in the Class of 2012. Each Rio 5-Door model features a sleek package design with pronounced wedge profile and a prominent prow with gaping lower grille divided into three sections, edgy contours on side panels and wheelwell flares which turn into sculpted shoulders. Read More »

Now for 2012, both the two-door Wrangler and four-door Wrangler Unlimited shed an antiquated iron-block engine in favor of Chrysler's new Pentastar 3.6-liter dual-cam V6 built with an aluminum cylinder block and VVT (variable valve timing) controls. The Pentastar V6 generates 285 hp at 6400 rpm with 260 lb-ft of torque at 4800 rpm. Read More »

Spending a day in the driver's seat of a high-powered XKR on a race track shows off the vehicle's incredible sporty manners and triple-digit speed thrills. But the XKR of 2012 is so sensuous and handsome we like to park it and simply treat our eyes to all of those slinky bulges and curves and automotive body shapes. Read More »

The resultant fluid car body, daring and bold in a format guaranteed to delight the eye, dresses the 2012 Eclipse, which appears in four trim grades. Eclipse GS is the bottom-price edition with a four-cylinder engine tied to a five-speed manual gearbox or optional four-speed automatic with Sportronic sequential shift control. Read More »

Beneath its sleek painted shell, the souped-up front-wheel-drive Sentra conceals special suspension tweaking with sport-tuned struts and strut tower braces, plus an optional Helical Limited-Slip Differential aboard, which enables this car to rip quickly out of a curve without spinning the inside front wheel. Read More »

Nissan's revamped Quest of 2012 dispels the typical ho-hum and haul-the-kids approach to minivan design because the vehicle's creators -- out of Nissan's American design studio in California -- sought a high-style concept that was different and distinctive, both inside and out. Read More »