This class features an interesting mix of hard-core performance models and more luxurious touring convertibles. Our Best Buys give you a little of both worlds. The Chevrolet Corvette is fast, comfortable, and reasonably affordable. Unlike previous models it doesn't beat you up with a hard ride, and it will cruise quietly at highway speeds. Our other Best Buy, the Mazda Miata, is a bare-bones roadster with few frills and average acceleration, but for weekend fun on a twisty back road it's hard to beat.

If you don't mind spending a few more bucks, we recommend you take a look at the Mercedes-Benz SLK. The Mercedes offers an interesting mix of performance and luxury. It also has a retractable hardtop, making it more of an all-weather car.

U.S. NSX sales totaled just 221 units in calendar 2000 (vs 238 the previous year) and a mere 95 in the first half of '01, off 29.6 percent from the year-earlier period. All other markets, where this "exoticar" is sold as a Honda, generate hardly more. Even so, NSX remains an image-leader for the Japanese company, and after 11 years with no fundamental change, it will finally be updated for 2002 as a late arrival.

We'll know all the specifics soon, so keep checking back with us. From what we know now, however, the 2002 NSX is a reskinned version of the current model, with a reshaped nose and tail, more prominent rear spoiler, and exposed glass-covered headlamps instead of the familiar flip-up units. Powerteams may be massaged a bit, and a few new features are likely--including, perhaps, a 5-speed automatic transmission. Most Acura dealers should have at least one '02 NSX in stock by the second quarter of next year. A full redesign with rumored V8 power has apparently been put back until at least the 2006 model year.