This segment has been hardest hit by the huge popularity of sport-utility vehicles. Just a few years ago there were more than 12 cars in the segment and now there are just seven. Heading up the field as Best Buys are the Chrysler Concorde and Dodge Intrepid twins. They have real room for six, exceptional road manners, and plenty of power.

Toyota's Avalon and Buick's LeSabre are two Recommended choices. Both have room for five and offer a comfortable ride (with modest handling capabilities). If you are looking for towing ability or don't mind having a rear-drive car, then we recommend you take a look at the Ford Crown Victoria. With its rear-drive layout and body-on-frame chassis it's a dinosaur in this class, but Ford has updated it nicely over the years and it comes at a reasonable price.

LeSabre remains America's most popular full-size car, but the redesigned year-2000 models sold less well than the cars they replaced, calendar 2000 deliveries dropping some 9 percent versus '99 (to about 143,000). Buick still plans an interim appearance freshening for 2003, then fully redesigned LeSabres for '05. The latter are now in their early development stages and many decisions have yet to be made, but they'll likely retain their present general size, front-wheel drive, and family-car character.