This is by far the hottest market segment right now. Crowded with more than 20 vehicles, midsize SUVs vary in size and type but nearly all seat five adults and offer V6 or V8 engines. Our Best Buy is the car-based Lexus RX 300. Though it lacks a low range in 4WD mode, it's the most carlike to drive and offers all of the versatility of a truck-based model.

Our Recommended choices are all traditional SUVs: the Dodge Durango, which offers optional third-row seating; the best-selling Ford Explorer clone Mercury Mountaineer; the Teutonic Mercedes-Benz M-Class; the utilitarian Nissan Xterra; and the refined but expensive Toyota 4Runner.

Despite the arrival of the larger upscale TrailBlazer, Chevy plans to keep some of the older midsize Blazers through 2003 to counter the Ford Escape, Jeep's 2002 Liberty, Nissan Xterra, and other lower-priced midsize and compact SUVs. To avoid encroaching on TrailBlazer's market, offerings will be pared to lower-trim 2- and 4-dr models, likely with more aggressive "value" pricing and a much shorter options list. Appearance and mechanical changes will be few, if any.

What Chevy does after '03 is anyone's guess. Blazer could be replaced by a bow-tie clone of the recently introduced Suzuki XL-7, the stretched version of the Chevy Tracker/Suzuki Vitara wagon. Or Chevy could spin off a new low-end compact SUV from the redesigned S-10 pickup being readied for 2004. Whatever Chevy's decision, it will not be made lightly. Despite an elderly basic design, Blazer scored some 226,000 sales in calendar 2000, down about 3 percent from '99 but still a hefty chunk of business that Chevy can't afford to fumble.