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.

Corvette's scheduled 2004-model redesign will end the current C5 series after just seven years. The predecessor C4 lasted 13. Industry snoops say the upcoming C6 will get a so-called "Gen IV" (fourth-generation) update of the classic 5.7-liter LS1 V8. Standard horsepower had been mooted at around 400, but will probably be closer to 425, we think. No word yet on what the C6 will look like, but expect it to be recognizably Corvette and maybe even slinkier than today's car.

Meantime, the C5 continues to sell well by Corvette standards. Indeed, calendar 2000 marked the first year-to-year sales increase for Chevy's sports car in several seasons; the gain was about 4 percent from '99 to 31,200 units.

The C6 will be previewed in a way by the two-seat Cadillac convertible that bows as a 2003 model on the same basic platform. This first offshoot in Vette history will be far more luxury tourer than all-out sports car, with Cadillac Northstar V8 power, styling derived from that of Cadillac's much-ballyhooed Evoq concept model, and a few gizmos of the sort expected in the high-luxury class. Cadillac has yet to announce a name, but says it won't be CLR ("Cadillac Luxury Roadster"). Whatever it's called, both the Caddy and the Chevy will built at the Bowling Green, Kentucky, Corvette plant.