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.

Crown Victoria sells mostly to law enforcement agencies and taxi operators who won't have anything except a big rear-drive V8 sedan. Mercury's Grand Marquis trades mostly on the retail side, attracting older, more conservative buyers who like the same sort of car. Both versions are still fairly popular, all things considered. However, Marquis' calendar-year sales were essentially flat in 2000, at around 122,000, and Crown Vic fell 20 percent for the same period to just 92,000, of which some 60,000 were police models.

That decline may explain why Crown Vic recently added a "Five Passenger Sport Appearance Package." It's technically an option, but Ford prices it as a complete car starting at $26,655. Features include a specially tuned suspension with rear air springs, 17-inch alloy wheels, front bucket seats instead of a bench, console shift instead of a column lever, and a dechromed "monochromatic" exterior. Also included is the 235-hp dual-exhaust V8 with numerically higher rear axle that's optional in other Crown Vics. Ford says this package "was developed to meet the needs of leading edge boomers entering their middle 50s a true, full-size car with understated image, style and features..." Mercury has announced an even sportier, faster Grand Marquis called Marauder, but it's not due until model-year 2003.

The 2002 Crown Vic and Grand Marquis will apparently get a mild restyle, nature and extent still known, though a somewhat "edgier" look seems likely. Earlier reports had the Ford growing by half a foot, to 218 inches long overall, by stretching wheelbase, the rear end, or both, but it's unclear if that will actually happen.

Ford's biggest sedans share a basic underskin design that dates from 1979, though that's obviously been no sales handicap. But the old soldier's days may be numbered, as Ford is reportedly working up a new rear-drive sedan as project Fairlane. Said to be smaller than a current Crown Vic but larger than today's Taurus, Fairlane reportedly uses a lower-cost version of the Lincoln LS/Jaguar S-Type platform, with a solid-axle rear suspension (versus independent) and perhaps a longer wheelbase than the premium models' 114.5 inches. Management hasn't yet approved this car, but Ford watchers don't expect it until model-year 2005 at the earliest. It definitely won't be called Fairlane, an old Ford moniker now remembered only by the over-50 set.