A perennial favorite, the Honda Civic, is new and better than ever. We love the wide range of bodystyles, engines, and equipment. Civic is a solid car that has good performance, a nice ride, and a high degree of civility. New last year was the Ford Focus. Though we loved almost everything about the Focus, we were reluctant to rank it a Best Buy because it was new from the ground up. After a year of living with a ZTS model, we can say that the reliability is good. Focus ranks a notch below Civic in some areas but costs less. Topping the crowded Recommended list are the Volkswagen Golf and Jetta. They easily could be Best Buys as they are better than the Civic in many ways. However, they are also the most expensive cars in this segment. Other Recommended choices include the no-frills Dodge Neon and Toyota Echo, the slightly-upscale Nissan Sentra, and the roomy Mazda Protege. If you are looking for a budget buy, the Hyundai Accent offers a lot for your dollar, however, it's not as refined as more-expensive competitors.

It's a bit early to say how well the 2001 Civics are selling, but results were mixed in 2000. On the one hand, Civic remained America's favorite small car by a wide margin with some 324,500 deliveries for the calendar year; that compares with 286,000 for runner-up Focus and 230,000 for third-place Toyota Corolla. However, Civic was up only some 2 percent for the year, a surprisingly modest gain all things considered.

Many car watchers were surprised that the 2001 line omitted both hatchbacks and a new version of the sporty Si coupe, as both had been popular with younger buyers. Honda fills the gap for 2002 with a new Si, this time a 2-door hatchback with a 160-hp 2.0-liter engine linked to 5-speed manual transmission with dashboard-mounted shifter. The Si parts company from other Civics by being built at Honda's plant in England; it also has unique high-rise styling that makes it look a bit like Ford's Focus ZX3, one of its major rivals.

Also due for 2002 is a hybrid-power Civic with a new version of the Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) gasoline/electric drivetrain pioneered on Honda's 2-seat Insight coupe. Specifics weren't available for this report, but Honda should answer Toyota's 4-dr Prius by offering a Civic sedan with a 4-cyl gas engine and conventional steel construction versus Insight's 3-cyl. and aluminum-intensive design. Price, however, will still be subsidized to an attractive level.

Compact "crossover" vehicles are big sellers in Europe and Japan. Honda's latest entry is the Stream, a new Civic-based 4-dr with a 2.0-liter 4-cyl engine and design attributes of sedan, minivan and wagon. Though not planned for U.S. sale, Stream could be retooled for our market if Honda decides it needs a competitor for the new Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix and other small "sportwagons".