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.

Buyers evidently liked Avalon's 2000-model redesign, as calendar-year sales jumped nearly 53 percent to just over 104,00, a new record for Toyota's full-size sedan. That compares with a 12-percent year-over-year decline in calendar '99 and probably reflects increased output at Toyota's hard-working Kentucky plant. Industry sources don't see Avalon being redesigned before model-year 2005, but there's an off-chance that a replacement could appear a little before that, what with the parent Camry starting a new generation this fall.