The current Honda Prelude has been around for a few years but it has plenty of power, excellent road manners, and gets reasonable fuel economy. If Prelude is a little too expensive, take a look at our other Best Buy the Volkswagen New Beetle. It offers interesting styling and a nice mix of comfort, performance, and economy.

If raw performance is what you are after we Recommend the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang, and Pontiac Firebird. Not as pleasant to live with on a daily basis, these cars offer a lot of bang for your buck. New last year, the fun-to-drive Toyota Celica also earns the Recommended nod with its reputation for reliability.

The New Beetle is still selling well, but demand cooled since the frenzied early days. Indeed, calendar 2000 brought a 2.7-percent decline, to just over 81,000 orders. That compares with a 49-percent year-to-year increase for 1999.

To renew interest in the Neo Bug, VW will add one and maybe two new models for 2002. Definitely on the menu is the much-anticipated factory convertible, due to go on sale early next year. It will be assembled alongside hatchbacks at VW's Puebla, Mexico plant, but with a body reengineered by Karmann of Germany, which built the Beetle convertibles of old. Unlike the Golf/Jetta-based Cabrio, the open-air Bug should do without an over-the-cockpit hoop. Several private companies have been turning hatchbacks into drop-tops almost from day one, but VW voided the normal warranty on those cars, much to the distress of buyers. Why? Largely because VW didn't like outsiders stealing its thunder. The mystery is why an "official" New Beetle convertible has taken so long.

Not yet confirmed but a strong "probable" is a U.S. version of the recently introduced European RSi, a hot hatchback with a tuned 2.8-liter V6, VW's 4Motion all-wheel drive, and racy visuals including a prominent rear wing and jumbo wheels and tires. A 6-speed manual transmission should also be standard in line with VW's nascent corporate-wide shift away from 5-speed manuals. No word yet on an automatic option for the RSi.