This hotly contested segment has a clear benchmark; it is the Acura TL (and its 2-door cousin Acura CL). The TL succeeds in blending comfort, style, luxury, and sport into an efficient package at an affordable price. If you are leaning more toward the luxury scale, the Lexus ES 300 might be a more practical purchase.

We also recommend the sporty and Euro-flavored Audi A6, the comfortable Buick Park Avenue, the affordable and fast Infiniti I30.

Stay with us here. This gets a little complicated. Volvo is working on a slew of new entry-level cars to replace the Dutch-built 40-Series starting in late 2003 or early '04. All will be based on the next-generation Ford Focus, which should arrive at about the same time and is also the foundation for a redesigned Mazda Protege subcompact.

First up at Volvo are a new S40 sedan and a renamed V50 wagon. Both should come with a 2.0-liter inline 5-cyl making somewhat more power and torque than today's turbo 1.9-liter four. A 2.4-liter version of this engine, as used in the mid-range S60/V70, may be offered in sportier R models, perhaps even with light-pressure turbocharging and around 200 horsepower. V50 will most likely follow big-brother V70 in listing a front-drive wagon as well as a quasi-SUV XC (Cross Country) with all-wheel drive, though the latter will likely bow some months later. Despite sharing architecture and underpinnings with Focus 2, S40/V50 will look like a scaled-down S60/V70. As Volvos, they will also be equipped and priced somewhat upstream of comparable Focuses in line with Volvo's being part of Ford Motor Company's upscale-brand Premier Automotive Group.

This same scenario also applies to a spinoff two-door hatchback named V30, which should arrive within six months of the new 40/50, say mid- to late 2004. Loosely patterned on the Volvo Safety Concept Car seen at last January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, V30 revives the general character of Volvo's much-loved early-'70s 1800ES sportwagon, complete with straight-back roofline and a frameless liftup glass hatch. It's aimed at the growing "hot hatch" market that Ford hopes to get in on with the sporty SVT Focus.

Said to be due at about the same time as V30 is a Volvo baby SUV related to the Focus-based minivan that Ford plans for Europe and might also sell in the U.S. For now, Volvo is calling this variation the MXV for "Multi Activity Vehicle." It'll be a four-door wagon with all-wheel drive and a taller V50-type body.

Finally, sometime in 2005, the MXV will fuse with V30 for what Volvo terms an "All Activity Coupe" (AAC) and Roadster (AAR), again with a higher-riding AWD chassis. Both should be 2-dr two-seaters or tight 2+2s. The Roadster is rumored to have a removable roof panel.

All these cars will share a basic platform called P1 within Volvo. The current S/V40 uses a basic Mitsubishi design that Ford is eager to replace now that Mitsubishi is part-owned by DaimlerChrysler. With the shift to P1, future small Volvos will be built at various European Ford plants rather than in Holland.

All this bodes well for Volvo's entry-level line, which buyers have already warmed to--a lot. In fact, the 40 Series scored an impressive year-over-year sales gain of nearly 200 percent, with calendar-2000 volume reaching over 35,500.