This hotly contested segment has two clear benchmarks; the Acura TL and Lexus ES 300. Both succeed in blending comfort, style, luxury, and sport into an efficient package at an affordable price. ES 300 offers a little more luxury and TL, with it's Type-S, a bit more sport. We Recommend the sporty and Euro-flavored BMW 3-Series as a rear-drive alternative. The "3" has enough bodystyles and engine choices to suit anyone. At the other end of the near-luxury spectrum is the posh and comfortable Buick Park Avenue--an old-school luxo-cruiser from Detroit.

If you think there are more of these BMWs on the road these days, you're right. Year-to-year, U.S. 3-Series sales were up 27 percent in calendar 2000 and by 33 percent for the first half of 2001.

A new-generation 3, codenamed "E90", is on track for around 2006, but the current "E46" platform should sire a few more offshoots before then. The most definite is the X3, a kind of junior X5 sport-utility with a similar all-wheel-drive system, but derived from the normal 3-Series wagon and built in Germany, not the U.S. Look for it as a 2003 entry. Just released for Europe is a stripped-down M3 coupe called M3 CSL, with some 380 horsepower, a stiff price, and limited availability. It's aimed at occasional weekend track racers. An M3 wagon with the regular M3 coupe powertrain is also being mooted, but, like the CSL, can't be confirmed yet for U.S. sale. Due by late 2004 is the much-discussed 1-Series, a smaller and more affordable new 4-cyl BMW. It's being designed (as project "E81") to share many components with the next-generation 3. Pricing would fall between the 3-Series and BMW's new Mini. The 1-Series should debut in 2- and 4-dr hatchback models, with a 4-dr sedan and wagon following a year later. A sporty spinoff coupe and perhaps a convertible may arrive after mid-decade with the 2-Series badge. All these "Baby Bimmers" will have rear-wheel drive, not front-drive like the Mini. U.S. engines should comprise a 115-hp 1.8-liter and/or a related 140-hp 2.0-liter. Both are BMW designs sourced from the company newly opened British engine plant. They're also clean-sheet affairs featuring BMW's Valvetronic variable-valve-timing system and, by the time they reach us, direct fuel injection. A hot "M1" performance model with around 240 hp is also in the works, say European sources, but still several years away.