This is by far the hottest market segment right now. Crowded with more than 20 vehicles, midsize SUVs vary in size and type but nearly all seat five adults and offer V6 or V8 engines. Our Best Buys are the Acura MDX and Toyota Highlander. Both offer competence, convenience, and attractive pricing and design. They lack serious off-road 4WD systems, however.

Our Recommended choices feature more-traditional SUVs: the Dodge Durango, which offers optional third-row seating; the top-selling Ford Explorer; the utilitarian Nissan Xterra; and the refined GMC Envoy. If you don't venture off-road too far take a look at the car-based Lexus RX 300 as well.

As planned, Chevy will drop remaining Blazers after the 2003 model run. Though these older SUVS have been repositioned as lower-cost alternative to the larger new upscale TrailBlazers, they're no longer essential to Chevy's overall truck business. That, plus General Motors' desire to pare its lineup for greater profitability, explains why Blazer will go away after a mostly successful 10-year run. Blazer sales were off nearly 31 percent for the first nine months of 2001, but that probably reflected a slumping economy and post-September 11th market jitters as much as the elderly basic design.

Chevy plans no direct replacement as far as we know, but could field a cost-effective entry in Blazer's price bracket by doing a bow-tie clone of the Suzuki XL-7, much as the little Tracker derives from Suzuki's Vitara, or an SUV spinoff of Chevy's redesigned S-10 pickup, being readied for 2004. The former scenario seems more likely to us, but we'll just have to wait and see.