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.

On sale since spring 2001, Envoy attracted nearly 27,000 buyers through the third quarter. That's a respectable start, all told, though Chevrolet's similar TrailBlazer found more than twice as many customers for the period.

As noted elsewhere, an extended-body Envoy XL bows in early 2002 alongside an equivalent TrailBlazer. Wheelbase is stretched some 16 inches to make room for a 3rd-row seat, and rear doors are longer than the fronts for easier access to the 2nd and 3rd rows. Other details weren't available for this report, but the XL should come with the 5.3-liter V8 that's optional in regular Envoys. XL and the stretched TrailBlazer target Ford Explorer, Dodge Durango, and other midsize SUVs with available three-row seating, which the regular Envoy/TrailBlazer don't offer.

By early 2003, GMC will reportedly be selling an Envoy-based SUV/pickup, a sort of junior Chevy Avalanche with a similar "midgate" and "Convert-A-Cab" utility. Aimed at Ford's Explorer Sport Trac, this model will apparently be a GMC exclusive. So, too, a luxury Envoy wagon borrowing the Denali name from GMC's top-line full-size SUVs. This one's strictly our guess, but don't be surprised if GMC offers something like it in the near future as yet another way to distance itself from Chevy's truck lineup. Like the big Denalis, the Envoy version would have standard all-surface all-wheel drive and a full helping of comfort and convenience features, most likely lifted from the soon-to-be-discontinued Olds Bravada.