This hotly contested segment has its benchmark in the Lexus ES 300. It blends comfort, style, luxury, and sport into an efficient package at an affordable price. ES 300 manages to offer a little more luxury than others in the class.

We Recommend the Acura TL, Audi A4, and new Infiniti G35. All offer comfort, speed, and nimble handling at attractive prices. The sporty and Euro-flavored BMW 3-Series is Recommended 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.

Industry know-it-alls see revised cosmetics and a few new features for the 2004 C-Class. A full redesign is reportedly on for 2006. By that time, though, Mercedes should be selling a smaller car called A-Class, which has been available in Europe for several years but never officially imported here. We'll be getting a redesigned A-Class, though it's expected to be another high-profile "one-box" 4-dr hatchback with small 4-cyl engines driving the front wheels. It should also retain a unique bi-level floorpan sandwiching exhaust system and other underbody components. Length and width should again approximate Ford Focus dimensions, but may grow a couple of inches.

Mercedes has also been hinting at Stateside sale of its European Smart (badged "smart"), a front-drive 2-seat minicar with a sub-1.0-liter turbocharged engine, tall "phone booth" styling, easily interchanged plastic body panels over a lightweight metal skeleton, and an overall length of just 8 feet. A longer, much lower coupe-convertible was recently added, and we think this the more likely model to come here. Regardless, one source says Smart sales would be limited to metro areas like New York, Miami and L.A., where it would make sense as a thrifty, easy-to-park city runabout. We'll be interested to see what develops.

But back to the C-Class, whose recent redesign seems to be paying big sales dividends. How big? On a year-to-year basis, deliveries jumped a healthy 48 percent in calendar 2001 and another 38.9 percent in the first nine months of 2002, impressive gains in the current difficult market.