Consumer Guide® Automotive places each vehicle into one of 17 classes based on size, price, and market position. Among utility vehicles, Compact SUVs are the least costly and offer the best fuel economy. Most utilize a car-type chassis and are not designed for heavy-duty, off-road use. Nearly all are five-passenger vehicles.

Our Best Buys include the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Mazda Tribute, and the Mercury Mariner. Our Recommended picks are the Honda Element, Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Liberty, and Subaru Forester.

There's a new Santa Fe for 2006, and it's built at Hyundai's first U.S. plant. Based on the redesigned '06 Sonata sedan, the redesigned SUV is said to be sized like a Honda Pilot, with a 3rd-row seat fit for adults. The current 2.7-liter V6 reportedly carries over, but the 3.5 version gives way to a 3.8 shared with Hyundai's new 2006 Azera luxury sedan. More upscale options and higher prices also loom for the new Santa Fe, which apparently targets Nissan Murano, Toyota Highlander and similar car-based crossovers in the low- to mid-$30,000 bracket. More details should surface soon, so keep checking back with us.

Hyundai's new plant may also build a full-size SUV, rumored for around 2008 as the Telluride, after the colorful Colorado mining town. This is said to be a truck-type body-on-frame design and would likely be the first U.S.-market Hyundai with V8 power. It's also the likely basis for a rumored pickup, another first for Hyundai and whispered to be Dodge Dakota-sized. Sources say Hyundai-owned Kia will get its own, slightly larger version, but neither pickup is expected before 2009.

Also on the truck front, Hyundai will enter the minivan market in spring 2006 with the Entourage, a retrimmed version of the redesigned Kia Sedona. Hyundai owns a majority interest in Kia, and the two brands are busy cooperating so that each can have its broadest U.S. lineup ever. Word is that Entourage will come only in long-wheelbase form, while Kia is tipped to add a short-chassis Sedona for 2007.