Consumer Guide® Automotive places each vehicle into one of 17 classes based on size, price, and market position. Premium Midsize Cars sport interior dimensions similar to Midsize Cars. Premium Midsize Cars offer more luxury, performance, and prestige when compared to Midsize Cars. This segment is one of the industry's fastest-growing categories.

Our Best Buys include the Acura TL, Cadillac CTS, and Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Our Recommended picks include the Acura RL, Infiniti G35, and the Lexus ES 330.

Lexus is redesigning all its sedans for rollouts in the next two years. A new GS starts the parade for 2006. It launches this spring as a GS 350 with a 3.5-liter V6 and as a GS 460 with a 4.6-liter V8. A gas/electric hybrid model, the GS 450h, is due in spring 2006. Details haven't been released yet, but the 350 and 460 are expected to mate a 6-speed automatic transmission with all-wheel drive instead of rear drive. Another new feature is a Vehicle Dynamic Management system (VDM) integrating antiskid/traction control with Lexus's first "by-wire" antilock brakes. The '06 GS also introduces a "Lexus only" styling theme, intended to give Toyota's luxury brand a stronger visual identity. Wheelbase reportedly grows two inches on a half-inch gain in overall length. Height rises nearly an inch, and width balloons a hair.

Look for standard full-length curtain side airbags and front knee airbags, plus wood and polished-metal interior accents and a keyless "Smart Access" system with engine-start button. Options new to GS are expected to include steering-linked headlamps and an Adaptive Variable Suspension, basically driver-adjustable shock absorbers with four firmness levels. Also to be available is a Pre-Collision System that cinches front seatbelts and prepares brakes if sensors detect an imminent collision. The optional navigation system should add a rearview TV camera that activates when Reverse is selected. The V8 version will roll on 18-inch wheels, the V6 on 17s. We'll have firm details very soon, so keep checking back with us.