MotorMouths

In the Outlander Sport, you see no Evo and hear no Evo, which is perhaps the vehicle’s worst knock. Mitsubishi’s current identity is built around its hero car and the performance halo it throws off. The Sport needs to reflect more of it.

With the new 200, Chrysler has transformed the Sebring from a joke to a decent-handling, compact mid-size car for those who prefer luxury trappings to sporty pretensions.

If  you can accept the cockpit downscaling, the rest of the coach-class, 115-hp, 2.0-liter Volkswagen Jetta S still feels like a proud son of Germany—albeit one made in Mexico.

Every piece of sheetmetal on the 2011 Scion tC may be new, but the car’s striking similarity to its predecessor is proof of old thinking at Toyota: We have a sales winner—don’t mess with it.

We’ve buckled into versions of the M without the Technology package and found everything to be far more natural. In fact, unless your station in society requires that you be ferried around by a 420-hp V-8, the 330-horse M37 shines as a better value.

The new Infiniti M addresses many of the complaints with the old one. In a segment owned by the Mercedes-Benz E-class, however, Infiniti still has its work cut out to gain ground. The new model is an excellent start.

Nifty, well-executed Tucson proves Hyundai is ready to move out of Toyota’s shadow. It makes strides in some areas and needs minor fixes in others to be a truly stand-out product in a hotly contested class.

The M35h’s operation is fairly seamless, which is surprising, considering how thoroughly electrified the car is. And it looks identical to the M37, except for its rump badge. But let’s face it: At its price, the M35h isn’t going to sell like hotcakes.

Price may be Lexus’s main hook. The IS250C starts at about $6K less than the basic BMW 328i convertible and about $5K less than the Infiniti G37 convertible.

Mechanically and technologically far more sophisticated than its predecessor, the 2012 Ford Focus is a thoroughly enjoyable small car.

The 2010 Toyota 4Runner remains what it has been: a somewhat old-fashioned body-on-frame adventurer for buyers not afraid of its substantial price premium.

Besides having an interior that utterly embarrasses past Chrysler products, the ’11 Jeep Grand Cherokee shares a very carlike platform with the new Mercedes-Benz ML, due this fall.