MotorMouths

Even with its gangly looks, the Juke is pretty impressive. The sporty ride may win a few customers, and all of that useful space provides lots of utility. It is definitely a vehicle that makes you re-evaluate your first impressions.

The 2012 Civic, redesigned to provide more room and a better interior, remains one of the most civil of choices. It hits all of the right marks, but doesn’t captures a driver’s imagination.

There’s no doubting the Tacoma’s versatility. Unfortunately, it still has a price that can start just over $16,000 and come close to $30,000.

The Kia Sportage still feels as if it’s trying to walk the fence between mainstream acceptance and discount carmaker, upgrading some parts but missing other areas. Even taking the good with the bad, this Sportage is a pretty good crossover.

This seventh-generation Camry never breaks ground or even maintains the ground it once held. That’s unlikely to deter many loyal Toyota customers, but there are just too many other midsize cars better than the Camry to ignore.

The Infiniti M has all the trappings of a great car. It’s beautiful, loaded with power and performance and cutting edge technology. But it still seems to be searching for its soul. There’s a sterile quality about all of it. It’s stoic and impersonal, and maybe that’s exactly what it wants to be.

The Legacy’s CVT works much better than most of the CVTs in cars from just a few years ago. But do I like the CVT? Not really. But I can get used to it and in the coming years, people will just get used to it.

The ride is soft and the handling so-so. The Jetta provides performance similar to its oatmeal exterior: Nothing worth tasting. Even cutting through the curvy roads around California, the Jetta never screamed “go faster”; instead, it whined, “I hate hills”.

The Mazda2 isn’t a bad car. It has a stylish exterior and decent interior, but it still slots into the “thanks, but no thanks” category for many American car buyers like myself. On Mazda’s Zoom-Zoom scale, the Mazda2 is more of a Zzzz.

The biggest dilemma with the FJ is its purpose when you’re not in the woods or on a trail. It’s fantastic to romp through the hills at Silver Lake in the FJ Cruiser, but getting there would be a bear. Most Toyotas would be exactly the opposite.

In the automotive world, the Biggest Loser is the 2011 Infiniti QX56 — and there’s no hope it’s going to transform into a svelte G37 sedan. No, at the end of the season, the QX56 will still blot out the sun when parked on top of a hill.

For someone who just has to have a convertible, doesn’t want to spend too much money and wants to carry at least two other adults, the Chrysler 200 convertible is a viable — and decent — option.