MotorMouths

Take the old-school family station wagon, evil it up with a man-eating grill and wicked knifelike taillights, and then stick a supercharged Corvette engine inside. The result is the CTS-V wagon, a family vehicle with a heavy-metal attitude.

This four-door’s main goal is to carry passengers in comfort, with a dose of hop-to-it-ivness when desired. Lexus engineers knew they had to inject some shock-and-awe into the fourth generation of the midsize GS sedan.

Taking out the new BMW 5 between the 3 and 7 Series sedans was especially instructive. The 535i is heavier in the corners than the 335i, certainly, but shows a surprising willingness to turn on a dime. And it eats up straightaways with the gusto of a 750i.

Rock stars, arms dealers and other unrepentant bad boys of the world take notice: The Mercedes-Benz SL65 Black Series is a machine for you.

The CTS-V strikes a sweet spot between American muscle and European-bred handling. It looks classier than a ‘Stang or ‘Vette, yet you can smoke the back tires in first gear.

This is uncomplicated motoring fun. The fact is that you can’t use all the horsepower in a Corvette or Viper on tight roads anyhow. While I would have been cursing the GTI on the autobahn, on rising and winding lanes its 200 horsepower is plenty.

A little less gas hoovering, a lot of space and a love of the open road. The Chrysler 300 is a highway hauler for today.

While the XJ and the 7 Series have superb cockpits, the 2011 Audi A8’s mix of shiny tech and man-cave comforts is hard to beat. It’s odd that Audi thought of everything except perfecting the most elemental bit — driving.

While the abstrusely named Z4 sDrive28i is less powerful than its six-cylinder predecessor, I’m not missing those two extra chambers one bit.

Run the 2012 Sonic hard and it’s genuine fun. It has a nice nose, handsome wheels and bright accents, which is not to say it’s not a bit of an ugly duckling, but the real revelation is the interior.

Frugality and fancy new technology don’t necessarily make a good car. I’ll be honest: My expectations were low. After 200 miles of all kinds of driving, I wanted to hug an engineer. The Volt not only drives like a real, grown-up car, it’s actually lively and fun.

The new Range Rover Evoque is a dazzlingly designed Trojan horse, aimed squarely at owners of the X3, RX and Audi Q5, an anti-box that looks like a crossover, while retaining a dash of Land Rover’s legendary off- road capability.