MotorMouths

At a time when the world’s economy is in shambles and fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are on everyone’s minds, there remains only one car that ticks all the enthusiast boxes without setting off a single alarm. That’s the Volkswagen GTI. Once again, it’s Automobile Magazine’s Automobile of the Year.

Aside from some quibbles, the only dilemma the SLS AMG roadster presents is one of haberdashery: what color, what leather, what trim would you like?

The 2010 Toyota Prius joins the new Honda Insight and the new Ford Fusion Hybrid to prove that hybrid cars don’t have to be soulless appliances for eco-weenies.

The 2013 Range Rover is equally at home inching along the Continental Divide as it is inching along Santa Monica Boulevard. It is so quiet, so refined, so comfortable, and so luxurious, it could take the place of both an SUV and a luxury sedan in one’s garage.

The 2011 Infiniti QX56 has a great powertrain. Off-the-line throttle response is satisfying, and ride comfort is impressive on the QX56, though, especially on smooth pavement.

The Genesis does has style in spades (note the completely redesigned front end, replete with a new hood stamping); lots of equipment (the revised cabin is much more pleasant than before and far more luxurious than that of the BRZ/FR-S); and, of course, lots of raw power.

The Infiniti QX56 is the official vehicle of the Real Housewives of East Hampton, Preston Hollow, and River Oaks. But those gals still like their bling, don’t they? Lucky for them, the new QX56 has plenty.

The Mercedes-Benz E350 cabrio that we drove provided the sort of relaxed, luxurious, isn’t-life-grand top-down experience that M-B open-top cars have offered sybarites since the Jazz Age.

The new 2010 Honda Insight is a bargain hybrid. It’s not as roomy or sumptuous as the Civic Hybrid, the Toyota Prius, or the new Ford Fusion Hybrid, but it costs less.

The completely redone 2013 Escape is certainly capable of filling its predecessor’s big shoes. The basic ingredients of good driving dynamics are present and accounted for. The 2013 Escape is one of the best new Fords of the past five years.

Despite our quibbles about the Verano’s aesthetics, you could — and we would — easily recommend it to friends and family. Buicks don’t have to be big, but they do have to be good.

The 2012 Fiat 500 does take a page from the Mini playbook in its zippy performance, fun-to-drive character, and go-cart handling, but its principal appeal is not so much as a gas miser or as a tear-around funster, but as a design object.