This class features an interesting mix of hard-core performance models and more luxurious touring convertibles. Our Best Buys give you a little of both worlds. The Chevrolet Corvette is fast, comfortable, and reasonably affordable. Unlike previous models it doesn't beat you up with a hard ride, and it will cruise quietly at highway speeds. Our other Best Buy, the Mazda Miata, is a bare-bones roadster with few frills and average acceleration, but for weekend fun on a twisty back road it's hard to beat.

If you don't mind spending a few more bucks, we recommend you take a look at the Mercedes-Benz SLK. The Mercedes offers an interesting mix of performance and luxury. It also has a retractable hardtop, making it more of an all-weather car.

SLK notched a 21.8-percent calendar-year sales gain in 2000. The addition of a V6 model made all the difference, accounting for 39 percent of the total; the base 4-cyl SLK230 dropped 25.7 percent to 7878.

The main news for 2002 is yet another model, the SLK32 AMG. Like other Mercedes bearing those initials, it's a "factory hot rod" created by the company's performance division. Besides unique styling touches inside and out, the AMG stands apart with a supercharged 3.2-liter V6 that sends 349 hp through a beefed-up 5-speed automatic transmission. That's enough, Mercedes says, to reel off 0-60 mph in 5.2 sec. Brakes have been enlarged to match, as have the standard electronic stability control and brake systems.

Meantime, Mercedes is readying a replacement SLK based on its new-generation C-Class sedan platform. The present design is derived from the previous C-Class. Now mooted to debut in late 2003 for model-year '04, the next SLK will wear more dynamic styling that's said to increase wheelbase and overall length by about 4 inches apiece, which should benefit cockpit room. The power-retracting top continues, but is reengineered to take up less space when folded despite being more curved in profile. The face is completely changed, with four closely set oval headlamps bookending an arrow-like nose/hood ensemble with twin horizontal air slots. Engines will reportedly be slightly more potent versions of current fare, linked to updated manual and automatic transmissions.