The current Honda Prelude has been around for a few years but it has plenty of power, excellent road manners, and gets reasonable fuel economy. If Prelude is a little too expensive, take a look at our other Best Buy the Volkswagen New Beetle. It offers interesting styling and a nice mix of comfort, performance, and economy.

If raw performance is what you are after we Recommend the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang, and Pontiac Firebird. Not as pleasant to live with on a daily basis, these cars offer a lot of bang for your buck. New last year, the fun-to-drive Toyota Celica also earns the Recommended nod with its reputation for reliability.

Total Eclipse calendar-year sales jumped 15.2 percent in 2000. Coupes were up a modest 8 percent, but Spyder convertibles soared 60 percent on the strength of their early 2001-model redesign, though that wasn't available the full 12 months.

Save interim changes, Eclipse will stay as is through the early part of 2005. A fully redesigned replacement then takes over on a new platform that's set to appear first under a new-generation 2003 Galant sedan, which will reportedly bow next spring. This same foundation will serve a new U.S.-built 2003 Montero Sport SUV, now set to arrive about a year after the redesigned Galant. It's also being mooted for the next-generation Chrysler Sebring/Dodge Stratus coupes and sedans, currently slated as '05 models. Why so much consolidation? DaimlerChrysler now owns a controlling stake in Mitsubishi and is busily trying to trim costs by greater sharing among appropriate products at Mitsubishi and Chrysler Group, both of which are struggling to get back in the black.