Auto News 5

Once the poster child of the traditional-SUV segment, the Ford Explorer is now a front-wheel-drive, four-cylinder, unibody crossover -- at least in base trim. It may be a strange and dramatic departure from the Explorer of yesteryear, but Ford execs are confident the new strategy can halt the icon's cliff dive from 445,157 sales in 2000 to 31,864 through the first six months of 2010. Fuel economy, they say, is the reason the segment has stalled. That explains the four-cylinder base engine, a 2.0-liter turbocharged unit generating 237 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque. The numbers aren't official yet, but a 30 percent increase in fuel economy over last year's V-6 is expected, which should yield 18 mpg in the city and 26 mpg on the highway.

The 2008 introduction of the Genesis sedan has been the exclamation point to Hyundai's rapid ascension from bargain brand to mainstream automaker. The premium, rear-wheel-drive entry showed the Koreans had the confidence and desire to take on more prestigious and more established brands by going head-to-head with the likes of the Lexus GS460 and the Mercedes-Benz E550. Hyundai isn't slowing down, though. The company is continuing its ambitious march forward with the bigger, pricier, and more luxurious 2011 Hyundai Equus, set to arrive in August.

Over the past five years, just about every German automaker has rushed to combine the body styles coupe and sedan, with varying levels of success. Not Audi. The automaker from Ingolstadt has more or less sat coolly on the sidelines as its rivals launched all manner of so-called four-door coupes, sport-activity vehicles, and four-door-coupe-hatchback supercars. Now, at last, we're seeing Audi's contribution to this fledgling segment in the form of the production A7.