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No offense to CNBC junkies, but the people who love cars - and most car buyers - don't really care about exploiting synergies, maximizing verticals, or any of the other corporate jargon that comes from the business side of the car business. At best, all consumers want to know is: Is it well-engineered? Is it screwed together tightly? And is it wrapped in some I-gotta-have-it sheetmetal?

This is about as close to driving nirvana as semi-affordable cars venture. The powertrain, chassis, and operator interfaces are honed to near perfection. The 2+2 accommodations are functionally useful, the trunk is amply sized and well proportioned. Searching diligently, I did find a trivial flaw: the left-front floor mat that had torn free of its attachments to foul the clutch pedal at the bottom of its travel. As a service to my fellow critics, I repaired that fault with an expeditious driveway correction. Nevertheless, as much as I respect this and most other BMWs, I'd give serious thought to Cadillac's new CTS coupe before I spent $40,000 for a 335i.

If you have a pulse and access to the Internet these days (the latter doesn't always require the former), you've probably been exposed quite a bit to the Ford Fiesta. The little Ford has been all over Youtube, Twitter, and (shameless plug alert) our own web site. But the Fiesta isn't the only hot subcompact launching this summer. No, we're also being introduced to its cute older sibling, the Mazda 2. Back in 2007, Mazda introduced its slick-looking, youth-friendly hatchback on the same B-segment platform that would spawn the Fiesta. It proved a huge hit in Europe, surpassing 100,000 sales in its first year on the market, and was named World Car of the Year for 2008. We liked it enough to conduct a rare European Four Seasons test on one, and called it a "great car for tough times." But until recently, there were no plans for the car to make it to our market, despite the steadily growing demand for budget-friendly subcompacts. Now Mazda, all but cut off from its sugar daddy in Dearborn (Ford still retains an 13.8 percent share), has decided to crash the Fiesta's party by launching the 2 here this summer.

Image is everything. Fifteen years ago, the Sportage was one of the first products imported to the U.S. by a relatively unknown Korean automaker. That five-door cute-ute not only launched the Kia brand but helped establish it as a manufacturer of basic, affordable transportation.