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Months in fleet: Five
Mileage to date: 18,246

It's easy enough to be wooed by the svelte form of the Infiniti G37 coupe, but its $36,915 entry price isn't exactly an easy hurdle for all consumers to clear. Perhaps G37 fans on a strict budget may be intrigued by the 2010 Nissan Altima 3.5 SR Coupe. It's hard to argue that the two-door Altima isn't an attractive car, but does the midsize, front-wheel-drive coupe have enough substance to support its good looks?

The Lexus LFA and the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG are about as different in approach and ability as a muscular sprinter is from a sinewy long-distance runner. It's a clash of characters along the lines of a Suzuki Hayabusa sportbike taking on a BMW K1300S, a Moog synthesizer compared with a Steinway piano, or techno music as opposed to Beethoven. This is a little surprising when one compares the almost identical DNA of the two supercoupes. Both cars are front-engined; are powered by high-revving, normally aspirated engines; feature a well-balanced transaxle layout; rely on lightweight body structures; and make do with nonadjustable suspension and steering setups.

It's hard to justify the cost of a luxury wagon when an SUV gives you more room, is cheaper, and in some cases, drives better. The Mercedes-Benz E350 4matic wagon is a nice car, but with a $66,775 price tag, it's not very logical.

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.

The new 2011 Mustang GT with the 5.0-liter engine is nothing short of amazing. I really feel bad for 2010 Mustang GT owners, and if I were one, I'd want my money back. The upgraded power is ridiculous with 412 ponies now stuffed under the hood and a short-throw six-speed manual gearbox.

Driving pleasure doesn't get much more involving than this. The Porsche 911 alerts your sixth sense even in basic Carrera form, but you can, of course, upgrade according to your budget: Carrera S, Turbo, Turbo S, GT3, GT3 RS. Last in line is now the GT2 RS, which musters an awe-inspiring 620 hp. BMW tells a similar story, with the six-cylinder 3-series models meeting their master in the V-8-engined M3, which in turn is eclipsed by the brand-new 450-hp GTS. Both top-of-the-range coupes are track-oriented, featuring adjustable wings and suspension elements along with race seats and roll cages. On the road, they feel firm, look loud, and make a fair bit of noise, but if you don't mind extra tramlining and a harsh ride, these German sportsters are perfectly acceptable everyday stimulants from spring through autumn. Feel inclined to sign on the dotted line? Hold your breath. After all, the $245,000 Porsche is limited to 500 pieces, and BMW will assemble only 136 units of the fire-orange GTS, which costs about $140,000 in Europe and, unlike the Porsche, will not be sold in the United States.

The new QX56 is a huge beast, but it's also incredibly useful and luxurious. You could say the same about previous-generation QX, too, but the new model also adds a great deal more refinement, slick styling (rather than a simpler, truck-like look), more available features, and significantly more power. I particularly enjoyed the heated steering wheel, ventilated seats, and seriously nice sound system.

If you think about it, it's really quite surprising that we, as a country, love the Volkswagen Jetta as much as we have. It's been VW's most successful car here for thirty years, and yet it's been an afterthought this whole time. Take a Golf -- one of the most popular cars in the world, but never embraced by the U.S. public -- add a trunk, and voila, you have a bestseller.

Contrary to Nissan's "4DSC" marketing campaign, the Maxima is no four-door sports car in my eyes. It's definitely a sporty four-door, but it feels too heavy to be a true sports car. The 290-hp V-6 does make the front-wheel-drive Maxima quite peppy, but a consequence of this is that there's a fair amount of torque steer under hard acceleration. It doesn't help that a CVT (the only available transmission in this car) is the least sporty type of transmission out there. The CVT does its job pretty well, although the engine takes a while to wind out in "first gear" when you're shifting manually through the six simulated ratios of the CVT (selectable via the console shifter or the column-mounted paddles).