The styling is pulled almost whole from the “ix-onic” concept truck…or perhaps vice versa, as Hyundai often uses concept vehicles to tease upcoming production cars.

What’s perhaps most impressive of all about the Q5 isn’t that it would blow the minds of the average car buyer of fifty years ago, of course, but that it’s an outstanding product even for today.

We drove the 2004 Suzuki XL-7 back-to-back with several competitors—the Ford Escape, Saturn VUE, Toyota RAV4 and others—and honestly didn’t expect much.  The XL-7 has been around a while, after all, and cars in hotly contested segments like the compact SUV class tend to age about as gracefully as ill-bred racehorses.

We’re happy to report that the XL-7 surprised us.  With a new face and mechanical refinements for 2004, this dark horse proved to be a very strong runner indeed.
Suzuki’s redesign is handsome.  The XL-7’s familiar two-box features get a bolder …

If you’ve got the urge to put down the $32,090 for your own Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, just remember this: don’t keep it on the pavement.

To say that Porsche fans were upset when the sports car manufacturer announced that it would be introducing an SUV is a bit of an understatement. The Porsche faithful were downright horrified. A Porsche sport-ute was the answer to a question that no one had asked. Oh, sure, the all-wheel drive 911 is cool, but Porsche’s not known for building vehicles with four usable seats, let alone four doors, a sizeable cargo area, and off-road ability. It just isn’t done. Until now.

Although the hard-core Porsche …

Introduced in 2002, Saturn’s first SUV has been keeping up nicely with the times.  The VUE sport-ute is a pavement-oriented compact trucklet with Saturn’s signature plastic body panels and a continuously variable transmission that help to separate it from the “soft-roader” herd.

The big news for 2004?  More power, refinement and a hot-rod version.  Saturn’s installed a 250-horsepower V6 in the VUE, for a 69-horse power boost.  Materials inside the VUE have been improved to combat complaints of cheap-feeling interior parts.  Saturn’s Red Line performance series will also debut on the …

We never thought there was much of a gap in Lexus’ luxury SUV lineup.  The RX300 fulfilled the needs of the buyer who wanted a midsize sport-ute that could tool around town like a car, and the LX470 took care of the large end of the market, as well as offering the Toyota Land Cruiser’s off-road ability combined with great freeway manners.  What more could one ask for?

Apparently, Lexus thought of something.  For 2003, an all-new sport-ute is shoehorned into the lineup right between the RX300 and LX470.  Called, perhaps …

Mitsubishi’s Endeavor doesn’t look like anything else.  Considering the extremely crowded nature of the mid-size sport-ute market, that’s probably a good thing.  Our first reaction was, admittedly, to think it was ugly, but the design grew on us after a while.  The Endeavor’s good road manners and powerful 3.8 liter V6 didn’t hurt in winning us over, either.

The Endeavor is one of the latest entrants into the “soft-roader” class of mid-sized sport-utility vehicles that have been bred for life in the suburbs, rather than bashing through the boonies.  Although the …

Land Rover’s Freelander has been a best-seller in Europe since its introduction in 1997, but the British off-road specialist hasn’t chosen to import it until recently.  As the smallest Land Rover ever sold in the U.S., the Freelander is playing to a new crowd.  Unlike the premium-priced Range Rover, the Freelander is right in the thick of the compact and mid-size sport-ute market.  Thanks to the off-road prowess implied by the Land Rover name, the Freelander’s natural enemy is the popular new Jeep Liberty.  For 2004, Land Rover is even …

So there we were, cutting a swath down our favorite curvy, hilly four-lane, with an athletic car obeying our every move.  Big 20″ wheels and low-profile tires held fast to the road.   A responsive 315-hp V8 pulled us up the hills with ease and confidence, even at super-legal speeds.  Cradled in well-bolstered, luxurious leather chairs, with a GPS and 6-disc changer along for the ride, we could have had three passengers, too, and they’d have enjoyed surfing through traffic and feeling the g-forces through the turns thanks to the comfortable …