If you want to gauge how successful a minivan is, just talk to the occupants of the second-row seats. If they say they would be happy to schlep across the country in the vehicle, you know that the van’s maker got the recipe just about right. That was the case with my 12-year-old twins as they lounged in the reclining captain’s chairs in the Sienna XLE, viewing their favorite media on a large, 16.4-inch-wide screen.

The previous Toyota Sienna wasn’t a bad vehicle, but it wasn’t as good to drive or as well-packaged as the Honda Odyssey. This latest van rides on the same 119.3-inch wheelbase as the outgoing Sienna, but is 0.8 inch shorter and 0.8 inch wider (coming in at 200.2 inches and 78.2 inches, respectively). It is the same height overall, though, at 68.9 inches. We would describe the redesign as distinctive, but the front end is pretty brutal.

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Despite the popularity of station wagons in Europe, as well as their greater versatility compared with conventional four-door sedans, two-box cars like this Audi A4 2.0T Avant still don’t resonate with most U.S. consumers. Americans for the most part remain tied to visions of Clark Griswold trundling across the country in a puke green, wood-paneled Ford LTD Country Squire, and would rather drive something else. But this country has in fact been in love for the past 20 years with what are essentially wagons. Witness the rise of the SUV and the recent explosion of crossovers, all of which are basically five-door wagons with higher seating positions, greater (but often unused) towing and payload capacities, and cruddier fuel economy.

Move ’Em Out

This Audi makes a great case for the traditional wagon, however. While it’s no fire-breathing RS6 Avant, our A4 Avant was far more maneuverable and exciting to pilot than those SUV and crossover mall cruisers. Based on the A4 sedan, our Avant was fitted with Audi’s excellent 211-hp, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder—the only engine in the A4 lineup for 2010—plus a six-speed automatic and Quattro all-wheel drive. It also had the optional S-line package, which includes a sport suspension, 19-inch wheels with summer rubber, front sport seats, various interior-trim upgrades, and S-line bumpers and rocker panels. Thus equipped, the A4 Avant recorded a 6.3-second run to 60 mph and a quarter-mile time of 14.8 at 91 mph, times which beat all the players in our last comparison test of six-cylinder luxury crossovers. Perhaps more important, the Audi’s 0.92 g of skidpad grip blows away that group’s average of 0.80 g, as does its fun-to-drive quotient on back roads. And it’s the same with 70-to-0 braking ability: 159 feet for the A4 wagon versus an average of 174 for the crossovers.

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Kia’s current and upcoming product catalog suggests a naming strategy solely inspired by someone’s old music dictionary. Both the Rondo and the upcoming Cadenza draw their names from musical terminology—as does parent Hyundai’s Sonata—and now we have the Forte, christened with an Italian word that directs performers to play loudly.

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Remember the previous Toyota 4Runner? Yeah, neither do we. Toyota’s compact, pickup-based, do-it-all 4×4 helped ignite the SUV craze when it launched in 1984. But in the years that followed, the 4Runner became increasingly marginalized as Toyota flooded its dealers with trucks and crossovers intended to plug every conceivable niche. The 2003–2009 fourth generation bore little resemblance to the cheap, scrappy 4Runner we fondly remember, having retreated upmarket as a dedicated mall-cruiser offering an optional V-8 and leather-laminated cabin. Annual sales dwindled to fewer than 50,000 units.

For 2010, Toyota is trying a retro reboot of sorts, returning to a simpler time with a truck aimed at outdoorsy buyers who like the FJ Cruiser, with which the 4Runner shares its frame and major components, but want proper rear doors. Even so, volume is expected to remain small at perhaps 35,000 units, says Toyota.

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The 2010 V-6 Mustang may have been redesigned, but its specific output makes it seem like a relic. In this segment, both the Chevrolet Camaro and the Hyundai Genesis coupe offer V-6s of smaller displacement that nevertheless make more horsepower and more torque. Chevy gets 304 horsepower and 273 pound-feet from 3.6 liters; Hyundai gets 306 and 266 from 3.8. The Ford manages only 210 horses and 240 pound-feet from 4.0 liters.

That may be because the Mustang’s V-6 dates from the first Bush administration. Ford reengineered the six in 1997, switching the valvetrain from pushrods to overhead cams. The output was, and has been, 210 horsepower. In 13 years, don’t you think Ford should have been able to find—we don’t know—10 more ponies?

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