2001 Hyundai XG300

XG300 styling can best be described as substantial and conservative.

While it may not score high on the overt excitement scale, the new XG300 does earn substantial kudos for being well built, quiet, and easy to get comfortable with in town or out on the highway. Potential buyers—whom Hyundai sees as slightly older and more affluent than Sonata owners—will find a lot to like in the car's attractive price/value ratio as well as its league-leading 5-year/60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. Projecting first-year sales of roughly 15,000 units, Hyundai see the XG300's prime competitors as the Honda Accord EX V-6, Nissan Maxima GLE, and Oldsmobile Intrigue. Korea's largest automaker has come a long way in the past couple of years toward revitalizing a once-shaky brand image. With the new XG300, it appears ready and able to take that process to another plateau. (www.hyundaiusa.com)