You don't choose cars like these, you succumb to them. They creep up on you like thin hair and thick ankles. One minute you're rolling a 3 Series coupe, the next minute your wife needs room to haul her gardening stuff and the kids want rear doors and a DVD player.It's about that time when wagon-style things like the 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour and 2009 Toyota Venza start to look attractive. OK, plausible maybe.

We don't know if anyone's ever called the Porsche Boxster the Beverly Hills Miata, but we're going to. It's maddening. The landscape of Los Angeles' richest suburb is littered with Boxsters. They're driven by soccer moms while their kids are with the nanny; by USC co-eds living off their parents' Amex Black card; and by movie agents yet to make the scene and jump to a 911 Cabriolet. It's enough to make you ignore the history of Porsche engineering and motorsports that this car's retro-style round face and plump bodywork are meant to evoke.

The 2010 Dodge Ram Power Wagon marks the second generation of the company's off-road-fettled heavy-duty pickup, and Dodge didn't muck with the plot. That's good news for serious truck users, as the Raptor is no substitute for the Power Wagon, and vice versa.

Oh, you haven't heard? The 5 Series wagon is gone for 2011. Only 878 Americans bought one in 2009 (yeah, nice going, you guys), and the most BMW ever sold was 2,351 back in 2005.

Consider that the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG is nowhere near as quick as the 2010 Porsche Panamera Turbo and you might be disappointed. With four doors and a power figure beginning with the number five, the E63 should be capable of a toe-to-toe showdown with the sedan from Stuttgart, right? But it's not even close, because the Porsche is 0.7 second quicker in the quarter-mile and embarrasses the Benz to 60 mph by a merciless 1.1 seconds.

Yes, we have enjoyed a steady stream of modified 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS tuner cars. It's been a regular Camarogasm 'round these parts. Some have performed, others never showed up, and one that made at least 700 horsepower ate its clutch.First, we tested an HPE550 Camaro from Hennessey. Then we tested one from Vortech Engineering. Then we borrowed the Hennessey HPE700 LS9 Camaro. This year's SEMA show even provided a tasteless Camaro Hall of Shame.

A strong argument can be made that this 2010 Volkswagen GTI burns with the flame of the original GTI, the spark that ignited the hot-hatch explosion and led to cars like the Mazdaspeed 3, Mini Clubman S and Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

The 2010 Lincoln MKT EcoBoost has the making of something pretty special.Anyone who has read our entries on the IL Long-Term Road Test blog over the past year knows we're smitten with our 2009 Ford Flex. And the more powerful 2010 Ford Flex with EcoBoost picks up where the original left off, walking away with an Inside Line Editors' Most Wanted award in our most recent annual voting session.

The 2010 Kia Forte Koup wants to be a Honda Civic and it's pretty easy to understand why. The Civic has an image of fuel-efficiency that is supported by eye-catching styling and driving dynamics. The Kia Forte Koup so wants to be there.Lots of cars have tried to become the Honda Civic — like the Chevy Cobalt, Mazda 3 and Scion tC — but Honda still sits on top of the sales pyramid. The Civic represented 339,289 sales in 2008, and when the recession began in earnest in June 2008, the Honda Civic was even the top-selling vehicle in the country.

The hype machine has been running full-tilt for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt since GM revealed the 2007 Volt Concept car, and although we've previously wheeled a development mule, we've now driven the car you see here, a pre-production Volt.