Cars: $13,000-$18,000

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Dec, 2000

Honda Civic EX

The latest redesign makes this solid and popular car bigger and more powerful. And it still gets 37 mpg on the highway. No wonder it wins Best New Car honors.

COST | Bottom line

* Price as equipped: $17,350

* To buy: $444 a month ($3,470 down/9.5%/36 months

* To lease: $339 a month ($1,700 due at signing/$10,757 residual/ 36 months

Team Honda of Baton Rouge, La.

Chevrolet Malibu

A roomy interior, a spirited V6 and a price that's hard to beat drive the Malibu to the top of the class for the fifth year in a row.

Pontiac Sunfire GT coupe

To drive home the fact that the 150-horsepower, four-cylinder engine makes this a fast car, a spoiler is now standard equipment.

Toyota Celica GT

Even with its sporty 140-horsepower engine, this superbly handling road rocket delivers 33 mpg on the highway and nearly 500 miles between fillups.

Kia Optima

The new flagship model for the Korean automaker, with its ten-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty, takes aim at the Toyota Camry and Nissan Sentra.

2001 Car Guide

For an explanation of our scoring system, see page 115; See Kiplinger's Car Finder 2001 at www.kiplinger.com