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" SATURN AURA  Price Range: $20,595-$27,769  Basking in the Glow With a solid chassis, potent engines and a good-looking body, Saturn&amp;#039;s Aura is for real. Minus Two&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;quot;THE BMW&amp;#039;S CLUTCH OPERATION IS SO SMOOTH THAT IT APPROACHES MANUAL-TRANSMISSION NIRVANA&amp;quot; -- JIM DUNNE  NISSAN ALTIMA  Altima prices begin under $20,000--that&amp;#039;s a bargain.  Family-Size Fun Large, front-drive family sedans aren&amp;#039;t usually at home on twisty mountain roads. But the all-new Nissan Altima is. This car loves to be driven hard, as we found during a day&amp;#039;s drive around California&amp;#039;s rugged Monterey Peninsula. From behind the wheel the car feels much smaller than its predecessor. In truth, it sits on a new chassis that shaves only 1 in. of wheelbase. That inch pays big dividends in road poise. The engines, either a 175-hp Four or a 270-hp V6, sit deeper in the engine bay for a lower center of gravity. The front halfshafts are angled equally, so torque steer is virtually nil. The V6 SE model is a screamer and our choice--with either the six-speed manual or new CVT. And the seats are among the best in the segment. -- BEN STEWART Red Sky at Night Back in August, we said that the Saturn Sky needed more power. Now it has it, in the form of the Red Line. With 260 hp and 260 lb.-ft. of torque, this roadster is as much fun to floor the throttle in as it is to look at. We wish that the five-speed manual (a five-speed automatic is also available) shifted as quickly as the engine responded, though. During our day of slicing through rising and falling apexes on the mountain roads east of Santa Barbara, Calif., the manual kept fighting our efforts. -- D.C.  &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;quot;THE LP640&amp;#039;S V12 SOUNDS SO GOOD, WE WOULDN&amp;#039;T MIND FOLLOWING ONE AROUND ALL DAY JUST TO LISTEN TO IT.&amp;quot; -- BEN STEWART   SPY REPORTS Someone says ...  NEWS Switch On The Brakes Siemens VDO claims to have a brake-by-wire system that operates with today&amp;#039;s 12-volt electrical systems and provides shorter stopping than conventional hydraulic systems. The key is wedges that use the brake rotors&amp;#039; kinetic energy to multiply braking force at the pads. All automakers are keenly interested in drive-by-wire systems because of the weight savings and their highly tuned performance compared with mechanical components. Mind the Gap According to the most recent J.D. Power and Associates Vehicle Dependability Study, the difference in quality--as defined by reliability over three years--between expensive and affordable, and import and domestic has shrunk considerably. Lexus may have topped the ranks again, but Mercury came in second, Buick third. We&amp;#039;re Dyin&amp;#039; Out There The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration&amp;#039;s annual assessment reveals the death rate on our country&amp;#039;s highways went up in 2005, the first rise since 1986. The increase in the number of fatalities, to 43,443, is due primarily to a sharp increase in the number of motorcyclist, pedestrian and bicyclist deaths. Worth noting: 55 percent of those killed in passenger cars were not wearing their seatbelts. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a958/4199800/>