Blessed with a potent, 220-hp, four-cylinder turbocharged engine and road hugging handling, the new Regal is a far cry from the padded landau top, puffy velour bench seat-equipped ride your parents drove.

The new Regal is immensely comfortable on the inside, a pleasure to look at and a joy to drive. GM is serious now about competing with its European and Japanese counterparts in the luxury, midsize sport sedan category. To do that, it needs to produce a car that offers lots of amenities, superior road manners, good fuel mileage (the Regal gets an estimated 18/28 mpg) and sophisticated styling. The Regal scores well on all points with an as-tested price of $35,185.

The engine and the six-speed automatic transmission deliver ample power, while the MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension, along with the Stablitrak stability control system, keeps the Regal solidly on the tarmac. Steering feedback is somewhat light at times, but feels balanced overall. Exterior styling is clean and stately, highlighted by the elegant front fascia.

Quality soft-touch materials, including stitched leather and brushed chrome accents make for an inviting cabin. The plethora of center stack nobs and buttons look intimidating at first, but are actually quite intuitive, and while the nine-speaker audio system produced high quality sound, for some reason, our test car’s AM radio signal was deplorable.

---

Rising from the ashes of the ultimately forgettable Sebring, the Chrysler 200 is an example of a makeover done right. Chrysler was not content to just slap on some new badges and tweak the headlights and call it a day. The 200’s re-do includes updated exterior styling, improved interior craftsmanship, a new power plant and retuned suspension and steering.

The 200 goes a long way toward erasing any less than impressive rental car experience you may have had in an old Sebring. Clean and classy exterior styling give the 200 the image of a car costing far more than its as-tested sticker of $27,530, and solid interior fit and finish make the cabin infinitely more welcoming than its predecessor.

The 3.6-liter V6 engine, producing 283 hp, is sufficiently robust, but I found the six-speed automatic transmission to be lacking in crispness. Steering tended to be a bit vague on rougher surfaces, but handling and cornering, thanks to MacPherson front and multi-link rear suspension, is generally smooth and responsive and produces a ride that is River Oaks Boulevard smooth, but also tight in the corners, making the 200 a great highway cruiser. The estimated fuel mileage of 19/29 is average for the class.

The cabin features awesome, leather trimmed seats and a truly wonderful dash layout where all of the controls are easily viewed and within reach. It comes with all of the high tech gadgetry you’d expect, including nav system, Bluetooth, voice controls and digital music storing, to go along with a hardy six-speaker audio system.