When the 2010 Mustang gallops into Ford showrooms in the spring, it will face more competition than it has seen in decades. The Dodge Challenger, which arrived in SRT8 form last year, now has a three-model lineup, and the hotly anticipated new Chevrolet Camaro starts production in February.

Those in the market for a hybrid SUV have yet another option with the 2010 Lexus RX450h, which was unveiled at the 2008 Los Angeles auto show.

Welcome to the new millennium: While most of us were off screwing around on four wheels, motorcycles quietly went and got complicated. Carburetors and straightforward suspensions are rapidly being supplanted by trickle-down car technology-antilock brakes, feedback fuel injection, stability control, and even air bags. The computer, it seems, has finally caught up with the motorbike.

Infiniti has replaced the G35, its BMW 3-series-fighting sedan, with the G37. As you'd imagine, the G37 uses the 3.7-liter V-6 from the sexy G37 coupe; in the sedan, it produces 2 hp less due to different exhaust routing. Still, at 328 hp, the new G37 four-door makes 22 hp more than did the G35's V-6, and its power output beats both the BMW 328i and the twin-turbo 335i. Infiniti's VHR (or very high rev) engine takes a page right out of BMW's book by using valve lift to do the job of a conventional throttle, and the resulting fuel economy dividend means that the extra horses are cost-free, at least at the pump: the 2009 G37 should receive the same EPA ratings as last year's G35.

What's good for the coupe is good for the Spyder. That's evidently the thinking at Lamborghini. Earlier this year, Lamboghini introduced an even more potent version of its five-year-old Gallardo. The new version earned the suffix LP-560, code for the V-10 engine's position (again at the rear with a north-south orientation, or Longitudinal Posteriore), output (560 horsepower), and drive wheels (four). Now the Spyder gets the LP 560-4 treatment.