Best SUV For The Bucks: Toyota RAV4, Base Price: $20300

Toyota gives buyers a ton of value with its affordable, entry-level RAV4. Fresh from an overhaul, the RAV4 is more modern than competitors such as Honda's CR-V and Ford's Escape. While the Escape and CR-V only seat five, the RAV4 can be a five- or seven-passenger vehicle. The RAV4's entry-level, four-cylinder engine is more powerful than the CR-V's and Escape's, and its optional V-6 has 269 hp, compared with 193 hp on the Escape's optional V-6.

Best of all, the RAV4 is the most reliable car on the market. Excluding cars headed for discontinuation or replacement, it is the only vehicle with Consumer Reports' highest-possible "predicted reliability" rating and five out of five stars in J.D. Power's "overall quality" and "overall dependability" assessments.

Best Luxurious Car For A Nonluxury Price: Toyota Avalon, Base Price: $26775

The Avalon is a luxury car in disguise. Its somewhat innocuous exterior styling masks a car with tons of interior room and a peppy V-6 engine. The Avalon has reclining rear seats--a premium feature even by luxury-car standards--and 268 hp, which is way more than an entry-level BMW 3 Series offers.

The biggest problem with the Avalon--from the perspective of Toyota shareholders--is that it undercuts Toyota's upscale Lexus models. It has 64 more hp than Lexus' entry-level IS 250 sedan, a car with a base price $4,000 higher than the Avalon's. And Lexus' overhauled 2007 ES 350 sedan has only four more hp than the Avalon, with a base price that is $7,000 higher.