Check Out Our Lifestyle Buying Guides

We know busy car shoppers don’t always focus on one category when they’re deciding what to buy: Someone with a small family, for example, might consider sedans, hatchbacks and SUVs. To help those shoppers, as well as shoppers across a dozen different categories, we again offer up our Lifestyle Buying Guide.

We’ve divided them into four major groups: Family, Play, Work and Eco-Friendly. Each group has its own set of categories:

• Family: Small Families, Big Families, First-Time Drivers
• Play: Off Roaders, Weekend Athletes, Sun Lovers, The Towing Crowd, Fun to Drive
• Work: Commuters, Hard Workers, The Boss
• Eco-Friendly: Green Drivers

Each category has a Best Car for that group, a Best Deal for that group, and eight other picks that our expert reviewers have chosen as best for that group. If you’re in the market for a car, this may be your best place to find the car that fits the demands of your busy life.

Remember to check back with us Feb. 3, 2009, to see which cars win our New Car of the Year, Family Car of the Year, Play Car of the Year, Work Car of the Year and Eco-Friendly Car of the Year awards.

Comments

I see you're perpetuating the myth that a crossover has the space of a minivan.

Your top pick for large families, the Ford Flex, has less cargo space behind its second row of seats than your bargain alternative Toyota Sienna has behind its third row. Fold all the seats, and the minivan's up by more than 65 cubic feet, meaning that the Sienna is just two cubes shy of having the total cargo volume of a Ford Flex PLUS a Dodge Journey.

Crossovers may have started to get third-row comfort down, but they haven't come close to beating the sheer space of a minivan.

Brady,
You're definitely right on the size part of the cargo area, but sheer size wasn't the only requirement for the pick. The Flex does a lot that most minivans don't, especially the whole "It's not a minivan" attitude that buyers are drawn to. The Flex does a very good job of being a comfortable, safe and fun-to-drive large family hauler with available AWD and that's why it got the nod this year. Last year the Honda Odyssey won.

"The answer is this Mini Cooper-looking family-hauler that is as big as any minivan."

I wasn't trying to say it's wrong to choose a crossover as your favorite pick, but implying that you're not giving up a lot of space compared to a van is a bit misleading.

Brady, I see your point, but I can tell you from driving the Flex this past summer with my wife, two teens and an 11-year-old, the space for cargo in the Flex was sufficient. It was more space than in the Kia Sedona I drive all the time, but not near as much as in an Odyssey or Town & Country.

I think we were talking exterior size. In terms of seating specs it is extremely similar to a minivan and having driven it, it is pretty comfortable.

I see the Escalade Hybrid and Silverado Hybrid in the Green drivers. Am I drunk?