Up Close: 2010 Mercury Milan

After checking out the new Fusion at Ford’s stand, I poked around the car’s Mercury sibling. I’m torn over the car’s design. Everything above bumper-level looks fine, with the sort of mini-Sable styling you’d expect from Mercury. The lower air dam? Not so much. The fog lights seem distracting, and there isn’t enough substance underneath.

Inside, the Milan has the same strengths and weaknesses as the Fusion. The dashboard has soft-touch materials, but their grainy finish is unappealing. The center controls are crowded, but the navigation system is ginormous and, if it's consistent with the rest of Ford’s latest-generation units, should offer first-rate graphics and usability. Backseat legroom and headroom are decent but not generous. Storage areas are impressive — there’s a decent-sized center console plus a compartment atop the dash, as the old Fusion/Milan had.

If it gets segment-leading gas mileage and starts at a decent price, the Milan should see relative success. For my money, though, the Fusion offers the same package in a far more attractive wrapper — a reversal from last year’s Milan, which I thought looked a bit better than its Ford counterpart. More photos below.

Up Close: 2010 Ford Fusion

Ford unveiled updates of three midsize cars at this week’s L.A. auto show: the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ. I had a chance to check all of them out. I prefer the regular trims to the Fusion Sport, whose compartmented bumper looks a bit too busy for my taste. Overall, Ford hasn’t dramatically altered the sedan’s slick shape, which I liked on the previous Fusion. The three-blade grille gets more aggressive but, thankfully, remains tasteful.

I’m less enthusiastic about the interior. It gets some overdue changes — the passenger airbag integrates seamlessly into the dash, the A/C adds dual-zone controls — but Ford still wraps everything in a grainy dash material that lacks the finish quality of the prevailing interiors in the family-car segment. By contrast, the Lincoln MKZ, which had similar cabin quality last year, has upgraded to vastly better surfaces for 2010.

2008 L.A. Auto Show: 2009 Infiniti G37 Convertible

• Competes with: Lexus IS 250 convertible, Volvo C70 convertible, BMW 3 Series
• Looks like: Infiniti can make a good-looking droptop
• Drivetrain: 325-hp, 3.7-liter V-6
• Hits dealerships: Spring 2009

Infiniti’s G series of entry-level luxury cars with a sport enthusiast bent has just gotten bigger. Besides a sedan and coupe, Infiniti now has a retractable hardtop to put up against the competition.

Like other G37s, the convertible features Infiniti’s superb 3.7-liter V-6 engine producing 325 hp. It’s teamed to either a six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic transmission. We’re big fans of the manual in other applications and are glad Infiniti is offering it in this model. Automakers often feel that convertible drivers won’t want to shift their own gears. This may be a big advantage for the G37.

Another advantage is the G37’s looks. While Infiniti says it looks good with the top up or down, in our mind it looks superb without its top and merely above average with it up. The company also has an optional custom-designed Bose sound system that takes wind noise and speed into account to control the volume.

There are two trim levels: the base G37 convertible and the G37S convertible Sport 6MT. The Sport model features the six-speed manual transmission, 19-inch wheels, larger brakes and a sport-tuned suspension. More photos below.

2008 L.A. Auto Show: Honda FC Sport

• Looks like: Our eyes! Our eyes!
• Defining characteristics: Unattractive rearward-bulging fuel cell
• Ridiculous features: Honda expecting this car to turn anyone on to the possibility of a hydrogen future
• Chance of being mass-produced: We can only hope it's zip, nada, please no

So, Honda’s had a few misses with its designs lately — both the Pilot and Accord got lukewarm receptions — and the FC Sport Concept doesn’t help turn that trend around.

In a rare (for these days) well-kept secret, Honda unveiled the FC Sport concept at the L.A. auto show earlier today. The vehicle is a Honda design study that’s supposed to demonstrate the flexibility of its hydrogen fuel cell platform that's used on the FCX Clarity sedan, which is an attractive vehicle.

Up Close: 2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon

Since its 2008 redesign, I've thought Cadillac's CTS entry-level luxury sedan was a sharp-looking car, and it also looks pretty good as a wagon, which we spied at the Los Angeles auto show. The front of the wagon carries the sedan's familiar design, but there are some interesting new cues in back, like the raked C-pillar separating the rear side windows and tall taillights that climb up the back of the car. The 25-cubic-foot cargo area isn't particularly expansive for a wagon, but it is nearly twice the size of the CTS sedan's trunk.

For many people in the U.S., wagons have a cool-factor that's about on par with minivans. That could change, though, as sleek sport wagons like the 2009 Audi A4 Avant and this new CTS wagon hit U.S. roads. More photos below.

Up Close: 2009.5 Pontiac G6

Pontiac has restyled the exterior and interior of its G6 midsize car, and we had a chance to check it out for the first time at the Los Angeles auto show.

The restyled grille and front bumper are more aggressive-looking and have more mesh-covered vents. Pontiac says the styling was inspired by the automaker's flagship G8 sedan, and the resemblance is there.

Interior changes include new graphics for the gauges. The G6 also gains GM's center control panel for the audio and climate systems, and the new layout is an improvement over what was there previously.

The changes take the G6 in the direction it needs to go, but there are still nicer midsize cars available, including GM's own Chevrolet Malibu. The updated G6 hits dealerships in January with a starting price of $19,945 for the base sedan. The coupe, meanwhile, starts at $22,890, and the retractable-hardtop convertible is priced at $32,970.

More photos below.

Up Close: 2010 Kia Soul

It seems Kia’s new Soul, unveiled at the L.A. auto show today, roughly splits the difference between a Scion xB or Nissan Cube and a compact crossover, like the Suzuki SX4. The dash has fairly traditional shapes: The center controls face skyward, the shifter goes on the floor and the gauges sit behind the steering wheel. At first blush, overall quality is a step above the aging Kia Spectra's, if not quite to Hyundai Elantra levels. The backlit instruments look upscale, and dials for the A/C and stereo feel reasonably high-quality.

The seats’ tightly woven textures lose out to the Cube’s for overall comfort, though Kia’s rear seats fold flat. The Cube’s seats, when folded, leave quite a ledge. And Kia might just be the new GM when it comes to no-nonsense functionality: There’s a dedicated spot to stow your sunglasses, the pivoting sun visors extend all the way to the B-pillars, and the rear center seat belt mounts in the seatback — not the ceiling — to keep rear-window visibility clear. Gold star, Kia.

Up Close: 2010 Chevrolet Camaro

I recently got some seat time in Ford's updated 2010 Mustang, so I decided to take a closer look at the upcoming 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, which will be one of the 'Stang's prime competitors when it arrives next spring.

Sitting in the driver's seat of the production Camaro, I could immediately tell from looking at its build quality that I was in a very early version of the car, so it's hard to say what fit and finish will be like when the real thing arrives at dealerships.

Many of the Camaro's interior features are unique, including the instruments, audio buttons and climate controls, and the doors of the SS model I sat in were finished in shiny red trim. Forward views in the Camaro seem more limited than in the Mustang due to a low roofline that makes for a short windshield.

On the outside, the car looks great in person thanks to its low-slung, wide body and clean lines. The Camaro's nose is pointier than many images lead you to believe, and there are nice details, like a thin port above the grille.

The Camaro has been a long time coming — it first appeared in concept form at the 2006 Detroit auto show — but it looks like the wait will be worth it for muscle-car fans. More photos below.

Up Close: Mini E

If it weren't for the special yellow badges and graphics plastered all over the Mini E's exterior, it could easily be mistaken for a regular Cooper. Most of the Mini E's modifications are hidden from view, though they do affect the car's interior.

For one, the E doesn't have a backseat. Now, the rear seats in the regular Cooper are barely practical, but you can fold them down to make more room for cargo. Most of the space behind the driver and front passenger in the Mini E is filled by a carpet-covered shelf covering the lithium-ion battery pack that powers the car. There's a little bit of cargo room behind it.

The E's interior will be familiar to fans of the current Mini. Like the exterior, the cabin has been accented with yellow in the form of dash and door trim.

Mini is only making 500 Es available for one-year leases to consumers in California, New York and New Jersey. The monthly payment is a sizable $850, but there's little doubt Mini will find takers for its diminutive electric car.

2008 L.A. Auto Show: Hyundai HED-5 i-Mode Concept

• Looks like: The Hyundai Veracruz and Toyota Prius had a lovechild on the set of "Blade Runner"
• Defining characteristics: Configuarble interior for six
• Ridiculous features: Scalloped A-pillar
• Chance of being mass-produced: Nearly 100%; Hyundai says this is green-lit for the American market

Usually when we tackle concepts we look at the exterior packaging first. Not with the HED-5 i-Mode; this is one time when the guts of a concept are far more interesting than the skin. The six-passenger crossover may be futuristic-looking, but that’s not as interesting as the engine under its hood.

Hyundai has chosen the L.A. auto show as the place to not only display its all-new hybrid powertrain system, but also its future gasoline engines, starting with the 286-hp, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder in the i-Mode. That’s a lot of horsepower for a turbo-four, normally reserved for high-performance cars like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

Hyundai says turbocharging will improve fuel efficiency by 15-20%, but we’re not sure what it’s using as the baseline, as it compares this engine to six-cylinder engines as well. Hyundai says it will put the new turbo in various production models soon, but it’s obviously not spilling the beans yet on the whats and whens.

The i-Mode itself, while green-lit, doesn’t yet have a definitive date to hit the U.S. market.