With average new-car prices hovering around $50,000, affordable subcompact SUVs like the Nissan Kicks remain an increasingly popular choice. Redesigned for the 2025 model year, the Kicks retains its reasonable pricing but is transformed into an entirely different vehicle with the new generation, growing larger while bringing improved levels of comfort, refinement and features.

Considering a 2026 Toyota RAV4? This is your sign to get after it. What, are you worried that a new iteration of 2024’s third bestselling vehicle (and bestselling not-truck) in the U.S. would depart radically from what made the last few generations such sales superstars? Quite the opposite: The new RAV4 builds on the last-generation model and improves just about everything while adding a small squeeze of character and verve that RAV4 owners are unaccustomed to. Tap water? Heck no — this is sparkling water with lime.

Dating to 2019, the current-generation Audi A8 is awfully old for a luxury flagship, but the big sedan still has plenty of appeal. Its beautifully crafted cabin is tremendously comfortable and packed with all of the tech and sumptuousness one would expect at this price, and the S8 performance derivative boasts the sort of power that was reserved for elite sports cars not so long ago.

In a recent round of crash-testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety evaluated a sampling of mainstream and luxury SUVs of various sizes and powertrains — as well as one luxury sedan and one compact pickup truck. The model-year 2025 Audi A5 and Q6 Sportback e-Tron, model-year 2025-26 BMW X3 and Ford Explorer, and model-year 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 and Kia Sportage came away with Top Safety Pick+ awards, IIHS’ highest honor. Additionally, the model-year 2025-26 Toyota Corolla Cross and model-year 2026 Hyundai Santa Cruz and Nissan Rogue earned second-tier Top Safety Pick laurels.

Having just added hands-free driving with automated lane changes to its DreamDrive Pro driver-assistance tech over the summer, Lucid has announced plans for further development of its autonomous-driving system. The California electric-vehicle maker has partnered with chipmaker Nvidia with the goal of being the first to market with what the companies in a statement call a “true eyes-off, hands-off and mind-off (Level 4) consumer-owned autonomous vehicle.”

Maserati’s Grecale Folgore, the luxury brand’s all-electric, five-seat compact SUV, launched at the top of the Grecale lineup for the 2025 model year and gets a revised AWD system that adds more range and efficiency to the EV for 2026.

The Kia Carnival launched for the 2022 model year, replacing the Sedona and offering the relatively few remaining minivan buyers a stylish, well-equipped and attractively priced alternative to the Chrysler Pacifica, Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna. For 2025, a freshened Carnival arrives bringing a new hybrid powertrain and other updates.

Available with hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully electric powertrains, Kia’s small Niro SUV offers shoppers a graduated entry into electrification. With its compact dimensions and conservative output, the hybrid 2026 Kia Niro is among the most fuel-efficient vehicles available in the U.S. We named it the Best Car of 2023 when the current generation debuted, spotlighting its excellent design, stupendous fuel economy and affordable price. For 2026, the Niro is unchanged.

Volkswagen redesigned its compact Tiguan SUV for the 2025 model year, giving it a thorough reworking inside and out and making it more comfortable, more capable and even nicer inside than the last one. But the automaker promised something a little extra for the 2026 Tiguan’s top trim: A higher-output version of the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that sits under the hood of all Tiguans.