INDIANAPOLIS — Hitting the sweet spot of any automotive segment on the first try is like hitting your first club at Pebble Beach and seeing nothing but a white dot tickling a flag. By being named “Crossover Utility Vehicle of Texas” by the Texas Auto Writers Association in October, that’s exactly what happened to Lincoln’s new MKC.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Has Toyota been hearing giant footsteps gaining on them, feeling the hot breath of segment competitors as they rapidly close the gap on the perennial best-selling mid-size Camry sedan? The segment is, indeed, now filled with excellent, compelling choices and even as the Camry continues to maintain an edge in overall sales on the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima and Ford Fusion, it has been criticized for falling behind in styling, performance and personality.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Did you know that the Honda CR-V is the world’s most popular SUV? It’s also the top seller in Honda’s lineup of vehicles worldwide. It’s easy to understand why the CR-V is the most popular SUV in this country where SUVs reign, but many people in the rest of the world like “cars” far more than SUVs or trucks. Perhaps Honda’s success is attributed to the CR-V being just the right size — not too big or too small — and it behaves more like a car than a rugged sport utility or conventional truck.

DEL MAR, Calif. — Chevrolet's goal was to leapfrog the competition with its all-new 2015 Colorado mid-sized pickup. Actually that's not such a lofty goal. There are only two major players left in the shrinking segment — the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier — and neither has undergone any significant upgrades in nearly a decade.

LOS ANGELES — West Hollywood traffic at 9 a.m. moves as quickly as molasses on a cold day, especially when you have the promise of a run up the Angeles Crest Highway ahead of you. Yet here we were stuck behind half a dozen other 2015 Mustangs and a city bus, attempting to make a left turn against bumper-to-bumper traffic that refused to make any openings. Far from taxing my patience, it became an unexpected opportunity to see how far Ford’s revamp of the Mustang extended.

MONTICELLO, N.Y. — The setting was a wide track with large, perfectly manicured grass runoff areas that sits in a valley with its extremities running up and down the hills that feed into this depression. Its pavement describes arcs from surprisingly tight to wide open, joined by straights of varying lengths.

GOLDSBORO, N.C. — There were a number of good things to write about with the Acura ILX entry level luxury car after it arrived on the scene as a 2013 model, but performance and driving excitement were just a couple of its detriments — at least in the hybrid edition we were evaluating. Our conclusion at the time, the ILX won't make our recommended list.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Lexus invented the luxury midsize crossover way back in 1998. It was an idea that quickly blossomed into one of the hottest segments in the luxury ranks and within a few years Lexus was faced with serious competition for its groundbreaking RX 300. But Lexus remains the midsize sales champ rolling on with the ever-popular RX 350.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Hybrid and electric cars might be all the rage in the eyes of many new car buyers; but there are still plenty of people who just lust after an exciting car with plenty of power. Fifty years ago, when Ford introduced the original Mustang it started a whole new genre — muscle cars, aka pony cars. For many years the cars in this purely American segment captured the imagination of anyone looking for a more practical alternative to a two-seat sports car.

LOS ANGELES — If open-air motoring is not to your taste, a coupe version of the Jaguar F-Type will give you the head turning styling and performance you so desire. The all-aluminum F-Type Coupe delivers the uncompromised design vision of the Jaguar C-X16 concept, and complements the existing F-Type Convertible.