Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi tried to play in the small-SUV game with its Outlander, which was underpowered and too small to be competitive. For 2007, the Outlander's much bigger, much more powerful. It will come out with a new platform, or chassis, that Mitsubishi will use for other vehicles. The next models will be the Lancer sedan and its high-performance iterations coming early next year, shortly after the '07 Outlander is launched late this year.

The platform was being jointly developed with DaimlerChrysler until they completely bailed out, sensing they would have to dump lots more money into the venture because Mitsubishi didn't have much. The DaimlerChrysler products from that venture are the Dodge Caliber, the Jeep Compass that went on sale in July and Jeep Patriot, due next year.