Chevrolet Malibu SS vs. Mitsubishi Galant Ralliart vs. Nissan

You've traded your Audi TT for one wife, two kids, and three carpool buddies. And now you need four doors and four seats. Your heart screams, "550i or E550 Sport, baby!" Your budget, in a tone resembling your mother-in-law's, reminds you about "practical family transportation." It'll be okay. Several carmakers have realized average family dudes and dudettes with normal incomes may want a spoonful of driving fun and a sprinkle of pizzazz with their daily commuter cereal and have come up with sportified versions of their mainstream midsize four-doors. You won't mistake any of them for that rockin' BMW, Benz, or Audi, but they prove that you don't have to settle for a vanilla sled resembling the ones you rent on business trips.

We've assembled a quartet of them here, all sportier than average V-6-powered front-drivers that live in the $25,000-$30,000 price range. As with SRT or AMG, Mitsubishi's Ralliart sub-brand is intended to symbolize a zestier version of a mainstream product. The Galant sedan gets the Ralliart treatment this time out, new as a 2007 model. It's most easily identified by the projector-style, four-bulb ellipsoid headlamp clusters, mesh grille, side air dams, and 18-inch rolling stock. Power comes from the same 3.8-liter V-6 engine that's employed in the Eclipse GT; variable valve timing helps it crank out 258 horsepower (standard V-6 models run with 230).

All Galants get a five-speed automatic trans for 2007, including Sportronic sequential control. Springs/dampers get higher rates, and the anti-roll bar is a stiffer 21mm unit. The Galant Ralliart comes one way: loaded. Perforated leather-trimmed seating (heated in front), automatic climate control, power moonroof, and a Rockford Acoustic Design premium audio system are standard. Final pricing is still TBD but figure about $27,624 to $29,474, with the only likely option being a nav system.

Chevrolet has worked diligently to revive the SS (Super Sport) nameplate. This storied badge had years ago degraded to little more than a tape-stripe package, but GM has been less promiscuous with it of late, applying SS badges only to vehicles that have increased performance and handling capability. Out goes the standard Malibu's 200-horse, 3.5-liter OHV V-6 in favor of a 3.9-liter overhead-valver good for 240. It's still saddled with a four-speed automatic transaxle fresh out of the 1980s, albeit now with manumatic shift action via a toggle-switch on the left side of the shifter stalk, instead of a separate manual gate like the others.