Subaru’s “Confidence in Motion” design and brand strategy debuts on the new Impreza concept. We like the four-door coupe design and the sweeping lines, as well as the changes under the new sheet metal—the next generation Boxer engine and an all-new CVT transmission. After a few polarizing designs, Subie’s hit the right blend of quirky and future-luxe.

Honda showed off its new all-electric car, a battery-powered Fit. Propelled by a powerplant derived from the FCX Clarity, the Fit EV aims to take on the Nissan Leaf, which was shown last year at the LA Show to much acclaim. Honda predicts a 100-mile range for the EV.

Range Rover showed the Evoque three-door at the Paris show earlier fall; now it’s time to take the sheet off the five-door version. We like the bigger brother more than its smaller sibling.

While it may not seem like an exciting ride—really, it’s a small 5-door minivan—the Mazda5 is the shape of things to come. With rising gas prices and stricter emissions standards, smaller family cars—like this and the Ford C-Max we wrote about in Paris— will become common. Shown last year at Geneva and making its North American debut in LA, the Mazda5 gets a little bigger and more powerful, with a 157-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and a choice of manual or automatic transmission. This could be a sweet and—gasp—tunable family car.

A few “what tha heck?” cars pop up at every show, and here it’s the 2011 Nissan Murano Convertible. With a lot of cajoling and some serious design and custom work, Nissan turned a basic Murano CUV into a swell-looking, weirdly likeable roadster.

Mitsubishi finally revealed the North American version of its heretofore Japan-only all-electric i-MiEV, which is set to go on sale in the US next year. The i-MiEV is larger than its Japanese-market counterpart by 11.2 inches in length, 4.3 inches in width, and is priced to compete with the Nissan Leaf and the new Honda electric Fit.