Toyota pitches this five-door hatchback as a crossover utility vehicle that blends the sleek lines and nimble manners of a sporty car with the practicality of a boxy sport-utility wagon and the budget-minded affordability of a subcompact sedan.

It looks wild and feels fun to drive but also offers lots of room in a cabin that adapts to active lifestyles. A wagon-style layout contains two rows of seats for five, plus the bay in back for cargo. That bay, accessible from the hatchback-style rear door, has a flat floor and, with both rear seatbacks folded down, provides up to 53 cubic feet of storage space.

A track system in the floor adapts to various accessory kits to mount sports paraphernalia such as mountain bikes, snowboards or water skis.

The exterior is different with wheels planted at perimeters of the platform and fenders bulging to cover them, setting up the sturdy stance of a bulldog. The body is then decorated with rakish lines marked by an aggressive face with angular corner headlamp clusters, a windshield canted severely and the sweeping roofline that crimps rear edges and curls low into blackened back pillars.

The price-leading Standard edition and XR grade come with either front-wheel-drive (FWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD) traction and a thrifty four-cylinder engine. Front-drive Matrix XRS gets a high-performance 1.8-liter engine good for 180 hp with a sporty six-speed manual stick.

Styled at Toyota's California design studio, Toyota's compact coupe in a daring design features a cab-forward format with distinctive angular character lines and curt overhangs that convey a muscular tone.

New high intensity discharge (HID) headlamps are on the options list for Celica GT grade to mark the only change for 2004.

An optional Action Package installs more gear, like front aero bumpers, side rocker panels and a rear wing. Inside, Celica's 2+2 cockpit stocks sporty front bucket seats supported by bold side bolsters. Faces of gauges in the instrument panel are dark, while the dash in a dark gray tint.

Celica's twin-cam four-pack engine fires the GT-S to 180 hp and links to a six-speed manual or four-speed automatic. The GT has another version rated at 140 hp, with five-speed manual or the automatic.

Toyota's two-seat roadster with mid-engine placement frames the excitement of a sports car in the context of masterful Japanese mechanical technology.

It's simple in design, direct in function -- and fun to drive. Spyder's four-cylinder engine, displacing 1.8 liters and with twin cams on top, nets 138 hp. A manual five-speed stick is standard, but a sequential manual transmission is optional with shift buttons on the steering wheel.

The 2004 editions also offer limited slip differential at the rear.

Black leather seats are available and tie to a black top, as tan leather seats go with the tan top, but this year the tan leather interior is also offered with a body color called Absolutely Red.

Two-door coupe and four-door sedan variations are available for the smallest Toyota. Each carves out surprising space for riders in a five-seat cabin, accommodates a load of luggage in back, then delivers a kick from a juicy little aluminum engine and somehow still manages to rack up high fuel economy figures - more than forty miles down the road for every gallon of the regular-grade fuel consumed.

ECHO dresses in a design that looks progressive, even daring. Rather than the typical long, low and slinky shape of a conventional car, it stands tall in the aerodynamic format of a vertical bubble on wheels that seems to tip forward due to a high tail and low nose united by an arched roofline inset with a boldly raked windshield.

Inside, the cabin floor droops low so you can step aboard easily, and the ceiling bows high to fit tall chair-like seats. Passengers in the two front buckets sit upright, with their heads positioned higher than normal for better visibility though an expansive wrap of windows.

A pair of subcompact-size vehicles are the first to carry this name, which represents a new line from Toyota as a brand within a brand pointed at the youth market.

Scion xA is a five-door hatchback, while the xB Scion looks like a box on wheels as contemporary homage to the tried-and-trusty American panel van in abbreviated version. Both use a 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine borrowed from Toyota's Echo. It puts up 108 hp through a manual five-speed or optional automatic four-speed transmission and earns notable fuel economy numbers above 30 mpg.

The hatch and wagon ride on a platform used for two vehicles sold exclusively in Japan -- Toyota's ist hatchback and the bB wagon. Affordable price points for well-equipped models is the big idea behind the Scion badge, and these initial products fit that descriptive with standard gear like air conditioning, power for windows and door locks and mirrors, anti-lock brake system (ABS) with electronic brake force distribution (EBD) and a CD player that works with MP3 files.

Scion the xB wagon adds vehicle stability control (VSC) to the list of standards and offers side-impact air bags as an option.