Launches are a huge deal in the auto business. If the right message does not get out when a new model goes on sale, there is seldom a second chance.

Nobody understands that better than Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury brand (NSANY). The brand launched in the shadow of Toyota’s Lexus (TM) in 1989 with an ill-conceived “rocks and trees” advertising campaign and never really recovered. Today, Lexus is the most popular luxury brand in the United States, while Infiniti sells less than half as many vehicles. So low is Infiniti’s public profile that it discontinued its Q45 flagship a year ago — and nobody noticed.

The 2009 FX50 won’t boost Infiniti’s sales figures much – only 134 units of its predecessor model, the FX45, have been sold through May — but it should raise its visibility. It is truly exotic in its conception and execution; in many ways it is the most  revolutionary mass-production vehicle of past five years. When former BMW CEO Helmut Panke went searching for new ideas for the German car company, he often cited the FX as a source of inspiration.

Think of the FX as the Toontown version of the modern station wagon: it has seating for four, with storage space behind the back seat, and a low roof with a barely functional roof rack on top. The cartoon inspiration comes from the proportions: An exaggeratedly long nose coupled to a passenger compartment that, instead of being squared off at the rear, is tucked into a dramatically-bobbed tail. The FX has perhaps the shortest rear overhang of any car on the road – its curved shape is reminiscent of some classic French cars from the 1930s. Completing the effect are some baroque styling elements – extreme cat’s eye headlamps, open-mouthed grill, Wurlitzer-inspired fender vents – and the absurdly oversized wheels.

Under the skin, the FX50 is a rolling test-bed of technology.  Two of the highlights are the around-view monitor, introduced a year ago, which gives a 360-degree view around the car from four cameras, and lane departure prevention.  While other Infinitis merely send out beeps to warn the driver when he strays out of a lane, the FX50 gently applies its brakes to nudge him back in.

During more than 200 miles of driving this extroverted vehicle, all that technology took some getting used to. When I pulled out to pass, for instance, the lane departure prevention system momentarily tried to hold me back. But I immediately warmed to the more traditional elements of the car — the seats, controls, and interior appointments — which were executed with uncommon skill.

There is a price to be paid for all of this, of course, and it’s steep: a base price of $56,700 plus a $815 destination charge; $69,145 with many bells and whistles. Should you decide to buy one, plan on spending a lot of time explaining to yourself and others why you did. Unlike a vehicle in a more conventional package that carries a recognizable brand, the Infiniti FX50 doesn’t make a predictable statement about itself or its owner.  And therein lies its charm.

Where will Abigail Breslin be when she is 18?  That unlikely thought that kept crossing my mind during the weekend I spent test-driving the Mini Cooper Clubman.

For those who haven’t been keeping up with sub-teen culture, cute-as-a-button Abigail was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the title role of “Little Miss Sunshine,” and now, at age 12, is starring in the well-received new movie “Kit Kittredge: An American  Girl.”  The next few years could be difficult for her, though.  Child actors often have a tough time making the transition to adulthood. For every Jodie Foster, there is a Tatum O’Neal.

The Clubman is the latest derivative of the Mini Cooper, which charmed enthusiasts with its retro styling and inspired performance when it was introduced in 2002. Besides becoming a huge success for its owner BMW, Mini has created a whole new segment for the U.S. market: the premium small car. More than 42,000 Minis were sold last year, more than Porsche, Saab or Jaguar.

But nothing lasts forever, and Mini’s new offering, the Clubman, felt like a afterthought to me, a watered-down version of the sparkling original.  Mini’s over-the-top styling cues now exhibit more kitsch than the wit they showed when they were fresh six years ago.  Inside, the instrument panel remains a cluttered, confusing space with cheesy plastic trim and hard-to-read graphics.

More important, the nine inches that have been added to the Mini’s overall length to create the Clubman have produced little in the way of functionality.  Only 3.2 inches was gained in the passenger compartment, producing just a skosh more legroom to ease the discomfort of rear seat passengers.  And the cargo door that has been added – on the passenger side only – to aid access is clumsy and cramped.  There is more room in the luggage compartment now, but the barn- style rear doors make it difficult to access.

Some of the virtues of the original Mini remain: peppy acceleration, skateboard-like handling, top-drawer quality, and impressive fuel economy:  26 miles per gallon city, 34 mpg highway. But like everything else made in the UK these days, the Clubman gets expensive when British pounds are converted to U.S. dollars. The $23,450 base price on my test car quickly shot up to within a hair of $30,000 after including charges for such items as lightning blue metallic paint ($500), chrome line interior and exterior,  ($500), and white turn-signal lights ($100).  Makes you wonder how much the colored turn-signal lights would run.

The Mini concept remains intact:  Create value in a small car by engineering in superior dynamics and by designing in an appealing personality.  General Motors used exactly the same recipe in developing the 2008 Chevy Malibu.  But it is time for Mini to stop relying on its cuteness.  Like a child actress who finds it difficult to grow up, Mini needs to start behaving like an adult.

In an insane auto market characterized by volatile currency swings, plummeting industry sales, and white-hot competition, even the best of companies can lose its bearings in the fog of battle. Honda (HMC) fumbled the Accord hybrid, Mercedes gave birth to the homely R-class, and now BMW has produced the very strange X6 “Sports Activity Coupe.” Let’s wish the Bavarian Motor Works a speedy recovery.

In its defense, just think what BMW is up against. Every day that it is awake, it has to figure out a new way to grow. With its product line already stuffed with every imaginable variety of engines and body styles, it has to look for ideas outside the automotive mainstream that are still consistent with its self-image. Since minivans and pickup trucks are out of the picture, it has to search far and wide to come up with marketable concepts.

So somebody got the idea of putting a sportier coupe-type body on the existing undercarriage of the X5 sport utility vehicle. The X5 was already pretty sporty as sport-utilities go, so the product planners really had to reach to to come up with their new concept.

The evidence suggests they stretched too far and didn’t exercise enough discipline along the way. The X6 seats four in considerable comfort, and the first-rate controls and running gear will be familiar to BMW lovers everywhere.

But the sloping roof imposed by the new style — an unusual feature for a BMW – has severely compromised the rearward vision. And the massive body resting on the X5’s all-wheel drive undercarriage jacks up the weight of the X6 to just a few ounces shy of 5,000 pounds. That puts it in the same category as the porcine Porsche Cayenne and makes it 700 pounds heavier than a Cadillac SRX. Trust me, the X6 is much bigger than it looks in pictures. All that excess avoirdupois leads to a mediocre fuel-economy rating of 15 mpg city/20 mpg highway.

BMW’s bean-counters have also been asleep at the switch. Since it is made in BMW’s South Carolina plant instead of the home base of Germany, the X6 escapes a direct hit from the strong euro, though it still clocks in with a healthy $52,500 base price for the V-6 model. Add some high-priced accessories, though, and the sticker price races up to the one on my test vehicle of $72,500. The additional 20 grand covers the Cold Weather, Premium, Premium Sound, Rear Climate, Sport and Technology packages. Delete the running boards, heated rear seats and HD radio, and you save $1,000.

On the road, the X6 felt big and heavy, though never cumbersome. And climbing a ledge-studded mountain road in northwestern Connecticut, it never lost its composure. Still, my weekend with the the vehicle left me wondering: Suppose BMW had been only half as ambitious and produced a variant of the smaller X3 instead? I imagine everyone would be better off.

Pummeled by the weak dollar and high cost of commodities, BMW is in a financial slump at the moment and has set some aggressive financial targets to reach by 2012. My guess is the X6 won’t help very much.

As one of  its opening acts under private ownership, Chrysler LLC introduces – ta dah! – the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8. If timing is everything in life, this car starts off on the wrong wheel.

With every ounce of its 4,140 pounds, the Challenger symbolizes what’s right – and what’s wrong — with the U.S. auto industry.

On the one hand, Detroit can be responsive to consumer tastes,  aggressive in exploiting new market niches, and unabashed in appreciation for its own heritage. On the other, it often seems mired in the past, bereft of new ideas, and handcuffed by its quaint vehicular isolationism – building cars that can be sold nowhere except in North America.

For those who have missed the public relations blitz, the 2008 Challenger is the production version of the 2006 show car, which itself is based on the 1970 pony car that arrived on the market a few years before the first Arab oil embargo of 1973.

On its own terms, the Challenger is worthy of appreciation by that fraction of auto buyers whose decisions are made on the basis of nostalgia. All those characteristics that would have made you king of the high school parking lot – aggressive stance, noisy exhaust, ability to burn rubber – are here in abundance. The execution, inside and out, is direct, if unsophisticated.  All that is missing is the fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror.

With its two-door body, Hemi V-8, and rear-wheel drive, the Challenger represents a vanishing species of the American passenger car. A couple of numbers explains why. One is the sticker price on the Orange Pearl Coat tester I drove: an imposing $41,310.  The other is the EPA fuel economy estimate of 13 miles per gallon city, 18 miles per gallon highway.  Future models will have smaller engines and price tags, and pass more gas stations, but they won’t feel as authentic.

One of the curses of the automobile business is that you have to figure out what the public wants four years or more before you are able to deliver it.  The Challenger appears jinxed on several fronts.

Back in the summer of 2004, Chrysler was operating under the benevolent, if disengaged, ownership of Germany’s Daimler, and nobody was talking about $4 gasoline.  But as the Challenger arrives in dealerships, it provides answers to none of the questions that the new Chrysler now confronts:  How to reduce its dependence on gas-guzzling vehicles, how to develop  a presence in small cars, and how to find some traction with overseas buyers.

That won’t stop some middle-aged enthusiasts from queuing up for the early production models, and some journalists in search of a story line from waxing nostalgic about Detroit’s past greatness. In response to those readers who wonder if I actually drove the vehicle – I did and here’s what I think: After spending a weekend behind the wheel, I found it extremely satisfying on its own terms: powerful on the straights and sticky in the turns. 

But my guess is that Nardelli and Company would rather be introducing almost any other car in the summer of 2008 than the Challenger SRT8.

Automobile companies invest billions of dollars in building and maintaining their brands – and that’s just the bill for the advertising.  It doesn’t include all the racing activities, charitable tie-ins, special events and so on.

The reason why this is so important is seen in the results of new study by the research firm TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence of New Jersey and the newly-formed Auto Futures Group.

It found that just a little thing like better fuel economy would make customers switch from traditional car companies like Mercedes, Honda (HMC) and Hyundai to non-traditional ones like General Electric, Dell and Google. There is no sign that any of these non-automotive companies is thinking about getting into the car business, but the news that they would have such an easy time winning buyers is enough to send shivers down the backs of the established players.

Enter the Lexus IS-F.  With sales of just 1,100 units since it was introduced a few months ago, the compact sport sedan hardly warrants a footnote in the business plan of Toyota’s Lexus, which has moved 116,548 cars and SUVs so far this year. And with a sticker price on my Mica Red tester of $62,160, the IS-F isn’t likely to move the needle any further.  Its fuel economy alone (16 mpg city; 23 highway) would keep it off most shopping lists.

The IS-F is all about pushing the Lexus image a little further in the direction of BMW, i.e., more performance.  In fact, the concept is almost a mirror image of BMW’s M3 – cramming a V-8 engine into a smallish body shell, fiddling with the surrounding components so that the impact is not too jarring, and putting the overpowered package on the road.

To my tastes, the IS-F succeeds brilliantly. For all of its tear-blurring performance – 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.6 seconds by one measure – the Lexus never feels less than perfectly modulated nor out of control.  Despite its obvious bias toward speed, all the controls and appointments have that exceptional feel and gloss that is expected of Lexus.  Particularly exemplary are the paddle-shifters that control the eight-speed transmission and perform their duties in fractions of second.

For all its conceptual and engineering excellence, the question remains whether the IS-F will succeed in its mission of enhancing the Lexus brand.  The answer, to my mind,  is yes and no.  Among those people who own a Lexus or might consider buying one, the IS-F adds a dimension to the brand’s personality that didn’t exist before.

But those in the German school – BMW M3, Audi S4, Mercedes AMG – aren’t likely to shift their allegiances in the near future.  It will take more than one exceptional car to shake their beliefs about engineering tradition and technology.  As for consumers who might consider a car carrying a GE, Dell or Google nameplate, the IS-F will never be on their radar screen.