A famous Fortune magazine cover from 1983 shows a birds-eye view of a Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick parked side by side. With identical hoods, trunks, and greenhouses, the all-but-indistinguishable sedans make a mockery of Alfred P. Sloan’s famous brand ladder, in which customers would start with a Chevy and work their way through the GM lineup to a Cadillac. Many people use that cover, which was reprinted in Automotive News as recently as last week, to date the beginning of the downfall for GM’s autonomous divisions. Why do you need four separate brands if they are attached to what is, essentially, the same car?

I had the same thought when I compared the specifications of the 2009 Nissan Maxima (pictured above) I drove recently against the 2009 Nissan Altima. Nissan freely admits the two cars are built off the same platform, but I was unprepared for the degree of similarity between them:

– Length: At 190.6 inches, the Maxima is just .8 longer than the Altima.

–Height: The Altima is .1 inch  taller than the Maxima.

–Wheelbase: Both are exactly 109.3 inches between the axles.

– Powertrain: Both are powered by a 3.5 liter, six-cylinder engine with a CVT transmission.

–Horsepower: The Maxima is rated at 290 hp; the Altima at 270 hp. Fuel economy is nevertheless identical for both cars: 19 city; 26 highway.

–Price: An Altima 3.5 SL, the top-of-the-line, starts at $29,380. The range-topping Maxima 3.5 SV goes for $2,610 more.

To be sure, Nissan positions these two cars completely differently. The Altima is sold as a family vehicle, competing head-to-head with the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.  For the Maxima, Nissan has revived its “four-door sports car” label. It considers the Maxima to be the flagship of its fleet, and points to its superior performance, upgraded brakes and wheels, and the availability of options like a rearview camera and climate-controlled seats.

I certainly had no complaints about my Maxima SV,  equipped with the sports package that stickered at $37,380. Except for the rear spoiler and the banana-sized paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel, it exemplified up-to-the minute design without being trendy. In particular, the instrument controls are a model of utility and style. On the road, the Maxima felt peppy and responsive, though it seemed a bit burdened in steering and handling by its front-wheel-drive architecture.

That might have been avoided – along with the Altima overlap – had Nissan chosen to base the Maxima on another one of its platforms. That’s the rear-drive setup it uses for the appealing Infiniti G35 sedan. Why Nissan decided not to go with that platform probably has to do with economy, timing, and dilution of the Infiniti brand. Although Toyota year after year puts some lipstick on a Camry and calls it a Lexus ES 350, Infiniti apparently feels that it can’t afford the same legerdemain with its nameplates.

Still, with  Altima outselling the Maxima five to one these days, Nissan may need to find some way to more sharply define its personality before it disappears just the way Oldsmobile did.

For as long as I can remember, Mazda has been threatening to break into the top tier of Japanese brands (Toyota, Honda, Nissan) but never quite making the grade.  Despite the enduring success of the MX-5 Miata sports car, and clever new crossovers like the CX-9, Mazda has been a perpetual also-ran, more frequently ranked with Subaru than the industry leaders. While the others were collecting medals, Mazda has had to be content with an honorable mention.

What’s been holding Mazda back has been a weak dealer body, indifferent quality, and the lack of a strong midsize vehicle like the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord or Nissan Altima.  It hasn’t been for lack of trying. Mazda sold the 626 here beginning in 1979, and then replaced it with the Mazda6 in 2002.

The Japanese automaker takes another crack at upgrading itself this fall with the launch of the all-new Mazda6. To give the 6 a proper sendoff, Mazda is dispatching executives and a pair of trailer trucks crammed with displays to six cities around the country to tell its story.  It is a good one. The 6 has been improved in almost every way as it moves upscale to attract older buyers and avoid cannibalizing sales of the popular Mazda3. The Grand Touring version that I drove, equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission and 3.7 liter engine is stickered at more than $32,000, and the median price of all 6s is expected to hit $24,000 (vs. $19,000 for the old car).

The 6 is certainly distinctive looking, with bulging fenders borrowed from the RX-7 and a fast-sloping rear roof reminiscent of earlier models. On our drive route through New Jersey traffic and into the Catskill Mountains of New York, the 6 showed plenty of zoom-zoom.  It felt peppy under the foot and tightly-coupled through the curves.  Since development work on this car started four years ago when gas prices were still low, fuel economy is a weak point. The 3.7- liter engine  with automatic transmission gets only 17 mpg city/25 mpg highway – a bit less than the 3.0 liter powerplant it replaces.

Mazda hopes that the new 6 will pull sales up from the 70,000 to 80,000 cars a year enjoyed by the outgoing model to more like 100,000 units annually. That’s asking a lot, given the competition and the dismal performance forecast for car sales over the next several years. Note, too, that Altima,  the 6s nearest competitor, sells more than twice that number.

Except for its sporty character, the 6 has little to distinguish itself from the competition and likely will continue to be held back by Mazda’s dealer body. Mazda may be fated to remain in the middle of the U.S. market.

Americans fell in love with the Volkswagen Beetle in the 1960s, but VW did almost everything it could to alienate their affections, from erratic product quality to the  absence of cupholders.  And did anybody mention the ill-starred $70,000 Phaeton?

Now, after 40 years of starts, stops and incompletes, VW, the largest auto producer in Europe,  is finally getting serious about the U.S. market again.  It is starting to pay attention to the wants and needs of American customers; it’s building an assembly plant in Tennessee to protect itself from currency fluctuations; and it is reworking its product line with American tastes in mind. The results of its efforts are showing up in the monthly sales reports. While overall U.S. sales fell 15.5% in August, VW’s were up a fraction of a point.

One of the reasons for the increase is the 2009 VW Tiguan, a compact crossover sport utility that went on sale a few months ago.  Except for its weird (and apparently meaningless) name, the Tiguan sets no new standards for anything.  But it adds a VW branded vehicle to a fast-growing product segment (Honda sells some 20,000 units a month of the CR-V) in an attractive package for an attractive price — $24,200 for the model I tested.

Inside and out,  my silver metallic Tiguan S, which was made in VW’s ancestral home of Wolfsburg, Germany,  gleamed with the attention to detail for which VW is rightly renowned. The exterior was handsome without being attention-getting, and the interior was crafted to VW’s customary levels – which are bit higher than most of its competitors.

Powered by a 2.0 liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that put out 200 horsepower, and combined with a slick six-speed manual transmission, the Tiguan produced all the pep I needed.  At 3426 pounds, it is a relative lightweight — compared to its Touareg garage mate that weighs in at 5299 pounds –  and Road & Track has clocked it getting to 60 miles per hour in a respectable 7.8 seconds. The EPA figures you’ll get 19 miles per gallon in city driving, 26 miles per gallon on the highway.

Based on early reports, the next couple of VW models to reach these shores won’t be so finely attuned to U.S. buyers.  One is a rebadged Chrysler minivan with another weird name (Routan); the other a stretched Passat called the CC that likely will have to fight it out with Audis and BMWs. But new diesel-powered VWs on the way will find a welcome audience with economy-minded drivers and should maintain the momentum of VW’s American renaissance.

From an objective point of view, Saab has no reason to exist any longer.  The Swedish manufacturer “born from jets” has been controlled by General Motors (GM) for nearly two decades and has been in steady decline for just about the entire time.

This year, Saab ranks only 36th among the most popular brands in the U.S. – behind Smart! – and its sales have shrunk by one-third in the past 12 months.  Lesser known but equally disheartening is the Saab quality story.  This year, Saab finished 31st among 36 brands surveyed by  J.D. Power for initial quality, reflecting problems reported by owners after they have driven the car for 90 days.

To add injury to insult, Saab’s aren’t even Swedish any more.  The 9-3 convertible I drove recently was assembled in Austria with an engine from Australia, a transmission from Japan, and other parts that are 33% German in origin.  Sweden only contributed 19% of this model’s content.  That kind of mixed heritage is a turnoff for buyers of high-end cars, who want a  glorious history to go along with the inflated sticker price.

That’s all too bad, because the 9-3 convertible I drove is, in my estimation, the finest car ever to wear the Saab badge. This 9-3 has become more sophisticated since it was introduced in 1998. when it  seemed most at home in the parking lots of small New England liberal arts colleges.  It is the kind of car that you can take anywhere, without seeming too poor or too flashy. In this age of restraint and sustainability, its EPA highway range of 19 to 29 mpg is entirely acceptable.

Saab’s functional and design eccentricities – square control stalks, console -mounted ignition switch -  have been nicely modulated into an up-to-date package that rewards all the senses.  The GM-designed turbocharged 2.8 liter six cylinder engine delivers smooth power without any traditional Saab torque steer;  the leather-trimmed interior is pleasing to look at and comfortable to sit in, and the body exhibited none of the usual cowl shake when the convertible top was stowed.

Unfortunately, all that overseas content makes the Saab fairly pricey.  My test car stickered out at $49,780, which puts it smack up against the 335i convertible made by BMW, a brand that many luxury car buyers prefer.  Still, for those who want to own something a little different that may be a vanishing piece of automotive history,  this Saab wouldn’t be a bad choice.

As Ford Motor burns its deck chairs so that it can stay afloat, Jaguar, along with its British stable mate Land Rover, has been sold off to India’s Tata Motors.  But Jaguars continue to be built in Coventry, its ancestral home. So the special qualities infusing Jaguars that the come from the air, water, and heritage of the English Midlands continue to be integral to the Jaguar experience.

Jolly good, I say.  None of the late 20th century Jaguar sedans were particularly appealing, inasmuch as they appeared to be a combination of backward-looking design and insufficiently forward-looking ergonomics and packaging.  Not so the XK coupe and roadster that went into production in 1996 and continues on to this day.  Whatever they may have lacked in benchmark engineering, they more than made up for in presence and panache.

The highest and best expression of those qualities can be found in the 2009 XKR convertible in which I spent a thoroughly enjoyable late-summer week. Everything one would hope for in a car of this specification – style, performance, and comfort, along with a surplus of je ne sais quoi – was delivered effortlessly by the leaping cat.   Such pleasure does not come cheaply, and the Jag is doubly burdened by the economic restrictions of its low production volume as well as the muscular (if declining) exchange rate for the pound sterling.  But in an era when a fine watch can set back an affluent buyer $35,000, three times that amount for an ultra fine automobile like the XKR does not seem excessive.

For mine was the Portfolio model, a limited edition with special paint, wheels, brakes, and interior.  The leather, oak veneer and other fittings in particular were executed with exquisite taste and discretion (aside from a few bits of misplaced plastic) that I viewed as comparable to the work in Jag’s higher end cousin, Aston Martin.

All that extra finery carries a price premium of $7,500 over the base XKR.  The powertrain, on the other  hand, is identical to that in the base XKR and that is all to the good. The supercharged 4.2 liter V-8 produces an abundance of power at the tap of atoe – delivered smoothly and effortlessly. Should you be in a real hurry, it will launch you to 60 miles an hour in five seconds flat.  At nearly 4,000 pounds, the Jag is a grand tourer, not a sports car, but it still feels nicely balanced and responsive to all the critical  driver inputs.

For those who find themselves less buffeted by today’s economic cross-currents than most of us,  the Jag will make a handsome second or third car in nicer garages, where it can serve as a symbol of one of the the high points of the rapidly shrinking British auto industry.  The folks at Tata have pledged to leave Jaguar in the UK  for the foreseeable future.  Let’s hope they live up to that promise and Jaguars continue to benefit from it.

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Note: I also write a column for Fortune.com called MotorWorld. In a recent story, I got hold of  an internal analysis for Renault-Nissan when it was talking with General Motors about an alliance in 2006. I criticized GM’s top executives for backing away from the proposal and for failing to take bold action, partly to protect their jobs. GM declined to comment for the story, but has subsequently submitted a response. You can read it here and my column here.