By FRANK A. AUKOFER, Scripps Howard News Service

After years of wandering through thickets of gas-guzzlers, practical-minded motorists now are treated to an abundance of economical small cars and not a clunker in the bunch.

It's a promised land of subcompacts that offers just about everything anybody could want in an automobile, especially fuel economy.

In some ways, the 2012 Nissan Rogue is analogous to Matt Flynn, the backup quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.

Not widely known except among dedicated football fans, Flynn came off the bench on New Year's Day to give first-stringer Aaron Rodgers a rest for the NFL playoffs. He passed for 480 yards and a Packers' record six touchdowns in a 45-41 victory over the Detroit Lions.

Q: When is a Lexus not a Lexus?

A: When it arrives as the 2013 GS sedan.

The GS, a midsize, midluxury sport sedan, is the first of a new line of goods from the upscale division of Toyota. It has an aggressive new face that will become the signature adornment of other Lexus vehicles to come.

The first thing you notice about the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco is what you don't notice.

You don't notice much mechanical, road or wind noise. This midsize four-door is nearly as quiet inside as a recording studio -- more like a well-insulated luxury sedan than a popular-priced family car.

Prescience is everything in the motor vehicle business. If you can divine what will attract future customers, success is guaranteed.

Honda accomplished that with its CR-V compact sport utility vehicle. When it was introduced as a 1997 model, there was nothing quite like it on the market -- a tall, car-based wagon that nowadays would be referred to as a crossover.

In many respects, the 2012 Scion iQ is smarter than the Smart.

The Smart from Daimler, the German manufacturer that also manufactures Mercedes-Benz vehicles, is a two-seat micro car that captivated many buyers back in 2008, some of whom waited as much as 10 months to get their rides.

One by one, vehicle manufacturers are chasing the sometimes-elusive goal of producing cars that deliver 40 miles to the gallon on the EPA's highway cycle, an important key to unlocking buyers' pocketbooks.

Call it an imperative: The athlete wants to get stronger, the surgeon more skilled, the starlet more photogenic.

It's no different with people who produce automobiles, especially those in which performance trumps price. Thus we have cars like the 2012 Audi TT RS, an all-out driving machine that is as comfortable on a racetrack as it is on suburban streets and rural freeways.

There's an old western saying that you should never bring a knife to a gunfight -- unless, of course, you're packing a derringer in your boots.

Buick has done something like that with its 2012 Verano. The four-door, front-drive sedan competes in the luxury compact class, which is affected with the likes of the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and the Cadillac CTS.

A new automotive era is materializing, one that overwhelms the time-honored American affectation of "bigger is better." In a world increasingly sensitive to jammed highways and finite natural resources, smaller vehicles are poised to proliferate.