Car Board.

With spring around the corner we thought we'd crawl out of hibernation.

BMW M5 Price: $73,120 Engine: 5.0-liter V8, 394 hp, 368 lb-ft Curb weight: 4024 lbs Drivetrain: rwd, six-speed manual Ah, the annual season of rejuvenation: birds singing, flowers blooming and tires smoking, thanks to BMW's sedan with an attitude. The M5 offers the best of both worlds. Not only do you get a BMW sedan with luxury features galore, you also get enough power to trounce virtually anything with four doors-or two for that matter. BMW claims its M5 will do 0 to 60 mph in a scant 4.8 seconds and tear up the quarter-mile in 13.3. Works for us. Some argue the M5's price tag is too hefty, but look at it this way: You get the same engine as BMW's Z8 supercar and save more than $57,000. If that's not a selling point, we don't know what is.

Mitsubishi ECLIPSE GT Price: $25,517 Engine: 3.0-liter V6, 200 hp, 205 lb-ft Curb weight: 3120 lbs Drivetrain: fwd, four-speed automatic A fun car doesn't necessarily have to break the bank. Mitsubishi's Eclipse GT gives plenty of bang for the buck. For less than $30,000 you get disc brakes at all corners, front and rear independent suspension, rack-and-pinion steering, a powerful V6 engine and 17-inch alloy wheels wrapped in sleek sheetmetal and plastic cladding. Eclipse is not only fun to drive it's practical, too. Unlike most sports coupes with their puny, cargo-limiting trunks, the Eclipse offers the practicality of a hatchback with 16.9 cubic feet of cargo area. Plenty of room to stow your bike, ...