FIVE SEDANS YOU USED TO THINK YOU'D NEVER SEE

Five years ago, George W. Bush was President of the United States. Not everybody owned an iPod. People were finally realizing that wedding photography really ought to be done digitally. Crewe-based Bentley, a British subsidiary of Germany's Volkswagen, was only just breaking free of its traditionalist past with the Continental GT. General Motors was stuck in a rut. Porsche was making money hand over fist. Meanwhile Kia had been in Hyundai's hands for a while but was still a few years away from the class-competitive Soul and Forte.

Times they are a'changin'. Bush is in Texas, iPods are ubiquitous, and film is nearly nonexistent. Plus there are five sedans in production or about to be in production which, five years ago, you thought you'd never see. Have a look at this Top 5, arranged in order of shock value.

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#5- PORSCHE PANAMERA: If you want to make money in the automotive business, selling lots of automobiles would be a good idea. Only, an offering of sportscars won't amount to the necessary volume. Add an SUV - sales increase. Fuel prices rise; SUV sales go down. Regulations intrude; the cost of building SUVs rises. Add a sedan, er... a hatchback, really. This is Porsche's method. The madness? Why go about introducing a brand new model to the fold, engineer it to be one of the best-performing cars of any kind, and then make it ridiculously ugly? Therein lies the surprise. Each time Porsche steps out of the sportscar arena, Zuffenhausen coughs up an ugly duckling.

#4- KIA CADENZA: Previous editions of the large Kia have been laughable. Even when powered properly, the Amanti drives like a bag of overcooked pasta. Besides, in terms of avert-your-eyes offences, the Amanti ranks right up there with some of the nastiest cars of all time. The Amanti is so bad and the Hyundai Genesis so good, nobody would've been surprised if Kia left the segment. Instead, the Cadenza is an all-new car: engineered to lose weight, styled to do anything but embarrass its owner. Who'd a thunk it?

#3- CHEVROLET CRUZE: Whoopee, Chevrolet introduces a new small sedan. This ain't exactly revolutionary. Yet General Motors M.O. has been completely rethought and it is, in fact, rather revolutionary. The Cruze, which will replace the Cobalt (which replaced the Cavalier), began life at GM's operations in Korea. They don't build 'em like they used to, eh? GM Europe, as well as GM folks from Detroit and Australia, played a major role in the development of the Cruze. But, in 2004, I bet you didn't think that GM's most important car of 2010 was going to rise out of the far east.

#2- BENTLEY MULSANNE: It is common practice at Bentley and old partner Rolls-Royce to let models linger. By the time the Mulsanne starts rolling off the production line (if that's how they work things at Bentley), the Arnage will have been around for twelve or thirteen years. Before that, Bentley hadn't worked on a completely new car in a couple decades. So it's not as though we never expected Bentley to replace the Arnage. Nah, the public was simply viewing in a groove, an Arnage-acceptability canal. Then bang - Bentley drops a modern superluxolimo on us and we dunno what's going on.

#1- BUICK REGAL: Firstly, think back to late '04. Did you think Buick would still exist? And with a gorgeous CUV, a handsome large sedan, and a curvaceous Accord competitor? Probably not. How bout this, though: the Regal will feature four cylinders. In some cases there'll be a turbocharger. Every now and then, a buyer will select manual transmission on the option sheet. It still says Regal on the box, yet anybody opening up this Christmas present won't be forced to act surprised.