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Best cheap SUVs: You don't have to pay a lot to get a lot

Here's a news flash: Everything is a lot more expensive now! And that definitely goes for new SUVs, with prices that keep nudging higher and higher. Actually "nudging" might be too soft of a description for their motion. "Skyrocketing" is probably more accurate.  While higher prices and hefty interest rates have likely knocked a lot of people out of the new car market entirely, there are still quite a few cheap SUV choices. Better still, they're not terrible! Far from it, in fact. While the lowest price SUVs used to be drab, sorry affairs best left to the lots of Avis and Budget, that is definitely not the case today. Not only are there legitimately appealing cheap SUV choices, they offer genuine differences in character, capability and design. It's not just a series of anonymous boxes with different badges. Below you won't just find a simple list of the cheapest SUVs available. We are actually pointing out the best ones. They are listed from least expensive to most expensive, with none exceeding a starting price of $30,000. Most are subcompacts, but a few of our top choices in the compact SUV segment snuck on. Finally, please excuse the crummy photo quality. We sought out representative trim levels of the prices in question rather than just reusing pretty carmaker-provided photos of the most expensive trim levels. This is what the cars will actually look like. Kia Soul Why it stands out: Ample space and abundant features for the money; unique style; strong turbo engine upgrade Could be better: All-wheel drive is not available Starting Price: $21,315 Read our most recent Kia Soul Review The Kia Soul definitely didn't start off as a small SUV, and the term "crossover" is probably better applied to it. Still, what started life as an undefinable funky tall hatchback now finds itself in its third generation with numerous vehicles of similar shape and size that are dubbed "small SUV" or "small crossover." If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... Call it what you will, but the Soul delivers the goods with tons of equipment and space for its price and size, an agreeable driving demeanor, and an even more powerful engine upgrade than the Kona's. We also think it's pretty cool. All of the above helped it win our subcompact SUV comparison test. Now, if there's one area where the Soul does not satisfy a typical SUV requirement, it's the lack of available all-wheel drive.

Mazda poaches designer Kevin Rice back from BMW

Kevin Rice left Mazda a baker's dozen years ago, but now he's back.
A graduate of the Transportation Design program at Coventry University (just across town from Jaguar headquarters), Rice worked his way up in the industry working for the likes of Opel and Italdesign Giugiaro before landing a job at Mazda. Between 1995 and 2000, he collaborated on such projects as the RX-8 and the 1999 Neospace concept that previewed the Mazda2 before moving on to BMW, where the new 3 Series and 4 Series were among the last projects he worked on during his 13-year tenure in Munich.
Now back at Mazda, Rice has been named the Japanese automaker's new creative director, charged with further honing the brand's KODO design language from its European headquarters in Oberursel, Germany. We're looking forward to seeing what he and his design team come up with in the coming years.

Mazda RX-3 restomod makes Leno scream, us cheer

The Mazda RX-3 Savanna was the rotary-engined version of the Mazda 808 Grand Familia. Sold in the US from 1971 to 1978, the little Japanese fastback earned a reputation as an excellent racecar, winning events all over the world. A racing connection is how a fantastic 1973 restomod example owned by Savant Young made its way to Jay Leno's Garage. Young said that when he was a boy his uncle used to street race an RX-3, and Young liked how the RX-3 sounded and the fact that a tiny import could go up against and beat big V8s of the time. Leno admitted that he has no connection to the RX-3, saying it's not the kind of car he typically likes. But he liked Young's custom update so much that when he saw the coupe sitting outside the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles, he waited for the owner to show up. Young's changes over the 15 years he's owned the car include dropping in the rotary engine and running gear from the second-generation Mazda RX-7, bridge-ported and methane injected. At 15 pounds of boost he says it's putting out about 400 horsepower. The rear end comes from a Toyota Hilux half-ton pickup, to help put all that power down in a car that weighs maybe 2,100 pounds. The color is taken from the Lamborghini palette. Disc brakes all around, 14-inchers up front, control the velocity. Nothing controls the gas mileage, said to be "maybe 12 mpg." And nothing could stop Leno from whooping it up during the driver. Check out the fun in the video above.