2002 Hyundai XG350 New name, more performance. By Tom Lankard, New Car Test Drive .com

Hyundai's XG sedan offers mid-size roominess and practicality with styling and appointments that place it firmly in the near-luxury class.

Yet, as you might expect of Hyundai, the XG350 is stickered closer to the $25,000 price of a workaday family hauler. Add Hyundai's five-year/60,000-mile bumper to bumper warranty (and 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain coverage) and the XG350 represents a terrific value.

When we drove the new Hyundai XG300 last year, one of our few complaints was the lackluster performance of its 3.0-liter V6. Now Hyundai's flagship has returned with more torque, thanks to a 3.5-liter V6. With the larger displacement comes a new badge: XG350.

The Hyundai XG350 is no pauper posturing in a prince's clothes. This is genuinely a cool car, an aspirational car in the current marketing lingo, although it's not especially original or unique. The XG350 shows Hyundai has left the bad old days behind to become a serious contender among quality mid-size cars.

The biggest Hyundai comes in two trim levels: XG350 ($23,999) and the deluxe XG350 L ($25,599).

Befitting its near-luxury status, even the base XG350 comes with power everything, climate control, leather-faced seating surfaces and a six-speaker CD stereo. Four-wheel disc brakes with four-channel ABS are standard, too, as are front-seat side-impact air bags.

XG350 L adds a power tilt-and-slide moonroof, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, heat and memory for the front bucket seats, a leather-and-woodgrain steering wheel, even rear-seat reading lamps.

The only option available at either level is a compact-disc changer ($500).