WASHINGTON -- U.S. News & World Report has announced its 2008 Car Rankings, available online at RankingsAndReviews.com.

The 2008 rankings cover the best and worst cars, trucks and SUVs based on an analysis of consensus opinions from America's top automotive experts.

GM shows the greatest improvement from the 2007 to 2008 car rankings with several new or redesigned vehicles ranking near the top of their classes.

The redesigned Chevy Malibu, all-new Buick Enclave, and redesigned Cadillac CTS (winner of Motor Trend Car of the Year) fare well in the rankings.

The all-new Infiniti G37 and Mazda CX-9 also debut high in the rankings, as do the newly remodeled Honda Accord, BMW 5-Series, and Chrysler's minivan siblings the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan.

Some new cars miss the mark.

In the same class as the Accord, the all-new Dodge Avenger places last out of 25 cars.

The all-new Nissan Rogue is also a less-than-stellar performer, placing in the bottom half of the compact SUV rankings.

Surprisingly, the newly redesigned Toyota Highlander is a merely decent performer among midsize SUVs.

The 2007 Highlander was ranked #1 in its class.

As with the 2007 rankings, Honda occupies more #1 ranking spots (7 in total) than any other nameplate.

Honda's Fit, Civic, and Civic Hybrid take the top three spots on the Economy Cars list.

BMW retains the #1 ranking spot in the popular upscale and luxury car categories.

Among the very competitive upscale midsize cars, the BMW 3-Series remains the benchmark, but now has strong competition from the Lexus ES and all-new Infiniti G37, each tied for the #2 ranking spot.

For 2008 there are several new entries from GM and Ford in the rapidly expanding Hybrid segment.

The challengers (the new Saturn Aura and VUE hybrids, Chevy Tahoe hybrid, and siblings Ford Escape / Mercury Mariner hybrids) underperform the more established Toyota and Honda models.

Experts agree that these newcomers do not yet offer the combination of fuel economy and driving performance exhibited by the likes of Toyota's Prius and Camry hybrids.