I like the looks of the new S40, although it doesn't seem to be getting much love.
As for the article, I'm not sure how they are correlating hp increases to increased fatalities. They said that 40-some thousand people died in automobile accidents last year, the highest since 1990. But aren't there more people and more cars now than in 1990? Would make more sense statistically to look at it as a % of all cars, along with number of miles driven.
My 1984 Cavalier couldn't get out of it's own way from a stop light, but it could do 85 MPH on the highway just as easily as my BMW does.
Also, over half of the cars sold these days are SUV's, and while they have more HP they aren't exactly pocket rockets.