My strategy for buying a car was to obsessively research things on the internet, reading many different reviews and opinions. After that, I test drove the car I'd decided on, liked it and bought it. I didn't bother test driving my second or later choices to compare.

(For gerald_duck and anybody else who cares - the car is a Mercedes C220 estate (http://www.mobbs.co.uk/merc.jpg), W203 model post-2004 refresh. One of its first jobs after I got it illustrates the requirements, which was transporting me, sonicdrift, luggage and a dog to the north of Scotland and back.)

Did you realise someone had stolen your numberplate before or after taking the photo? ;-)

I was worried by the gaping black hole in the front of the car, but it proved useful for distorting space-time in busy traffic.

Also, you could use very small changes in its rotation to accelerate your car to almost any speed you like! (And the opposite, with regenerative breaking.) Mind you, I'm not sure whether the technology to do that is available yet, which might be a limiting factor....