For our grocery-getter, we looked at Ford, Toyota, Subaru, Honda, VW, Audi, BMW, & Saab.

Wife decided she wanted a wagon. And it HAD to be AWD.

That left Subaru, VW's 4-Motion Passat, Audi's A3 and the BMW 328xi and the Saab.

We test drove the Subaru and the VW.

Then we test drove the BMW and didn't even bother with the Audi & Saab. It helped that BMW offered us .01% APR financing, but that was just the icing on the cake.

The Subaru was underpowered and noisy. The Passat we felt was overpriced for the drive and reputation and the VW dealer was kind of a dick. The BMW guy handed us the key and said "have fun."

I guess what Im getting at is that you should get an idea of what price range you're looking at, and then test drive all of them.

And be leery if the Salesdouche wants to ride along with. Salesdouches are your enemy and you should never miss an opportunity to tell him how much you think his car sucks.