It's always amusing to see the solemn list of criteria people claim to use when they are choosing a car. Sometimes they give fuel economy as their principal consideration, and sometimes reliability, safety, or another responsible, practical, and respectable value such as overall cost of ownership. Never 0-to-60-mph times, and certainly not something as frivolous as styling or design.

What total nonsense.

UPDATE: Equally excellent to me are the stories in Automobile of great road trips, accentuated by cool cars. Like this month's tale of a burger run—from the magazine's offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to the nearest In-N-Out Burger, in Prescott, Arizona. Without pause. In a C6 Z06 Corvette.

It's broken down into per-mile diary entries, and contains this one:

24:15:55, 1447.0 miles—New Mexico. I wake up to Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" blasting from the speakers and Jeff braking the car down from what looks like 140 mph.

"Jeff," I ask, "were you doing a buck-forty?"

"Oh," he says, "you noticed that?"

HIGHEST SPEED OF THE TRIP: I-40, New Mexico, Mile Marker 317. No traffic on either horizon, fresh concrete for miles; it's like a gift from God. 172 mph.

NOTICE: If you're reading this and are currently employed by the state of New Mexico, Quay County, or the Department of Homeland Security, then I am making up all of the above, and this paragraph is purely for entertainment purposes. If you are not reading this as an employee of the aforementioned, then please note the following: Damn, that's fast.