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No two cars are alike. Furthermore, no two people are alike, so what constitutes the best highway car for one person isn't going to ring true for someone else. From a personal standpoint I find that certain vehicles tend to reflect aspects of the personality of the owner, particularly as the exclusivity of the vehicle increases. In many respects the badge on the grille is a status symbol and there are many people out there driving round in cars that are totally unsuited to the kind of highway driving in which they partake, but to them it is the "best car" for the job.

I don't like small cars personally. I find them claustrophobic and uncomfortable. They may be easy to park in town but I like to be able to see around me and not feel like my backside is scraping along the tarmac. I am currently driving a Land-rover Discovery ES which is big, ugly, and regarded as environmentally unfriendly (even though it is euro4 compliant), but it is practical for the uses that I put it to and I feel comfortable in the knowledge that it is a safe and secure vehicle that is sound and well built. It's expensive on fuel with the V8 engine under the hood but it is reliable and requires little maintenance unlike other vehicles that I have owned that have been cheap on fuel but high maintenance, so swings and roundabouts really. Yes, it has gadgets like air conditioning and cruise control but they are not important to me, they are just bonuses that I have never had in a car before.

In my opinion (for what it is worth!) the best highway car I have owned was a Volvo 940 Estate. It was big, it was comfortable, it was quick, and above all you could drive several hundred miles in one hit and get out at the end of the journey feeling the same way you did at the beginning. It was never a tiresome car to drive and in some respects it was maybe just a little too comfortable. It was the sort of vehicle that you could fall asleep in without too much effort! It covered a quarter of a million miles in its lifetime (85,000 of which I put on it) before we bade it a tearful farewell and I would buy another one tomorrow without a second thought, but unfortunately lack of finance and storage space are both playing their hands against me.

My final thought on this topic is one that I find very important. The people that we meet in the course of our lives all have one thing in common and that is personality. Some we get on with, some we don't, and others we just tolerate because it is necessary to keep the world going round. A car is no different. Every car I have ever owned has had it's own personality and that is the most important aspect of owning the best highway car for you. Having a personality clash when you are stuck in a five mile tailback at 5.30pm on a cold wet night in the middle of November is the sort of thing that will end in tears, and in the worst case scenario tragedy on the road. It's worth spending a bit of time getting the right vehicle and not buying something because it is socially acceptable to the neighbors, and when you find the right car spend some time getting to know it because it is likely that you are going to be spending a lot of time together.

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