So you want a car.

But you don't really know what kind of car you want, and are a little confused about the array of styles and vehicles being offered. Used to be that you chose between a car, a truck or a van. Now you have to choose between sedans, compacts, sports tourers, wagons, SUVs, entry-lux crossovers, fullsize trucks and compact SUVS. It's enough to give you an SUV-sized headache. Relax. We make it easier, by driving the cars you might buy and telling you about it. From finding roads with potholes to purposely driving in traffic and finding every application that a car may need to serve, we do it so you know how each car works and why you should buy brand X over brand Y. It's important to us that you get a good feel for why one vehicle is better than another; that our experience behind the wheel of a vehicle and our knowledge of the automotive industry translates into advice that you can use.

You have specific needs, and our goal is to write to those needs so that you can understand which car best fits your life. In essence, we work for the family man. The up-and-coming executive. The first-time car buyer who has little money and needs something that will last. As a result, we've come up with the 2004 Editors' Choice Awards, a selection of vehicles we think ideally fit certain significant lifestyle requirements. After all, you want the best car for your life and personality, not just the best car, and there are so many categories of vehicles today that it really offers no practical benefit. We've taken the traditional idea of awarding cars based on their price and category and turned it into something more useful - awards for cars that fit what you need out of your car. Below you'll find our picks for categories such as Editors' Choice for Fun under 50k, and Editors' Choice for Families, among others. It's our way of helping you pick what types of vehicles best fit your criteria, based on the measured opinions of experienced automotive journalists.