When you go on a test drive, you should drive the car in an environment that you normally drive in,” said Nana-Sinkam. “If you do a lot of highway driving, you should be getting it out there. If you do a lot of stop-and-go cities [driving], then you should be doing that. That’s so you don’t drive the car in one environment and it’s great, and then you find that you don’t like the way the transmission bucks when you step on the accelerator and that sort of thing

When you show up to test drive the new car, you should ask to drive a used version of that car,” said Nana-Sinkam. “Every car’s drive is nice when it’s brand new, but you want to understand, 2 1/2 years in, what is it going to be like driving this car? Am I still going to love it.

It is becoming more and more critical for car shoppers to become knowledgeable about advanced safety systems and make sure any car they are considering has the technology they want,” said John Vincent, senior reporter for U.S. News Best Cars. “Different automakers call systems, such as automatic emergency braking, by different names, which can be confusing and leads to buying mistakes.