All 31 flavors are good – which one do you like? Same with cars – there are about 31 different types. Sedans come in high luxury, medium, or basic, and in large, medium and small sizes. Same with SUVs, pickups, station wagons, convertibles, sports roadsters and crossovers (car, rather than truck-based SUVs). Leasing ads suggest that there are only about five prices for new cars – $299 a month, $399, $499, $599 and $799.

Pick your size, pick your level of luxury, and pick your price. Easy! But you do need to know what flavor fits your taste and needs.

Here are two cars, selling for about the same price – low to mid-40s –that illustrate the point. First, the Nissan Armada, a huge, spacious sports utility. Climb up into it. Four big doors. Six big seats. Four wheel drive. A 305 hp, 5.6 litre V8, and a five-speed automatic. This is the new Nissan that's set to challenge the Ford Excursion and the Chevy Suburban.

It's probably too big for San Francisco, and it's definitely too big for my taste, but it's an amazing vehicle nonetheless. It's fast, super quiet, with an almost complete absence of wind noise. It handles easily and securely, and is beautifully put together.

It will carry almost any combination of passengers and luggage, anywhere, anytime, and will probably last forever. But I don't get it. In order to provide for the biggest load you'll want to carry, maybe once a year, you have to put up with excess bulk, weight, fuel consumption, and the general inconvenience of being outsized, every single time you drive it; kind of like having a banana split when you only wanted a single-scoop cone.

What do you think of that name? Armada! If Nissan intended that the name tell the size story, they've succeeded. Armada suggests more than one big battleship to my ear.

Why not choose a smaller, more agile car for your everyday driving, and rent a minivan for that rare occasion when you have the need for huge capacity?

Immediately after driving the Armada, I tried the new Mercedes-Benz C320, 4matic (all wheel drive) station wagon. What a car! Five door practicality, with silky smooth power, and a marvelous five-speed automatic. This sleek Mercedes combined so many desirable qualities that I was dazzled!

How about a sports car that can double as a mini-limo, a mini-pickup, and an elegant design statement, in a durable, strong, sophisticated package? And for approximately the same price as the Armada. I'm the first to admit that I'm biased toward smaller cars. But isn't it interesting that Nissan, traditionally a low priced brand, can meet Mercedes-Benz, and compete bumper to bumper on issues such as price, performance, quality and durability?

Both of these cars had interior color choices I didn't particularly like. The Nissan, with ivory leather seats, used a light bluish-gray dash color that looked like a mistake. The Mercedes used a pewter-gray leather interior, with lots of not quite matching door and dashboard panels. I've seen better in a base Volkswagen than in either of these fairly pricey cars.

This is the dilemma auto marketers face. All makes are approximately equal in quality. Those differences that can be measured have more statistical than real-life significance. This makes for a difficult task if you're a copywriter for one of the luxury brands. The differences today are based on power, driving characteristics, luxury levels, and exclusivity. All the cars are of high quality. You simply pick the qualities that you like.

Pick your flavor; pick your price.