What comes top of your checklist of essential features and equipment that your next car has to have depends on how motoring fits into your life.

Do you dream of driving a prestige car or sports model? Love driving and spend your time looking enviously at other people's alloy wheels? If so, you'll probably tick 'ESSENTIAL' in the boxes for image, looks, comfort and performance.

Or do you view a car as more of a commodity, something that gets you from A to B, and find motoring just another of life's chores? Then you'll give high scores to reliability, value, ease of use and economy.

In real life, we all fall somewhere between these two extremes. To help you come to your own conclusions about what's essential in your next car, what equipment you'd like if the budget stretches that far, and what you can definitely live without, why not print this table and fill it in: