I created this document because I could not find a good car comparison worksheet. I found many calculated MPG, TCO, and other metrics. Those did not resonate with what we were searching for.

So, I created a spreadsheet and modified it as time went along. Usually, it was a result of some conversations we were having after comparing different types of trucks.

I am using conditional formatting to help visually identify when things exceed the pre-defined ranges we set for ourselves. It helps take some of the "emotion" out of the process. We knew that although we liked one vehicle because it checked all the boxes, it was out of our price range.

Finally, though, our eyes were opened when it came down to the test drive. Some vehicles were within our price range and looked great on the worksheet. However, when you got into them, they smelled like smoke and were dirty. A good question to ask yourself would be, "Would I have my mother ride with me in this vehicle?"

We eventually settled on one that was within our budget and had all the features we set out to find.

You can access the spreadsheet here from my Google Docs. There is a "How to use" tab where I put more instructions in there and explain what some of the cells do.