Best-selling car

Toyota Camry

Ho-hum. Seems like the same thing every year. Camry, Camry, Camry, Camry, Camry. They make 'em, we buy 'em.

It just shows what you get by sticking to the basics. The Camry succeeds, year after year after year, by being a consistently good, reliable car. In its most recent redesign, Toyota added some slightly edgy styling to both the interior and exterior but it's still the good old Camry.

Detroit is fighting back with some quite good cars of their own - the Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu - but it seems unlikely that the Camry will be dethroned any time soon.

Car buyers have long memories and the Camry's virtues - and Detroit's past sins - will likely earn Toyota repeat buyers for many more years.

Best-selling vehicle

Ford F-series truck

People in other countries have trouble understanding this peculiar fact about America. In other places, you have to pay people to drive trucks. Here, we actually like driving them. Lots of them.

In fact, the best-selling passenger vehicle in America isn't a car. It's a pickup. As it has been for more than a decade, the top selling passenger vehicle is the Ford F-series truck.

There are a few things besides mere consumer preference that work in the F-series' favor. For one thing, its sales numbers include a significant number that are sold for actual professional users.

The other is that the F-series badge goes on a wide range of trucks from the basic F-150 to the big, burly Super Duty truck shown here.

If General Motor's pickups didn't get split between two nameplates - Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra - GM would actually carry away the "Top-selling vehicle" bragging rights.

Most satisfying car

Mercedes-Benz S-class

When it comes to cars, the best things in life cost money. According to researchers at J.D. Power and Associates, the cars that owners find most perfect are the ones that - as one might guess - cost the most.

J.D. Power's APEAL (Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) survey asks recent new car buyers about a host of specific vehicle attributes - comfort, handling, engine power, etc. - and ranks cars according to their aggregate scores.

This year, the top-scoring car of all, beating out a Lexus and a BMW, was the Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan with a starting price of about $90,000. Among its many very satisfying features are front and back heated seats with adjustable massage, super-intelligent cruise control that just about drives for you and a sun-roof that reaches from the windshield to the back window.

Add to that prodigious power in even the base-level car, a buttery ride, lusciously communicative steering and an interior that would put the most expensive hotels to shame.

If this doesn't satisfy you, nothing will.

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer