For me the first ride was a Honda Civic at 22 years and it was fully manual including gear and steering or Windows, nothing was powered so I just wanted to get a ride.
My second was a bit more thoughtful in a Mitsubishi Eclipse GSR4 Turbo tuned by AMG. It was about looks, being fast and some nice gadgets being a US version.
By my 3rd car I was already married with a kid, so it was about comfort, cheap maintenance and God resale value. This came in the shape of a Toyota Echo.
After I joined offroading all my logic went out of the window as long as I could drive it off road. Started with a 5.7 Hem V8 with lots of joy and regret. Downgraded to a V8 3.9 litre Discovery, loads of comfort. Lastly downgraded to a 3.3 litre V6, pretty satisfied, but no real logic applied, just what I could afford.