To your list of highly desirable features, I'd add four wheel disc brakes. I was pretty over the moon when we sold off the last car in the household with drums on the rear. Drums are a pain in the ass. Maybe they're not too bad if you deal with them often enough, but discs are simpler by miles.

...And then we bought a '47 Willys Jeep a year later. Which has 4 wheel drums. And the worlds least conveniently located master cylinder.