Thing is, when buying a bike, you can't really take a load of them for a test ride like you can a car.
Whenever I buy a big purchase, telly, camera etc I'm all over the net reading reviews/ratings etc.
Bought my Marin for a grand 20 years back when I was bang into it, spent another grand on upgrades over the years and I still love it, sure there are better bikes out there now but I shouldn't ever need another. (Got a hack bike as well for quick blasts mind) If you get the right one first time you'll never need to swap it.
Cheers, D.