If a new car or house are on your wish list, you might not find a better time than now to take the plunge. This isn’t to drum up business for the nation’s two largest economic consumer engines but rather to point out that all the stars, the moon, tea leaves, chicken entrails and any other forecasting tool you favor are about as good as they’ll get. You don’t want to know if they’re not. Besides money, car shoppers can take comfort in the idea that today’s vehicles are no doubt the best in terms of quality, comfort, safety and most other measures. And, yes, that goes for American-made cars, not just Japanese or German. It was interesting in last week’s Consumer Reports survey about factors people weigh when buying a vehicle and that they didn’t mention worries about quality when considering a General Motors Corp. or Ford product. They worried about GM’s future, and they weren’t attracted to the automaker’s vehicles. Definitely significant issues.