What sort of coverage do you need? What is your terrain like?
Where are you trying to talk to?
That all makes a difference in the choice of antenna.
I live among hills, where the repeaters may be 2000 - 7000 feet
above the valley floor. My coverage is more mostly limited by
the terrain, rather than antenna gain. During my commute I
could switch between two different antennas and compare them,
and found only a marginal improvement between a 1/4 wave whip
and a 5/8 wave on the roof. So now I just use a 2m 1/4 wave
with a little coil to make it dual band, leave the radio on low power.
But the circumstances are quite different over flat ground, where
antenna height particularly is more important, and antenna gain
and power can make more of a difference. If you're just hitting
the local repeaters, the quarter wave whip may still be sufficient.
If you're trying to cover 50 miles on simplex, then you'll likely
want something taller.
The point is, not everyone needs the same antenna. A big, high-
gain antenna isn't always the ideal solution. In my experience,
taller antennas with lots of joints in them are more prone to
become noisy over time, and I lost one antenna to an overhanging
tree limb.
Meanwhile, at highway speeds, some of the 5/8 wave whips can
bend over towards the back of the vehicle enough to change
the pattern and polarization significantly, since maximum
radiation is from the upper portion of the whip. So it makes a
difference whether you are more interested in operation while in
motion or at rest. In one case, the antenna worked noticeably
better driving down a hill than driving up the same hill, because
of the way that the antenna flexed at speed.
When I worked for the Forest Service, the only VHF antennas on
the vehicles were 1/4 wave flexible whips, because that was what
survived best among trees and also bumping along rough roads,
that can cause a lot of sway in taller antennas, especially those
with "lumps" further up the antenna.
That's not to say that higher gain antennas aren't a good choice
in some circumstances, but what is best for you will depend on
how you plan to use it.