Frankly, any firearm is better than no firearm.

Clothing limitations, social limitations, and location visiting usually have more influence on what I'm carrying (and I carry wherever and whenever I can) than academic arguments about "stopping power", caliber, 15 shots vs. 8 shots, striker vs. hammer vs. revolver, etc...

A Colt pocket pistol .25acp in your hand trumps a 10mm Glock G40 back home in the safe.

Every. Single. Time.

All that being said, my vehicle guns are all either .45 acp or 10mm full-sized semi autos.

I tend to carry my Colt Detective Special with Hornady Critical Defense .38 +P more than anything else, becasue it fits in my little pocket holster in my jeans pocket, so never an issue of concealment in any weather, any social condition, any location.

I'd prefer to be carrying a 5" barreled 10mm, but that is often not a practical option.