If I had the choice I'd opt for the car that can accelerates to about 60 in under 8 seconds over a one that does it over 9 seconds all day long.
Not sure the reasoning that you'd never be in the racing mood and up against a 170 at the same time really applies.
For me, living in London, a quick get away and acceleration up to 40-60 is very useful and important i.e. zipping on to busy roundabouts, merging on to busy dual carriage ways, accelerating from double lane traffic lights which merge into one after 20 meters or so, and overtaking.
Looking around I find the average car on the road is usually capable of something between 9-12 seconds (i've got a mental note of most car's acceleration figures just so I know whether to try it on with them or not!!
), so having a car that is on average a couple of seconds quicker than most others will put you in a good position in most road scenarios. Whereas a car that does it in about 9 will be ok in a lot of situations but will leave you wanting frequent enough for it to become an issue at some point. At least that's what i've found.
I know i've put a lot of focus on 0-60 times, and I know there are other factors to consider, but I do find that the quicker the quoted 0-60 time is the better the car performs in "urban" driving situations.
Guess it just depends how you want your car to drive and which part of it's performance is most important to you.