I mostly used whatever mainstream type II cassette was the cheapest at that moment, usually TDK SA, or affordable type IV like TDK MA or Sony Metal-XR (=SR). Type I was too noisy for my taste, and with older decks that had no calibration or HX-Pro the high end suffered too much.
I used a number of decks, the first one being
this (which was my parents' (I'm not
that old), and actually fairly good for its time) and the last one a
Sony TC-K750ES, which was the only deck I ever had that produced recordings that didn't sound obviously worse than the original, and luckily it lasted until cassettes became obsolete (in fact it still works, or at least it did the last time I checked).
With the Sony even recordings on really cheap budget cassettes (like
these*) came out generally good enough for car stereo use, though that may also have to do with the fact that nobody I knew had any kind of high end sound system in their car.
*gotta love how they're compared to "cheapo" tape, plus I honestly can't remember any cheaper cassettes than these available at the time
off topic? what's that?