using splineController as path for a car

I want to move a car along a specific path and am looking at splineController from the wiki (which is super cool by the way). Trouble is if I move a car along the path the orientation of the car is not quite what I want. The two options for orientation mode (NODE AND TANGENT) dont yield the effect that you would want for this sort of use (unless of course I am doing something wrong).

I read somewhere else that you could maybe run another object (perhaps a transparent cube) along the same path, but just in front of the car. Then make the car "look at" the cube, which would presumably make the car appear to actually "steer" around the path properly.

Does this sound like a decent idea? If so, how would you go about making the cube be "out in front" of the car. You'd need to make it start slightly before the car since they have to start from the same place right? Otherwise you make the cube have its own path, but this seems redundant / inefficient ...

Thanks, in advance for any help ...