On a college student budget with lots of snow, what is the best car to get?
Voted Best Answer morin2 02/07/10 3:48 pm PST If you’re living on campus and only going home occasionally, do the math to see if it really makes much difference if you get 35-37 mpg in a civic vs 30 in an AWD Impreza or 33 in an AWD Vibe. The cheaper insurance of a subaru might offset the few dollars of gas savings of a Civic over a year – that’s why you have to look at total cost to own, rather than just fuel economy. The Civic holds its value so well that it will be hard to find a nice used one at a reasonable price. Its a fine car -but one that is better to buy new, not used. That’s why I pointed out a couple of used car “bargains” that are undervalued relative to their quality and utility. When you’re in college, you need to be looking for value, bang for the buck, rather than quality “at any price”. Consider ground clearance in your research. Snowy areas always get chunks of hard snow & ice on the road, no matter how good the local plowing. A car with less ground clearance is more
