Budgets and Cars, Cars and Budgets

Criteria to Focus on When Purchasing a Car

Imagine the look on friends’ faces when you pull up in your brand new Ferrari. Jaws drop as you rev your 500 horsepower turbo-charged engine. Their overwhelming silence says it all as you step out of your car. But too bad that Ferrari doesn’t actually exist because, well, you’re on a budget; a budget of $23,000 to be more specific. Why? Because $23,000 is a proper amount to purchase a car that can suit most needs. Fortunately, I’ve created this simple guide that covers safety, size, number of doors, engine type, and brand to help you decide which car is best for you. While the task of buying a car may be daunting, I'll make it feel like you have just purchased your very own exotic Italian car. 

1) Safety First

The most important element of a car is its safety rating. There’s no reason to drive a machine that can’t handle the average crash. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) rates every car as either superior, good, acceptable, or poor based on the vehicle’s crashworthiness and crash avoidance and mitigation. Crashworthiness translates to how well the passengers are protected in a collision and crash avoidance and mitigation translates to the technology that can prevent a crash or lessen the severity (Top Safety Picks).

There are many technical details to determine a car’s rating, but long story short, you want a car that is an IIHS Top Safety Pick. Several examples include the Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, Mazda 6 and more.

2) Size Matters

There are three sizes to consider under $23,000: sub-compact (Honda Fit), compact (Toyota Corolla), and midsize (Ford Fusion). Size is probably the factor that will cause you the most frustration due to an infinite number of factors. To make this easier, I’ve condensed size into two major categories: comfort and cargo space.

Comfort means how comfortable your passengers will be. As the driver, you should always be comfortable no matter what, and this won't change based on the car. What will change is how much leg and headroom your passengers will have. Generally, a midsize car can seat 5 adult males comfortably, a compact can seat 4 adult males comfortably, and a sub-compact can seat 4 adult males semi-comfortably.

This sub-compact sedan has little legroom for this passenger

The other major factor is cargo space. How much room you need will affect the size of the car. As a college student, it’s safe to assume that you will need to carry your dorm room around with you several times, leaning you towards a car with more cargo space.

Comfort and cargo space tend to be directly proportional. More comfort equates to more cargo space, which equates to a larger car, but unfortunately also a higher price. 

3) Number of Doors

A car's number of doors goes hand-in-hand with size. Most car manufactures offer the options of 2-doors (coupe), 4-doors (sedan), or 5-doors (hatchback). Which one you pick is entirely up to you.

The coupe looks sporty. Having only two doors gives it a sleek, expensive look for a cheap price. However don’t be fooled—it may look like a sports car, but it doesn’t perform like one. The other downside is convenience. Not only are the back seats slightly smaller, but also getting in and out from the back is a hassle because you constantly have to move the front seats.

Depending on your tastes, the hatchback can vary from ugly to sporty. Regardless of the look, the hatchback offers the most cargo space. The trunk becomes a door, combining the trunk space with the back seats. This allows you to stack your things higher than a normal trunk.

The sedan is the typical car you see that is the middle ground of the coupe and hatchback. In other words, you can’t go wrong with the sedan.

4) To Hybrid or not to Hybrid

That is the age-young question: whether 'tis worth it to buy a conventional or a hybrid car. A hybrid seems better on paper with its attractive 40+ mpg, however this doesn’t come without a hefty price. Hybrids are generally more expensive than their conventional engine counterparts, but do end up saving you money. Assuming you drive the average 10,000 miles per year with gas costing $4/gallon, it would require at least six years to cover the $3000 premium price tag (Govind). In the long run, a hybrid would indeed prove to be more economically sound than a conventional car (provided that gas doesn’t become cheaper than water), but that doesn’t mean there won’t be sacrifices.

These sacrifices come in the size of your car and additional packages. As I mentioned before, larger cars cost more. You could purchase a tiny sub-compact Toyota Prius C starting at $19,500, or you could purchase a larger compact Nissan Sentra for the same price. To compare similar sized cars, you can buy a Honda Fit with extra features such as leather seats for the same price as the stock Toyota Prius C.

What I’m saying is that hybrid fuel economy, while great, comes at the cost of size or luxury.

5) Brand Last

Because a car’s job is to get us from point A to point B, you want the car to be able to run as long as possible. Honda has the highest rated engines with only 1 out of 344 engines failing (20 Best Car Brands). The runner up is Toyota with 1 out of 119 engines failing. However this statistic isn’t the deciding factor as to which cars last the longest.

Warranty also plays a major role in car longevity. Each car brand offers different warranties that can make your average engine last longer than Honda’s impressive engines. There are different kinds of warranties such as basic and powertrain. Pay more attention to powertrain because it covers the parts that move your car. Hyundai currently has the best warranty with 10-year/100,000 miles powertrain. The runner up would be Kia, the subsidiary of Hyundai, with the same warranty (Hunting). Even though Hyundai’s engines aren’t on par with Honda’s, the warranty will save you repair money throughout the lifespan of your vehicle.

***

Of course there are many different cars to choose from based on your personal preferences, but my ideal car on a budget would have to be Hyundai’s Elantra sedan. It’s a combination of good fuel economy, IIHS top safety pick, excellent passenger room (as a compact car), good cargo space, and the nation’s best warranty all while saving $3,000 than if I had bought a hybrid. By no means does this car drive like a Ferrari, but I’d like to think that it’s the best car I can get with a budget that fits my needs.

Congratulations! Now that you’ve reached the end, you’re ready to purchase your very own car. I know it’s hard to pick the perfect car, but the most important advice I can leave you with is this: test drive. Learning everything you can about a car means zilch if you don’t like the feel of the car. Drive as many cars as you want, as many times as you want—don’t worry about annoying the salesperson. He will try to shame you for wasting his time test driving, but remember you're the customer, and the customer is always right. So get up...

Work Cited

1. Govind, A. (2013, February 20). Synapse. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://synapse.ucsf.edu/articles/2013/02/20/buying-car-tight-budget.

2. Hunting, B. (n.d.). 9 Best New Car Warranty Programs. Retrieved September 27, 2015, from http://www.autobytel.com/car-buying-guides/features/9-best-new-car-warranty-programs-120917/.

3. The 20 Best Car Brads Listed. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/picturegalleries/10018481/The-20-best-car-brands-listed.html.

4. Top Safety Picks by year. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/TSP-List. 

Expert Article

Buying Your Car on a Budget

Imagine the look on the valet’s face when you throw him the keys to your brand new Ferrari. His silence says it all as you walk away. But too bad that Ferrari doesn’t exist because you’re on a budget. Fortunately for you, I can help guide you through the daunting task of buying a car to make it feel like you’ve just purchased an exotic Italian car.

1) Lease or Purchase

There are many factors that influence your decision of whether you will lease or purchase your first car, but because this is for those entering college on a budget, the best option is to purchase the car. This way you own something. There’s some math involved that deals with opportunity cost, but let’s disregard that as a college student.

Now that purchasing a car is your decision, you may be wondering if you should buy a brand new car or a recently used car. But I’ll come back to this point at the end as it isn’t make or break. 

2) Safety

The first and most important element of a car is its safety rating. There’s no reason to drive a machine that can’t protect you through the average crash. The IIHS, or Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, rates every car on a scale of superior, good, acceptable, and marginal or poor based on the vehicle’s crashworthiness and crash avoidance and mitigation. Crashworthiness translates to how well the passengers are protected and crash avoidance and mitigation translates to the technology that can prevent a crash or lessen its severity. There are numerous technical details to determine a car’s rating, but long story short, you want a car that is an IIHS Top Safety Pick. 

3) Size

When looking at the size, there are three sizes to consider under $25,000: sub-compact (Honda Fit), compact (Toyota Corolla), and midsize (Ford Fusion). Size is probably the factor that will cause you the most frustration due to an infinite number of factors. To make this easier, I’ve condensed size into two major factors: comfort and cargo space. Comfort means how comfortable your passengers will be. As the driver, you should be comfortable no matter what, and this won't change based on the car. What will change is how much leg and head room your passengers will have. The other major factor is cargo space. Every car has different trunk sizes, and depending on how much room you need will affect the size of the car. Comfort and cargo space tend to be directly proportional. More comfort equates to more cargo space which equates to a larger car and also a higher price. 

4) To Hybrid or not to Hybrid

Probably the least important of your worries when buying a car on a budget.The age young question of whether a hybrid or conventional car is worth it. A hybrid seems better on paper with it’s attractive 40+ mpg, however this doesn’t come without a hefty price. Hybrids are generally more expensive than their conventional engine counterparts. The savings in fuel are not worth the premium price tag. Unless fuel prices shoot up to. Looking strictly at cost, buying a conventional engine is the way to go.   $700, $1,206 AT $3.50/gal, you would be saving ~$500 annually assuming 10,000 miles per year. This would require at least 6 years to cover the $3000 premium price tag. In the long run, a hybrid would indeed prove to be more economically sound than a conventional car provided that gas doesn’t become cheaper than water.

5) Brand

Similar to Size, there are many factors to consider when looking at the brand of a car. Because a car’s job is to get us from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time, the car needs to be able to run as long as possible. Honda has the highest rated engines with only 1 out of 344 engines failing. The next closest company would be Toyota at 1 out of 119 engines falling. However these statistics aren’t the deciding factor as to which car will last the longest. Warranty also plays a huge role. Each car brand offers different warranty’s that can make your average engine last longer than Honda’s impressive engines. There are different kinds of warrantys such as powertrain and blah blah. Powertrain is the most important because it covers the parts that causes your car to move. Hyundai currently has the best warranty with 10 year/100,000 mile powertrain. The runner up would be, Kia, the subsidiary of Hyundai. 

Omnivore's Dilemma No. 2

Previously I read Michael's chapter on fast food and how corn plays a major role in producing fast food. This week, I decided to back track and learn more about corn itself. I've always known how widely produced corn is, but I never understood why. Michael proceeds to explain that in 1850, consumers cared immensely about quality. When purchasing corn, the corn is sold in bags that has the farm's name written on it, sort of like advertisement for the farm. If the corn is good, consumers will buy more from that farm. However in 1856, the Chicago Board of Trade instituted a grading system with No. 2 being high quality. Now consumers didn't care about the farm itself, but only cared about how much corn they could buy. This led farmers to favor the "quality of sheer quantity" which created the corn surplus that we have today. And according to Michael, whenever there is an excess of biomass in nature, creatures will step forward and consume it. These 'creatures' led to corn-fed cows and the production of ethanol and high-fructose corn syrup with humans being the consumers and etc. This new food chain, so to speak, created the high percentage of corn in the (fast) food that we eat today.

Omnivore's Dilemma No. 1

I agree with Michael Pollan when he says that fast food is sometimes comfort food. It’s not that chicken nuggets are necessarily the classic examples of comfort food that I agree with, rather it’s the idea that eating fast food as a kid has created a nostalgic effect. I didn’t eat Mc Donald’s often as a kid and whenever my grandparents took me, it was (almost) like going to Disneyland. The food was great and there was even a playground I could run around in. Looking back on my childhood though, I’m glad that my parents restricted the amount of fast food because it is quite unhealthy.

I’m also relieved that he didn’t fill the chapter with negative statements of fast food being the cause of obesity in America. Instead he talked about the agricultural and economic side to fast food. He mentioned specifically the corn content in the food. Even though it seemed like he was eating chicken nuggets, he was consuming mostly corn. I’ve never read the ingredients in fast foods simply because I know they’re terrible for human beings, but I’m shocked at the high percentage of corn that comprises a fast food meal.

Job Memo

Job Memo

At the end of my freshman year of college, I decided to finally get a job to make some money on the side. I searched through the endless job catalogs on craigslist to find a job that required me to learn a completely new set of skills: cooking. A startup sushi restaurant twenty minutes from my house was opening soon and needed workers. But not just any workers, they needed chefs. I initially applied to be a waiter because, well, I didn’t have any experience as a chef, but somehow I ended up in the kitchen. Now this wasn’t a high-end sushi restaurant (and I could tell since they hired me) that emptied your wallet, rather it was an average revolving sushi restaurant that hired a bunch of young inexperienced twenty year olds. Nonetheless, I was excited and nervous to start cooking.

There were three experiences that stood out to me:

1.     Training

2.     Grand Opening

3.     Nigiri

Training was first. They had to train us how to perform our respective jobs. The waiters needed to learn how to wait tables, and the chefs needed to learn how to cook. All my training was in the kitchen. As with all jobs, training starts from the very basics. I learned how to prepare rice. Not just how to cook rice, but also how to wash it. As mundane of a task as it was, cooking sushi rice was crucial to preparing sushi. After I mastered the technique of throwing washed rice into a cooker, it was onto cutting. Now, watching a chef cut sushi seems quite easy, but actually requires an extreme amount of skill. One trait that distinguishes sushi chefs from another is their ability to cut. The smoother the cut, the prettier the sushi is, and the costlier the food. Since I was learning how to slice, the restaurant didn’t want to waste fish and had me cut cucumber cut rolls. As if the cutting wasn’t hard enough, I also had to roll cut rolls prettily. When eating rolls, the rice needs to be at the perfect amount. Too much rice, and the customer ends up eating a rice ball. Too little rice, and the roll falls apart. The skill to estimate the perfect amount of rice takes years to master, but luckily for me, there was a machine that laid out the perfect amount of rice. Once I learned how to roll, I had to learn how to cut the rolls smoothly and evenly. I probably burned through dozens of cucumbers (keep in mind a whole cucumber can prepare enough cut rolls to feed a group of 4) before I got close to average cuts. Reaching this level of pseudo expertise took me to the end of my training.

Next came the grand opening. To celebrate the restaurant, the owner invited all of his friends and business partners to eat for free. I thought it would be only be a couple of people, but it turned out to fill up the entire restaurant. I was completely overwhelmed. Up until this point, the only skills I learned were how to cook rice, and cut cucumber rolls. Now all of a sudden, my boss wanted me to prepare the usual suspects: specialty rolls. Shifting from cucumbers to dragon rolls was quite the leap. Instead of the rice being wrapped inside the seaweed, which was easier to cut, the rice wrapped around the seaweed. This posed several challenges. It was far more difficult to roll properly because of the amount of sushi inside. Cutting was also a lot harder. I had to lighten the weight of the knife or else it would smash the roll. I would’ve been fine if it was still training, but I was in the spotlight. The boss’s friends were ordering right and left, swamping the kitchen. As I prepared more rolls, I began to pick up on a pattern to quickly make the sushi. They weren’t the prettiest of rolls, but I was proud of them. Just as I thought I learned it all for cut rolls, my boss piled on another skill I needed to learn: toppings. Again this was all during the grand opening, making it that much harder. On top of the already difficult specialty rolls, I needed to add toppings to the sushi and cut it. The first few turned out horribly. Rolling them wasn’t the hard part, rather cutting it was. In order to prevent the toppings from sliding as I cut, I had to wrap the roll up in saran wrap to keep the toppings in place. The first few rolls turned out pretty ugly, but the customers weren’t paying anyways. Eventually I picked up on the pattern and produced presentable cut rolls. Before I accepted this job, I used to think it required an immense amount of skill to create all types of cut rolls. However it turns out that all you need is the ability to cut sushi and imagination. There are endless combinations to what can be put inside a cut roll. From spider rolls to heart attacks, the difference is all in the ingredients. Because I ‘knew’ how to cut, all the possible rolls were in my capabilities. After the opening day, I sharpened my skills every shift until I was confident in preparing cut rolls for all customers. My boss noticed my confidence and decided to switch it up with a new skill: preparing nigiri.

If you’ve ever seen the movie JIRO, you’ll understand the pain I endured (much less severe though). Learning how to prepare rice takes only a few tries, but I was required to prepare dozens of batches before I was ready. The amount of nigiri I had to prepare before I was trained was unfathomable. As a customer, nigiri is just a piece of fish sitting on top of rice. But according to my boss, the fish is nestled comfortably with the rice. The proper technique to make nigiri is to grab the perfect amount of rice, about the size of your thumb, and carefully place the fish on top. Lucky for me, a machine prepared the right amount of rice. Holding the fish and rice in one hand with the rice touching your palm, create a slight curve with the other hand’s index and middle finger and press on the fish. This is the tricky part. Cock your hand back so your wrist of the hand pressing on the fish makes a near ninety degrees. It sounded simple enough, but took me hundreds of tries to pass my boss’s test.

I quit shortly after I learned how to prepare nigiri due to school, but I thoroughly enjoyed my summer as a sushi chef. Learning how to prepare sushi is a unique skill that can’t really be learned on your own. It requires the critique of a teacher and a surplus of supplies. I recommended the sushi chef experience to expand your palette and appreciation for other cultures.

Readability:
Passive sentences: 5%
Flesh Reading Ease: 74.3
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.7