<p>Hoping to live on campus myself. It seems like the best way to make friends at the new school. Also it may be cheaper. I’m a little worried that I’ll be the old man at 27. </p>
<p>A note about used cars. I follow auto news daily and because of the economy since Bush left office, there have been far fewer new cars sold. This translates into less used cars, and therefore, higher costs for used ones. New may not be much more expensive. Hyundai and Kia are great values now, as is the Nissan Versa and Ford Fiesta.</p>
<p>There is no reason to buy a new or slightly used car for college. C’mon people…stuff like this is the reason why the economy is in the first place. </p>
<p>Buy a cheap car off craigslist for transportation and fix it. I seen an ad for an older Toyota Paseo for 500 bucks. I was going to buy it just to save on gas to drive around. </p>
<p>If you don’t have a car now, what makes you think you need a new one in university? Parking will be WORSE. If your car is going to crap out any min, then yeah get something else. Just buy a bicycle. The only time you should have a car is when you are ready to apply to jobs and internships. </p>
<p>Be sure to get a fuel efficient cars. Gas guzzling cars put a big dent on our college student wallet. My car takes 21 gallons to fill up and I average 14 mpg My friend got a Toyota Prius and he is getting 500 miles on just one tank of gas–the gas tank holds only 10 gallon btw.</p>
<p>Buy a used car and be sure to ask for a carfax to see if it has any history (Accident, repairs, and etc)</p>
<p>@looking4ward The whole buying a dirt cheap car and fixing it up is NOT the route to go. Trust me on this one. From my own experiences along with that of many of my peers, you’ll spend just as much money, time, and effort taking care of the darn thing as it would to just spend more on a car that you won’t have to worry about aside from gas and standard maintenance like oil changes. You could also think of a new car as an investment. It’ll actually retain it’s value if you decide to sell it since you’re the first and only owner (hopefully you take care of it though lol), it’ll be more fuel efficient (given you don’t go buy yourself a gas guzzling SUV or sports car), fully working components (AC, radio, etc which oftentimes get stripped when it comes to pre owned cars), etc.</p>
<p>My car is a piece of crap. how do you expect me to drive it from san bernardino county to santa cruz and back after the quarters over? I doubt it would even make it to LA. And idk anything about fixing cars, i’m a woman! lol @Divzero that’s true I’ve been looking religiously on autotrader and carmax and every used car seems overpriced. The cheapest I could find was 80,000+ miles for 7 grand. wth.
chevy aveos are pretty decent and they don’t cost very much brand new.</p>
<p>@uchappytrain as Divzero mentioned, Hyundai and Kia are really great value cars now. Great bang for your buck. To be honest, I used to knock on them all the time. They were POSs a few years ago, but now it seems these Korean manufacturers (especially Kia) have finally figured it out. A good friend recently purchased a Kia Forte, and I must say that I was blown away by the amount of features (bluetooth, 6speed tip-tronic, ipod sync/connection, etc. Just no navigation which is a rip off imo anyways) and aesthetics of the car. If it weren’t for the badges and emblems, you’d think you’re in a Lexus or something. I don’t know exactly how much he paid, but I know for a fact it wasn’t more than about 17k. If you do go the new car route, I’d definitely recommend giving them a look and test drive.</p>
<p>^^ my sister was telling me to look into kias because they’re so cheap. i’ll deff look into them but I think i’m going to end up with a used car.</p>
<p>I could not agree more. I look around sometimes, just for ****s and giggles, and it baffles me some of the living arrangements people get involved into in order to save some money. I once saw what appeared to be an attic studio that FOUR (4!!!) people split by hanging bed sheets as curtains. Or one bedroom places for three or four people. I must have my own space.</p>
My friend got a Toyota Prius and he is getting 500 miles on just one tank of gas–the gas tank holds only 10 gallon btw.</p>