With high school graduation season finally upon us, many young people will be looking for new wheels to take them onto college or that new job at Taco Bell. But which cars are the best options for these kids as they “graduate” into that next life stage?
Forbes Magazine (via CTV) has come up with a David Letterman-style top ten of the best cars for recent graduates. It takes into account such factors as crash test ratings from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, reliability rankings, maintenance costs, and value for money.
Here are the top ten picks for recent graduates with a smattering of editorial commentary immediately following. (You don't think we'd be objective about the choices, did you?)
- Toyota Camry – (Are they serious? A Camry for an eighteen year old? They will be laughed out of their Introductory Psychology course at the local junior college!)
- Chevy HHR – (A slightly cooler choice than a Camry. The perfect choice for filling up the cargo area with beer for the inevitable college keggers.)
- Scion tC – (One of the most popular affordable coupe choices with the under 25 set. Reliable, stylish and with lots of room for customization--this is one of the few Forbes choices that most new graduates would agree with.)
- Toyota Corolla – (As fun as a Camry, we wonder why anyone would pick this for their youngster and not the more adventurously styled Honda Civic?)
- Ford Focus – (Is it such a great idea to give a pretty new driver the complexity and distraction of the Sync system? Plus your children might be outed as being closeted Michael Bolton fans in this car.)*
- Toyota Prius – (Alright, but only if your son or daughter has a full size poster of Al Gore tacked up in their bedroom and spends their weekends at Greenpeace rallies. Also perfect for a first year UC Berkley student.
- Honda Accord – (Only acceptable to a young person if it comes in the new coupe body style.
- Mazda 6 – (We think most young people will see right past this soon-to-be-replaced model and pine for the far more stylish Mazda 3.)
- Nissan Versa – (An affordable, fuel efficient and practical choice, even if it is only the hatchback model that manages to not look like an extra from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Avoid the frumpy looking sedan version at all costs!)
- Honda Civic – (The top pick on all counts according to Forbes and we couldn’t agree more. There is a Civic model for every purse and purpose and this vehicle should be able to take any graduate reliably and stylishly into whatever future they choose.)
Our take? Does style rank anywhere in here? Does no one at Forbes remember how shallow they were at 18 years old? Judging by some of the cars on the list, we sort of doubt it. Most young people want something “cool” to drive. They want to look like James Dean tooling around in a Mercury hot rod a la the film “Rebel without a Cause.” We know Mercury’s aren’t cool now, but they were in the fifties! So that begs the question, what is cool now? A Scion, a MINI, or a Ford F-150 with a six inch lift kit? Add in the latest M-series BMWs or AMG Mercedes for the silver spoon set and you have a pretty “cool” list for the segment of the population that probably doesn’t remember a time when the first George Bush was President.
It is pretty obvious that the majority of the picks from Forbes are made to appeal to parental purchasers, not their offspring. *In latest Ford Focus ad campaign a group of young people are in a Sync equipped model when one of them says, “Play Michael Bolton” as a joke. Then, to the terror of the driver, a Michael Bolton song begins to play.
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