The approach of a new school year often necessitates the start of a new (or used) car search. Choosing a ride that will make everyone happy - students, parents, friends, prospective love interests -- is as easy as finding a car that's at once affordable, reliable, versatile, fuel-efficient, safe, tech-savvy, fun and expressive. Piece of cake, right?
To lend a helping hand, every year we put together a list of the Top 10 Back-to-School Cars - five new, five used. New cars offer all the latest and greatest safety and technology advancements and a full warranty. Used cars typically deliver more car for the money. Each has merit.
In choosing the new cars, we considered everything available with a New Car Blue Book Value under $18,000. For the used entries, we narrowed it down to 2005 model year and newer vehicles that had a Kelley Blue Book Suggested Retail Value of less than $12,000 (with base-level equipment and average mileage).
This year, we mixed new and used together, and ranked them 10 to 1. Click through to see which cars made the list, and which one we crowned the best of the best back-to-school rides.
1. Put an advertisement in the classifieds of a local newspaper or local penny-saver paper that you are looking for fellow car enthusiasts to team up with to find inexpensive car parts. Give your name and number and tell them you're looking to form a club.
2. When the car enthusiasts respond your advertisement, tell them your idea: that you form a discount car parts club so that you call can save money by filling the minimum purchase order on bulk car part purchases. Get a list from them of the parts they need to fix their cars, and add it to the list of parts you need.
3. Go online to an inexpensive or wholesale car parts site by typing "cheap car parts" or "wholesale car parts" into the search line of your browser. Many of these places have a minimum order of only a couple hundred dollars (or sometimes even less!) So you shouldn't have any problem filling the order. Sometimes, these minimum order quantities mean you also get free shipping and warranties on the parts!
4. When the parts arrive, call the car enthusiasts in your discount car parts club and have them pick up the order and drop off the payment payment. They'll be surprised at how much they saved and you may be able to get another order from them.
Whether you've traveled to an unfamiliar place or just needed a replacement while your car's in the shop, chances are you've had to rent a car at some point in your life. Rental cars have a long and storied history that's closely tied to the history of the automobile industry and America itself. As times have changed, so have rental cars - and they remain a crucial part of the automobile industry to this day.
The true beginnings of rental cars are unknown, but many believe that the first true rental car agency began with the Model T, the first mass-produced automobile. Allegedly, the first rental agency belonged to a Nebraskan man named Joe Saunders, who would rent his Model T out for ten cents a mile. Saunders used a mileage meter to determine how far his car had been driven. The legend goes that Saunders' first rental went to a traveling salesman who wanted to impress a girl on a date.
Whatever the case, Saunders definitely had the first massively successful car-rental agency. By 1925, his business had rental agencies in 21 states. However, the Great Depression led to many people no longer needing rental cars, and Saunders went bankrupt.
While Saunders was establishing his business, a man named Walter Jacobs was also starting his own Model T rental service. Jacobs fared far better than Saunders. He eventually sold his business to Yellow Cab owner John Hertz. Hertz' company was then bought out by General Motors. Today, Hertz Rent a Car is the largest rental car company in the world.
Rental cars suffered from a bad reputation during the Prohibition period, as many believed they were used to transport criminals. After Prohibition was repealed, the rental car industry enjoyed a better reputation, and expanded considerably.
