First Car: Choosing The Perfect Companion. Pt.1

First+Car%3A+Choosing+The+Perfect+Companion.+Pt.1

Timothy Clary, Staff Writer

For starters, this series of articles is about buying your own car using your own hard-earned money (having your parents buy the car and you pay the insurance does not count as buying your own car). I understand that in high school, many students are driving vehicles that their parents purchased for them. However, where’s the fun in that? For many people, their car is the first taste of freedom that you get to experience. Owning a car means that you can do so many things that you couldn’t previously do like blasting your favorite music aloud as loud as you want it to be without worrying about parents yelling at you to “turn that crap down!!” Many people see their car as a pile of clay that has yet to be touched, and to them, this means that they can create something that is extraordinary in their eyes (as long as it’s within budget).

The problem is, how do you choose the canvas? How do you know when you’ve found the right one? For many people, phrases like: RWD, NA, five speed, and V8 make as much sense as Spanish 4, but don’t let this discourage you; learning the automotive basics are quite easy. For starters, when choosing a car many people talk about RWD, FWD, and AWD drivetrains. This is basically stating which wheels the engine is sending power to. If a car is FWD, then powers sent to the front two wheels. This can be advantages when looking to lower the weight of a vehicle. Some of the more common FWD cars are Honda Civics, Volkswagen Golfs, and Mazda 3s, these cars tend to be cheaper because it requires less to run power from the engine to the front wheels. RWD means powers sent to the rear wheels. A few RWD cars are the Nissan 350z/370z, Chevy Camaro, and many BMW models. RWD cars are usually more expensive then FWD cars because it takes a bigger driveshaft, but this also gives them better balance and handling and because of this, many performance cars are RWD. AWD means powers sent to all wheels. The major AWD cars are the Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and the Nissan GTR. AWD cars are usually the most expensive of the three because of their more complicated power to wheel setup. You are able to obtain better grip and handling than both RWD and FWD with an AWD car. Due to their great handling and gripping ability, AWD cars are some of the best cars to use for rally racing. Now, there are hundreds of other cars that fall into each category, but these are some of the more popular vehicles.

Next time: Engines