top of page

Reviews

 

Top 5 Cars For Teenagers

By: Peter Johnson

 

It’s almost that time for you to get that first car once you have your license/permit. You want a car that you feel good in - that you love to ride in everyday, and that you’re proud of. No matter what, you will have a budget for the car that you will purchase; most of us will have limited funds, so we need to be smart about what we buy. In my opinion, these are the best cars you can afford for $10,000 for less. You can find less expensive models by choosing an older year than what I’ve selected below. I used Kelly Blue Books (https://www.kbb.com/).  You can also use this website as a tool when you are ready to buy a car.  You can also use other website like Consumer Reports (https://www.consumerreports.org ), to get more information on choosing a reliable car.

2011 Subaru Impreza

Subarus are well known for their reliability and their all-wheel drive, and the Subaru Impreza is no exception.  This car is great for snowy and icy conditions. And because it’s a Subaru, you will have a car that is reliable and safe. The Impreza gets 20 mpg in the city and 27 mpg on the highway. The Impreza rides smoothly and great spacious cargo space.

 

2012 Honda Civic

The Honda Civic is one of the most reliable cars on the road today. Ever since the 1980’s, the Civic is a great car to purchase. The Civic is a small sedan or coupe with a spacious interior. It gets 26 mpg in the city and 34 mpg on the highway Insurance for this car is cheap and gas will last you longer than other vehicles. Civics are really affordable, you can get a great 2012 Civic for around $10,00 or less. Honda engines are one of the most reliable parts of the car; these engines can last more than 200,000 miles.


 

2009 Toyota Tacoma

 

Do you like adventure? Buy the Toyota Tacoma. The Toyota Tacoma is a compact pickup truck loved by truck fans for their reliability. Most Tacoma engines last more than 300,000 miles before having major problems. Toyota Tacoma trucks are highly sought after and because of this, the prices of these vehicles command high dollar on the used market. The 2009 Tacoma can be purchased for around $10,000. Tacomas come standard with 4 wheel drive. Tacomas are very safe vehicles; since it’s a larger car, you would have a better chance of surviving in a crash compared to a small compact car.

2012 Toyota Corolla S

 

The Toyota Corolla is for the one who loves a sporty car and is reliable. The gas mileage on the Corolla is 27 mpg in the city and 37 mpg on the highway. The Corolla is a 4 door sedan These cars are fun to drive yet practical and reliable.

2010 Toyota Rav4

The Rav4 is Toyota’s crossover. The Rav4 has a lot of cargo space to put all your supplies you need. The Rav4 gets 22 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway. The Rav4 is higher clearance, giving you the option to go off-roading, and road trips.

 

The kid in you may want to go buy the sportiest car you can buy for $10,000, but that won’t be practical. The total cost of ownership of the car is more than the price you pay for the car. Think about insurance, taxes, gas mileage, reliability, repairs and parts . Do yourself a favor and try to buy the most reliable and safest car for the money you have.  Remember that this is your first car; you will be able to get the car of your dreams later when you have more money.

 

The Cafeteria Food: All You Need to Know

Carter Butzine

Every year of school, every student has been encouraged and almost pressured to eat the school’s “healthy” food. The problem is, is it really healthy? Does it have the nutritional value that was advertised in order to get students to eat the food? Why do schools provide food that is not appealing to students?

All the way from elementary school up until high school, schools have encouraged students to fill themselves with the cafeteria food, but there is an issue; the food contains things that students and average people would not enjoy to eat. There is another problem, as stated earlier you are encouraged to “fill yourself” with food. With lunches the exact opposite is done. Portion sizes are small, making for hungry students after they eat. These lunches should provide every aspect of what a student needs while keeping the food pleasurable to eat. Currently, lunches are only providing parts of this concept.

Signs posted around the cafeteria show every aspect that a student needs to be fully nutritionally at value. These signs show things such as grains, fruit, and protein. It can be argued that the lunches have every aspect of these signs, but there are a few issues. Typically, the grains or proteins are not appealing to students. The breads or meats provided do not make students envy their lunchtime. Although school lunches do need to be healthy, the fruit can provide the healthy aspect of the lunch. With the healthy part covered, there could be a semi-healthy grain, and then a dessert of a name brand that would attract students to buy and eat the meal. Although this would be an ideal lunch, fundings would need to be shifted around inorder for this to take place. If a name brand aspect was included into the lunch, it could add for an increase in the price to produce each individual lunch.

With the food provided, nationwide, students end up wasting up to 52%  of their lunches everyday. With this astonishing percent, so much food is wasted; its unexplainable. This food is created using resources that are becoming more and more scarce as time passes on. For example, green onions were provided for choice at a lunch meal one day. Many students partook in the green onions, because they “needed their greens.” After checking out with the cashier, many students proceeded in eating their lunch, all except the green onions. The majority of the students who took the vegetable, threw it away. The onions provided, were grown using water and such that our world does not have as plentiful at the moment. Although yes, there were other choices provided that day, if a more pleasurable fruits or vegetables were provided, there could be significant improvements seen as far as wasting valuable food goes.

The lunches provided in the Fruita 8/9 cafe also have positive aspects of why students should purchase the meal. These meals, even if not everyone's favorite, will keep your eating in somewhat balance. With most aspects available for choice, the meals are somewhat effectively keeping students fed. Compared to a typical lunch, a school lunch can be just as unhealthy as a regular sack lunch from home. Thus, the argument comes that more name brand aspects should be provided in lunch each day. For example, the fruit cups that are handed out are not name brand. This makes for not as high interest from students. If a Dole fruit cup was provided, then there would be a higher interest rate. According to a personal health review, generic fruit cups have identical calorie and nutrition amounts than name brands. It’s all just the sticker. Now with that as just as an example, this concept could be carried through every aspect of the lunch. If looking at a statistic on the preference that people would eat name brand over generic it is a bit over half. As far as including this into the lunch and adjusting the funding, about 50% of generic foods are made in name brand factories, they are just marked up. If it was advertised that generics are the same, there could be a significant higher interest rate in eating the food products.

To draw to an end, with some adjustments to the lunches provided, there could be a significant interest rate that could increase over time. The food at the Fruita 8/9 cafe has different aspects that are good and not so good, but is approaching everything that is needed for an effective lunch.

Car Park
bottom of page