Picking out what car to buy was the hardest decision of my life, so I’m going to try and make it a little easier for you. When buying a car to take to college, the needs of college students are a little different from the normal buyer. Here is a checklist of things to consider when planning a purchase:

• Fun to drive because, well, why drive a boring car?
• Affordability
• Four-season driving — no Mustangs or Camaros
• Reliability, as well as cheap and easy to fix
• Trunk and storage area for moving your life from place to place
• Respectable gas mileage because we’re all broke
• Easy to navigate campus and city streets

So what cars fit the bill? Immediately, we can discount any new cars. Dropping more than $10,000 on a car is not feasible for most of us, leaving us with used cars to choose from.

The Subaru WRX from the early 2000’s is already a popular choice among students at Syracuse University, but the gas mileage might not live up to a lot of people’s expectations.

Tantalizingly cheap are BMW M3’s from the mid 90’s, but most of them are disasters waiting to happen. If you want to spend thousands on maintenance, by all means buy an old German car.

You could buy an Acura Integra GS-R. But since I’ve been the proud owner of a 2001 Integra GS-R for five years, I might be slightly biased and won’t declare it as the best.

One car that stands out to me is the Honda Civic Si, particularly between the years of 2006 and 2011. This car checks all the boxes. You get everyday usability and utility of a standard Civic, but there are enough performance bits to satisfy driving enthusiasts too.

This four-door pocket rocket will take just about anything your hectic life throws at it. I’d consider it the Swiss Army knife of cars. There’s a little bit of something in there for everyone, and it’s all packed together in one convenient little vehicle.

The Civic Si is a compact car with some “big car” aspirations, with four doors and sufficient trunk area. If you manage to fill the trunk, you can always fold the seats down and take advantage of the increased storage space.

In addition to the under seven-second 0-60 mph time, you get 32 miles per gallon on the highway from the 2.0L VTEC engine. This blend of performance and fuel mileage satisfies both on the road and at the pump.

Even if you’re not interested in performance driving, you can still love this car. Hondas have an impeccable reputation for being reliable, so this car won’t leave you stranded halfway to school.

But for those with intentions of having fun going place to place, this car will deliver. Back when the car was released, the magazines like “Road & Track” and “Car and Driver” sung nothing but praise for the Si. When those two magazines commend a car for its performance, you know it’s exemplary.

The last thing about this car is that it’s only available in a manual transmission. I’m of the firm belief that everybody who drives should learn how to drive a manual. The road would be a much safer place if we all drove manuals because we’d focus on shifting rather than phones.

So there you have it. For only $7,000, you can have the best car on this planet for a college student.

Zac Palmer is a sophomore magazine journalism major. His column appears weekly in Pulp. He can be reached at  zipalmer@syr.edu.

Published on February 21, 2016 at 7:58 pm