Thought for Food

Gena’s Car Report (or: My Sister is Awesome)

Gena, who will turn 17 in January, really wants her own car. So she researched and wrote a 5-page report, complete with 3 tables, on why she — nay, the whole family — need a third car to join their Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid. (She told me that she considered recommending they buy a third Prius but, as she put it, “A two-Prius family? Could you GET more condescending?”)

Here’s an excerpt:

A third car would be beneficial to the Sherman-Sherman family for many reasons.  With this in mind, I put into account my family’s specifications for the optimal car, and then went to consumerreports.com to start my search.

The members of our family have varying views on what they are looking for in a car, but for the most part, they are pretty similar.  For the purpose of this paper, I am going to exclude Nora from having an opinion in this, even though she is a very loved and cherished member of the family.

[She goes on to compare 7 new car models according to 13 criteria, and settles on 3 recommendations: the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Subaru Forrester.]

I am also going to address a final question that is on everyone’s minds; Why do we need a third car?  Well, in the hunter and gatherer sense of the word, we don’t!  We don’t even need two cars, or one.  But, we do have two cars, because the life we lead and the city we live in requires it.  Every single day, our family spreads itself across Minnesota to places you would never imagine. […]

Also, I think my having access to a car would make me much more responsible, more adept at managing my time, and also stop the bad habit that plagues me which is procrastination.  Since I will have to drive myself to school and work, pay insurance, and keep up my top A grades, I will be really busy.  I will have to manage my time to start my homework and projects when they are assigned, study daily, go to work so I can pay for insurance, and also balance my social life between it all.  It is a huge responsibility, I admit, but I know I am ready. […]

Good luck, G!