The average Capital Region collegian drives a five-year-old Honda Civic.
That is among the findings of an unscientific Times Union census of vehicles parked in student lots at The College of Saint Rose, Hudson Valley Community College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Siena College, Skidmore College, Union College and the University at Albany.
Brock Yates, editor-at-large of Car and Driver magazine, isn't surprised. “I think the imports, in particular the Japanese and compact imports, have high status,” Yates says. “And that's what kids like. You show up with a Honda Accord or a Civic, and you're ahead of the game.” Student parking lots in Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Saratoga Springs are nearly indistinguishable, with most looking like the used-car lot at a Honda dealership. Other small imports from manufacturers including Toyota, Mitsubishi and Scion are well represented, but sitting alongside them in most college lots are surprising rides including Cadillacs, Hummers, Porsches and at least one mint-condition, 33-year-old car-pickup hybrid from Ford called the Ranchero.
Students at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, where tuition, room, board and fees total more than $41,000 a year, drive the most expensive cars; some student parking lots there can easily be mistaken for faculty lots.
The average resale value of a student car is lowest at UAlbany, one-seventh as much as those at Skidmore.
Gary Krohl, professor of automotive history at HVCC, says the stereotype of a student car as a barely running junker no longer holds true. College vehicles today are generally newer and better maintained. Krohl says, “In the '80s, they were whatever (students) could get, whether it's an old, beat-up pickup truck or an old 1970s Chevy they could get running.”
These days, Hondas are most popular, but they have competition:
At Union, Volkswagens and Fords are tops. They accounted for 36 percent of the vehicles in the lots surveyed one day earlier this fall. Union students seem to prefer VW Jettas and Ford Explorers.
At UAlbany, Toyotas rule. And, in a curious statistical anomaly, one surveyed UAlbany lot was entirely barren of Hondas.
At Skidmore one day last month, vehicles by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus, Audi and Infiniti accounted for 8 percent of student cars. The runner-up in the posh- imports category was Siena, with 6 percent.
While most rides were at least several years old, the UAlbany lot was home to a brand-new 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse and a 2006 Hummer H3.
“The vehicles that our students drive are as diverse as the students themselves,” says HVCC President Drew Matonak. “The cars, trucks and SUVs are foreign, domestic, every color, year, make and model imaginable.”
Krohl says that as much as students and their cars have changed over the decades, some things remain constant. A car choice is primarily about transportation, he says, but adds, “It's about personal expression as well.”
Chris Salute, a senior at Siena College, is a Times Union intern. He drives a
1998 Ford Taurus.