This is the second issue of a series of articles ranking cars in the AMHS school parking lot. After careful deliberation, a 50 point scale was developed to properly rate the cars (which is the same as the first issue):

• 10 points- Uniqueness (car stickers, car color, etc.) 
• 10 points- Overall cleanliness (exterior)
• 15 points- Car Design (vintage, recent model, etc.) 
• 15 points – Overall Aesthetics (appeal, satisfying finish)

After the first publication of this series, we received some suggestions from a few peers to enforce this scale more strictly. So, the scores for this issue will be significantly lower and more brutally honest than last edition. Enjoy!

Sadly, this Gold Mini Cooper earned a very unfortunate score of 22/50. Although I like the attempt to match the sunflower sticker to the exterior of the car, this decision really fell short for me, as the yellow colors did not go together. The car earned a perfect score for uniqueness, 7 points for overall cleanliness, and 2 points for both car design and overall aesthetics. A suggestion for improvement is to repaint the car a more appealing color, maybe white or grey. Better luck next time!

It’s a minivan and  the South Carolina “Home.” sticker on the bottom right corner of the back windshield really adds to the age of this car. In addition, the Clemson paw print magnet should have been placed somewhere else, or preferably not on the car entirely. All of these factors together earn the minivan a score of 25/50. On a lighter note, I do enjoy the light blue car color, as well as the MUSC Children’s Health license plate.

This red Sentra earned a disappointing score of 19/50, as there is nothing really special about this car. As you can clearly see in the photo above, this car is incredibly dirty, earning only 1 point in the overall cleanliness category. The only redeeming factor of this car is the ruby red paint color, but sadly it is hard to see how nice this color is because of the grime that covers this car. My suggestion, maybe take a visit to your local car wash.

This X-Terra is such a classic car. I enjoy the sticker minimalistic approach. The roof rack on the top of the car is perfectly executed, and as you can see from the picture above, the car is very clean, and is even practically shining in the sunlight. On the other hand, I do wish the car had a lift, as it does feel a little low to the ground. Overall, the car earned a 32/50, earning 5 points for uniqueness, 10 points for overall cleanliness and car design, and 7 points for overall aesthetics.

This clean white Tacoma earns an impressive score of 39/50. I think the black rims and tires match well with the tinted windows of the car as well as the black roof rack. In addition, the exterior of the car is very clean, but I did have to take off a few points in the overall cleanliness category because there is a small amount of dirt to the right of the back tire. The lift on this car is in my opinion perfect, it is not too much and at the same time not too little.

You definitely do not see a lot of these cars in the parking lot. To start off with the good, this car earned points for its interesting arrangement of stickers. I particularly liked the cute pink flowers and the Foofighters sticker. However, the sticker collection loses points for the imposter sticker because among us has been out of style for a while. It lost several points in the car design category and even more points in the car aesthetics category. Thus this car received a total of 24 points: 10/10 points for uniqueness, 7/10 points for cleanliness, 3/15 points for car design, and 4/15 points for aesthetics.

This Silver X5 BMW received a mediocre score of 23/50. First off, this car screams mom car. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but in this rating system, aesthetics are believed to be a key component and a mom aesthetic is not worthy of a full set of points. This car does have a very clean exterior and seems to be a good quality vehicle so it earns strong points in cleanliness and design. Another place this car lost a significant amount of points was the uniqueness category. Frankly, nothing about this car really stands out; there are no fun stickers or outstanding paint jobs. In totality this car earned: 0/10 points for uniqueness, 10 /10 points for cleanliness, 11/15 points for design, and  2/15 points for aesthetics. 

This Red Volvo 240 earned one of the highest scores in this edition: 39/50. This car is not just unique in it’s vintage design, but also in the cute collection of stickers on the rear. Because of these qualities, this Volvo earned a full 10/10 points for uniqueness. In overall cleanliness, while the car isn’t super dirty, it could stand a little washing earning 6/10 points for cleanliness. This car is very old car, produced sometime during the 1990’s, however it seems incredibly well-maintained, so it earned 10/15 points for car design. Finally, the aesthetics of this car are immaculate, I love the vibe of this car so it earned 13/15 points for aesthetics. 

This yellow Chevy was another one of the higher scoring vehicles. The thing that really makes this truck stand out is the bright yellow exterior and massive size. As there aren’t many students driving a truck like this, this Chevy earned 8/10 points for uniqueness. One thing that can’t be denied about this truck is it’s seemingly spotless exterior: 10/10 for cleanliness. I do have to dock this truck some points on design because, personally I feel as though this car could do with some nicer rims. The current rims just don’t seem to match the feel of the truck, so it only earns 9/15 for car design and 8/15 for aesthetics. So, this truck earned a total of 35/50 points.

We hope you enjoyed this second issue of Raptor Car Rankings! If you want your car to be rated, please email one of us, Mary Archambault (arcmar8543@ccsdschools.com) and Gracie Mochizuki (mocgra6372@ccsdschools.com) with your parking spot number as well as the car’s make and model. See you next month!