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Smart Shopper Best Car for a new teenage driver
554 messages, Last post on Nov 08, 2009 at 7:33 PM
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1) Cheap to maintain 2) None to expensive 3) Save and reliable 4) Fuel friendly, imagine your kids having to pay for current gas. Arent those what counts when looking for a car for teenagers? Personally I think the rest depends on the driver itself. My neighbor gave his 17 y.o daughter a hand me down 04 Mustang GTand nothing ever happened to her. OTOH I know a guy who bought his son an 06 Scion tC and he crashed it in 4 months. The only problem with most teens, they still lack responsibility and experience, in general that is. A used car from japanese brands is the best option, I'd say either a Scion, Toyota, Subaru or Honda. There's a premium for getting a Subaru, but the tradeoff is great snow traction and engine that last probably longer than the car itself  Avoid any european brand including VW (actually, particularly VW) Avoid SUVs, one may think its big = save. heck an SUV is actually a handfull to control in less ideal conditions. If space is important, buy him/her a wagon or crossover instead. No ABS or ESC can save your kid if hes not a good driver. To be fair they help though. If you must, most late entries already have that option. Sonata is cheap, but the resale value will give you a real sting. Fusion fares better overall imo.
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Replying to: marys236 (Oct 11, 2008 3:39 pm) What? You're buying the kid an "old fart's" car and you're not even going to pimp it up a bit? At 19K I'd still call you dad but your son might not. 
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This is an interesting article here on Edmunds about choosing a safe car for a teen driver. http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/safety/articles/121346/article.html |
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Replying to: m4d_cow (Oct 11, 2008 10:08 pm) I'm leaning towards a mid-size, since I think they are generally going to provide more protection in a crash, while still getting decent gas mileage. I prefer Hondas, and drive an Accord myself, but the ESC did not become standard on Accords until 2008. Before that, ESC was only available on the 6 cyl. models beginning in 2006, which are hard to find in my area. Also, a 2006 6 cyl. Accord will run about $17k to $18k in this area, if you can find one. Not saving much, and lower gas mileage. Scion is too small in my opinion, Toyota, no ESC available on used sedans except as an option (which none of the used cars around here have). Yes, I might be able to find a 10 y/o Subaru at a cheap price, but my son's HS is across town, and he has a 30 mile roundtrip to school and back on the interstate, I just don't want to risk getting anything that old. Really, it's almost impossible to find a used Subaru in my area anyway. They are pretty rare around here, we don't even have a Subaru dealership in my city any more. An acquaintance's teenage daughter was recently in a fatal one-car accident after losing control of her car. She was not driving recklessly, at least not that anyone can tell. That may be influencing my desire to get something with ESC, since it's possible that feature could have prevented her accident. Even if a teenager is a good driver, they don't have much driving experience and they don't have the best judgment when faced with the split second decisions that can mean the difference between life and death on the highway. It's just a difficult decision, trying to balance cost with safety.
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You Want Safe? My sons High School car was a 76 Impala Custom Coupe. Safest thing this side of a Peterbilt . It got sideswiped one day at school and the other car had to be towed away.He drove home. With a slightly tweaked bumper.Other drivers fault. And the 400 smallblock wasn't that bad on gas. He eventually saved anough coin working to buy a brand new Cavalier for his college car, which he finally has sold, years after graduating .
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Replying to: marys236 (Oct 12, 2008 4:32 am) The insurance rates are higher during the age 16 year. They go down some at 17 if no accidents, no tickets, etc. That's at least true with my insurance company. The faux secretary who is actually a crack agent waiting to take over when the older guy retires..., gives new drivers a lecture about distractions, speed, and tickets when they come in to be added to policy and turn in their safe driving packet they worked through and so on. Cell phones is #1 on the list After that a month I watched a Cobalt with SS badges in a coupe and all black with lots of chrome wheels crash into the rear of a car waiting to make a left turn. Seventeen-year-old was reaching for his cell phone because it rang; he was trying to find it. Talking to other parents their advice is no answering cell phone while driving. Pull over in parking lot of side of road to see who called; if parent or important call, park and return call. One of those was the husband (ex) of the lady who was hit in the rear making the left turn. He's a policeman in another district. If you want your kid safe, buy a large, older car that doesn't have a lot of power but is safer because of mass and has front air bags. I can find you a large H-body GM car with side air bags from 2000 up for a good price. Drive it for a couple of years. As for stability control, you can't repeal the laws of physics. May I respectfully suggest that most accidents are not going to be prevented beyond the initial 10% of loss of control if driver doesn't catch what's happening. A teenager probably won't, especially if distracted. The one law of physics which will help is relative masses and construction of larger cars. I'd put my effort in safe driving and full attention on driving. Our state only allows one juvenile in car with a new driver that's not a relative unless there's a related adult in the car. I may not have that worded quite right, but the point is distracted driving. BTW the teenager in the spiffy black/chrome Cobalt, could have turned right 5 degrees and avoided hitting the Saturn in the rear; the berm is almost flat and a very gentle slope onto the flat acreage of a chruch. He was distracted or had never learned to always think about escape routes as you drive. When he hit the brakes, he stayed right on the road to hit the car. |
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Replying to: 2doorpost (Oct 12, 2008 6:01 am) Something in the '99-'01 range, so it has airbags... Which will also make it relatively cheap ($3500-$6500). Ugly and/or dorky is okay... you don't want him to love driving it.. Semi-poor fuel mileage is also okay... If he can't afford road trips, you won't have to worry about him being 150 miles away on a Saturday. As far as stability control? It's a great option, but 99% of us learned to drive a car without it. In fact, it could be argued that a new driver would never get a sense of impending loss of control, if the stability control is always stepping in to fix the problem. Then, the only time he would be out of control, would be when it is too late to save it, and with no experience on how to do it. Save that extra $10K for his college fund.. Or, send him to teenage car control/safety clinics.. So.. Look for a Taurus, Sable, Impala, Olds Alero, Malibu, etc.. You can get a pretty decent car for $5K.. that won't make you cry if he gets in a fender-bender. Just my $0.02 kyfdx visiting host
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Replying to: kyfdx (Oct 12, 2008 6:13 am) one time my daughter brought the explorer home with a dent in the rear fender. she said some hit it while it was parked. when i took it to the body shop for an estimate, i asked the guy if he thought it was hit or hit something. he gave me a funny look, but i told him i wasn't driving it. he asked how old the driver was, when i said they had been driving about a year. he said it was hit, kids usually damage the cars in the front or the back. |
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Replying to: marys236 (Oct 12, 2008 4:32 am) I bought a 2007 LE w/VSC when new, for the sole purpose of being handed down to my daughter (which it now is). Has all the air bags, ABS, VSC, mid-sized, cheap to insure, not top heavy, not a huge engine, safe, reliable, parts easy to find and fix (if/when need be), etc. |
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Replying to: marys236 (Oct 11, 2008 6:33 pm) the cheapest fusion in my local area with ESC has an msrp of 22k. it was an SE model. all the others i found were more. good luck and i hope your son turns out to be an excellent driver.
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