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Good starter car for a newly licensed 16 year old?

Bacstar

Bacstar

Golden Member
My nephew turns 16 this year so will be getting his driver's license down in Southern California. My sister asked me for some suggestions as she is shopping for a car for him. She's really sick of driving him around which I found kinda funny.

I told her to get the new Dodge Dart, but she doesn't want to buy anything new. She even said that it might be too small a car for him due to safety concerns. Her price range is $12-13k. Any other suggestions?
 
First off, he WILL be in an accident. It's his first car, I'd say $5k absolute max. Think 2000 focus/corolla/economy car of the day.

In my opinion reliability isn't a huge deal as this is a good time to learn the basics but I'd want something with dual airbags and ABS.


What does his mom drive?
 
Corporate Thug said:
One of my friends did that in high school...he bought in 1970 something Benz...it broke down in a few months and his parents had to buy him a car 😛
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Maybe they should've made him figure out how to fix it rather than bail him out with a new vehicle.. Not a good example to set, IMO.. I've seen plenty of kids get oddball first cars and end up learning a LOT from working on them.
 
If he wants a stick shift, get a stick. If he doesn't, get an auto. Great time to learn though.

Beyond that, a reliable and ubiquitous vehicle, to keep down repair costs by means of it not breaking down, and having plenty of spare parts in junkyards.

Size is not the total answer to safety. A Camry is safer than a late 90's Exploder, despite being a smaller vehicle. Crash ratings matter.

Four cylinders is a good idea to keep him slowed down, plus it'll be more fuel efficient for whoever buys gas for it.

So, put your list together. Probably Asian manufacturer, probably a sedan, four cylinders, low-mileage/reliable... Mazda 3, Corolla, Civic all come to mind. If those are too small, an older Camry?
 
You want something cheap and under powered for a first car. Chevy Cobalt. If safety is a real concern, dont let him drive in the first place. Getting him a bigger car is only going to make him hurt someone else more when he does crash.
 
Mom drives a 2000 Toyota Tundra, I think. Her husband works as a drug rep for a pharm company which supplies him with a car which he can then purchase at the end of their 3 year lease. I thought they were going this route, but I'm not sure what happened with that plan.

Parents keep him pretty busy with school and extra-curricular activities, so I'm pretty sure he's not going to be working anytime soon...but that might change once he gets the car. Also, not sure how much freedom he'll have with the car, might be just school and related activities.
 
Bacstar said:
Mom drives a 2000 Toyota Tundra, I think. Her husband works as a drug rep for a pharm company which supplies him with a car which he can then purchase at the end of their 3 year lease. I thought they were going this route, but I'm not sure what happened with that plan.

Parents keep him pretty busy with school and extra-curricular activities, so I'm pretty sure he's not going to be working anytime soon...but that might change once he gets the car. Also, not sure how much freedom he'll have with the car, might be just school and related activities.
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A 2000 tundra sounds like a decent first car. I'd tell the mom to go buy herself something nice and 'sell' him that for $5k or whatever it's worth.
 
troll cragislist and get the cheapest PoS that'll move, 1k or so will do.

sell/junk car when crashed/died

rinse and repeat process.

with a 10k budget, you can go through 10 cars.
 
SpatiallyAware said:
A 2000 tundra sounds like a decent first car. I'd tell the mom to go buy herself something nice and 'sell' him that for $5k or whatever it's worth.
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This sounds like a winner idea to me. Mom gets an upgrade and kid gets a good first vehicle - win/win. No way in hell my kid is getting a nicer car than me when he turns 16.

And to the "he WILL wreck it crowd" - I don't know that many teenagers that have gotten into accidents. Sure it's a much higher percentage than the general population and teenagers are generally stupid, but it's not a foregone conclusion.
 
SearchMaster said:
This sounds like a winner idea to me. Mom gets an upgrade and kid gets a good first vehicle - win/win. No way in hell my kid is getting a nicer car than me when he turns 16.

And to the "he WILL wreck it crowd" - I don't know that many teenagers that have gotten into accidents. Sure it's a much higher percentage than the general population and teenagers are generally stupid, but it's not a foregone conclusion.
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I agree with this as well. I think if you toss the keys to a 300hp car to a teen, your odds are pretty bad (especially if they seem the 'street racer' type or someone easily influenced by peers when driving), but general cheap slow cars, nah.

I think the odds are good that :

The kid will bang it up a little at some point, fender bender, bump into parked car/pole/etc, accidentally drive over a parking space stopper, whatever, as well as probably forget to check the tires and fluids properly as often as they should, so in that way very young drivers are a lot like very old drivers, lol. Drivers are probably at their best between 25-45 years old imho due to being old enough not to care about hotrodding/etc, but young enough not to start to lose reaction time and attention span.

But a little banged up =! Wrecked.

Even $3k will get a pretty solid used car, though it will be a little uglier/older. And older generally comes with less remaining lifespan and lower safety on average.

I wonder how the safety ratings are on a 2000 Tundra.
 
Modern small cars have really good safety ratings due to the side airbags. A big car isn't going to protect you from a side impact any better than a compact, unless it's a taller vehicle that lifts your head and organs out of harm's way.

A $3k car is a death trap. If he gets t-boned when he's texting and driving and runs a red light, he will probably die. Giving him the Tundra seems like a pretty good idea.
 
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I didn't wreck a car as a teenager, I knew a few who did, but I knew a lot more who didn't. That said I don't think a 16yo needs to be driving a car that cost more than $5-8k, it's not my kid though so what difference does my opinion make. If this is going to be the kid's car, why not ask the kid what he wants, it doesn't make sense to recommend a coupe if he really wants a wagon.
 
Or if the tundra is worth more, have her sell that too, pick up the beater and spend extra cash on something else for herself. But that really ends up more money spent overall as is selling him her car and etc.

I agree with the no more than 5k crowd as it's most likely going to get beat up on. At the very least maintenance and bangs and dents so they shouldn't dump too much money on to it. A-B relatively safe and slow with reliability thrown in and he should be good till after college imo.
 
Hey... I trashed my parents car while learning how to drive, and trashed my first $150 beater car by driving it through a 6 inch deep puddle and flooding it. A non $150 car might have survived the puddle crossing better, but it was still fun beating on.
 
Ooops.. it's not a Tundra...it's the SUV Sequoia... Sorry.

I'll be seeing him next week, so I'll try to sneak in a question and ask him what he wants. Hopefully, I can be the responsible uncle instead of the good uncle and over-indulge any dream car fantasies he may have.
 
My Sis-In-Law is getting ready to sell her Camry. 1 owner vehicle, I think it is a 2001 or a 2002, white, automatic, with around 120k miles IIRC. Always well maintained, no accidents that I'm aware of. Couple minor scratches around the rear bumper, new tires. She's in the Redondo Beach area if you're interested. I think she's looking for around $6-6.5k for it.
 
I'm of the opinion that buying a kid a $12k car is a moronic move crowd.

Seriously. Who the hell buys their kid something that nice knowing full well that it'll get beat up?

If anything buy the kid a good model $2-3k car that has good safety ratings and good gas mileage. Take the other 9k or so and save/invest it. Buy him a nicer car when he goes off to college, or put the money into his college fund.

Seriously though. They may not get into an accident, but they will more than likely do a number on their first car. Why put that much into it in the first place?
 
I dont think I would ever want my kid in some cheap beater POS but that's just me. My parents bought me a 2005 chevy cobalt in 2005 when it came out and I turned out just fine.

To each their own.
 
Just remembering my family when we turned 16, my parents got me a new VW Scirocco as my first car, and my sister got a BMW 315si or something like that. Our other sister got shipped off to the Philippines since she was the bad-girl in the family.
 
Throckmorton said:
Modern small cars have really good safety ratings due to the side airbags. A big car isn't going to protect you from a side impact any better than a compact, unless it's a taller vehicle that lifts your head and organs out of harm's way.

A $3k car is a death trap. If he gets t-boned when he's texting and driving and runs a red light, he will probably die. Giving him the Tundra seems like a pretty good idea.
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While it's somewhat true that side airbags have given compact cars a boost (I'm happy my compact has them), it's still safer to be in an average midsize car than an average compact or subcompact if safety is a concern. There's simply more mass and larger areas to absorb/deform upon impact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcTf78b8WfY&feature=related

This has been proven it seems about every 4-5 years since forever. Top Gear I think even did it with the European standards.
 
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