New or Used Car for teenager

[Anonymous]

Both parents' ideas are terrible OP.

[Anonymous]

We have a 2018 Pilot, 2020 Cr-V and a 2006 Toyota.

He drives the CR-V. We both WAH. He drives younger brother to school with him. I like piece of mind of knowing the odds of a breakdown are minimal and the safety features.

He feels more comfortable driving the Cr-v than the Pilot.

I’d never give a high performance car to a teen driver. We know two (separate incidents) teen boys killed in a BMW and another driving a Porsche. I’d also never put a kid in a car that is known to be susceptible to roll-overs.

A safe car that isn’t high speed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was offered a Jeep but had just heard about someone who tipped over at school, so didn't want that. So my dad got me a BMW. (This is not normal.)

Keeps tip over. Friend was killed in high school in one.

[Anonymous]

I drove my dad's old car, a Honda. When it died, they bought a used Nissan hatchback for us to use.

My teens just use whatever of our two cars are available. We aren't buying a third car. Not needed since DH and I both mostly WAH and the kids can walk to HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was offered a Jeep but had just heard about someone who tipped over at school, so didn't want that. So my dad got me a BMW. (This is not normal.)

Keeps tip over. Friend was killed in high school in one.

We were thinking about giving DD DH's Jeep Wrangler when she's old enough. The thing is really hard to drive IMO, and would be really difficult to get up to any speed related shenanigans. After reading about the recent cases where kids were driving recklessly and killed others, I feel like a car that cannot go fast without significant effort (that my 85 lbs. DD is not really capable of), is a good bet. And without any extra doohickeys, she'll actually learn how to drive, instead of relying on imperfect technology.

[Anonymous]

Have you actually done any car shopping? That may factor in as well when you actually look at what's available and the price points. We are in the same boat, with a 15YO who just got her permit earlier this summer. I drive a 2018 minivan with a nice trim package, DH drives an older GMC Canyon.

We at first thought we wanted a car we could get for less than $12-15K but we figured out pretty quickly that we needed to raise our price range to $20K-$22K to get something with less than 100K miles on it that we felt had a good amount of life left and wouldn't be a money pit. I don't know if we'll send DC1 to college with this car or keep it around for DC2, but we didn't want a beater, though I totally get why people would go that route with a teen.

We started looking at older Subarus but even used, it was hard to find one at that price/mileage point -- most had way more than 100K miles. Expanded to other small SUV-styles and considered things like the Honda HRV, Buick Encore. DH has been keeping an eye out for around 8+ months to see if something popped up that he could jump on, we weren't in a rush, but the conditions/prices have stayed pretty consistent. With so many car loans being five+ years now, by the time vehicles get to the used car market, they typically have at least 50K miles and often more like 100K.

What we ended up buying a couple of weeks ago was a 2015 Acura RDX with 50-some thousand miles on it. So older, but decent on mileage and yes, a luxury brand. It is far nicer than either of our first cars and really, nicer than we wanted for a teen driver that we expect will have at least some kind of fender-bender at some point. But it was cheaper than other, non-luxury Hondas and other models we looked at. DH also pointed out that with the luxury models, chances are a bit better that whoever owned the car had the means & motivation to keep it maintained. The features are a bit dated, but for a new driver, I think the safety features are satisfactory and in fact, I like that the center screen is small with limited functionality and that most things are controlled by physical buttons rather than sifting through multiple touch-screen menus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you actually done any car shopping? That may factor in as well when you actually look at what's available and the price points. We are in the same boat, with a 15YO who just got her permit earlier this summer. I drive a 2018 minivan with a nice trim package, DH drives an older GMC Canyon.

We at first thought we wanted a car we could get for less than $12-15K but we figured out pretty quickly that we needed to raise our price range to $20K-$22K to get something with less than 100K miles on it that we felt had a good amount of life left and wouldn't be a money pit. I don't know if we'll send DC1 to college with this car or keep it around for DC2, but we didn't want a beater, though I totally get why people would go that route with a teen.

We started looking at older Subarus but even used, it was hard to find one at that price/mileage point -- most had way more than 100K miles. Expanded to other small SUV-styles and considered things like the Honda HRV, Buick Encore. DH has been keeping an eye out for around 8+ months to see if something popped up that he could jump on, we weren't in a rush, but the conditions/prices have stayed pretty consistent. With so many car loans being five+ years now, by the time vehicles get to the used car market, they typically have at least 50K miles and often more like 100K.

What we ended up buying a couple of weeks ago was a 2015 Acura RDX with 50-some thousand miles on it. So older, but decent on mileage and yes, a luxury brand. It is far nicer than either of our first cars and really, nicer than we wanted for a teen driver that we expect will have at least some kind of fender-bender at some point. But it was cheaper than other, non-luxury Hondas and other models we looked at. DH also pointed out that with the luxury models, chances are a bit better that whoever owned the car had the means & motivation to keep it maintained. The features are a bit dated, but for a new driver, I think the safety features are satisfactory and in fact, I like that the center screen is small with limited functionality and that most things are controlled by physical buttons rather than sifting through multiple touch-screen menus.

There is no way the 2015 RDX is cheaper than a 2015 CRV. You wanted a luxury car for your kid. That’s your call, but don’t pretend otherwise.

[Anonymous]

I would discuss the actual safety features you want rather than discussing this in the abstract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What did you drive as a teen and what does your teenager drive? What about brand, a mainstream or luxury? We have a soon to be licensed driver and spouse and I have very different opinions about what our teenager should have as a first car. One of us is in the camp of a new (2023-24) mainstream (Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Subaru type) the other is in the camp of a used (2018-2020) luxury (Audi, Lexus, Acura type). We are both citing safety features as a concern.

Pick from this list in terms of safety. They do different price points.
https://www.iihs.org/ratings/safe-vehicles-for-teens
The rest comes down to budget in terms of maintenance, gas, repairs, time without a car, etc.

Personally, since I have a teen boy with a heavy foot, I'm very happy with him driving our older Subaru Outback, four cylinder, with little pickup. He said it drives like a grandma car, and that, to me, is perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you actually done any car shopping? That may factor in as well when you actually look at what's available and the price points. We are in the same boat, with a 15YO who just got her permit earlier this summer. I drive a 2018 minivan with a nice trim package, DH drives an older GMC Canyon.

We at first thought we wanted a car we could get for less than $12-15K but we figured out pretty quickly that we needed to raise our price range to $20K-$22K to get something with less than 100K miles on it that we felt had a good amount of life left and wouldn't be a money pit. I don't know if we'll send DC1 to college with this car or keep it around for DC2, but we didn't want a beater, though I totally get why people would go that route with a teen.

We started looking at older Subarus but even used, it was hard to find one at that price/mileage point -- most had way more than 100K miles. Expanded to other small SUV-styles and considered things like the Honda HRV, Buick Encore. DH has been keeping an eye out for around 8+ months to see if something popped up that he could jump on, we weren't in a rush, but the conditions/prices have stayed pretty consistent. With so many car loans being five+ years now, by the time vehicles get to the used car market, they typically have at least 50K miles and often more like 100K.

What we ended up buying a couple of weeks ago was a 2015 Acura RDX with 50-some thousand miles on it. So older, but decent on mileage and yes, a luxury brand. It is far nicer than either of our first cars and really, nicer than we wanted for a teen driver that we expect will have at least some kind of fender-bender at some point. But it was cheaper than other, non-luxury Hondas and other models we looked at. DH also pointed out that with the luxury models, chances are a bit better that whoever owned the car had the means & motivation to keep it maintained. The features are a bit dated, but for a new driver, I think the safety features are satisfactory and in fact, I like that the center screen is small with limited functionality and that most things are controlled by physical buttons rather than sifting through multiple touch-screen menus.

There is no way the 2015 RDX is cheaper than a 2015 CRV. You wanted a luxury car for your kid. That’s your call, but don’t pretend otherwise.

I think the point was the used car market is tight right now, and perhaps the RDX was available, and nothing like a CRV was, given all the different factors of mileage, etc.

[Anonymous]

I borrowed my parents car (think Corolla or Golf). My kids will borrow my small Honda. They are not getting their own car.

[Anonymous]

My DD will be driving her dad's old used Toyota Corolla although she has experience driving in my Toyota RAV4 and her dad's used 2004 BMW. The RAV4 has the best safety features but it is also the hardest to drive because it's the biggest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When a teen was able to drive we bought ourselves a new car and the teen drove our previous car. We did this for both kids and it worked out well for us. We wanted them to have a used car and since it was our used car we knew that it had been treated well.
We are either Honda or Subaru - would never buy a luxury car.

This. We just bought a new (to us) EV & have a 15 y/o who's about to start driving. Tried to talk DH into keeping our old Subaru for DS. He didn't and now I dread having our kid drive the new one.

OP: My vote is for used mainstream.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anything but a KIA, they are major theft targets.

Kia and Hyundai
https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/hyundai-kia-campaign-prevent-vehicle-theft

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would discuss the actual safety features you want rather than discussing this in the abstract.

This