What car did you buy your newly driving teen? Year, make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD just passed her permit, we told her after winter we’ll look to buy a car that she can drive that will also be another family car. The following year her brother will be using it. What brand and model did you buy? How much to spend. Ugh! We have no choice but to get the third car. My spouse and i work long distance. I laugh DD wants s wrangler jeep or a used bmw, too funny, not.

My teen got my old Subaru Legacy. Underpowered, super safe.

You should prioritize safety not fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Chevy Trailblazer has the most new car sale to teenagers of any car made.

Has a ton of safety features and a low price that is lower than most used cars.

I think parents realize 26k gets you a crappy used Japanese car so why not buy a new trailblazer with a full warranty and zero miles.

Well, A new trailblazer with all the safety features in it is more like 33-34 once you have accounted for all the fees and safety packages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Chevy Trailblazer has the most new car sale to teenagers of any car made.

Has a ton of safety features and a low price that is lower than most used cars.

I think parents realize 26k gets you a crappy used Japanese car so why not buy a new trailblazer with a full warranty and zero miles.

Well, A new trailblazer with all the safety features in it is more like 33-34 once you have accounted for all the fees and safety packages.

I’m looking at one and it’s 34k all in once you add fees.

[Anonymous]

The cheapest Tesla Model 3. No options and white exterior.

[Anonymous]

Toyota Corolla or Honda accord. Atleast one generation old.

[Anonymous]

Full disclosure: We moved to Denver from DC 8 years ago and so I have to wonder how much of a blind spot (pun intended) I have...
But:
When we bought my most recent car in 2019, we did so with the intention that it would become DC's car -- that she'd learn to drive on it (including in our snow/ice/mountains/highways/everything that living here involves PLUS making at least one cross-country trip back East while she had her learners). We went in with a couple of factors in addition to knowing it would become "her" car...a) DH and I have had a veritable used car lot of vehicles between us (Hondas, Fords, Audis, Infinitis, Cadillacs, Toyotas, Volvos, Buicks, Chevrolets, and there was a Chrysler 300M for a minute or maybe a year... [we've been together a LONG time and we're older] but the tried and true, the one we keep coming back to despite every kind of bell and whistle and test drive and dealer incentive and everything else and what we're both driving now are ... Volvos and
b) I grew up with a dad who was an ER doc. He never, ever breached HIPPA so I never heard a single patient story. But after he retired, I found out that he had been the ER physician who'd had to make "the call" for the two high school seniors killed on their way home from their graduation parties in the small town where we lived ... i.e., pronouncing their time of death. I didn't hear this from him, so we've never discussed it. I can only imagine the horror of it all, including the grief of the children's parents.

In some ways, it's haunted me more than any of the horrifying stories I read here on DCUM or in our local press (we lose high school students to traffic fatalities every.single.year, including 4 who were days away from their senior year just this past August -- our roads are treacherous and our drivers just outright reckless ) -- because I can picture my father as a parent working to save a child's life and feeling as though he'd failed, and in my mind's eye I see him telling other parents their child won't ever come home again from what they'd thought was the best night of their lives, the celebration of so much that they'd strived for as students, indeed so much they'd done to make their parents so very proud.

So when it came time to buy a car for our daughter, a car that she was with us when we purchased, even though she was then only 14? There might have been a choice on trim level, and we went with "pre-owned" instead of new...but for our family, there was only one manufacturer to consider: starts with a V, ends with an O. We (and she) know we're very lucky it was something we could afford. I know, of course, that some accidents are fatal no matter what. I know, to be sure, that children have to wear safety belts in order for ANY vehicle to save their lives...but at least in my husband's and my decision tree, especially given where we live and where DC will be driving, we feel we cannot afford the possibility of looking back and wondering "what if we'd gone with a safer option, instead?"

DC, by the way, has decided to defer getting her license 'til she's 18, which is just fine with us...especially since DH was in a major collision 6 weeks ago in which he was both rear-ended and slammed into another car at 50 MPH. Unlike the other (totaled) cars involved, his Volvo is at least reparable -- just months in the shop (so we're glad to have just 2 drivers at home!), but he and the dog walked away without a scratch. Living out here in the Wild West of Denver's suburbs, we just can't put a price on safety, and I'm glad we don't have to make that choice.