Advocacy Group Says The Best Car For Your Teen Should Be Something Embarrassing

Not sure if I agree on this. Depends on the kid. But I do question parents who give a 16 year old a 500 HP Mustang as their first car.

There is a middle ground somewhere

I cannot agree with all of this either.Due to the cost to have teenagers drive getting a car that has all the side airbags and safety equipment can be a little price prohibitive.Usually that means a new car or a car 1 or 2 yrs old. I would go with a 10 yr. old car. Even 10 yr. cars have some of these safety equipment systems in them.The advantage, of course, is you do not need to car full coverage.A big car in my book is a no no. Why-because teenagers at 16 have not developed their hand, eye coordination as well as adults. They have a more difficult time judging the size of the car they drive. A smaller car is easier to manouver and park.I completely agree about a car with low horspower and good mileage.As far as ugly well that's subjective.

Big cars are safer than small cars because in the event of a collision the big car will typically win. Big doesn't have to mean Ford Excursion. My XTerra is "big" as far as bumper height, weight, etc. but it's the same width as and 10 inches shorter than a Mazda 6.

What about rollover risk? We had an XTerra quite a while back and nearly flipped it avoiding an accident. Pretty scary stuff.

There is that to consider, but I think the rollover risk is not high enough to outweigh the advantages of having something like an Xterra or Wrangler Unlimited etc. when in a collision with a random vehicle on the road, which, depending on where you live (I live in central Ohio) is very likely to be something of that size or larger. When I lived in a small town in England a bicycle was sufficient and certainly most cars were about the size of a Civic or even smaller. But in a large but sprawling midwestern US city you are sharing the road with many vehicles with tall bumpers and weight exceeding 4500 lbs. and all the safety features in the world wouldn't make me take an Elantra over an XTerra (for example) in most collisions.

As a separate topic regarding this article, there are poor road conditions (rain, snow, slush, etc) to take into account as well, again depending on where you live. While a new AWD car with intelligent controls would probably be best, a small old "embarrassing" car like the article suggest may well be the worst thing you could take out there, and "don't drive in bad weather" is never a sustainable solution.

Gosh thinking about this more and more, seems the best car to get is a Subaru Forester. It's not pretty, it's dependable, it drives well, it's not all that high-performance, it is convenient, and it's not expensive. Heh.

These days the kids are getting the big old SUV. Which is then packed with their friends, with predictable results.