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Kars for Kids

Choosing your teenager's first set of wheels

Driving-aged teenagers put their parents in a Catch-22. On one hand, having another chauffeur and vehicle in the household allows parents to curtail their self-perceived double lives as taxi drivers. The drawback is that teenagers' hormones regularly cause their brains' synapses to misfire, and entrusting them with a multi-thousand-pound weapon makes parents lose countless hours of sleep. After all, automobile fatalities are a leading cause of teen death every year: According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, "More of 16 year-olds' fatal crashes involve only the teen's vehicle. Typically these are high-speed crashes in which the driver lost control." So, what's the best automotive compromise between freedom and safety?

New Vs. Used

As with many other issues in America, money is usually the decisive factor. Parents who have the financial means can choose a conscience-appeasing car for their kid by looking at NHTSA's crash-test ratings for new vehicles, then narrowing down the list to those in their price range. Or, wealthy parents with spoiled brats can continue the pattern of buying them whatever they want. (This is all moot if the kid has acted in George Lucas blockbusters since age eight or joined the pro tennis tour at 15.)

Recurring costs are another fundamental consideration. Obviously, used cars cost less to register and insure than new ones. Larger vehicles get worse fuel economy, and cars with high-compression engines can require premium-grade fuel to run their best. Parents can also use the car payment to teach kids the joys of later-in-life monthly financial obligations such as mortgages. Perhaps a percentage of the kid's after-school tanning-salon-attendant wages are "garnished" and applied to the monthly payment.

What if a new car isn't an option? Parents' main criteria for used cars is often safety and reliability (while the kids are into purely its coolness quotient and performance). NHTSA and the Insurance Institute publish crash data going back a few years. (Incidentally, driver's side airbags became mandatory in 1992.) Reliability can be researched through recall notices (also provided by NHTSA) and other data such as the J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction results. If the extended family runs an auto repair service or a body shop, mechanical condition and/or the vehicle's physical appearance become less important. (Consumer Reports' list of the best used cars for teenagers includes the Honda Civic, Nissan Sentra, Subaru Forester and Toyota Camry.)

Common sense shouldn't be overlooked while car shopping. Although subcompacts are inexpensive and get great mileage, they tend to come out on the short end of metal-to-metal tete-a-tetes.

On the other end of the spectrum, lifted 4x4s give drivers (especially less-experienced ones) a false sense of security. The reality is that the truck's higher center of gravity requires that corners be negotiated slower, makes evasive maneuvers less controllable, and increases stopping distances as tire size gets larger. Also, parents from the big-bench-seat era might want to look for cars with Hummer-sized center consoles purely for Friday-night submarine-races reasons.

Two other points on used-car safety and reliability: First, antilock brake systems have proven themselves effective for crash-avoidance. Next, because many used cars are no longer covered by their original warranty, shopping for a "certified pre-owned" car can restore consumer confidence that the dealer and/or manufacturer will stand behind the vehicle for a certain period.

Hand-Downs

Everyone wants their kids to have it better than they had it. But face it: many of us had to suffer the embarrassment of driving the Country Squire with fake-woodgrain side panels on days we weren't walking to school through the snow. It builds character. After all, didn't their first bike have training wheels? Why not let first-time drivers learn the proximity between the rear bumper and telephone poles on the 10-year-old family minivan?

The reward system is another effective means of automotive parenting. Aftermarket accessories such as that thumpin' sound system can be used as a reward for good grades—or as an incentive for the teen to get a job. In other words, buying a car that isn't fully loaded can have motivational as well as fiduciary benefits.

Finally, there's always the time-honored "bonding" approach: Buy the kid a jalopy before they're of driving age. Working on the car can force parents and teens into spending quality time together and lessen the blow to the wallet. And like the motorized bunny at the greyhound races, a car that's waiting to be driven serves as a constant reminder for the teen to keep their eyes on the prize: keep the grades up, clean the bathrooms, mow the lawn, wash the other cars. Best of all, a project car in your garage can make the high-school punk band form elsewhere.

Resources

Consumer Reports, www.consumerreports.org

J.D. Power & Associates, www.jpda.com

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, www.highwaysafety.org

NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), www.nhtsa.gov