Car for teenager grandson

[HawkeyeNFO]

Look for an old Crown Victoria or Grand Marquis that has outlived its owner. Pretty reliable, definitely crash worthy and not flashy.

Is Grandma going to drive the car? Or is it for the kid?

10 years ago I would have agreed with the Crown Vic, but now they are all used up and going away.

 

[travelover]

Is Grandma going to drive the car? Or is it for the kid?

10 years ago I would have agreed with the Crown Vic, but now they are all used up and going away.

There are still plenty sitting in garages waiting until grampa feels well enough to start driving again.

 

[Jerry1]

There are still plenty sitting in garages waiting until grampa feels well enough to start driving again.

Yeah, they’re out there. Like I said, I live in Ford country. There’s still a number of retirees that are driving their land yachts around. My area has a number of Ford white collar retired workers and they’re probably mostly engineers who, by the looks of them (the cars), keep them in pretty good shape, even here in Michigan with salted roads. I’m sure there are some nice ones down south still.

Also, don’t forget the Mercury Marauder. That wasn’t a grandma/grandpa car. I might have one of those myself if I had the room to store it. I love cars. It would be great to have a huge garage with about 5 to 10 cars. But, that would have required working a bit longer than I was willing.

 

[Out of Steam]

When our daughter was a teenager, I found her an older Toyota Corolla. She liked the car a lot, and it proved reliable, even buying it with 140K miles. I sold it to a neighbor, and I believe it's still running.

After a while, it made me nervous that the car had neither ABS brakes nor side airbags. I probably would have replaced it if we still needed to provide a car for her.

 

[iloveyoga]

I would talk with the parents and then give the grandson some money to help him pay for the car. I honestly think every kid should work and pay for his own car. If they pay for it they will take more ownership in it knowing it is money they earned to buy it and they will lose that money if they are careless. Kids in my high school who got their cars paid for didn't take care of them. Those of us who bought our own cars took care of them. Sure I had to work summers off of school starting at about 13 detassling corn and mowing yards to get the money.

This, I was trying to think of a way to say it and you did it well. Our kids are all grown now, but we had our son pay for his car and insurance, hoping that he would be more careful in driving and with the car. Not sure how that all worked, but we did all survive, even if any teenager cars were beat up by the time they got done with them.

 

[doneat54]

Here's my thoughts having bought several cheap cars for our kids, consultant for other friends looking to buy cheap first cars, and being a hobbyist mechanic.

Buy from private sellers, stay away from dealers of any kind.


Try to find a one owner, and ask about maintenance records.


Do not try to buy the popular cars, Civics, Camry's, etc.


Buy the ugly cars that no one likes (humbles the teenager too)



For a teenager get something at least midsize, they are generally safer.


And learned from dealing with people selling sub $2k cars from time to time, the very first question you should ask is, "Do you have the title and is it in your name?" If the answer isn't an immediate yes, hang up.


Second question is "Is the car registered, insured and inspected?" Be wary if not.

Not sure where you live, but look for cars being sold by individuals in well off neighborhoods. Most of the time, they just want to get rid of it and deals may be better.

Stay away from high mileage cars no matter what.

Use cars.com to check out asking prices for any model you might be looking at. Do a wide, like 500 mile search, then you can sort on year, mileage, etc. You can also filter private seller also.

Find the cars that don't hold their value well. We bought two Volvo V70 wagons for our son for around $3000-$4000 (this was maybe 8-10 years ago). Around 100k miles. They are very reliable if well cared for, and very very safe for young drivers. (and virtually unstoppable in the snow!)

Ford Taurus (don't laugh). They made and sold millions of them. Most are dead now, but you can sometimes find one being sold by someone elderly, or their family, with very low miles. Parts for them are plentiful and cheap (I bought an '02 Taurus wagon 15 months ago, have put 15k miles on it, paid $1300 for it.)

And just for more laughs, Buicks. Nobody wants them, I couldn't GIVE my in-laws LeSabre away. I think they have some newer non land yacht sedans now that don't sell well at all. (check cars.com)

Again, highest priority for me for a car in that range would be individual seller, one owner, has maintenance records, currently registered and insured.

I could also make a list of mechanical things to look for but not sure you were looking for that. Good luck. Buying cheap cars is a chore....

 

[doneat54]

Oh, two more:

In any pic of the car for sale, pay attention to the background. Is it at a house with a car with a license plate on it? Or in some empty lot somewhere, or even worse, in front of a body shop?

And lastly a funny one I heard years ago. Turn on the radio and check what stations all the presets are at. If they are classical or oldies stations, it's ok. If they are all set on Rock and Roll stations, don't buy it, the transmission is probably shot. ;-)

 

[albireo13]

5K for 200K miles?? It better be gold plated.
Also, consider that, teenage boy, the car will be trashed within 2 yrs ... either by abuse or totalled.

Get a Toyota Corolla < 150K miles.

 

[ncbill]

Crown Vic or Marquis or Town Car...bulletproof RWD powertrain.

I inherited a top-of-the-line Town Car...bury me in it.

 

[Music Lover]

We have some friends that made what I think was a genius move with their daughter: An old, non-electronic pickup truck. To your point, being able to walk away from a collision implies being able to walk. That big old pickup was a tank -- she never did have a serious accident but in a tangle with one of the typical econobox grocery-getters, she wins every time. Gas mileage? Not a primary consideration IMO unless there are a lot of highway miles planned.

She could also work on it. At one point she changed the radiator. That kind of thing is great for future self confidence, doubly so for a young woman.

Sure, an old pickup will do better in a parking lot bump but not in a real collision where a newer vehicle has crumple zones and more airbags. Which vehicle would you rather crash in:

 

[OldShooter]

Which vehicle would you rather crash in [?]

Well, I certainly wouldn't want to crash in a vehicle where I wasn't wearing a seat belt. Frontal air bags are not necessary if the occupants are wearing seat belts. The other thing is that crush zones are mechanisms for absorbing kinetic energy, so they benefit both vehicles in a crash. I'd say the video doesn't really prove much; it's an advertisement after all. Too bad about the nice old Chevy.

So my answer would depend on the kind of crash and the kind of speed. If we knew the statistics on that for young drivers we could start to guess which vehicle would survive better. My brother totaled Dad's Corvair by pulling out from a stop sign and getting T-boned. He wasn't injured. But IMO he would have been safer if he were driving a pickup new enough to have door beams, though side air bags would have been nice. I totalled my Austin Healy 3000 () by turning left in front of a car that was hidden to my view. No injuries but had I been driving a pickup it wouldn't have been totaled. Life is all about tradeoffs.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Well, I certainly wouldn't want to crash in a vehicle where I wasn't wearing a seat belt. Frontal air bags are not necessary if the occupants are wearing seat belts. The other thing is that crush zones are mechanisms for absorbing kinetic energy, so they benefit both vehicles in a crash. I'd say the video doesn't really prove much; it's an advertisement after all. Too bad about the nice old Chevy.

It's a video by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety being cited by Consumer Reports. It's not an ad.

 

[Music Lover]

Frontal air bags are not necessary if the occupants are wearing seat belts.

Source?

 

[OldShooter]

Source?

Read it long ago when air bags were being debated. The argument for the steering wheel air bags was to protect the unbelted drivers. If the seat belt is worn properly, it keeps you from crashing into the steering wheel, which is also what the front air bag does too. A seat belt also protects against submarining. Some cars have knee air bags for this but I really haven't paid enough attention to know whether it is a requirement now.

Side air bags are a different matter, since the seat belt doesn’t help you there. I'm glad to have those.