Advice on Buying a Teen’s First Car

As parents, you spend your life with your son/daughter as your main priority. Teaching them to become self-sufficient adults consists of daily lessons. One of the most intense lessons in a teen’s life is learning how to drive–the task can be deadly. A top cause for teen deaths is due to accidents caused by inexperience while driving. However, as kids get older, it becomes more of a necessity for them to have the ability to drive–for work, to visit friends, etc. Parents want their days as a taxi driver to end.

When it comes time for your teen to fly the coupe, parents want the safest vessel for travel possible. Over years of evolvement, advice for parents looking for their teen’s first car has changed.

As a basic rule of thumb, it’s typically not ideal to buy your teenager an expensive first car. Inexperience while driving decreases safety in general, and accidents happen. There’s not enough certainty that the car will last long enough to invest a lot of money into it. For this reason, there are plenty of used cars on the market that could be a decent fit for your teenagers. While looking at used cars, try to look at cars that are year 2012 or later. In cars built after 2012, electronic stability control was required. The control systems work with anti-lock brakes to help manage skids and swerves.

In recent years, the advice for a teen’s first car would be “slow and big.” Bigger cars are still considered to be safer. The more metal surrounding you in your vehicle, the safer you are in general. A slow car is ideal as a first car for obvious reasons. This advice still rings true, however, the safety features included in newer vehicles are safer and more important than simply

having a “big and slow” car.

Technology features are helping new drivers know what to look and listen for while driving. New features include lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, collision warning, and automatic emergency braking. The only downside is that the price is more expensive. On a positive note, however, advanced safety features on your car could give you a discount on your auto insurance policy. The safety of your teenagers is absolutely priceless.

While car-shopping, look for a car with good crash-tests results. Crash-tests can show you how reliable the car will be in case of an accident. Director of operations at the consumer reports auto test center, Jennifer Stockburger, says, “Buy as much safety as you can afford.”

Doing lots of research while car-shopping for your teen will help give you confidence when your son/daughter is on the road.

By: KayLynn P.