@MG McAnick . I actually work for a public school system, and I tend to agree with Texases, it’s not uncommon at all to see a parking lot full of relatively new, relatively expensive cars these days at your local high school. At the high schools in my area. You see a lot of new Mustangs, new Camaros, F250/350’s, Silverados, WRX’s,Evo’s etc. You don’t see a ton of brand new higher end cars like BMW’s or Benz’s , but there are a lot of 2010 or newer vehicles out there. If I’d had to put percentages on it, I’d say that new cars and trucks worth around $25k-$35k make up about 25% of the parking lot, the bulk of the cars are usually 2003-2008 Accords, Acuras, Fusions, Civics, etc. worth around $10k-$18k or there abouts. Only maybe 10% or so are of the cars are sub $5000 beaters.
I guess I don’t understand how he can afford a $16K car if he has no money. I’m assuming you will give or loan him this amount. It seems to me like you’d want something reliable and safe as the highest priority for him. Suggest to research the Consumer Reports Used Car guide, most bookstores have it. That’ll give you some ideas. With $16k budget hmmm … I guess I’d look around for a 3 year old or so used Corolla or Civic or Ford Focus or the GM/Nissan versions. He could make some adjustments to make the car look and soundmore sporty, new wheel covers, a shiny stainless steel cool looking tail pipe and a muffler that was a little louder than the OEM version maybe. A neighbor kid her with a minimal budget has taken colored duct tape and scissors and created racing stripes on his VW that look pretty good (well, if you like racing stripes.)
There were lots of cars for sale in your price range or less. If you have a Hyundai or Nissan dealer nearby, check them out. Even the larger cars are selling for good prices. Lots of good looking Impalas out there too.
You spurred my memory. In high school in 1965, my friend’s dad owned the local Ford/Mercury/Lincoln dealer. I didn’t have a car so I would often ride downtown after school with him, his brother and sister, in the assigned family car from the Ford garage. It was a 54 Ford. It ran fine but it was 11 years old and while they grumbled about it, understood that they were lucky to have a car to use. We’d stop for a coke, then he’d have to get over to the dealership to cleans cars up for a couple hours. He turned out pretty good.
I actually work for a public school system, and I tend to agree with Texases, it's not uncommon at all to see a parking lot full of relatively new, relatively expensive cars these days at your local high school. At the high schools in my area. You see a lot of new Mustangs, new Camaros, F250/350's, Silverados, WRX's,Evo's etc. You don't see a ton of brand new higher end cars like BMW's or Benz's , but there are a lot of 2010 or newer vehicles out there. If I'd had to put percentages on it, I'd say that new cars and trucks worth around $25k-$35k make up about 25% of the parking lot, the bulk of the cars are usually 2003-2008 Accords, Acuras, Fusions, Civics, etc. worth around $10k-$18k or there abouts. Only maybe 10% or so are of the cars are sub $5000 beaters.
Be an interesting social studies topic to take a poll on all the kids who drive. Who drives their own car, what they drive, and who bought it. My guess is that most of those who drive those beaters are the ones who paid for their own cars themselves.
The newer Mustang, Camaro, WRX and Evos were all probably bought/financed by mom and dad. and the trucks are probably a toss up between kids driving their parents vehicles and parents buying their kids an overly huge vehicle to be safe in
I think that he should purchase his own car, in whatever price range he can afford (as in not take out a loan for it) - be it $500 or $16,000. As Dave Ramsey says, live like no one else now, so that you can live like no one else later.
That being said, When I purchased my first car, I repaired the transmission myself (Only two gears worked). I spent hours fixing little things and cleaning it up. By the time it was all said and done, I had less that $400 in the car. It was a 23+ year old 4 Cyl with almost 300k on the odometer. Shortly after fixing it, I traded it for a much newer car with 160k that the owner simply couldn’t keep putting gas into. Now I have a car worth almost $2500 (KBB Price) and in very good mechanical condition - even though it has some scratches and dings, and the A/C doesn’t work. I’m pretty happy with it. I didn’t break the bank, and I will be driving a car that I own outright and know how to fix myself.
Also, this was less that three months ago. That proves that it is possible to buy a cheap car, even now. $5000 isn’t cheap for a 17 year old, even though that’s considered a cheap car. And be sure to buy from an individual, you will save a fortune.
If you had $16K to spend and want economy and safety, you have lots of options. Get a copy of CR auto guide as they specifically address cars for teens in different price ranges.
The newer Mustang, Camaro, WRX and Evos were all probably bought/financed by mom and dad. and the trucks are probably a toss up between kids driving their parents vehicles and parents buying their kids an overly huge vehicle to be safe in
I believe that would be an accurate assesment. Most high school kids do not have the means to pay for a $30k+ Mustang GT. Or a $45k lifted F-350. I know for a fact that alot of the new cars are 16th birthday presents, especially in the case of the girls.
Used Crown Vic is what my son is learning to drive in. Safe enough for law enforcement employees. Easy to get out of that first ditch without a lot of bent metal.
These can be had in all kids of price ranges. My son does the maintenance on this one and that is how he is learning how to have a vested interest in the car.
LOOK!!! I am actually going to ANSWER the question that was asked!!!
$16,000 is a lot for a first car, and this is coming from a 16 year old. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $4K-$7K is generally more in the ballpark of a first car. My suggestion would be a Nissan Maxima: they look pretty good, they seat 5 people in reasonable comfort, and they pack a lot of punch for the money. They also tend to come cheap in good mechanical order with not too many miles on them.
That’s an excellent suggestion.
For $16K, one could actually buy a new (or almost new) econobox.
Here’s why I’d prefer a used intermediate (say 3 years old, with side airbags) over a new subcompact.
Heavier = safer:
I believe that would be an accurate assesment. Most high school kids do not have the means to pay for a $30k+ Mustang GT. Or a $45k lifted F-350. I know for a fact that alot of the new cars are 16th birthday presents, especially in the case of the girls.
I’d hate to see what their insurance goes for when it’s due. 16 year old(male or female) + brand new Mustang GT or Camaro; I’d be surprised if the monthly insurance isn’t about the same as the monthly car note
Thanks for the comments! My wife and I just read them. Our son is probably a week away from his test. To answer some questions: I used $16,000 based on what I was seeing on Carmax, ie a Volvo S 40 with a 5 speed, probably a pocket rocket, a 2007 Jeep Laredo 80K +, and a Honda CRV.
I completely understand about paying for his own car. I paid $800 for a beat up not running, 1968 Triumph GT 6 in 1974. It was cool at least in my eyes and I rebuilt that engine and gear box( the gear box a couple of times 
). Todays cars don’t encourage that…he will change his oil and transmission fluid etc. on whatever car he gets.
We do live outside Washington DC and as Texases pointed out there are BRAND new cars in the HS parking lot…we are not like that. That includes Mustangs, Jeep Wranglers etc…I wonder what the other parents are thinking!
A friend owns a Chyrsler Dearlership, I am looking at a 2007/8 Jeep Laredo. 4wd, 4300lbs, off a high mileage lease, $11,000. V8 isn’t great on gas but how far is he going to go? Not fast but still some style. Unfortuneately, it has seating for more than two but I hope we can moniter that as surveys have shown when there are more kids in a car there are more problems. Maryland doesn’t allow other kids in the car for 6 months. I could go lower in price and earlier in years but the repairs will mount.
Again Thanks for the comments…this is difficult! Maybe a Saleen Hybrid Sherman Tank that gets 45 mpg and has an airbag for every 2 cubic feet of interior space?
I’d avoid the V8, it may not actually be fast, but a teen boy will push it (trust me). Volvo S40 is actually pretty poor, safety-wise. The CRV would be good.
The 4.7L V8 in the Grand Cherokee Laredo is actually quite powerful, making just shy of 300 hp, which is plenty to move that boxy SUV at a pretty exciting clip for a teenager. The first time I drove one, I was amazed at how quickly it would scoot around. It’ll go 0-60 faster than an IROC Z28 Camaro from the '80s. If you are considering one of these for your son, I suggest finding one with the 4.0L inline six. It has about 100 hp less than the 4.7L V8, which leaves him with plenty of power for everything he will need to do in that truck, and no more. It’s also a whole lot more durable than the V8, more reliable, less complex, and cheaper to repair.
Cost isn’t much of a concern for alot of these folks, in my zip code the average household income in well over 100k a year, with many people doing way better than that, also this isn’t NYC or LA or anything, it’s central VA, the cost of living here is average at most. So alot of these kids happen to have parents that can easily afford to drop $40k on a new car for junior. Sometimes they have to drop 40k on a car for junior twice, after he/she wrecks the first car. Doesn’t happen all the time, but I’ve see it happen about 3 or 4 times a year. Kid get’s a new car when they turn 16, within a three months, the kid wrecks the car, a week later there’s a new car in the parking lot. I don’t agree with it, but they aren’t my kids, and it’s not my money.
The 4.7L V8 also drinks more gas than passes through a baleen whale’s baleen.
My thought is that giving a new driver a new/newer car doesn’t help his image of real world. A new high school graduate cannot afford a new car/new car payment with just a high school diploma anymore and a lot of college kids won’t be able to once they graduate right out of college. That first car, if new, will set the bar high and the child will not learn to take care of it. I hate to be this way but learning to listen for different sounds is part of how we take care of the cars. Without this experience most will not ever learn how to take care of a vehicle and will not be “better off” in the long run. I know I longed for a new truck when I was in high school. I ended up in a 12 year old GM product that I had to rebuild the engine in before I could leave home for college. I rebuilt it on money I saved from summer work to be able to have a vehicle I knew would last for me. Because of that experience, I feel I have saved a ton of money over the years listening to my cars and knowing what repairs they needed outside of regular maintenance.
$16K vehicle for a new driver is not a good investment period. Even with insurance that will cover the vehicle in an accident and maybe even replace it still does not teach a new driver how to deal with real life when they leave the nest. My son is learning to drive in a 95 Crown Victoria. He has purchased a set of Mustang rims and I put new tires on it. He helped install a new engine from a donor vehicle to see how much work goes into a BIG repair. He changes the oil and also cleans the vehicle up. He has put it in a ditch, gotten that out of the way and has hopefully learned how quickly a vehicle is moving when you aren’t paying attention. He was very lucky it was only a ditch and not on-coming traffic.
In the end you have to realize what you are doing for you child. Appeasing the desire now may not help in a life lesson. If the first vehicle is new/newer, then that is all they will ever want and the next car may be way down the road because of the financial burden that will be the cost of ownership of new vehicles. They aren’t coming down over the next years. A better way to spend that $16K is towards college tuition or housing. In the end you will have taught more than just satisfying today’s image in the high school parking lot.
I have told my 16 yr old that with good grades and after passing her driver’s test, she “might” get to drive the 2000 Minivan with 150K miles on it. The car has so many dents and scratches (mostly due to my wife, but some from the previous owner), that I would have a hard time keeping track.