I’m looking for a car for my daughter who is quite small - 5’ 0". She’s learning to drive on a toyota camry but the window is up too high in the back for her to see clearly and when she lifts the seat higher, it makes it so she can’t reach the pedals unless she is pressed against the steering wheel. I don’t want to get her a really small car because of crash safety issues - she’s going to be driving a lot on the freeway. So a mid-size car seems the most safe, yet may be too big for her to handle easily. Any recommendations for a car that is big enough to be safe, yet small enough to handle for a small person? And affordable! I’m looking for something about 10 years old. And good on gas.
Your daughter will have to try on a car for fit just as she does a pair of shoes. I have a research partner who is very short and petite. We are assigned different cars from my institution’s fleet when we drive to conventions to present our work. She liked the Honda Civic Hybrid we were once assigned. Her own personal vehicles have always been Hondas. She liked the Ford Escape and the Nissan Sentra we were assigned. She didn’t like the Honda Sonata. The Ford Taurus we had for one trip was o.k.
What’s your budget? we can give you suggestions based on that. However, I will add that you might want to throw the “good on gas” requirement towards the bottom of the list. Find a car that she’s comfortable driving and if it gets good mileage, then consider it a benefit. Anything with an 8 way power seat should be a bit easier to find a comfortable seating position; and if you can find one with retractable pedals, that should help a LOT.
I know on some Ford Taurus models you can move the pedals up. I co-worker went through a few, she was less than 5 ft tall. My wife is 5’ 1" and drives everything, sometimes a pillow on the seat helps.
A car or truck can’t be too big for her to handle.
All it takes is practice for familiarity of the vehicle.
– she’ll get that easily with time. –
I like the Taurus idea too. And any other with adjustable pedals, that’s the key.
Then she can put the seat where she needs it the bring the pedals to her.
Unlike pedal extentions which adapt to her but make it hard for you to drive the same.
( even the smallest cars are built for average people , just cuz the car’s small doesn’t mean…)