One of the biggest milestones for teenager is obtaining their drivers license. This moment means parents no longer need to be held captive to driving their teen to swim practice or school dances. But now that the time has actually arrived, we now begin to worry about not only what kind of car they should be driving, but safety issues as well.
Every teen looks forward to getting their first set of “wheels”. This is one giant step towards their independence and a leap for parents into higher insurance rates and sleepless nights waiting for our newly licensed driver to arrive home without incident.
Though we always cringed when seeing teenagers pulling into the high school parking lot with nicer and more expensive vehicles than those being driven by the faculty, we do want our teen to have a safe vehicle as opposed to an unreliable clunker. So how do we determine the right first car for our teen to drive?
Of course every teenager has a “dream car” in mind, but most realize that they are going to be lucky to have any vehicle to call their own. Sure, they want it to look cool, but we want it to be safe. We’re all in agreement that the car should be reliable. It needs to be in good shape, not have excessive mileage, and be thoroughly checked out by our family mechanic before purchase.
While our teen wanted a sportier two-door car, 4 door sedans are more practical have lower insurance rates and are safer rides. We decided that buying from an individual owner as opposed to a dealership will give you more for your money. We used CarFax run to checks for undisclosed accidents and asked for the current owner’s records of maintenance on the car. We were targeting cars owned by one previous owner, as well as features like side airbags on both driver and passenger sides and anti-lock brakes.
The fewer miles the car has on it, more likely it is to hold up and not need too many repairs. Because we bought a used car for our child, we also invested in a solid roadside assistance program, AAA. This is the beginning of their driving experience. All of the time that went into researching the right car we hope will pay off for our teen in terms of a good car and for us in terms of reducing our anxiety.
