Which car for sixteen year old?

Dear Group,

My daughter will turn sixteen, therefore resulting in a drivers license, next April. She presently has a learners permit and is actually a better driver than my wife.

I have had six BMW's and presently own two mini vans (want to buy a 96 Sport model?), a 97 Volvo 960 (our first Volvo and presently @ 203,000 mls) and a

84 BMW 633 CSi (my weekend car, five speed manual). My daughter wants a BMW and I want her to have a Volvo. I've wrecked or have been in wrecks with both the BMWs and the Volvo. Volvo is a much safer car, hands down, in a wreck. Almost fun to wreck a Volvo.

Her high school lost four kids who were seventeen and eighteen this year to auto accidents. SUV's and small Japanese cars in all cases. SUV's are unstable on the road, IMHO, and the Japanese cars just don't do well in crashes. These kids just don't have the experience at driving. I want my daughter to call me to tell me she has wrecked the car and not get a call from the police to tell me my daughter is dead.

The question is which Volvo should I start looking for? Five thousand is all I want to spend and she, of course, wants something "kewl". More is possible but not desired. We live in North Carolina, USA.

This is a good kid who will probably get a full ride to any university she applies to so I want to keep her safe but also give her a car she will be proud of and want to keep through college. Convertibles and two doors are at the top of her list. A-1 Abrams are at the top of mine.

TIA mjb

Reply to
Michael
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Excuse me for this judgment, but what does (should) she have to say about it?

You are buying the car, paying the insurance and letting her use it. Get a car you are comfortable with and she can use it, take her bike or walk.

My daughter wanted a "muscle car". She got a 93 940T wagon. After a year she really appreciates the wagon. It handles well, has enough power, lots of room for "stuff" and lets me sleep at night.

Howard

89 Mustang LX 5.0 vert 95 Windstar 55 VW Oval
Reply to
Howard Nelson

As a Brit, it horrifies me that kids are allowed to drive at 16 - and even start learning earlier than this. In UK you have to be 17 before getting behind the wheel on a public road. Some would argue that even this is too young.

It horrifies even more that kids apparrently treat it as an inaliable (sp?) right to have "daddy" provide them with a car as soon as they are old enough to drive it.

What's wrong with teaching them to stand on their own feet and to earn some money to buy their own expensive toys. Meanwhile, the use of feet and bicycles will keep them a bit fitter and less likely to go to an early grave due to the obesity epidemic which seems to be afflicting most of the world.

Reply to
Bonnet Lock

I agree - that's total bullshit. I bought my first car myself - as well as every car thereafter. My kid will do the same. ~~~ The biggest obstacle on the path to success is the stupidity of others.

My eBay Stuff:

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Reply to
John in NH

It is a bit different in the US- in GB, public transportation can serve you so well that it is possible to survive without a car at all. We got to spend a couple of days getting around in London and it was quite easy (I LOVE the 'Undeground'!).

I have met 16 year olds responsible enough to drive a bus, and adults not mentally capable enough to operate tennis shoes.

With this man's daughter being so acdademically involved, I doubt she would have had time for much of a job to earn enough for a car.

But I do agree that it is a good lesson to teach kids- the looking forward to a goal and the responsibility of working and saving towards that goal. The further benefit is that they will tend to treat the car with more respect as they had a personal stake in its purchase.

I have seen a BMW or two involved in an accident and would also rather my daughter be in a Volvo, if I had one (a daughter.. I already have a Volvo!). Maybe a nice 2 door 240 in white with a spoiler on the trunk and Piaa fog lights...?

If your frined's judge your level of "cool" by the car you drive, then it's time to get new friends!

DIfficult for me to say, though. We have no children. I was a teacher for 20 years, though. We like to say that if we would have had kinds when we got married they would have been out on parole by now! ;-)

__ __ Randy & \ \/ /alerie's \__/olvo '93 960 Estate

Reply to
Randy G.

Sorry but that shows a complete lack of knowledge of public transport in the UK! It takes longer, is stupidly more expensive, unreliable and doesn't serve where people need to go when they need to get there. The only place well served by public transport is inner London.

There you go, now try "South of the river Thames" and see how far the underground gets tourists or residents. Answer, it doesn't. Try getting a cabbie to go "Sarf of the river mate?"

Certainly, especially when it comes to that little thing called "insurance".

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

There are plenty of places in the UK outside London where there is little or no public transport - but I STILL wouldn't advocate buying a car for a

16-year-old.

Quite apart from the question about the level of maturity required before being put in charge of a lethal weapon (and the OP seemed to regard a crash as inevitable - which is even more horrifying!) I was serious in my earlier reply about the obesity problem. If kids as young as 16 get used to going everywhere by car - even very short journeys - without having to exert any physical effort, the current younger generation will have a very low life expectency - and will probably be outlived by their parents.

Reply to
Bonnet Lock

I agree: bus, walk or bike for 16 year old children, not over-engineered cars. They should be at home doing their homework not gallivanting around in cars.

Reply to
Geoff Pearson

The fact that she's 16 and has a car will pass for cool no matter what the car is, at least where I'm from (southern Ontario)... Hell even being able to drive your parents car to the movies is great around here for a 16 year old.

Get another 960, or an 850 for her.... If she really wants 2 doors go on a mission for an old 780.

Reply to
Rob Guenther

Michael,

If you really think you can convince your daughter to drive a well serviced

240, that would be my recommendation. If not, try to convince her that the 940 is the coolest. She probably won't know the meaning of turbo, so you might get away with a non-turbo model, which is better for Dad in 3 ways: less expensive purchase, less expensive maintenance/repair, and slower/safer in hands of teenager.

If the older 240 and 940 models look too "old school", a red 850 can look pretty sporty. You may find a red S70 (similar to 850 except newer) under $5k, but will have to hunt.

These models are all safe. Avoid the turbos to keep the speeding down in neighborhood traffic. Good luck keeping your daughter happy and safe.

Pat Q

Reply to
Pat Quadlander

-SNIP-

Get a 240 with a sunroof and put in an awesome stereo. Then give her a huge gift certificate to a music store. Her friends would rather cruise comfortably listening to good music than be stuffed in the back of some rice rocket.

In the USA, your kid can drive, or they will ride in the neighbors car, with the neighbors kid at the wheel. If your kid is responsible, getting them a safe car is probably safer than the alternative.

Performance is relative.

-FWIW

-Matt

Reply to
psyshrike

In London you can get by without a car. Here (middle of Britain), you NEED a car. Buses are infrequent / filthy / driven by madmen in my experience. That said, you can pick up good solid cars here for bugger all...

Reply to
Doki

That's the smartest thing posted in this whole thread. I'm now 26, living in Chicago, IL, and I've been driving for over 10 years now: got my permit at 15, license at 16, like most people in the U.S. I've never caused an accident, although I've been hit before (rear-ended twice, side-swiped once). I know it's easy to look back and think that "kids" at age

16 don't have the respect, understanding or need for a vehicle, but times have changed. I was lucky enough to have my father pass on our 12-year-old 1983 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser Wagon to me when I turned 16, as he was getting a company car for his new job. Because I didn't have the nicest car in the high school parking lot, I strived to have the cleanest, with paint that looked like a show car, and a decent stereo (at least it played tapes, and wasn't just a radio). I washed the car weekly, waxed it monthly, and eventually sold it myself, and with money I had saved up through high school, bought myself my first *new* car to drive off to college in (good thing too, the station wagon's tranny was looking to quit). Anyway, the people on here who think 16-year-olds can't handle responsibility or won't understand the value of buying your own car are jumping to conclusions. Like any demographic, there will be the smart, mature group, and the slackers born with silver spoons... I think the original poster knows his own child well enough to know that she needs a vehicle. If you can't post and help him choose a car, don't spew your soapbox opinions about who should or shouldn't be driving yet.

Randy

Reply to
Randy S

Wow, solid car, and install the good stereo... Going for nominations for father of the year?

Reply to
Rob Guenther

Reply to
Rob Guenther

850, some 940s or 960s, not 700 or 200 series. Why? Better side protection in cars with SIPS. Best to get a car with side air bags.

Ben

Reply to
Benjamin Smith

She's only fifteen but takes classes at Duke University each summer on scholarship. This kid I'll buy a car. She can already articulate the Otto cycle better than I can and I'm an ME. But for exactly the same reasons as you point out she isn't interested in a turbo.

so you

slower/safer

Thank you for answering the question and not pontificating about generalities.

Limeys, we should have left them to their own devices and they would be speaking German now.

That should really set them off. OK, so the troll in me came out.

Reply to
Michael

This is not southern Ontario.

Thank you for a straight answer.

Reply to
Michael

OUTSTANDING CONCEPT!!!!!!

I like that idea. Fantastic. Oh man that is great. Seriously!!

Reply to
Michael

The new S40's might fit the bill.

If she insists on a convertible, you can't go wrong with a C70.

Reply to
G19

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