Used Car for Teenager: Camry vs Accord?

DingDingDING! We have a winna! (My thoughts exactly!)

There must be a lot of degenerates out there. The Civic is the number one selling econobox in the US ;)

mike hunt

I should, and I will, but he's my son, a teenager, and I'd buy a 67 Camaro if it was the right thing to do (in this scenario, it's not). Right now I'm just testing the Camry waters.

It's a big advantage.

It's an excellent prom date car! ; )

Gary, What if I use pac.bell..net? I want to keep the real email clear to anyone except spam etc.

You may want to check with your insurance company before deciding. I found the Civic/Corolla class cars were significantly more expensive to insure than Accord/Camry if a teen is the principal driver. Interestingly, the Accord EX was cheaper to insure than the LX or DX.

1998 was the first year that de-powered airbags were mandatory - a factor if your teen is short and sits up close to the wheel. Maintenance costs for any of these cars with 4 cylinder engines is the same as is reliability.

However, as others have noted, if you expect the car to last thru high school and college, you'd be better off making them pay for a major portion of the car if not the entire car. (Not all colleges permit freshman to have cars on campus and some schools require on-campus housing for freshmen.) If you feel compelled to buy them a car make it a Buick LeSabre and see how fast they get to work earning the money to buy something they want to be seen driving.

Some good info, thanks.

Either one is a good choice. I've had both and loved them both. BUT! If the Honda does not have a chain, you will have to watch the timing belt! Ifit breaks, Bye Bye engine! If the Camry is a Twin Cam, Not to worry...all you'll be calling is a tow truck.

And my list of things to think about grows longer again ...

If you limit it to Camry and Accord, most people will just say, "take your pick." I don't know any unhappy Accord or Camry owners. Just shop around and get the best deal on whichever you can. Get a 4-cylinder, of course.

However, if you ask, "what's best in such-and-such price range," you may get some other suggestions you have not considered. I'd suggest you take a look at the Mazdas and Mitsubishis because it looks like you can get something newer with lower miles for the same $$ as a HonToy but I couldn't tell you off the top of my head if they have really good safety and reliability ratings or not and I do know one 626 owner who felt the dependability was not up to snuff (that family drives Hondas, now). You should check Consumer Reports on these. Mitsubishis aren't as common and the fuel economy doesn't seem to be as good as the HonToys but if the car won't get a lot of miles, fuel economy is not quite so big a deal. Friends that have Mitsubishis like them and would be willing to buy another.

CR may point out some domestics that can be obtained at good prices, too.

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LOL! My sons used the Lexus for Proms, their reasoning being that it would be nicer than a limo for no additional outlay on their part, plus, I got a free hand car wash out of the deal ;-)

If you invent a domain name trying to foil spammers, just in case it actually exists end it with the top-level-domain of (foobar).invalid - in your case I'd say that PatheticBell.invalid has been accurate for many years... :-)

That will flag it for the clueful mailing software along the route to send all .invalid TLD addresses it gets straight to dev.null which is AKA the trashcan or "the bit bucket".

Or do as Forte does - they own 4ax.com, it's a perfectly valid domain - but it deliberately doesn't have a mail-server or web-server attached. It just exists.

The machine that spots this mail going nowhere can also return the E-mail to the sender as undeliverable if the ISP wants to - but even that has been turned off because of abuse. There are spammers out there spoofing the From: address of their intended target and giving a deliberately invalid To: address, hoping to get their spam past the ISP filters to the targeted address as a 'bounced message'.

The only way they can make it work is to send from a 'throw-away' pacbell.net address - and the second the sysadmin spots it, they can trace it right back and kill the account.

The scum go to a lot of trouble trying to get past the filters - and they think that will make us interested in what they have to say?

Then again, E-mail is cheap to send in mass quantities. If their scam is profitable enough per sucker snared they can waste several million attempts, as long as they get one or two people to bite. You don't want to be that person, be related to that person, or know that person.

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I'm bias towards 4X4's for new drivers and for good reason. mark_

My Pontiac 6000 did its job for a first car - now it's time to move on. It was front wheel drive, and I think in all the winter driving I did with it, it only slid twice. It gets pretty good fuel economy overall, just that it's getting very old with lots of problems that will eventually have to be addressed. I don't like SUV's - they're harder to drive - especially on the highway where they're more prone to wind. Also more likely for roll-overs. Also, SUV's tend to be less reliable than cars, have higher maintenace costs, cost more for insurance, and did I forget to mention the cost of gas? You may be right for some reasons, but I guess I'm not an SUV person.

You know what? You're not the one that has to drive it. Ask them what they would like, within reason. Help them make an informed decision and let them decide if the gas is too much. You might be surprised to learn what seems high to us means nothing to them. They are more likely to be concerned with availability than price, or they might be environmentally conscience and decide to go with a much smaller car. You have to remember what it was like when you first started out. Immortal, live for ever, plenty of time to reverse mistakes. It's actually fun to see them make mistakes. It makes you look like a wise hero as it should. Its the beginning of letting go. When they see you letting go they will appreciate being treated as an adult than make poor attempts themselves at how they think an adult interacts, which generally means being sarcastic and offensive.

OK, have I got you convinced to at least let them look at a 4X4? :)

I'm not saying nobody would like SUV's I'm just saying I personally don't like them.

How does the story go? When my son was a child I was his hero. When my son was in his teens and 20's, I was an idiot. When my son became a father, he realized how wise I was.

"Bryan" wrote in message news:wt0Tf.45058$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...

Unfortunately, Bryan, that's not the way it worked with my brother. My mom was a hero when he was a child. Then she was an idiot and stupid from there on out even after he had become a father. (For two years now.) He always harasses her, my dad, and myself even to this day. He thinks he's so much better than everyone else, when instead *he's* the idiot. Here's an example: He called today while my parents were not home: Me: Hello? Him: Hello? (Imitating me and throughout the entire conversation.) Me: They're not home. (I knew he probably wanted to speak with my dad because that's what he always calls for.) Him: Where did they go? Me: To Menard's Him: To get what? Me: I don't know - all I know is they went to Menard's. Him: You don't know anything, do you? They're your parents you jacka**. Me: Right! (sarcastically) Him: How long have they been gone? Me: For 20 minutes. Him: Have you beat the game yet? Me: No - I'm still stuck at the one spot. Him: That's because you suck. Me: (no comment other than the thought of hanging up the phone.) Him: What are you doing? Me: Nothing much. Him: As usual - you never do anything. Me: (no comment again.) Him: What did you do today? Me: Nothing special Him: As usual. You'll talk to Jake (my 2nd cousin who calls everyday) but you won't talk to me, huh? Right! (sarcastically imitating the way I say it.) Me: (no comment) Him: **** you. Me: (no comment - I was getting pretty angry by now) (Then the conversation went on a little longer somewhat normally) Him: OK, goodbye. Me: Goodbye. (hung up the phone)

My mom and I both decided last year that we would never go fishing with him again because of the poor way he treats us. Of course, when he was picking on us, Dad sat their quietly, letting it happen.