The Best Used Cars For Teenage Drivers

It’s a glass half-empty or half-full situation for parents. Data compiled by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute suggests teens just aren’t that interested in cars or driving these days. Eight in 10 Americans ages 17-19 had a driver’s license 30 years ago, but just six out of every 10 teens were behind the wheel in 2012. While having a teen at home without a license keeps the family’s insurance premiums low, and may prevent sleepless nights worrying about an inexperienced driver getting into accidents, the situation tends to leave Mom and Dad in the role of permanent chauffeurs.
Whether you’re the parent of a reluctant driver or a teen who’s champing at the bit to get his or her license, it can be challenging to find an affordable used car that’s safe, reliable and economical and won’t bust the family budget with sky-high insurance rates. While the kid may want to own a beater Mustang GT, a clanky open-top Jeep Wrangler or an old repair-prone BMW, most of us with young drivers living at home would prefer he or she settle for a more rational choice.

To that end, the experts at  recently compiled a list of 14 used cars that should be ideal for teen drivers; we’re featuring them in the accompanying slideshow with our own commentary. Each is from the 2009 model year and is valued at $15,000 or less according to Edmunds.com. They’re all rated by the Environmental Protection Agency to get 20 or more miles per gallon in combined city/highway driving, score average or better in annual repair visits according to TrueDelta.com and have received Top Safety Pick designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for garnering top marks in crash tests.

Importantly, all were originally available with electronic stability control (now standard on all cars) that automatically engages brake and throttle intervention to help prevent a vehicle from spinning out of control in sudden and/or extreme handling maneuvers. “Stability control is a godsend because it limits a lot of the dumb moves a young driver can make,” said Des Toups, managing editor of CarInsurance.com. Having stability control onboard was a requirement to earn the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick designation in 2009.
Note that pickups and sport-utility vehicles were deliberately left off the list of best cars for teen drivers for apparent safety concerns. “While some pickups and SUVs score well, they’re really not great choices for novice drivers,” says CarInsurance.com consumer analyst Penny Gusner. “They’re taller and have higher centers of gravity, making them more prone to ‘tripping’ on a curb or other obstruction and rolling over – a kind of accident that stability control can’t easily prevent.”
As icing on the proverbial cake, each of the models on the best cars for teen drivers list carries reasonably low car-insurance rates – or at least as far as teen drivers are concerned. They range from a low of $3,322 for a Ford Taurus to a high of $4,392 a year for a Mitsubishi Lancer GTS, according to quotes for a hypothetical 18-year-old student in Pensacola, Fla. with no tickets or accidents, maintaining a separate policy from his parents.
“There’s a big difference in insurance rates among the cars on the list,” Toups says. “But a teenage driver is going to pay a small fortune even if he chooses the most insurance-friendly car.”

2009 Subaru Impreza

Fortunately there’s enough variety among the cars on CarInsurance.com’s list for protective parents and their born-to-be-wild offspring to strike a happy medium when shopping for a used car. They range from the predictably sedate, including the Ford Taurus, Honda Accord and Ford Fusion, to the entertainingly quirky like the Scion xB and Subaru Impreza, and even some that are downright fun to drive such as the Audi A3 and Honda Fit Sport.
Note that the citations given for estimated insurance premium costs are for reference only, and are subject to a wide range of variables. These include a person’s zipcode, driving record and whether a teen driver is obtaining insurance on his or her own or is being added to the family’s multi-car policy. Some teens’ rates may be lower while others may be costlier – some prohibitively so.
Maybe being a live-in chauffeur isn’t such a bad idea after all.