BEATER CAR FOR NEW DRIVERS

[yaktamer]

About a year from now, my teenage kids will begin getting driver licenses. I'd like to get them something cheap they can share, so as to hasten the end of my chauffeuring duties. Budget around $5k more or less. I've started browsing high-mileage, well-maintained Honda CR-Vs and Toyota RAV4s. My other option would be to give them my 2014 F-150, which by then will be paid off and have around 200k miles, and get a new or low-mileage used truck for myself, but I need another car payment like a hole in the head. Any thoughts?

 

[Protocall_Design]

Kids usually tear up their first car or 2. Especially if someone else buys it for them. Either they hot rod it to death, crash into something, or don't know you have to check the engine oil and other things more than once every 10 years.

If the F150 is still in good shape, I wouldn't let them have it. Your call, you know the kids and the car better than we do.

 

[JcMack]

Don't give them the truck!! The high mileage foriegn SUV is a good idea, but it will nickle and dime you with worn out struts and brakes and on and on. Hertz and Enterprise are discount/selling a lot of low mileage vehicles as a result of 2 months loss of business. I bought my kid a car when he turned 16. There was no where around here I wanted him working and I didn't want him driving my truck. I paid 3 grand outright for it in '89 and had to put that much and more into to keep it going. He never crashed it just upkeep $$$.

 

[Beemerguy53]

Friends of mine recently bought a used Honda Accord for their grandson...I was amazed at the prices used, high-mileage Accords command.

Hondas and Toyotas last forever, and are relatively inexpensive to maintain...good luck to you...

 

[JayFramer]

I never needed a “beater” car to learn to drive in.

I was taught to properly operate a motor vehicle and to be safe BEFORE I was ever given keys.

Just teach them to properly drive the cotton pickin’ thing and don’t worry about a “beater”. Just a waste of money.

 

[sigp220.45]

All three of my kids got ex-police car Crown Vics. I think the most I paid was $1200. My daughter drove hers for six years, the others lasted over three years each. When the “change owner” light came on the old warriors went to the scrap yard and they usually brought a couple hundred bucks.

 

[Rustyt1953]

When my girls started driving I gave them each, in turn, used Honda SUV's. The did their best to wear them out and couldn't do it.

We are still satisfied Honda customers.

Good luck.

 

[yaktamer]

I never needed a “beater” car to learn to drive in.

I was taught to properly operate a motor vehicle and to be safe BEFORE I was ever given keys.

Just teach them to properly drive the cotton pickin’ thing and don’t worry about a “beater”. Just a waste of money.

I think you missed my point. I don't think they need a beater to learn. It's that I want them to have a car to drive themselves to games, scouts, work, etc. so I don't have to all the time, and I don't have a car to spare. Beater is all I'm willing to pay for until they can buy their own, at which point the beater, if still alive, reverts to me.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

My wife is driving a 2008 CRV with about 225000 on it. It is going strong. My B-I-L the mechanic that Honda had a engine redesign in 2004 and that took care of the timing chain problem, I guess that should be the furthest back you'd want to buy for the kids.

3 of 4 of my kids started in 8-10 year old Ford Taurus (back in the 90's) The youngest had to be different, he started with a 11 yo Chevy Astro panel truck, Painted it up with Tigers and great big Angles with flaming swards. Got pulled over 20+ time in 6 months for "Safety" inspections! Painted it Blue and never got pulled over again!

Ivan

 

[LVSteve]

Guy at work got his daughter a 4-cylinder Camry. Not fast or stylish, but it takes a Hellfire or Maverick strike to kill one.

 

[Chukar60]

The term beater is not indicative of a junker when talking about a teenager vehicle. They need something that is reliable, lest you end up fetching them from breakdowns or worse strand them somewhere you do not want them to be.
All you need is a reasonably reliable and sturdy vehicle that will withstand the rigors of a new driver.
Don’t care how well a teenager is trained, they are not experienced and just by their nature not 100% attentive so you need something sturdy.
An F150 would e a great choice in my view.

 

[H Richard]

Each of my children did get a "beater", (this was in the late 70's). A hunk of Detroit iron, so that when, not if, they had their first wreck they would have less a chance of getting hurt. Yes, they did have accidents. My son totaled 3, but wasn't seriously hurt in any of them. My daughter rear ended another in Chevy and it totaled the little Ford compact and I washed the paint off her front bumper and it was fixed.

Make sure to get one old enough and cheap enough that it won't be a big financial loss, and make sure to license it and insure it in their names, liability only.

 

[Squarebutt]

All three of my kids got ex-police car Crown Vics. I think the most I paid was $1200. My daughter drove hers for six years, the others lasted over three years each. When the “change owner” light came on the old warriors went to the scrap yard and they usually brought a couple hundred bucks.

Excellent choice. One of my sons bought an old Impala and drove it for years. It was big and comfortable and when a Honda crossed into his lane and hit him, he drove it home and we replaced the fender with one from a junkyard. The Honda went on a flatbed and the owner got cited.
A friend's daughter had a retired Crown Vic that took a huge hit from behind. She wasn't hurt, and the Ford was still drivable but not worth fixing.
There are lots of old Crown Vics and Mercury Marquis sedans out there for cheap money, and they're cheap to maintain. Our other kids had Hondas, Subarus and a VW that all ran for a long time, but replacing a muffler or a radiator was big bucks.

 

[URIT]

I bought my son a Saab and my daughter a Volvo. My son sold the Saab when he graduated from HS and bought his first Volvo. He is still driving a Volvo 25 years later.

Both first-cars were well maintained older model vehicles that provided them with reliable safe transportation and didn't scream muscle car or off-road travel.

There are plenty of good choices in AZ. I am not partial to turbo enhanced engines.

 

[doublesharp]

Start them out on a stick. Built in anti-theft device and will limit temptation to lend their car to friends. A 10 year old Honda Accord with 4 cyl and manual trans shouldn't be too hard to find.

 

[LVSteve]

I bought my son a Saab and my daughter a Volvo. My son sold the Saab when he graduated from HS and bought his first Volvo. He is still driving a Volvo 25 years later.

Both first-cars were well maintained older model vehicles that provided them with reliable safe transportation and didn't scream muscle car or off-road travel.

There are plenty of good choices in AZ. I am not partial to turbo enhanced engines.

Which is kinda funny given that Saab and Volvo previously produced two of the best low-pressure turbo cars there have ever been. Buddy at work had a Saab 900 (I think) that he used to thrash up and down I-15 to his mum's place in Salt Lake. The body quit before the motor.

I had a Volvo S60 2.5T with the 5-cylinder 205 hp motor and it similarly flattened the terrain on I-15 and got exceptional gas mileage while doing so. The 5-cylinder warble also gave me grins when I really got on it and got the revs up. Shades of the Audi Quattro.

 

[BC38]

I'm driving a 2002 CRV with 220k on the clock.
When I got it it needed a driver's side strut & axle, rear brakes, a passenger rear door wing window glass & a few other small things.
Got all the parts through the wrecking yard for around $500
I put about 30-40 hours work into it, but its a solid little rig now.
Unless you need the 4WD/AWD for some reason get a little FWD Honda or Toyota car.
A Civic or a Camry can be had for a LOT less than an SUV and unless you're driving in snow a lot the FWD will get the job done for less money and with better gas mileage.

 

[Rpg]

My sister and brother-in-law got my nephews an old Mercedes on the theory that it would protect them from the inevitable car wrecks adolescent boys are almost certainly going to be involved in.

Good thing as it turned out: my younger nephew tried to climb a tree in it and walked away from the wreck.

 

[31FordA]

I’m another vote for the Crown Vic. They’re sturdy, reliable and safe cars. The last one rolled off the line nine years ago, but some agencies still have them in service. I turned in my units last Vic, a 2008, two weeks ago. Absolutely nothing wrong with the car, our allotment of vehicles was cut. The Crown Vic, along with it’s Panther platform siblings, the Grand Marquis and Town Car, are great cars.

My first car, at age 17, was a 1985 LTD Crown Victoria. I drove it for eight years, until the trans went bad. The car had close to 200,000 miles at that point. I replaced it with a used 1994 Grand Marquis, drove it for 13 years. It had almost 250,000 miles when I replaced it with, surprise, a 2001 Crown Vic P71. I’m still driving that one, up to 170,000 miles and still going strong.

 

[squidsix]

My oldest kid, I bought one of the “fixed” VW diesel jetta wagons. Post-scandal, VW sold these are CPO cars. Manual trans and diesel engine means GREAT learning platform for stick shift. (All of our vehicles are manual trans and have always been)
The Jetta wagon has 195,000 on it and has paid for itself. I have basically the same car but with a five cylinder gas motor.
Hard to kill a diesel vw.
I do like the police car idea. If stick shift wasnt so important to us, we would do that.