Starter Car for Teenage Son

My Son is starting college soon, where I promised to buy him a used car.

Need Reliability, Safety, Fuel economy & low maintaince cost.
Don't care about style, color, space & performance
Need front wheel drive or AWD, there'll be snow.

Would something fit the bill with $3000 budget?

Please recommend something with year, model, milage & estimated price tag, give me a target for more reasearch

Thanks

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Subaru Outback Wagon {AWD},,,then use $3K to narrow your search

Good ol' Honda Civic; reliable and as thrifty as it gets, and because there are so many on the road, parts are ridiculously cheap if you ever need them. The short first gear combined with small size makes it feel quite sporty, it feels like you're doing 60 when you're actually going 45 (there's a reason these are so popular with kids!) There are probably a handful of used Civics spanning a couple decades at every dealership in your town, so it's easy to shop around and get exactly what you want.

Toyota Corolla. Look for something about an '04, high miles don't really matter, just check to see if the struts and exhaust are good, and the dipstick is clean. They typically get a combined EPA of 30mpg, and they're easy to repair.

If that generation is too pricey (it varies greatly by area), look for a 2000-2002.

jabe1 said:

Toyota Corolla.

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Another good one, the '98-'02 model years are an excellent choice if your son would prefer "upscale" over "sporty", as that era Corolla was a nicely finished mini-Camry.

Ten year old Corolla or Chevy Prizm (same car.) I'd say also Civic but Honda had transmission issues through that time period. Depending on the year, Camrys, Accords, Integras, etc. are all good.

Subarus are nice cars, but the AWD setup and engines don't age well.

ABTOMAT said:

Subarus are nice cars, but the AWD setup and engines don't age well.

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What sort of problems? I never had any AWD or engine problems with my 1993 Subaru Legacy LS. I got rid of it about 6 months ago. There was a little seepage on the engine that needed new seals when I got rid of it, but not enough to require topping up the oil between changes. A friend had a 94 or 95 Outback Sport, and never mentioned any problems with his manual AWD or engine.

I seem to recall problems with a 1995-1999 H4 engine. I think it was with the DOHC. Later engines with SOHC were OK.

If it's his first car... He WILL crash it.

There's no better car to crash than a Saab.

Another vote for the Corolla, cheap to fix if something wrong.

I was thinking corolla or civic, but that's the view quite a few years ago,
last time I shopped for cars was back in 05.

I wonder what's the opinion on newer brands such as Scion?
or the ever improving underdog Hundai?

mvyrmnd said:

If it's his first car... He WILL crash it.
There's no better car to crash than a Saab.

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Saab may be out of business at some point ?

ma_sha1 said:

I wonder what's the opinion on newer brands such as Scion?
or the ever improving underdog Hundai?

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Scion is solid but spartan, their cars have no options unless dealer-installed, so most are very basic. The TC uses the Camry's engine.

Hyundai is long on options and style, but reliability is just above average. Be aware that they have a nasty habit of not installing speed limiters - all the the cars listed above will cutoff at ~110 mph, a V6 Hyundai with a brave and patient driver will nudge 150..

StarHalo said:

Scion is solid but spartan, their cars have no options unless dealer-installed, so most are very basic. The TC uses the Camry's engine.

Hyundai is long on options and style, but reliability is just above average. Be aware that they have a nasty habit of not installing speed limiters - all the the cars listed above will cutoff at ~110 mph, a V6 Hyundai with a brave and patient driver will nudge 150..

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The limit cars in the US to 110? Wow. If a car in Australia is limited at all, it's at 250KPH (155MPH).

Saab has actually gone out of business, but there are many places that still have parts and service, and I thought you were buying one second hand anyway?

There's a bit of street cred in an old Turbocharged 900 these days. Safe as houses too. A previous state premier's son, here, crashed his 900 and walked away. The media, obviously, were all over the incident. Most agreed that if he were in any other vehicle of the same vintage he'd have been dead.

mvyrmnd said:

The limit cars in the US to 110?

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Just the more common ones. Trucks are limited to 99; gotta feel bad for the guy who just dropped sixty grand on a luxo-hauler only to have a Ford Fiesta blow past it on the highway..

Scion is a great car but not cheap.
Hyundai is still junk, too many problem.

glockboy said:

Scion is a great car but not cheap.
Hyundai is still junk, too many problem.

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I thought Scion when 1st introduced a few years ago, it was cicic level cost, maybe they gone up in price more than the civic?

Hyundai quality rating are chart topping these days, but people opinon is still negative, which usually indicates value for the money.

I have some experience with this as my name might imply. Get him a car that he can run into mailboxes with and will back into those big yellow poles at gas stations. Get him a car that is not going to make you shudder if he accidently is playing with his ipod and runs into the back of a dump truck (ok you'll shudder but he'll have a much better chance at living than in a civic, camry or scion. I put safety over gas mileage. My choice would be a Volvo 850, s70 or v70 from 1994 to 1998. A wagon is more useful and less pretentious but the sedans are also good choices. You also want a car that is not going to encourage racing like the Japanese cars that have so many tempting add ons.

mvyrmnd said:

The limit cars in the US to 110? Wow. If a car in Australia is limited at all, it's at 250KPH (155MPH).

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The first time I heard of this was back in the 1980's with the Buick Grand National. The intent was to limit the top speed of the car to keep it within the safe operating range of its standard factory-equipped tires. My memory is probably faulty but I think the Grand National came with H-rated tires and was limited to 130 m.p.h. although it was capable of speeds much higher than that. Some articles suggested that Buick chose the H-rated tires, even though higher speed tires were available, because the GN would "lift" at higher speeds (it was after all, a boxy 80's style family sedan at heart). As far as I know it was Buick's decision to limit the speed, likely for liability reasons.

Whether for liability concerns or through legislation (I don't know which) this has become more prevalent over the years. If you aren't familiar with tire speed ratings, you can find a summary here.

Back on topic, my first car was a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle. Your son would never forgive you for buying one of those but as I sit here thinking about it, the old "Bug" actually would meet several of your criteria. Admittedly, I wasn't crazy about it when I was 16 years old but absence makes the heart grow fonder and I actually miss that old car.

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My Subaru vote was a knee jerk first thought,, to get a mechanically sound 3.0L version may be $5+K

Changing my vote to an older Camry.

A good friend of mine had one in Colorado and it had well over 200K on it*,
he was not too keen on mechanical stuff or preventative maintenance,, that damn car just ran & ran & ran....
Just get really good all-season tires for it, NEVER ever skimp on tires.


*just to clarify, it was a 5-speed

Consider a 1992 - 2000 Jeep Cherokee.

These are the smaller box Cherokee.

They are four wheel drive, great visability for the driver, decent gas mileage and the drive train lasts to over 250,000.

Easy to work on, so the new driver can learn a few maintenance items, like changing oil and filter.

We have had about 5 of these on our family for new drivers and they are still being driven.

Just a thought....

StarHalo said:

Just the more common ones. Trucks are limited to 99; gotta feel bad for the guy who just dropped sixty grand on a luxo-hauler only to have a Ford Fiesta blow past it on the highway..

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It's per manufacturer, not any sort of law. And it's usually based on tire speed rating.