Your Child Needs A Car – What Should You Buy?

By Wake Clinard

Your Child Needs A Car – What Should You Buy?

Many times we are asked this question by our clients with teen drivers so I thought I would address this issue in today’s blog. Some parents fall prey to “I just want the best for my child” syndrome and in their efforts to do the “best” thing for their child, they may in fact do the “worst”.

When shopping for a first car for your child there are several considerations that should rise to the top of the pile for you. They are:

What car will help keep my child safe?.... and,
What car will keep my insurance rates low?

I can tell you that if you left it to your teen to choose the car then these two considerations would probably fall to the bottom of the list.

The odds are that your child will be involved in some type of accident in his or her first year of driving. That is why your teen’s first car should be one that is safe for them and one that won’t hurt your pocketbook in the event of a minor bump up.

Let’s start with safety. Here you want to find a vehicle that is large and slow. Don’t get one that is so old that you skip the anti-lock brakes and airbags though. Underpowered is good as well. Now I know that in these times of climbing gas prices you might be tempted to choose a smaller car for your child. I would encourage you not to fall into that trap. Think of your child’s first car as a temporary solution for say a year or two until they become more a more competent driver. With that in mind, the poor gas mileage, while painful will be a short term trade off to keep them safe while they are in their most dangerous stage. In addition, today’s higher gas prices are driving down the resale value of larger used cars so you can make up some of the gas cost on the purchase price.

One more note about safety. Do not purchase a SUV type vehicle for your child. Any vehicle that has a high center of gravity will increase the chances of a rollover accident tremendously. Young drivers simply have not had the experience that they need to judge speed going into tight turns and these vehicles are very unforgiving of this mistake.

Now, how do you keep the costs of insurance lower? Well, as soon as your child becomes a primary operator on a vehicle, their inexperienced operator rates will go up, but you can minimize the cost by purchasing an inexpensive first vehicle for your child. This way you can avoid having to purchase collision insurance on this vehicle. You need to be sure that if the vehicle is totaled and you need to replace it that you can afford to do so. When my son banged up his first car in two different accidents that were his fault, I took the car to a local body repair shop and asked them to repair it enough to keep the car safe and legal. While it might have cost thousands to repair the dings and dents, making it safe and legal in each case cost me about $300.

One last note about cars for your teens. Purchasing an older model car gives you the chance to see how well your child will take car of a car. Let them know that you purchasing a newer, nicer car for them in the future is contigent on how well they maintain this one. This gives you a low risk opportunity to see how well they will take this advice. Imagine how you might feel if you spend a small fortune on a car and insurance for them and after a month or so the inside looks like a garbage dump. I guess another way to predict this would be to take a look inside your teenager's room. But of course that is always a scary proposition. Good luck and happy car hunting.