What's the best used car for the money to get for a teenage driver? I'm a single mom with limited $$$?

Answer 1

Something dependable, and affordable (cheap on gas), and carries low insurance rates.

Things to look for :

4 or 6 cylinder vehicles (cheaper on insurance & gas)

4 door vehicles (cheaper insurance)

Not a red vehicle

Not sporty

No fancy rims (consider tire costs!)

Low mileage if possible.

Safety - should be high on list

Of course following all of those rules will put you in a very boring to a teenager vehicle. Perhaps compromise a little, but stick to definitely good gas mileage, and cheap on insurance.

A domestic car can be had cheaper, and are less expensive to repair than imports, but tend to not be as reliable. If your teen is mechanically inclined this may not be an issue.

Anyway my suggestions are :

Used full size chevy truck (late 80's early 90's) - older trucks are easy to work on and cheap.

Ford Taurus, good on gas, roomy, inexpensive to operate.

Older model Toyota's - Corolla's, Camry's - dependable and great on gas.

Older Honda's - Civics.

I'm not big on small cars for teens however, they don't fair well protecting the occupants in a crash.

Answer 2

If you're on a limited budget, why are you buying your teenager a car (beyond the fact that they naturally want one)? The cost of buying, maintaining/repairing, and insuring a car for a teen is not cheap. Better to take that money and put it in their college fund. They won't appreciate it now but it will pay for itself many times over in the future should they go to school. The same can't be said for a car, which will cost thousands of dollars in depreciation and insurance whether they ever drive it or not.

Answer 3

If you are looking for a reliable sedan, I would go with a Ford Taurus or a Mazda.

Toyotas, Nissan Volkswagen and Hondas will be expensive, GM products are not all that reliable (for sedan purposes) and Chrysler/Dodge (pt cruisers and neons-so yourself a favor.. dont do it, 300 series expensive to insure, its a fine line of what is a good product with them.) The taurus you can find like an '06 with really low miles for about a third of the price as a new one. Mazdas are a little more reliable and fashionable but a tad more expensive. They are both cheap to insure and the prices are right, great gas mileage and easy to maintain. They both have enough power to do what you need them to with out stupid insurance rates. They will never get stolen and you can park them with out worrying about anything happening to them. Same thing with saturns if you can find one that is not all beat to $hit. My experience is that they are easy to take care of as well.

Mostly a Saturn a taurus and mazda 6 or mazda 3 are best bang for the buck!

Answer 4

Try finding a honda accord or civic with 4 cilinders. Toyotas (camry) are also reliable cars they just keep going.I have also heard that Saturn's hold up well. Make sure it is not a sports car because insurance will be very high. make it some 4 door car.

Answer 5

Honda Civic is an all-time favorite. It's reliable, relatively inexpensive, cheap to operate, low insurance rates, looks good, and has good performance. And there are thousands of upgrade parts available for it.

Here's an article that has a lot more details:

http://www.leaseguide.com/Articles/cars-for-teens.htm

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Answer 6

Toyota and Hondas. They may cost a little but they last forever. I'm 16 and my dad got me a very good looking 95 Honda for $1000.

Answer 7

Toyota cameri

Answer 8

Honda accords are pretty reliable and usually cheap.

Answer 9

Think gas mileage and insurance costs.

Answer 10

get an old Honda