[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by Captain Blood

I tried that approach with my older twins. The clutch. Did not work as planned.

My children will have the choice of buying their own car or learning to drive stick

I know in the US more people are Mensa members than stick-drivers but if my 88 year old grandmother can drive a stick, they can learn. Or pay for their own car.

Of course this assumes that manual used cars even exist when my kids can drive

[Torgus]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

My children will have the choice of buying their own car or learning to drive stick

I know in the US more people are Mensa members than stick-drivers but if my 88 year old grandmother can drive a stick, they can learn. Or pay for their own car.

Of course this assumes that manual used cars even exist when my kids can drive

Amen.

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I say a manual car and make it a car not a truck/suv/crossover

A manual keeps people from being stupid. You can't drive it when intoxicated. Your jackass friends can't drive it either because they don't know how to. You can't eat pizza or do your makeup while driving a stick shift either

The manual is safer the drive for all the reasons stated above.


A new driver on a RWD platform? You want a fun rwd car buy it yourself. Most new drivers, and I consider a new driver the 1st 5 years they drive, can barely drive a FWD or AWD manual well. Let alone control a RWD car in sub optimal conditions.

[Dagamus_NM]

Not the prettiest cars, but older volvo station wagons are what I would consider for a first car. Can be made to look great, safe, reliable, can fit tons of stuff in them and fun overall. Guess it depends on what your kids are into, but the versatility is great. I had a hooptie 1991 740 wagon when I was 20. That car was great. I did not maintain it at all and it never asked for anything but gas. Had a five speed. Gas mileage was fine for how old it was. I moved on to BMW after that but I really liked that car.

[VChenz]

For a reliable sports car Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ

For a reliable SUV, RAV 4 is hard to beat. Get the V6 sport model if you can as the gas consumption difference with the 4 banger is negligible.

F150 is a terrible idea unless they have good jobs where they can afford the gas or they need it for whatever career they are pursuing.

[eleven11]

• Toyota 4Runner - should be able to find one 12-15 years old with sub-75,000 miles.
  
• Honda Accord - fairly new one

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by jstein55

Buy something cheap and reliable, kids usually wreck their first cars anyways. I'd say something like a Rav4 or CX-5 is a great choice. Should have enough safety features, good practicality, reliable, efficient, etc, and should be cheaper for insurance than a Mustang, BRZ or smaller RWD vehicles.

They have suffered through a 2004 Camry as their 1st car for 2 years. 1 wreck. They are both good drivers.

[dreamingat30fps]

Get them what I had to drive

[Torgus]

https://autowise.com/new-cars-under-15000/

Just buy them a new car if you want to spend 15k. No maintenance to worry about while they are in college. The cars will have the newest safety features as required by the DOT and be S L O W which is what you want for their safety.

They want something fast, fun, flashy, etc? They should buy it themselves with their money so they will appreciate it. You appreciate something a lot more if you worked for it vs. it being handed to you on a silver platter.

[PYE46M3]

Any 4 cylinder honda/toyota/mazda is what I would go for. Manual civic or mazda 3 if you want something more sporty and fun. Toyota camry or accord if you want a little more room. All will deliver reliability, good gas mileage and cheap to maintain and fix. Stay away from Nissan.

[..Rush..]

My old man didn't buy me a car on graduation.

[corn18]

I got the same crap from assholes about buying my kids new cars. FU. You do you, I'll do me.

For OP, give them a budget and let them pick the car. My only requirement was safety. First one got a Nissan Altima Coupe. She's had it 9 years now and it still runs and looks good. The second one got a Jeep Wrangler 2 DR. Lowest rated car by Consumer Reports in the history of all cars. And the most impractical car ever. But it was safe, so I let it slide. Six years old and no issues. I had my list of probables and they dismissed all of them.

[plutnicki]

I appreciate the "make 'em work for it/pay for it crowd". But every geography is different. In my neck of the woods, you need to drive to work. My wife and I both work full time, so he can't borrow a car (if I even wanted him driving either of ours regularly, which I do not) and we can't sign up to transport him. So, either we help him out and seed a car, make the use contingent on working, help pay for insurance, pay for gas, maintenance, AND keep the grades up (both for the insurance discount and more than one youth has lost some GPA when the scent of gas and perfume starts to kick in).

The flip side is that I neither have the time or wherewithal to do maintenance, so for my own concern I want it to be reliable and in decent shape.

A Civic LX fits the bill. Not fancy, or fast, or especially fun to drive. But decent looking, comfortable, reliable. If he wants to upgrade, that will be on him to deal with. Around me, 12 - 15k will get a very nice, low mileage Civic LX that should last well past college years with decent maintenance and even a little abuse. I'm preferential to Hondas over Toyotas...

He has a little money saved, so if he wants to take out a "bank of dad" loan to turn that LX into an EX, EX-T (he really wants an Si, and I love that he wants a manual, but .... ), well then that's a negotiation he can manage.

Every kid is different. My oldest bought his own Focus ST, got a loan, etc.. He still treats it like crap, blew the engine doing mods he had no business doing. Learned to fix it himself... But "having skin in the game" doesn't actually guarantee anything.

[quick6]

How about one of those Amphicars that can double as a boat?

[scostu]

Do they have any major hobbies/sports that they regularly compete in and need a specific vehicle to get them to a site?

Off-roading vs pavement?

[pukicabuki]

Get something with 2 seats. That way they aren't pressured to be the one always driving groups of people around, especially if they are partying.

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by PYE46M3

Any 4 cylinder honda/toyota/mazda is what I would go for. Manual civic or mazda 3 if you want something more sporty and fun. Toyota camry or accord if you want a little more room. All will deliver reliability, good gas mileage and cheap to maintain and fix. Stay away from Nissan.

I've had pretty good luck with infinity/nissans before. Getting off the Audi high I was on earlier, I've looked at some Hyundai ELANTRA's, civics, accords, and Mazda 3's

[Alaberti]

Here's an alt car: 2019 Veloster Turbo R-Spec. It's a tiny bit out of your budget, but you can find them for $16-17K all day long with low miles on 'em. Most seem to move up to the turbo ultimate or Veloster N by my understanding, both cars I've owned and they are seriously fun to drive cars, much better than the generation that came before.

Lukewarm FWD hatch with more trunk space than a Jeep Renegade making it great for college life, backseats are better than 2+2 but will probably keep friends from overstaying their welcome, manual-only, newish and still under warranty, 201hp/193 ft-lbs torque is fast but not fast-fast so they can learn to appreciate speed without being in any real danger, and best of all it was engineered by former M division manager Albert Biermann so it does have chops. This generation of Veloster is leagues better than the 1st gen in all categories. I used to foster kids and the 3 door thing is super easy to live with and as much as people say "triggers by OCD" you never see both doors at the same time. It's trickier with car seats, but that doesn't sound like it's a problem for a new driver.

Definitely encourage you give it a test drive at the least, you can feel a little M heritage in it, much more in the Veloster N but it's about $26K used and uh probably not the one you give to your kid as a first car. That's a proper hot hatch.

Edit: If you live somewhere that doesn't have 'em, I think the i30 is the international version, but I have no idea what used prices are. Either way, this platform is extremely inexpensive to maintain, it is an economy car at heart.

[4Hockey4]

2015 228i low mileage - plenty of others

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/invent...ting=269597712

Civic EX-T loaded for under 15K. Great car, fun to drive. We've had 3

[Captain Blood]

Originally Posted by quick6

How about one of those Amphicars that can double as a boat?

They go down......

[BimmerDimmer6]

Originally Posted by dreamingat30fps

Get them what I had to drive

Is that an echo?

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by BimmerDimmer6

Is that an echo?

Yup, it was my moms, then I drove it in college, then my sister, then my uncle had it for years. I remember at some point we found a big nest inside the engine bay, it didn't give a shit, kept running.

[Kelse92]

Originally Posted by VChenz

For a reliable sports car Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ

For a reliable SUV, RAV 4 is hard to beat. Get the V6 sport model if you can as the gas consumption difference with the 4 banger is negligible.

F150 is a terrible idea unless they have good jobs where they can afford the gas or they need it for whatever career they are pursuing.

This post is almost identical to what I was going to write! But I'll expand on it some!

I was not that long ago, a teenager, and looking back I wish I had been given a smaller sports coupe with low HP and a manual transmission. The FRS/BRZ fits that bill and the price point OP was requesting. It took me until after college to learn to drive a manual, I wish I had learned it sooner.

It's also true about what was posted about the 4-door SUV thing. I had a 1st gen Nissan Murano as my first car (terrible choice, would not recommend that particular car lol) and I used to tote my friends around it in high school to events and whatnot, and even did the same thing in college DD'ing half the football team on weekends in our small college town. It was fun and gave me some street cred, but I was never the type to get into trouble. I hardly even drank in college until Senior year when I was actually 21. If the kids aren't already causing trouble then SUV/Small truck is a good choice if mainly for safety and visibility. I also appreciated it for the 8hr drive to and from my college campus, it was a nice way to tote all of my stuff at the beginning and end of the school year without having to rent a U-Haul or ship/store anything over the summer.

I also after the Murano drove every version of full-size truck you could imagine when I moved back home to finish my last two years of college. I would not recommend any of those either. I got stuck with them because my parents needed an occasional tow vehicle that I could drive during the rest of the time since I had to sell my first car in order to move back home. I briefly drove an f450, newer 2500 Silverado, and 2015 RAM 1500. I'll focus on the Ram mostly and say it was a great truck, but absolutely awful on gas mileage with the Hemi. I did however make some money off it on the weekends hauling my friends furniture to storage and stuff before summers. If I had to go back, a smaller Tacoma or 4runner would have been a good choice too, and they can be driven into the ground mileage wise.

I would still probably go for the sports car though. The 86 is fun and looks good while also being reliable and not too high horsepower. But ultimately, whatever way you go, at least give your kids some more time to think on their option or choice, you might be surprised what they say they would like to have, especially if they're into any sports that require a lot of equipment to be hauled around. Also, think about something they might wish to still own or have in the next 5-10 years. I wish I had gotten a fun or better practical car then the Murano as my first car then, so that it would be paid off and still not too high-mileage now so I could have something practical to drive that is paid-off in tandem to my //M.
Instead, I'm in the position of having to justify a second car payment, buying a cheaper cash car, or sticking with dailying the M3 with race seats a little longer to pay cash for something a little nicer.