First car for 19yo son

[Cornish Steve]

Let me be frank: I really don't understand how any parent can buy a teenage son a fast car. When you look at the statistics, it is very scary to learn how many kill themselves by losing control.

A friend of ours is a nurse, and she came across an accident while driving home. Again, a teenager was driving a fast car, lost control, and hit a tree. The teen's head was severed, and he died in the arms of our friend.

Forget expense; you can always recover from a financial loss. Think more about your son's safety; please don't buy him a fast car. Let him mature first as a driver.

It won't be as cool to drive a bog standard car with a small engine, but it will serve him well.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Let me be frank: I really don't understand how any parent can buy a teenage son a fast car. When you look at the statistics, it is very scary to learn how many kill themselves by losing control.

A friend of ours is a nurse, and she came across an accident while driving home. Again, a teenager was driving a fast car, lost control, and hit a tree. The teen's head was severed, and he died in the arms of our friend.

Forget expense; you can always recover from a financial loss. Think more about your son's safety; please don't buy him a fast car. Let him mature first as a driver.

It won't be as cool to drive a bog standard car with a small engine, but it will serve him well.

There are plenty sporty LOOKING cars that don't have much in the way of performance for £20k.

These statistics that you mention, do they happen to show fatalities in relation to engine size? I wonder if there really are more deaths in faster cars amongst very new drivers.

 

[An Oasis]

You lot are showing your age...it's no longer cool to have a performance car...kids want bling.

 

[dingbat]

We all had to buy our own cars growing up. And it was a good thing.

When you've had to pay for a car with your own hard earned cash you will be far more responsible with it. You'll also be far more responsible with money in your life.

 

There are plenty sporty LOOKING cars that don't have much in the way of performance for £20k.

These statistics that you mention, do they happen to show fatalities in relation to engine size? I wonder if there really are more deaths in faster cars amongst very new drivers.

Yes there are statistics:

If you hit a tree at 1 mph you will probably be fine.

If you hit a tree at 100 mph you may not feel to well.

Its called common sense.

http://www.brake.org.uk/young-drivers-the-hard-facts

Earl

 

[LicensedToTrade]

I'm joining this a little late and haven't read all the intervening posts but in my opinion a £20,000 budget on a car for your 19 year old son is about £19,000 higher than it needs to be.

Why spend £20k on a car that is highly likely to be involved in an accident within the first year? There is a good reason why your son falls into the highest insurance category for drivers, they crash their cars.

Why not spend £1k on a used corsa or something to that effect and spend £19k on his second card in two years time when he has actually learned how to drive?

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Yes there are statistics:

If you hit a tree at 1 mph you will probably be fine.

If you hit a tree at 100 mph you may not feel to well.

Its called common sense.

http://www.brake.org.uk/young-drivers-the-hard-facts

Earl

Quite.
Things have changed since you were a boy Earl, I think all cars these days can reach more than 1mph. I was genuinely asking if more performance did in fact correlate with more chance of an accident. I would have thought that a high percentage of claims involving young drivers would be for low powered small cars. Of course this is likely to be because that is the type of car that most young drivers buy.

 

[Esk247]

Quite.
Things have changed since you were a boy Earl, I think all cars these days can reach more than 1mph. I was genuinely asking if more performance did in fact correlate with more chance of an accident. I would have thought that a high percentage of claims involving young drivers would be for low powered small cars. Of course this is likely to be because that is the type of car that most young drivers buy.

It probably doesn't correlate because high performance vehicles are too expensive for younger drivers. I agree with you there.

However, speed still kills and is the younger drivers who tend to speed the most. Giving them a higher power vehicle is only going to increase the risk of dodgy over taking and racing between friends.

 

Quite.
Things have changed since you were a boy Earl, I think all cars these days can reach more than 1mph. .

Er I'll have you know I spent many years riding high powered motorbikes during a period when there was no speed limit.

Bit differnt to nowdays when everyone drives in a mobile traffic jam.

Bloody AC Cobra is said to be the reason the limit came in ,testing there cars at 180mph on the M1.

Earl

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Er I'll have you know I spent many years riding high powered motorbikes during a period when there was no speed limit.

Bit differnt to nowdays when everyone drives in a mobile traffic jam.

Bloody AC Cobra is said to be the reason the limit came in ,testing there cars at 180mph on the M1.

Earl

Behave you were middle aged by the time Cobras came out weren't you?

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

It probably doesn't correlate because high performance vehicles are too expensive for younger drivers. I agree with you there.

However, speed still kills and is the younger drivers who tend to speed the most. Giving them a higher power vehicle is only going to increase the risk of dodgy over taking and racing between friends.

I'm not arguing, I was asking a serious question. I don't think that a car with lower performance encourages those who are so inclined to stop racing and overtaking though, I think that inexperience is more of a factor in collisions than speed amongst younger drivers.

For those in favor of such things, perhaps a similar approach to that used with regards motorbikes would be a viable idea. As I understand it new riders are limited to a bike with a 33bhp output, thus limiting speed. Perhaps a similar idea could be applied to new drivers?

 

[Dawg]

One thing not mentioned is the solidity of the car. Given that the 19 year old is fairly certain to have a bang it makes sense to have it in something that a) is solid as the proverbial brick s-house, and b) cheap.
Old Beemer/Merc/Volvo pimped up a tad to at least try and please a 19 years old's sense of style, (it'll be a FAIL wah'eva), will leave them....alive?
All the modern small cars have crumple proof zones, sure. But not 19 years old with some mates and babes in the back crumple proof.

 

One thing not mentioned is the solidity of the car. Given that the 19 year old is fairly certain to have a bang it makes sense to have it in something that a) is solid as the proverbial brick s-house, and b) cheap.
Old Beemer/Merc/Volvo pimped up a tad to at least try and please a 19 years old's sense of style, (it'll be a FAIL wah'eva), will leave them....alive?
All the modern small cars have crumple proof zones, sure. But not 19 years old with some mates and babes in the back crumple proof.

Afraid you are safer in a modern fiesta than an older range rover .

http://www.euroncap.com/home.aspx

Earl

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Repeating myself I know but a C30 or a Mito is the car the OP is looking for. Sporty looking without lots of power, in budget, safe.

 

[Consistency]

£20,000 for a new car for a youngster, seems a lot to me.

What an extravagant gift. If a driver has saved money and worked for it, whether it is £300 or £20,000, he is in my view more likely to regard that car with more respect than a freebie with no value.

I think a lot of younger drivers may well be likely to have a few more accidents as they have come by the vehicle in which they had the accident far too easily.

 

[Matt1959]

£20,000 for a new car for a youngster, seems a lot to me.

What an extravagant gift..

theres a flip side to this. If a multi millionaire wants to buy his son a car then £20k arguably is chicken feed so who are we to say to him its too much money to spend:|

whether the OP fits the above description is another matter

 

[Consistency]

theres a flip side to this. If a multi millionaire wants to buy his son a car then £20k arguably is chicken feed so who are we to say to him its too much money to spend:|

whether the OP fits the above description is another matter

Agreed.

As I said £20,000 for a first car for a teenager sounds a lot for me, but I can imagine Kate and William would have frowned at such a tacky cost cutting gesture of goodwill! That indeed would be peanuts to them.

But then I am a grump who would think to spend £20,000 on a wedding to be excessive!

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Agreed.

As I said £20,000 for a first car for a teenager sounds a lot for me, but I can imagine Kate and William would have frowned at such a tacky cost cutting gesture of goodwill! That indeed would be peanuts to them.

But then I am a grump who would think to spend £20,000 on a wedding to be excessive!

I believe William had a VW Golf for his first car, circa £18k

 

[Barnie]

I believe William had a VW Golf for his first car, circa £18k

it was a mk 2 gold, circa 2k, good man same car as what i had first


alfas are nice cars as suggested but insurance expensive on them.


if im totally honest i would say get him a nice little run around for £2k and then get him a nice car for his 21st. its not about how much money you have in the bank its also about teaching your children the value of money.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

it was a mk 2 gold, circa 2k, good man same car as what i had first


alfas are nice cars as suggested but insurance expensive on them.


if im totally honest i would say get him a nice little run around for £2k and then get him a nice car for his 21st. its not about how much money you have in the bank its also about teaching your children the value of money.

Oh really? I thought he had a new mk4, must have been 2nd/3rd/4th car.

 

[jshgardiner]

Some nice discussion you had there
Ok, I thought about it, and we're not getting a new car. I was also talking with my son, and he is now thinking about vw golf (you can see it here), but used of course. Got some good opinions on this site, also on other forums. We will see how it goes Now we are just looking for a good opportunity to try one

 

[StudentManager]

Can't see what all the moaning on here is for. Seems like most posters are pretty jealous that they weren't able to have a £20k car at 19. Yes, there are a lot of young idiot drivers on the road but equally there are some decent ones.

Anyway, after I read all the posts before the last page where you just replied, I was going to recommend looking at VW Sciroccos (so not too far away from a Golf, but a bit sportier and 'mean' looking). Variety of engine sizes available too if you don't want him wrapping it around a tree...