What cheap safe efficient car for Daughter?

[NTF6]

Buy her the biggest most modern car you can afford. At least she might survive a decent crash, small modern day cars don't provide a decent crash barrier against injury.

[chookaradley]

Another one for the Lancer here. Really solid car. I wouldnt feel bad OP. What teenage girl wants to learn defensive driving?. And what teenager is going to care what their dad thinks. Ive got my licence im outa here!

[Itsme]

Hate to say it but no car is really safe in the hands of an inexperienced driver, personally I would not be buying her another car until she meets your demands of advanced driving skills.

[asagaai]

Originally Posted by marty351

62 VW beetle. My sisters first car, no crashes, 4 wheel drum brakes, 40hp, no power steering, mobile death trap when used incorrectly, teach her the basics of driving, and when she can use this car at its limits, upgrade.

My Uncle died in a beetle, he also had the speed gene and used to drive the beetle sliding it round corners. He loved women, booze and speed (not sure in what order), night he died involved all 3, ended up punching the steering column through his chest. Ever since then not keen on beetles, and for some reason this unease of mine also extends to Porsche for some reason.

My daughter has not crashed 3 cars, when I said the third, my car (1st), wifes car (2nd), and the third is the hand me down ex family car -the camry.

And yes, I worked and bought my own car, and when I did not have the money I rode a pushbike to Monash Uni in Melbourne and to my part time jobs at Garden City.

But times are different now, more traffic so pushbikes dangerous, and things are more expensive for young people today, I got free uni thanks to Whitlam, no Hecs, and first house that I built was much cheaper than the young are facing.

But there will be a third party insurance excess-she can pay that, as well as the new rego. I will probably look at the Lancer/Subi options at this time- and will insist that we do some advanced driver stuff in the wet in an appropriate area. Otherwise she can fund her own vehicle. When I drilled down tonight- she responded "I saw the turn late, and braked hard and turned and the brakes stopped working" -code for I turned- upset the balance of the car and caused the front to turn in and the rear to yaw, hit the brakes while on the turn which caused a lockup, and the rear slid out more.

This is "the brakes did not work"....no- they worked, and simply clamped the discs and stopped the wheels rotating....

[Franco Cozzo]

I put my first Focus into a 1980s Rodeo on Sunbury Road on the side of Melbourne Airport at around 90km/h, I hit him with the front left of the car after I unsuccessfully tried to evade after he accidentally reversed out in front of me.



I walked out with minor burns, no hearing from the airbag deployment for about a minute and nice purple bruising across my torso from the seatbelt pretensioner ripping me back into my seat.

His Rodeo was toasted, bent like a banana and if he had a passenger they would have been halal.

I also hit a wallaby at 100km/h a few weeks back and I still drove it 10km home at 100km/h afterwards and she was still going, I hit it with the front left side, went over the top of it with both passenger wheels and it smashed out the foglight, all the covers and smashed out the ECU from its housing above the passenger wheel, hanging in only by its loom, pinned against the wheel and the road, also loosened up my rear sway bar on its way under, the mighty LV Focus kept going though.

So from experience +1 for LV Focus, cheap now too and the stereo is good, mine is manual diesel and it goes alright in stock form, you should be able to pick them up for around $7K now anyway.

[Ratmick]

Go the Focus, long may her replacement roll...

...I second the LV Focus (mine's a MkII), fortunately I haven't 'tested' it like Damo yet.

[4vxc]

asagaai, steer clear of ANY Holden that ends in the letter a
Subaru= expenses other similar cars don't have
Stay away from Euro's no matter how pretty they may look
Toyota, Mazda and Lancer with dual airbags and abs are solid choices
Teach her how abs reacts so she doesn't freak out first time it's activated and release the brake pedal because that's a common scenario.

[arronm]

BF XR6 on gas. When I got my kids cars I made sure they had ALL the safety features. ABS, DSC, traction, oldies don't necessarily need it but the newbys need all the help they can get.

ABS may have changed the outcome of this incident.

[nuthin' fancy]

Gee, Dad tries to help daughter and gets caned for it. I'm glad you are trying to help out.

Forget the manual, not enough around. AWD Magna, 19 on carsales, only 1 over budget.

[XG_Falcon]

Maybe consider another Camry? Yes they're boring cars but I reckon it would be perfect for your daughter.

[bangm001]

Corolla or mazda

[xxx000]

I'd be buying her an auto rather than a manual.
More cars to choose from, autos are far more popular these days
Better and easier resale
One less thing for her to worry about as she improves her driving skills.
Learning to drive is a never ending process

[ford71V8]

If she works 3 jobs, I'd be emailing her the carsales.com link (and a link to this thread)

[mechanic]

How about a Falcon ?

[Stefan]

Plenty of people drive without doing an advanced driving course or learning how to drift a car, they usually slow down in the wet.

Unless you are a qualified advanced driving instructor (you may be?), with a skid pan and properly set up car for teaching, I would tell you to get stuffed too if you tried to teach me advanced driving skills. I always find people go to extremes, you can teach alot about driving in the wet without going drifting. Teach her not to lose control in the first placed rather than four wheel power sliding. A start is to kick her in the butt and tell her to slow the hell down when the road is slippery.

Lots of great cars for $7K, I'd be looking at car advertised up to $10K, and take $7K cash with me when looking. I'd be looking at Focus, Corolla, i30 and Subbie Impreza is a great idea for AWD. Just about all 2007 on would have abs and multiple air bags, some euro stuff would have stability control too, but maybe over your price range.

I know falcon is an option but I honestly think way too big and too much power, even a basic 6 is a powerful car for a young driver

[Swordie]

Honda Civic 2006 onwards very good on fuel and reliable. Lower earlier models don't have full set of airbags.

[5.8]

I'd suggest a Mazda 3 or a Subaru Impreza or Liberty. As Stefan says, look at cars up to about 10K and offer the 7K. They need complete service history and get the lowest K, least owners one you can. 9 out of 10 people won't take the silly offer but you only need one to accept it.

You have asked what car we might suggest so forget about the lecturers on about whether you should buy her a car or not, your family, your money you do what you want.

[DK30RB]

You can pickup a good 2005 2006 liberty for 7k.

Awd and safe. Just that little but bigger than imprezza. Find a good local independent mechanic to service it and it will give you years of hassle free motoring.

[FPR]

Defensive driving course then a mazda mx5.

Small, balanced, underpowered and can only take one passenger.

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[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by josh1990

Mrs has a 2004 corolla and her mother a 2008 corolla. Don't waste your money, biggest **** heaps with problems. Neither have many Kay's (both under 130k) and mostly same niggling problems. Just replaced the shocks in the '04, it slid out on wet corners whilst driving to the conditions. CD players stop working, central locking problems, poor seats.

I somewhat agree. 18 months ago my mother in law bought a 2007 corolla with 70k on the clock and since then she has had to have the coil packs rewired and the fuel pump replaced.towings not cheap. On top of that due to a sub standard prior smash repair the rear end does horrible things to tyres because it cant be aligned properly. Toyota dealers fail to tell buyers that fact because the car has "great paint for its age".... hmmmm. The smart thing my uncle did when my cousin wanted to get her first car was to cave and get the one she had her heart set on. A 1.3l 92 civic was the slowest car in the universe but my cousin kept it in cotton wool and was even paranoid about where to park it.. paranoia is a good way to teach defensive driving. Hell I did my l's in a modified wb kingswood ute with a tickled efi motor from a 96 clubsport up front. My paranoia was the fear of death because the thing was slippery in the dry and a major handfull in the wet. It was slower than a modern taxi but the old rts suspension is dinosaur compared to these days and was the major problem. What about a focus ztech? 2l airbags, cheap to run, safe enough? One of my apprentices has one and he rates it. Just my 2c

[mik]

One thing you cant do is put an old head on young shoulders , no amount of slide control can make up for k`s traveled on the road experiencing different road conditions and other motorists and your own short comings as a driver,
imo put her in a modern car you deem safe with abs and air bags give her the usual lecture and that is all you can do,
a lot of youngys just will not be told , i taught my step brother but he drove his way and it took him 3 crashes before he woke up, now hes a really good driver, unfortunately some take longer for the penny to drop , that is just the way it is .

[Matty4]

My 17yo daughter is still on her learners and sounds just like your daughter. Isn't interested in "hooning and racing". She's only driven autos at this stage and I can't convince her (or my wife) to try a manual. Anyway, I picked up a 2005 VW Golf 2.0 auto (not DSG) that has traction control, 6 airbags, ABS, cruise with 84K on the odo for $5K.
We'll do a deal when she gets her licence to pay us half back.

If I was paying for it in full then one of my conditions would be a drivers course, even the one done by AAMI for new drivers as part of your insurance. I did it when I got my licence just after I bought my first car and I still remember most things they taught me.

[.:4:.]

Double post..my bad..

[MercurySilver]

Id def be getting her something thats loaded with airbags thats for aure
Especially if you go down the small roller skate/coke can route.
Good time to be buying imo
Just before xmas people want the coin and just after xmas people have bills to pay, some good negotiating and you could easily knock a few grand of a car selling for 10
What car??....dunno as i do not look at any other make other than ford when im car shopping

[ljf12]

I have read many articles that have stated how there would be a large reduction in the road toll for younger drivers if they were all driving recent models with modern safety features ,especially stability control.

I believe you want your inexperienced children in the best car that you can possibly put them in.

[minheim]

Originally Posted by ljf12

I have read many articles that have stated how there would be a large reduction in the road toll for younger drivers if they were all driving recent models with modern safety features ,especially stability control.

I believe you want your inexperienced children in the best car that you can possibly put them in.

Exactly. That Is what we did for our daughter for her first car. Also especially with daughters I always believe you want a reliable car as you don't want them stranded late at night. Another benefit of helping your child get a decent car is they are less likely to be a passenger with a reckless or drunk/drugged driver.

[mik]

my brother brought up a slightly rough looking 2011 corolla hatch , it hasn't done many miles, i had a bit of a run in it as i could have been interested in buying it myself , it had 4 speed auto i think ? it wasnt a hot rod , but it went quite ok , and had quite a lot of room in it for a little one, if i didnt have cash to spend elsewhere it would have goten added to the fleet ................even for my big carcass was reasonably comfy, the radio had blue tooth , it seemed to have most of the basic features .
the safety gear in the car according to carsales is listed as

air bags : Driver & Passenger (Dual) Knee Driver Head for 1st Row Seats (Front) Head for 2nd Row Seats Side for 1st Row Occupants (Front)
Seatbelts Lap/Sash for 5 seats Pretensioners 1st Row (Front) Load Limiters 1st Row (Front) Adjustable Height 1st Row
Brakes ABS (Antilock Brakes) Brake Assist EBD (Electronic Brake Force Distribution)
Vehicle Control/ Traction /Dynamic Stability.
i think the safety gear varies on whether its a poverty pack model or not, so you need to do a bit of home work to sus it out.

for that year they seem to go for about 8 k`s starting at the rough and high k`s end of the scale to about 16 k for the almost like new at the good end of the scale , i dunno if that is what you had in mind , i only took it for a blocky , but i liked the way it drove and the way toyota presented it , as much as i am not really a fwd fan i would have one of these. .

[FPR]

Personally I would rather teach my child how to brake and control a car correctly rather than rely purely on the safety aids of modern cars.

That way when they are in a different vehicle (which will eventually happen) they don't get caught out.

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[jaydee]

For 7K you can get a good Mazda3 or Corolla with ABS, multiple air bags and EBD etc.
You get Japanese reliability and quality.
We just got my son an SP23 with all the fruit for 7k, 2006, 125 km on the clock. We drove a Focus and his words "underwhelmed", good car but not a patch on the Mazda.

[nt0351]

mazda 3 is a good car ,..if you want something the same size and more solid buy a Golf