For a person that young, you want to get him a used TANK! My daughter started with an '93 Buick LeSabre. It had ~130K when we bought it... 196K when we traded it on her Camry. You want your first kid's car to be something they can wrap around a tree and walk away from, not a rocket like a Speed 3. Get 'em a big car that will give itself up in a wreck, not something the rescue squad will have to rip apart to extract the occupants.

 

My first car was a 1982 Chevy Citation HB. I took that thing through soo many ditches, went through two wrecks, and I finally blew the third engine at 182K miles.

 

While don't necessarily disagree with getting a kid a less-nice car for their first one, old and big doesn't really translate to safe. Newer cars are designed to crumple and absorb energy during an accident and greatly reduce the amount of energy which gets translated to the passenger compartment. An old "tank" might go through a wreck with only a few scratches but you tend to see much more severe injuries from the occupants. If I go on a wreck where there are older cars I expect to find injuries more than with newer cars. Example we had a wreck in Winston many years ago where a cement truck crashed head on into a peter built semi. The cement truck basically disintigrated upon impact and parts were strewn all across the highway. The peter built had a few small dents and scratches. The driver of the cement truck had some bumps and bruises but was otherwise fine. The driver of the semi was sitting dead in the driver's seat.

 

Are the long time forum members being duped here? It seems we getan ongoing streamof questions like this from new members, who then never come back and follow up. Someone out there maybe gets a kick out of creating a debate.

The syntax of the original message does not feel like that of a parent of a 19 year old. The chosen screen handle doesn'tlook like that of someone who is presumably 40+ years old. And, who would consider buying their teenager a vehicle that costs what a Speed costs, and even ifmoney is not an issue,who would give a teenager the keys to a car with a nearly 300 HP engine? This whole things smells funky to me.

 

Parents like that are out there. One girl at my highschool drove a Porsche 911.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed that.But you know, if you don't cross all your "T's" and dot all the "I's" when you sign up here, you might never get notified that someone replied to you query. This forum is a little harder to getnavigate than some others.
That happened to me. If I hadn't saved the HP to my favorites and corrected my profile I might not have known...
Then where would you guys be, if I hadn't come back, I mean?? Your lives would be that much more miserable because you neverhad the chance to get to know me.It's a good thing I came back, huh? [sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif] [sm=kissykissy.gif] [sm=gobble.gif]

BTW Remi: That last line of your story.... I'm gonna have nightmares of a dead semi driver trying to run me down now. Thanks for sharing.

 

I do what I can. :P At least I didn't tell any stories about sticking my fingers in someone's brain.

 

To go off this I remember being in highschool and wanting those high Hp car that you see on the covers of Sport Compact or Car and Driver. Hell there were kids everywhere with the STI's and the EVO's. Guess what happened to those kids.
The totalled those cars, street racing, drunk driving, no one to my knowledge was injured but none the less wrecked that brand new car because they were still learning the limitations of the road.
My first car was and '88 Reliant K - Blown Engine
'90 GMC Sierra- Wrecked on black ice and totaled the truck
'94 Chrysler LeBaron- T boned in an intersection

To get to my point I was a good kid in school, I stayed outta trouble, got good grades, involved in extraciricular activities. And I still made bad dicisions when I was driving, you just don't want the child in a car that has so much hp that they feel the need to show off all the time. Go with the MZ3

In my case I was recently looking at the MS3 because I wanted the fast car that I never got in school, but because of the gas being so high and looking to claim even higher I didn't want to be stuck with a car that runs on high test. So I went with the MZ6 v6 it's got enough hp to make the point and it runs on regular it's a comfortable car to drive.

Sorry for the novel just hope I could add a little something to the thread.

 

I've noticed that it doesn't really matter how old the kid is if you just get him involved in the car shopping process. In fact, give him a budget, tell him when you're willing to buy, and just let him go (under some guidance, of course). Then he feels like he did the work, gets what he wanted, and learns a how to shop/budget/buy a car in the future. Win-win!

Even better than that? Get him a junker sports car and teach him out to fix it up.

Either way, I'll bet he appreciates and respects the car, even if he does pick out a Porsche 911 or a Speed3.

 

I noticed the creator of this thread hasn't responded to any of the opinions here. However I think it is an interesting topic.

I personally would never recommend a MS3 to a 19 YO. Insurance will be crazy, and you will most likely be using it ...

I provided my 17 yo nephew with an 88Chrysler New Yorker (4 cylinder), and he promptlydestroyed that car by not yielding to oncoming traffic when trying to turn left at an intersection (I'm pretty sure he was using his cellphone at the time).

Anyway...my opinion is thatbuying a MS3 for a new driverisn't a smart idea. Dad should drive the MS3 and then decide...that is if dad can get used to 1st and2nd gear without killing the car...