Car and Truck Buying Guide: Choosing a Good Used Car for a First Time Teen Driver, Helps Eliminate Risk of Accidents
Orlando, Florida (PRWEB) November 29, 2011
According to Car and Truck Buying Guide the best used car for a first time teen driver is one that decreases the risk of an accident. Even if a teen is mature and responsible the fact remains that they are still inexperienced at the wheel of a car. It takes a lot of driving time to become familiar with how a car acts in different situations, for example on ice, in snow, at night under unexpected conditions, and in rain. Getting the feel of how others react in a sticky situation in their cars is a considerable skill, only learned with experience. Here are some good ideas on buying a car that will help keep your teen safe.
SUVs and pickups are not a good choice for first time drivers, especially SUVs and trucks without 4WD. They tend to be light in the rear (because the weight of the engine/drive line is concentrated up front) and they have a tendency to fishtail in a panic stop or when the roads are slick. Its better to learn the basics in a car before moving to a specialty vehicle of any-type weather its an SUV, pickup truck, or sports car.
Bigger and heavier is always safer, especially in an accident into a fixed abject (such as a tree) or with a larger vehicle like a SUV. Larger cars offer more built in occupant protection, theyre able to absorb more force than a smaller car would. Vehicles in the full and mid-sized category tend to score much better in crash testing than cars in the compact and smaller range. Avoid sub compact sized cars, even if they do get better gas mileage. A very small car like Toyota Yaris or Honda Civic coupe wont stand a chance if T-boned by a suburban or a truck.
Basic reliability can be very important as basic safety. You dont want your teen learning the hard way about bald tires, bad brakes, shot shocks, and a worn out suspension. Whichever car you end up buying, take the time to make sure that everything seems intact with the used car and there are no funny noises when you drive it. Have a mechanic give the car a full inspection, and fix anything that could be wrong with it.
Teens have very little judgment to resist being egged on by other teens to see what it will do. If it looks fast and sounds fast dont think your teen wont test that out, the end result isnt always good it often ends up in tragedy. Just like new pilots dont start out flying F-18S, new drivers should stick to a more basic car. V-8s and powerful v-6s shouldnt even cross your mind, but be careful about four-cylinder cars too. Some modern four-cylinder engines have turbochargers and other powerful-adders that make them as even more powerful as the v-8 muscles cars of the 60s and 70s. Keep in mind that you teen will pay much less to insure a basic sedan or wagon vs. anything sporty or powerful.
Air bags protect against impact forces in a crash and are very valuable in small vehicles as they compensate to some extent for smaller size and weight. If you do buy a small car, try and find one with both front and side impact/curtain air bags they will dramatically improve the survivability of a small car crash, especially if hit from the side by a larger vehicle.
Modern cars are very easy to drive in the sense of getting them going and going fast, any 10 year old can hop in an automatic car and turn the ignition on an pop it in drive and take off and wind up in your house. Operating a manual transmission on the other hand is a bit trickier for the young ones. It takes a while to get use to; learning to drive a stick shift car is a great training tool that will help your teen become a better driver and a safer driver.
Front drive cars (FWD) and all-wheel drive cars (AWD) have a better traction in rain and snow and more controllable than a rear wheel drive car (RWD). Rear wheel drive cars have a tendency to over steer (fishtail) when they begin to slide out of control, while front wheel drive cars tend to under steer ( the front of the car plows) which is easier for a novice driver to deal with. If you do go with a rear wheel drive car, try and pick one that comes with some form of electronic traction control to limit wheel spin on slippery roads and ideally an electronic stability control system, which uses the anti-lock brakes to keep the vehicle on course when it would otherwise begin to slip out of control. For example speeding is considered by some people to be the worst habit of driving; but tailgating can be more dangerous and more likely to result in a crash. Even though cops dont pay much attention to it as they do to a driver doing a few MPG over the posted speed limit.
Good used cars for teens can be found at autoshopper.com, an online used car listing website.
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