Have 5k to buy a car for son.. need ideas

[jodim]

My son turns 16 in November and we want to buy him a car. I have $5,000 (possibly could squeeze slightly more) to spend... but I have no idea what kind, etc. would be a good investment.

He wants a truck (must be extended cab) but we want him to get a car (must have good crash safety ratings)

Any advice? Recommendations?

 

[Wishes5150]

Both our kids have older Volvo's. We have not had any issues, and they seem to be safe cars.

 

[prncess674]

Well if son wants an extended cab truck then he can buy it himself.

Also, most big trucks are quite expensive to fill up. Factor gas consumption into your calculations.

16 year old boys as a primary driver on any car are expensive to insure, so before you make a final decision be sure to call your insurance company and find out how much you will be putting towards that part of the expense. Make, model, color and year all factor into the insurance rates.

I am a fan of used Toyotas and Hondas. They seem to last forever and can easily get 150K out of them with proper care.

Is there a reason he needs a large truck? Does he need to tote lawn eqipment for a job? Do you own a working farm where a truck is needed?

 

[jodim]

Well if son wants an extended cab truck then he can buy it himself.

Also, most big trucks are quite expensive to fill up. Factor gas consumption into your calculations.

16 year old boys as a primary driver on any car are expensive to insure, so before you make a final decision be sure to call your insurance company and find out how much you will be putting towards that part of the expense. Make, model, color and year all factor into the insurance rates.

I am a fan of used Toyotas and Hondas. They seem to last forever and can easily get 150K out of them with proper care.

Is there a reason he needs a large truck? Does he need to tote lawn eqipment for a job? Do you own a working farm where a truck is needed?

His friends almost all have or are getting pick-ups and my husband and I both drive SUV's. He said he feels really small in a car and it scares him. (Which I can relate to, but with gas at over 4 a gallon, a car makes more sense)

He gets good grades, so we're hoping that will make a difference with insurance. (Fingers crossed, prayers sent)

 

[Darcy03231]

His friends almost all have or are getting pick-ups and my husband and I both drive SUV's. He said he feels really small in a car and it scares him. (Which I can relate to, but with gas at over 4 a gallon, a car makes more sense)

He gets good grades, so we're hoping that will make a difference with insurance. (Fingers crossed, prayers sent)

We just bought DS a car. In our state it was much more to insure SUVs and big trucks for a teenage driver than a four door sedan. We ended up getting him a Chevy Malibu. He's a big kid (6'2" and still growing) and he has plenty of room in it. Gas mileage is pretty good. Be prepared for sticker shock when you add him to your insurance. Adding the car and driver (with the good student discount) was $1600 for the year. Without the good student discount it would have been closer to $2000! Good luck with your search.

 

[sksjasams]

I have read to buy the newest model you can afford. It will have more up to date safety equipment. The budget for our last car was $4000. When we were looking, we saw several newer model Ford Taurus' for around $5000. This would have been in 2009, and we saw models that were as new as 2005 and 2006. They have good safety and are a reliable, sturdy car. We have an older model 2003 Taurus and are very happy with it. We would have gotten another Taurus if we could have stretched our budget.

Good luck!

 

[tinan]

Well, we have a 16 year old daughter and we recently went through the same thing with her. She really wanted a 4x4 truck and dreamed about for the past couple of years. She really could use a truck as she shows a horse and has other livestock. As much as we wanted to get a truck for her, in our case it made so much more sense for her to have a car. We already have a Suburban which we use as a tow vehichle and she can use at any time. We send her out of district for school which is also where her livestock lives requiring her to drive at least 20 miles/day.

In our state, plates cost more for trucks vs. cars, the gas and repairs cost a lot more too. Additionally, while shopping around, you will see that you can get a much better car vs. a truck for the sticker price as well. The only area that you may save with a truck is with the insurance. It is generally cheaper to insure the kids on the larger vehicle. As another poster commented, please check with your insurance company on rates, as I think you will be shocked to see how much more insurance is even with the good student discount. Our daughter is a 4.0 student that has not only the good student discount, but another discount on top of that for a program she went through with our insurance company and I think we're still at an additional $1,200 a year with her added on.

Just a suggestion when shopping around is to really pay attention to the blue book values on cars you're looking at. There's 3 different values that KBB gives, the trade in value, private party value and retail value. I like trying to buy near the trade in value or somewhere in between trade in and private party value. You may have to look around a little longer, but the deals are out there.

 

[Cin]

We got our son a Saturn Vue which is a SUV. We paid $10 K for it used but it was only 5 years old. You could probably find something older that would fit your budget or consider financing. Insurance is the kicker though, we couldn't afford to have son get his own policy it was $500 a month for a basic car, more for some models than others but that was the cheapest option for him. So we added him to our policy. There is just no way with him working part time and going to school full time that he makes enough to pay his own insurance and gas too. When you find a car you like ask the dealer to see the carfax report, it is free (they will act like it is something you have to pay for and they will say they are doing you a favor by giving you a free report to take home, but it is free anyway to everyone so don't buy the I'm your friend and want to help you tactic, it's all business so remember that bottom line they want all the dollars they can get from you) anyway back to the carfax report: it shows the records on the vehicle, you want a 1 owner car, not ever wrecked, and lowest mileage you can find, lus go online and get some insurance quotes on the model you like, rates vary with different models of cars. Other cars we liked for safety and reliablity were the Mazda 6 and Hyundai Elantra. The only "truck" we really liked was the Saturn Vue, the others were out of our price range, got poor gas mileage, or didn't have the safety features I required like antilock braking, computer assisted traction control, air bags all around, and good safety crash test ratings.

 

[arthuruscg]

Keep in mind that a truck is NOT safer then a car.
Yes the mass of an object matters but until recently the rollover protection was horrible, the lack of ABS and stability control compound the safety issues.

Also, most truck have worse braking, and avoidance maneuvering then cars.

Also, the crash rating standards are lower for a truck/suv then a car. So 5 star truck does NOT equal a 5 star car.

If he feels small and smushable in a car then he will drive safer then an "invincible" truck.

And speaking from experience as a teen age boy driving a supercab F150 with 5.0, it spent more time sideways and wore out more rear tires then I would admit to my parents even 10years latter. It was fun to power slide it and lock up the tires.

 

[mrodgers]

When you find a car you like ask the dealer to see the carfax report, it is free (they will act like it is something you have to pay for and they will say they are doing you a favor by giving you a free report to take home, but it is free anyway to everyone so don't buy the I'm your friend and want to help you tactic, it's all business so remember that bottom line they want all the dollars they can get from you) anyway back to the carfax report: it shows the records on the vehicle, you want a 1 owner car, not ever wrecked, and lowest mileage you can find....

Carfax isn't all it's cracked up to be. My car has a clean carfax, but I can see the extensive bodywork done on both right side doors (poor final sanding of the bodyfiller), the paint runs that run upward (doors were taken off and hung when painted), and bodywork on the rear quarterpanel. It didn't stop me from buying, I could refix anything on it I wanted to, but it also didn't show up in the carfax because it wasn't claimed or taken to a shop.

My old Toyota truck was "totaled" twice, both from deer. I didn't carry insurance nor was it worth much so I fixed it myself rewelding an entire front end on the thing twice from junkyard parts. Again, perfectly clean Carfax report for a 190k mile truck.

So, don't just go assuming that the car has never had accident damage just because the Carfax doesn't say. Carfax will only guaranty how many owners the car has had registered.

Another thing with owners listed on a Carfax. Original owner buys car, then trades. Dealer that traded can show up as an owner and sends it to auction. Another dealer buys from auction becoming and owner. Right there, you could have 3 owners listed on what really is a 1 owner car.

 

[msmayor]

Carfax isn't all it's cracked up to be. My car has a clean carfax, but I can see the extensive bodywork done on both right side doors (poor final sanding of the bodyfiller), the paint runs that run upward (doors were taken off and hung when painted), and bodywork on the rear quarterpanel. It didn't stop me from buying, I could refix anything on it I wanted to, but it also didn't show up in the carfax because it wasn't claimed or taken to a shop.

My old Toyota truck was "totaled" twice, both from deer. I didn't carry insurance nor was it worth much so I fixed it myself rewelding an entire front end on the thing twice from junkyard parts. Again, perfectly clean Carfax report for a 190k mile truck.

So, don't just go assuming that the car has never had accident damage just because the Carfax doesn't say. Carfax will only guaranty how many owners the car has had registered.

So true...you need to remember that Carfax only shows what has been REPORTED, not necessarily what has actually happened.

Police reports from an accident will trigger a Carfax accident notation but as many posts here will show, lots of folks choose to avoid reporting accidents and working something out with the other party themselves. Extensive body work resulting from an accident will only be reported IF the body shop doing the work takes the time to do the report.

 

[fakereadhed]

98 Toyota Camry with 135, 000 miles per budget board recommendations. DD had two accidents, she came away unscratched. Unfortunately, the last accident took out the whole right side of the car. It continued to run as well as ever, but needed more body work than it was worth. She put 50, 000 miles on it. We sold it for $950. Definitely safe! Can't say the same for DD's driving.

She now has a 98 VW Beetle. It looks cute which she loves, and runs well, but it's not the same as the Camry which we would borrow on occasion because it drove so well.

 

[mrodgers]

Another Carfax issue....

Car #1, VW Jetta with a gasoline turbo engine. Carfax says 1 owner and all maintenance from a shop is reported.

Car #2, another VW with a gasoline turbo engine. Carfax says 1 owner, but nothing about maintenance.

Now even though Car #1 lists maintenance, what it doesn't tell is that the owner had no idea about the fact that he needed to use synthetic oil due to the high temps from the turbo. He's always used the local garage and used regular old oil. The engine is on its way to being all sludged up, but you have no idea. Also, something that isn't listed on the Carfax is the type of gas used. Car #1 owner since he has no idea how to have a turbo car maintained, always used cheap 89 octane gas. Not good for this car. The thing predetonated for the past 8 years running on 89 octane. It does make a major difference on some cars.

Car #2 owner has no maintenance listed, but meticulously cared for his car himself. Oil changes were done religiously with only Mobil One synthetic oil and the car has never had less than the required 91 octane gasoline in it. Car #2 also has better than factory upgraded quality replacement maintenance parts that were not on the Carfax. Brake rotors and pads have always been replaced with better than factory, stainless steel exhaust is the replacement, better quality shocks, etc. You don't know any of that, but Car #2 is certainly the far better car than the future problems of Car #1 because of the poor maintenance even though it does have all maintenance records listed.

 

[timmac]

I have read to buy the newest model you can afford. It will have more up to date safety equipment. The budget for our last car was $4000. When we were looking, we saw several newer model Ford Taurus' for around $5000. This would have been in 2009, and we saw models that were as new as 2005 and 2006. They have good safety and are a reliable, sturdy car. We have an older model 2003 Taurus and are very happy with it. We would have gotten another Taurus if we could have stretched our budget.

Good luck!

Be careful with this though, as a newer model car is going to be more expensive to insure, particularly if you're also getting comp/collision coverage.

 

[Green Tea]

A car that was taken back under the lemon law was resold with a clear carfax. Get a good mechanic to look it over for you.

Don't ever look at a car as an investment though. It will only lose money.