Best Used And New Cars For Teens (Or Anyone Looking For A Safe, Reliable And Affordable Vehicle)

Teen drivers have crash rates nearly four times those of drivers aged 20 and above. Overall traffic deaths have been rising in the last few years after decades of declines, and teen road fatalities have followed the same pattern, increasing 11% from 2020 to 3,058 in 2021.

Immaturity, which can lead to speeding and other risky habits, as well as inexperience are part of the problem, experts say, but so are the cars teens drive, which are often older, less crash-worthy vehicles.

A new list of top 46 used and 16 new vehicles for teens, released last week by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Consumer Reports, aims to make it as easy as possible for parents and teens to choose a vehicle that is safe, reliable, and affordable.

“With road safety statistics headed the wrong way,” David Zuby, the Insurance Institute’s chief research officer, said in a statement, “it’s more important than ever that inexperienced, young drivers have vehicles with a high degree of occupant protection as well as good emergency handling, braking and reliability.”

The recommendations are intended for recent high school graduates and other young drivers, the safety groups said, but can be a resource for anyone.

“It’s unfortunate that in recent years we’ve had to relax our price limits for this list, but we won’t budge on the other criteria,” Zuby added, noting the “stubbornly” high price of new and used cars. In contrast to previous years, all but a handful of the vehicles on this year’s annual list of recommended vehicles for teens cost more than $10,000.

The list of recommended used and new cars excludes sports cars and other vehicles with excessive horsepower, as they make it easy to speed and can tempt young drivers to show off, researchers said.

And size matters. Cars that are particularly small and light, like mini-cars, don’t provide enough protection in multiple-vehicle crashes. Big vehicles as a rule offer greater crash protection than small ones, but if they are very big, like a large SUV or pickup, they can be hard to handle, often have increased braking distances, and pose more risk to others on the road, including pedestrians, bicyclists and people in smaller vehicles.

Moderately sized vehicles provide a better balance of crash avoidance and crash protection and are a better choice for teens, the safety groups said.

This year’s used vehicle recommendations were chosen for offering standard electronic stability control, performing well in four crash-worthiness tests that assessed front, side, roof strength and head restraint protection levels) emergency handling, braking distance, reliability, as well as four or five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (if rated).

The recommendations are presented in three tiers. Two categories of used vehicles: Good Choices, which start at $6,600 and go up to $14,500, and Best Choices, ranging in price from $7,800 to $20,000, offer a slightly higher level of safety based on additional crash-worthiness tests and injury insurance claim rates.

New vehicles, which cost from $23,000 to $39,800, were selected based on a greater range of criteria, like front crash prevention tests (including daytime pedestrian detection), headlight efficacy, injury claim rates, and ease of use of their controls.

The new-vehicle section is especially useful for parents of younger children who are considering the purchase of a vehicle for their own use with an eye toward handing it down to a new driver in the future.

“If you’re spending the money on a new vehicle that’s likely to be in your family for many years, we want you to get the most safety available,” Zuby added. “That means the highest ratings in our latest suite of tests.”

Parents can’t control what happens on the road once their teen driver pulls out of the driveway, “but we do have some say in the type of vehicle they drive off in, and that can make a huge difference,” Jennifer Stockburger, director of operations at the Auto Test Center of Consumer Reports said in a statement. “This list can help parents find vehicles that check all the boxes.”

For more information about the assessments, and details about each of the vehicles listed, click here.