<p>What kinds of cars are safe and affordable for a college student?</p>
<p>Honda Civic, and I personally stand behind anything that Toyota makes. I even like their low cost Scion group. Packed with features young people want, but won’t break the bank.</p>
<p>Several parents I know went with VW jettas or a used VW passat. Those in addition to the ones mentioned in previous post.</p>
<p>Hyundai sonata. large enough, ,built so that engine goes under passengers in front end crash, electronic stability control, 6 airbags!, all standard. Under 20 new.</p>
<p>Hondas. Wagons, while not especially cool (although the Honda ones are cute) are very practical for college kids.</p>
<p>Look into a used Volvo - any of the pre-Ford models are great, and the S70s are pretty good. Trunk space is amazing (I can fit a dorm room of stuff into my trunk & backseat). </p>
<p>Toyota Matrix is cute, economical, and has the folding rear seats. I’m assuming that you don’t always want to move your kid in and out. :)</p>
<p>My son just got a Scion tc (made by Toyota) – it was an excellent value.</p>
<p>Best car is SEC.</p>
<p>My son bought a used Honda Accord and loves it. He bought it for $3,600 and drove it all the way from Oregon to Indiana with no problems. (It’s ten years old.)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx[/url]”>http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx</a></p>
<p>Links to front, rear and side impact crash test findings.</p>
<p>Son has had his Scion Xa for three years. He can carry 5 college kids w/o problem and none are tiny. Very easy to park on crowded campuses, great mileage. I am comfortable for about an hour, son is never uncomfortable. The first 3 oil changes are free, the first real service is just a bit more than an oil change. I insisted on the side air bags. We had him drive my SUV on cross country road trip but he says his car would have been fine. The tc wasn’t out when we got his, and it would have been a few K more. Consumer Reports did mention that some of the tires for the tc are costly.</p>
<p>From the same iihs.org site, I find this insurance loss chart:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.iihs.org/brochures/ictl/ictl.html[/url]”>http://www.iihs.org/brochures/ictl/ictl.html</a></p>
<p>very illuminating to point out why one shouldn’t rely <em>exclusively</em> on these crash tests, as important as they are. Somewhere I have an article that basically says real world injury statistics comparing one model against the next can also tell you something important , the upshot being that you are usually (but not always) safer in the larger and heavier of two vehicles. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the most recent info for this is a few years old, but many of the small cars that got great crash ratings still do show a significantly higher rate of injury than the average (or are just average). Demographics of the driver can play some role for these injury stats, of course, but comparing two vehicles driven by the same type of driver is meaningful. </p>
<p>Side curtain airbags have also been shown to be extremely effective in preventing injuries and are highly recommended no matter what car you get.</p>
<p>I have a Scion xA–22,000 miles in a year and a half and it’s been wonderful. No problems at all, and very affordable even with side airbags and extended warrenty. Everything you want comes with it (power doors and windows) and none of that packaged stuff that you have to pay extra to get one thing and a bunch of others come with it. A very simple and safe car. The whole line is good. The only bad thing is I hear they will phase them out over 5 or 6? years and make completely new models. Parts shouldn’t be a problem, but people probably won’t know what you are talking about when you refer to a specific model. The pure pricing concept was nice as well. Let me know if you have and questions. =) First car–she’s my baby.</p>
<p>roshke, the IIHS data is interesting, but must be used with caution, as it is strongly influenced by the kind of driver attracted to various cars. For example, any idea why Buicks have the lowest injury losses? Hint: The folks that buy them rarely drive above 50 mph.</p>
<p>Regarding the VW suggestion, as a VW owner, I can tell you that service is a challenge and expensive. Many of the parts needed are dealer only parts, are priced outragiously and some shops don’t like to work on them. </p>
<p>Regarding Civics and Corollas, consider that the smallest cars are wildly popular now. You might do better with a larger car. For example, right now a 2002 Civic averages about $12,000 dealer retail. A used Accord, $13,000. Which is a better deal? Actually, neither. Consider, for example, a 2002 Taurus at an average dealer retail price of $6,900! You can buy a lot of gas, and pay for a lot of repairs, for the $5,000 price difference. And its IIHS data is better, too.</p>
<p>Following the hot fads has a cost. </p>
<p>BTW, I use the Taurus as an example. There are many other boring US models that are much better buys precisely because they are boring run of the mill cars, but cars you can have repaired just about anywhere, with cheap parts.</p>
<p>We’ve found that a Ford Explorer Sport (2-door) is an excellent vehicle for our D1 to use at school. </p>
<p>Advantages:
Sits high, decent visibility, she likes it
Low initial cost (plentiful availability)
Safe design, stable
SUV design allows her to load all her stuff easily into the back
Can be repaired about anywhere, if necessary
Sturdy construction, more truck than car
Not conducive to careless driving (not that she would)
Domestically produced (yes, we like to buy American if possible)</p>
<p>Disadvantages:
Could get better mileage, but not bad</p>
<p>newmassdad, Right, I did mention that, as well, although IIHS tries to adjust or control for driver demographics. For example they use data for women aged 25-64 only when determining the numbers for the model to model driver death rates, and similarly they say they do control for this on the injury stats as well.</p>
<p>I wish I could find the article I had. The title asked the question how does one really determine what the safest car is or can you? The conclusion is that you really have to use a combination of the info out there to do that. Don’t be fooled by crash tests alone, though, especially the NHSTA star ratings which are not nearly as stringent as the IIHS ones. What those are really telling you is how well your car might do in an accident with another of the same weight and size. Put a 2000 pound car with a five star crash rating up against a 5000 pounder with a lesser crash rating in a multi vehicle accident and the laws of physics dictate that the occupant of the smaller vehicle will likely be the one that fares poorly.</p>
<p>Yet another (depressing) resource just to “drive” you crazy is the driver death rates. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.iihs.org/sr/pdfs/sr4003.pdf[/url]”>http://www.iihs.org/sr/pdfs/sr4003.pdf</a></p>
<p>Dated, since they only do this every few years but some models are still similar today, and certainly relevant for the purchase of used cars. Again, they <em>did</em> try to control for the age and sex demographics, but certainly there could still be an influence as to “driver type.” In particular, page 10 is interesting to see the comparison of different cars by weight. It’s also useful to compare a vehicle to itself, ie are most of the fatalities that occured caused by multivehicle accidents (where weight may be a big factor) single car accidents or rollovers.</p>
<p>OP, this was probably WAY more than you wanted to know!</p>
<p>Consider a used Chevy Prism. It’s a clone of the Toyota Corolla and built at the GM/Toyota NUMMI plant in California. It’s the same plant that builds the Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe. Cheap to buy and insure. Very reliable and inexpensive to maintain.</p>
<p>Definitely not sexy is the Ford Taurus station wagon. Cheap and reliable, holds five and all their stuff… It’s the least stolen vehicle in America and great for road trips.</p>
<p>The Ford Explorer Sport would be one of my least favored vehicles for a young inexperienced driver. The base 2WD model was the most prone of Ford’s SUV range for rollovers. The 4WD models were fractionally better (according to Consumer Reports Auto safety ratings for the 1992-2000 models). The shorter wheelbase and the narrow track (distance between the front wheels and rear wheels) made them more rollover prone. Ford made significant improvements to the Explorer sometime after the 2000+ model years to make them more stable (a wider track). </p>
<p>With any used SUV, pay close attention to the tires which need to meet manufacturer ratings for load (to properly handle the vehicle’s weight) and type. By type: either all terrain or standard mud and snow ratings). This is important. The difference between the two tire types is the difference between “sliding” and “snapping”. When you swerve around debris on the highway, too much grip at the rear will “snap” the back of the vehicle around with disastrous consequences. Because of the height and weight of most SUVs, engineers design the rear to “slide” a bit so as to maintain some level of driver control. If the SUV came with all terrain tires, replacement tires need to be the same type though not necessarily from the same manufacturer. </p>
<p>The typical highway speed limit varies from 55 to 70MPH. Most SUVs will begin de-stabilizing at around 50 MPH when forced to swerve around some other vehicle or debris on the highway. Even experienced drivers will have their hands full going the speed limit and needing to suddenly stop or swerve,</p>
<p>all the JAPANESE CARS (the small ones)…basically.</p>
<p>they have great quality and excellent mileage and is easy to buy for the average guy.</p>
<p>Wranglers, Civics, Explorers, Jetta, GTi, Rabbit, Volvo S40</p>
<p>Honda and Toyota for quality, reliability and affordability. You can buy a good used one for around $4,000. Volvos are great but are costly as far as upkeep.</p>
<p>We bought a Hyundai Tucson last year and we love it. Great ride, good mileage, perfect size for a student, excellent warranty (10-year/100,000mi) and well made. It also has an excellent safety rating, one of the best in the business for small SUVs. We thought we would take a chance and we are very glad we did.</p>