@furtheralong Agreed, routine maintenance on an Audi will be more than a Honda or Toyota. Luckily my friend is a mechanic that owns his own shop so I’d have him do any work. That being said, I certainly don’t want expensive repairs to sneak up on me.
“I also believe it’s important for new drivers to learn to correctly utilize their mirrors rather than relying on a backup camera.”
As someone who saw what happened to a neighbor properly using his mirrors to which a small child behind the car is absolutely invisible in a mirror I say back up camera, back up camera, backup camera.
Right? Put in an after market if you must. That is a good challenge for a kid.
Backup cameras are more helpful on recent cars (compared to decades ago) due to the generally worse rear visibility on recent cars.
Here is a recent example of worsening rear visibility on a redesign:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a28857236/2019-mazda-3-hatchback-visibility-rear-window/
https://jalopnik.com/the-2019-mazda-3-hatchs-rear-visibility-is-precisely-as-1830754940
Eventually, will we have to get used to driving cars with similar outward visibility to cargo vans with no windows behind the driver?
Yes, @ucbalumnus. The lack of rear visibility in many new vehicles really limited the options last time we purchased a car. Definitely a frustrating issue. Back up cameras are only useful for backing up, not for other circumstances when one needs some visibility around them, like merging or switching lanes.
There’s cool new technology in rear visibility where the interior rearview mirror is replaced by a screen which looks and acts like a mirror but gives a wider field of view.
The full implementation is not DOT-approved since regulations require an actual mirror. So in the US some automakers are doing partial implementations with a screen supplementing the mirror.
Speaking from personal experience, a high mileage German car is a timebomb of expensive repairs, over the top maintenance and frustration. Speaking from anecdotal experience of a friend who recently ignored my warnings and thought it would be cool to buy his 16 yo son a high mileage Audi A6…the car has been a headache from the beginning and in the shop or inoperable in the driveway more often than on the road. The definition of instant regret for them. Living with a Japanese car is so much more hassle free.
You might hit it lucky. My sister in law had an Audi A4. It had about 200,000 highway miles on it when she decided to get a new car. Her HS kid drove it for two additional years. And then she sold it at about 225,000 miles to folks who drove it for several additional years.
But then, she knew every bit of the maintenance that had been done on that Audi and when it was done.
When we looked for used cars for teens and young adults we heard all the advise about buying a Honda or Toyota. We searched but found that the used prices of those makes were expensive for the mileage. In our three cases we went with a Volvo S60, Hyundai Sonata and a Mazda Tribute. The Mazda came through our mechanic. It was a great car, my D used it for 4 years and my two nieces drove it another 4 years. When they sold it the only thing that was wrong was it needed shocks.
Audi and Lexus are popular cars in my area even for teens. I think the Lexus is a better option as they do tend to go for a lot of miles with little maintenance. In my area you can often get an older Lexus for a better price than an older Camry or Accord.
@mom60 We noticed the same phenomenon in our area recently when purchasing a used car for one the kids. Started out looking at Toyotas, Subarus but found them just as pricey and less features and comfort vs. Volvos, Audis, BMWs, Lexus, etc. with similar age and mileage.
Agree! While I adore my Honda CR-V, we just bought a 2015 Mazda 3 with all the bells and whistles for $12k for our 16yo. Was hoping for something closer to $9 or $10k, but we already have 2 high mileage cars (about 150k) in the family, and I didn’t want 3 cars at risk of high repair bills.
The Mazda is 5 star safety pick, Consumer Reports recommended and has brake assist, blind spot monitoring, rear view camera with alerts. Comparable Honda, Toyota or Subaru would have been at $15 or $16k and I just couldn’t go that high. Mechanic checked it out and said it looked like it was in perfect condition.
PS – The Audi conversation reminds me when I was a summer intern in the 80s and this guy in his 20s or 30s said, “I don’t have a girlfriend, I have a Saab.”
Kinda sexist (my daughter doesn’t need her boyfriend to buy her things!!), but when he talked about $95 oil changes (in the 80s!), that caught my attention!
High resale value is a big plus in terms of leasing. If your kid crashes, you may need to fix the leased car before turning it in. But not every kid does that. Mine didn’t. My wife and I didn’t when we started driving. My siblings didn’t. I have friends whose kids didn’t (though some did).
Buying used seems to be a mixed bag. I know people who have had good luck with that and others not so much. A little luck of the draw. Though there is some of that with new cars too (some people have great experience with [name the brands] but others have issues with that same brand – though at least there is a warranty). Two people I know with a mix of used vehicles in their respective fleets (Honda/Toyota and Audi/Volvo) say that the former are less expensive to maintain but more fun to drive so they view it as worth it.
But different people have different experiences (which typically guide/inform their views on the car issue).
Haven’t read any posts, sorry.
We haven’t bought either kid a car. D has no interest.
Son, however, was DESPERATE for a cool car. He worked and bought his own, because we made it clear that if we ever did get another car, it would be very boring and practical.
Son started saving, and near the end of his 17th summer, he bought himself a—— wait for it—— 1984 Camaro Z28. It ran, it had a recent inspection certificate, and it sure was cool. This thing was a tank, so we were not super concerned that it didn’t have airbags. (I know, but he only drives locally, and he’s a very good driver). It had a terrible dingy-white spray paint job, but what can you expect for $3000?
One morning, shortly after he brought it home, I looked out the door at its non-gleaming whiteness and christened it The Abominable Snowman. The name stuck. His artistic sister replicated the outline of the groovy Abominable Snowman from Scooby Doo and together they painted his school parking lot space.
He drove all around town. You could hear him coming from miles away, and when he started it, it felt like an earthquake. He ran out of gas, because the gas gauge didn’t work. Soon, it needed tons of expensive work, which Son didn’t have the money to pay for. So of course, we had to pay for it, because by then, it was apparent that three of us juggling two cars wasn’t sustainable.
Still, Son was delighted with the Abominable Snowman. On the day before Christmas, four and a half months into car ownership, came a call that scared the _rap out of me. Son had been in an accident. No injuries at all, thank goodness, but somehow, the poor Snowman was all but destroyed. It was totally the fault of the other driver, so after much wrangling, we got a decent amount of money from insurance, which accounted for the repairs. Basically, it would have been far too expensive to fix the Snowman, so it was a write off.
With the money, Son bought a much more sensible, but still quite ridiculous, 2006 Mustang. It’s actually a decent car with another horribly loud engine. But it has airbags and, most importantly, looks pretty cool.
In retrospect, we are really glad he bought his own car, but I do think we should have insisted he buy something more reliable to begin with. It was important to him to pay for it and for the most part, we don’t regret letting him buy that crazy Camaro. I think we felt proud that he wanted to do it himself and get a “dream” car. We wanted him to have some autonomy, but we were also ignoring what should have been obvious in terms of probable maintenance issues and his lack of enough money to pay for them.
He wrote his college essay about his car. I’m sure he’s always going to remember the Abominable Snowman.
Abominable Snowman sounds a lot more fun to drive than Beige Betty. 
My daughters shared my husband’s 2004 Honda while both were home. We had some expensive old-age repairs on it over the summer, and the shop owner said if we ever decided to sell it he’d want first crack at it. My high school junior is still driving it.
For my college sophomore we bought a 2017 Subaru from our local dealership, whom I trust. It was a bit more expensive than I was hoping for, but it is a creampuff of a car with less than 30,000 miles on it. It was Subaru certified, which meant it was inspected and everything was fixed and/or replaced to Subaru’s standards. It is a sweet car. I suspect when she is ready to buy her own new car we will get it back and that’s okay with us, lol.
If she were driving locally we would have looked for something less expensive. But with her three hours away, we wanted something that ideally was more reliable. This should take her past graduation and get her ready for paying for her own car.
Actually, it is available now in some new vehicles (at least some GM models listed at https://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/general-motors-technology/gm-safety-technology/gm-active-safety-technology/gm-rear-camera-mirror/ – may be an option or part of a higher trim). The lever on the bottom of the mirror (where a lever for manual dimming often is) switches between auto-dimming regular mirror and camera mirror (which uses a camera on the back of the vehicle).
Having used the first generation version, the camera mode does give a wider and lower field of view (without obstruction from rear seat passengers, cargo, or tiny rear windows), although it is noticeably lower resolution. It works less well in the rain or at night.
It seems odd that the list of GM vehicles where the camera mirror is offered does not include the cargo van (Chevrolet Express or GMC Savana).
Interesting that the car existed at all recently to be bought by him. Seems like almost all of that generation Chevrolet Camaro either got bought by crash-prone drivers and crashed (it was one of the most expensive cars to insure back when relatively new), or got stolen. The same unenviable (thief-attracting) niche was later filled by the third generation Acura Integra.
Abominable Snowman…hilarious. Did it have the T-tops? My kids named their cars too…Wanda (white Accord) and Patty (black Jeep). No idea why. My favorite growing up was my best friend’s Dodge Ram Crew deluxe. It was putrid green. He called it “The Lizard”.
He has the bug. He might buy a sensible car in the future but he’ll always have the itch.
@ucbalumnus , to be fair, it really was a hunk of junk, but it still looked pretty good. I am pretty sure that is “passed” inspection via a close friend or relative of the seller, lol.
@chmcnm , alas, no T Top. But seriously, the interior was like a time machine. Lots of angular plastic. I drove in it twice, always felt like I was in Back to the Future, 80’s version.
BTW, if any one is wondering, the saga of the Abominable Snowman is pretty recent, 2018. So maybe if someone is keen, find a junkyard in NY state and look for that puppy!