<p>My son will be returning from his year abroad in a few months. He’ll finish his driver ed course and test for his driver’s license just about his 17th birthday. We will need to get him a car to drive. </p>
<p>This is not a birthday present. He will need to drive to school this year. The available bus would cost about $12/day, billed with tuition. The alternative would be that I drive him, difficult as I am working 8-6 every day. My car is considered a company car, needed for daily work. Ditto for H.</p>
<p>I’m looking for suggestions for safe, reliable, used cars. The specs are safe, good on gas, and AWD/4WD. Price range – hopefully $12-14K – or less. My first thought is a Subaru Forester or Outback. What else?</p>
<p>Lucky for you! The April Consumer Reports is the 2008 Auto issue. It has the whole best and worst used cars. They have a small section on Best Cars for Teenagers. The Forester is listed, but is specifically says NOT the XT.</p>
<p>We were in the market for a small SUV in 2003. The safest at that time were the Honda CR-Vs; the post 2001s had the improved features over earlier models.</p>
<p>Lots of used Foresters bring driven by teens here, where there are long winters - that is my first choice for my D, it will take a lot of convincing though. H likes the Nissan Murano, but it is hard to find a good pre-owned one in that price range…</p>
<p>Used subarus are certainly available at your price range but I’d urge you to look for a used Honda Accord or Civic unless you MUST have 4WD. The older Accords/Civics appear to be indestructible, cheap to repair when they need it, and the front wheel drive does almost as well in the snow as 4WD.</p>
<p>For our particular situation, AWD/4WD is a requirement. FWD won’t do it. For us, it’s a function of our driveway, the roads on his campus, and the (lack of) plowing on side streets.</p>
<p>While he probably <em>won’t</em> drive in the worst weather, the AWD can be necessary simply to get out of our driveway even with a few inches of snow, and sometimes even after our wonderful (NOT!) plow guy gets done doing his thing.</p>
<p>The best 4WD drive I’ve ever driven is the Audi A4 Quattro. In our snowstorms in 2006, I drove right up a 11% grade (yep, there’s a sign) past numerous abandoned cars, some of them with 4WD, including Subarus, Jeeps, and some of the bigger SUVs. Our Nissan Murano did not do as well in the snow as the A4. We sold the A4 and got an A6 and we haven’t had the same snowstorms again so I don’t know if it’s as good. BUT the Audis are not cheap to repair, I’m afraid, and an Audi in the 12-14K range could need repairs.</p>
<p>We have two teenaged drivers and two Subaru Foresters in the driveway. Good on snow, side-curtain airbags, easy to see out of for smaller drivers, can carry large musical instruments, skis, camping equipment and so on. The only criticism Consumer Report has is the size of the back seat passenger seating area. If you need to carrry 4 larger adults any distance, it’s not comfortable. Petite girls, no problem. Love these cars.</p>
<p>Isn’t the point of a teen’s first car to make it uncomfortable to carry passengers in the back seat? S1 is driving a Jeep Wrangler … speaking of uncomfortable back seats!</p>
<p>Subarus are known to be very safe cars and would be a great choice, IMO. A used Volvo S60 or S40 might also be something to consider. Audi A4 Quattro - not reliable and uses expensive gas but is probably one of the safest mid sized sedans on the road. For 4WD, reliability, safety and price also check out Hyundai Santa Fe, Honda CR-V. Here are more:</p>
<p>My folks got me a pontiac G5, it came with a 100K mile warranty, and cost under 15K, the insurance was low and the gas mileage is good. Plus they are going to hand it down to me sister and brother.</p>
<p>In the end they chose new because, it was actually cheaper for the long run, especially with the warranty</p>
<p>Keep in mind many used cars do not have same safety features as new cars, particularly side airbags. Leases are very inexpensive now, and in some instances are a much better deal than purchasing.</p>
<p>Depending on how steep your driveway is, and on what tires you put on it, you may not be completely happy with the subaru 4wd models. They are relatively light, and do not behave the same in snow as heavier models. </p>
<p>I’d consider a higher mileage used Toyota Landcruiser. They’ll go 250,000 plus with normal maintenance, will climb nearly anything with the proper tires. They’re not as nimble as the subarus, but may not be as likely to be driven too fast as the subarus are. The outbacks are remarkably BMW-like in their cornering ability. I’ve driven several landcruisers and also an outback. Of course the outback got nealy 30mpg highway, and the LC will only give you around 16.5 in the same conditions. The LC is built on a full truck frame. If there is a collision, it will not get the worst of it in most cases.</p>
<p>subarus are great. i drove mine w/o major incident or repair for over 217k, then donated it to charity. pls note that all turbo-charged subarus require premium unleaded howver, so stick with the 2.5 boxer engine.</p>
<p>If you can afford it go for it. But unless you are planning on paying for gas I’d look for something with high mileage per gallon. Chances are good that your student will still be driving this car when oil tops $200 per gallon.</p>
<p>The driveway is 600 feet long with a 12 percent average slope. I think there are bits that are surveyed as 15%. </p>
<p>The Durango did great, the Blazer did OK. the Infiniti G35x is doing OK, the Jeep Wrangler is OK, the BMW X3 is fine – but the multiple Tauri were non starters as were any other FWDs that came down accidentally. Not to mention the dummy that drove the stretch limo down coming home from the airport in the snowstorm several years ago! </p>
<p>Hence my insistence on all wheel or 4 wheel drive on any new acquisitions.
Thanks for all the input. I’m really leaning towards the Subaru – son is very conscious of gas mileage and it seems to have the best mileage of any of the AWD group.</p>