Top cars for constrained-budget teens
Consumer Reports and IIHS base recommendations on safety, reliability and affordability
In a first-time co-operation, Consumer Reports and the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) have joined to put together a list of the best cars for your teenagers.
As they point out, teens are among the riskiest drivers, meaning they benefit most from both active and passive safety features. At the same time, they also have the most constrained budgets. So the intersection of those conflicting needs — active safety aids are often extra-cost options — is key to making a wise choice.
Throw in a need for reliability and the fact that teenagers usually find themselves behind the wheel of smaller vehicles, and this new list should be of interest to anyone shopping for maximum safety for minimum bucks.
The final list of 65 recommended used vehicles ranges from $5,300 to $19,600 — all the study’s prices are in U.S. dollars and were supplied by Kelley Blue Book — and, according to the two organizations, shows that safety can be both affordable and practical.
“Our focus has always been safety, as reflected in our vehicle ratings, but we recognize that a lot of other factors go into families’ purchasing decisions,” says IIHS president David Harkey.
“This partnership with Consumer Reports will help new drivers and their parents zero in on the best used vehicles overall.”
The list is divided into Good and Best Choices, which offer a slightly higher level of safety.
Both Good and Best Choices have:
Standard electronic stability control;
Above-average reliability, based on Consumer Reports’ member survey, for the majority of the years listed;
Average or better scores from Consumer Reports’ emergency handling tests;
Dry-braking distances of less than 145 feet from 60 mph (96 km/h) in Consumer Reports’ brake tests;
Good ratings in the IIHS’ moderate front-overlap, side, roof strength, and head-restraint crash tests;
Four or five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, if rated.
To get marked up from Good to Best, the vehicle in question must have at least an “acceptable” rating in the IIHS’ toughest test, the driver-side small overlap, which replicates what happens when the front left corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object, such as a tree or a utility pole. The top-tier rating also excludes vehicles that have substantially higher-than-average insurance claim rates under medical payment or personal injury protection coverage, as determined by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an IIHS affiliate.
At right are the vehicles from the Best Choices list that fall below the US$10,000 mark.
Pricing in Canada will be higher because of the exchange rate, and it will also vary considering our different trims, packaging and used-car market, but these are still likely to be among the best deals on our side of the border as well.