Sure, they're more likely to wreck the family car than any other member of your brood, but that's precisely why the teen drivers in the house need to be driving the safest car, which likely means a newer model.
What?!? It may seem counterintuitive, not to mention costly, but the argument for the "good" car going to the teen driver makes the most safety sense.
"If parents can afford a new vehicle, they should get one because newer vehicles tend to be safer in terms of crashworthiness and they're more likely to have important safety equipment such as side airbags," said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
After all, teen drivers are far more likely to have a fatal crash than adults. When they do crash, they are the most likely to have single-vehicle, run-off-the-road crashes, which often involve rollovers. That means they're the ones who really need stability control and side curtain airbags.
"Vehicle choice does matter," said J. Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "So discuss it in a serious way. Use it as another means to have a conversation with your teen."
That's exactly what happened in the home of Dr. Art Kellerman, a professor who chairs the Department of Emergency Medicine at Atlanta's Emory University. He had seen the ramifications of bad vehicle choices too many times in his emergency room to let his 17-year-old son get the kind of car he wanted. The pair sat down with their lists of priorities. His son wanted power, looks and a good sound system. Dad wanted "safety, safety, reliability and economy."
Fortunately, Dad won, and the two agreed on a four-cylinder Honda Accord with side airbags and curtains. His only concession was a coupe to appeal to his son's styling preferences. A year after he bought the car, his son was T-boned at high speed at an intersection with a blind curve. Both the side bags and curtains deployed, preventing brain and other injuries, Kellerman says.
"That was the best money I ever spent," says Kellerman. "You can always buy another car, but you can't buy another kid."
Of course, this doesn't mean we're suggesting you hand over the keys to the BMW 7 Series or the Range Rover either. When it comes to the safest cars, there are three key things to consider for your teen driver.
Size Means Safety
It's true for all of us. It's especially true for young people, though - a mid- or larger-size car could be the difference between life and death in a crash.
"Don't buy the argument that you need something highly maneuverable and small," says Kissinger. "You simply don't have the skills to do that when you're a teenager."
Besides, there's no evidence that small cars make up in agility what they lack in size. You don't have to look any further than the April IIHS report on driver death rates for proof. The list of 16 models with the highest rates includes 11 small cars.
Former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief Jeffrey Runge, a former emergency room physician, recommended vehicles weighing at least 3,300 pounds for teen drivers. That rules out compact cars and most small models and is a good general rule when choosing what class of vehicle to shop in. Some good choices for teen drivers, like some versions of the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, weigh in slightly under 3,300 but still shouldn't be ruled out.
Keep in mind that even a small car that earns five stars in most crash tests is only being judged in how well it protects in a crash with a similar-size vehicle. "A bigger vehicle protects in any type of crash," says McCartt. "The mantra for teens is big and boring."
State Farm Insurance has found that more than a third of teen drivers are in subcompact or compact cars and that drivers 20 or older were only half as likely to be in these very small vehicles. That's a mistake, says Kissinger. "You want a car that isn't so small they're going to automatically lose if they get into a crash, especially if they hit a larger vehicle."
Big, yes, but SUVs are generally not a good idea for teens, most safety experts say. Although these light trucks have low death rates as a group, they can also be difficult for anyone to handle in emergencies - they are required to carry a label on the visor warning that "abrupt maneuvers" should be avoided. "As a general rule I don't think SUVs are a great idea when learning to drive - and certainly not an older SUV that doesn't have ESC (electronic stability control) and tends to roll over," says Kissinger.
