Car for my 15 Year-Old Son

Hi Group,

Looking for advice. Those of you who are parents will likely understand the most!  

I’ve been subscribing to both Grassroots and Classic Motorsports for a while - reading for a longer while.  Have had a couple TR6’s, my current vintage sports car is a 914.  Very comfortable wrenching in most every area.  

This post you’ll see is newish territory for me  

Our son is about to get his drivers license!  Of course he’d like to have something cool.  (BMW in his mind) dad is fine with that but would like some reliability.   Looking for ideas from you all.  - doesn’t have to be BMW.

Other pieces of info:

Son is willing to get dirty  to maintain and have a cool  car - which of course I like!!  Dad wants a reasonable amount of this so son learns the value of sweat equity to have something cool he might not otherwise be able to afford!

Dad wants reasonable reliability so he’s not dirty all the time!  

Corolla. If you want fast, find a XRS.

Autocross? Rallycross? Performance driving is great bonding. 

Just going to be his car.  Bonding will be working on the car.  He will learn lots in the process.  Probably me too!!

Miata. NB Miata - newer and safer than the NA’s, which is good for a 15 year old. It’s like a British sports car, except it works, and it doesn’t leak. 

Then get him autocrossing ASAP and have him go to a Tirerack Street survival course. 

I have a 15 year old son also, who has his learners permit.  I recently bought him a '97 Lexus LS400.  Big, reliable as an anvil, safe, luxury, power.  I'm very comfortable with him using it as a DD.  He loves the car.  We're also looking for a "project" car for him to get dirty with, learn to drive stick and also learn autox/HPDE.  Like your son, mine has expressed interest in BMW, but I'd rather get something without the BMW tax. 

I'd agree Miata could be a great answer.  Mazda3 could be good.  Civic, Accord, Corolla (not cool, I know), G35 all come to mind.

mtn said:

Then get him autocrossing ASAP and have him go to a Tirerack Street survival course. 

This is important. 

Back to cars. 

I'm a huge fan of getting kids something they like. They appreciate it and take care of it more than they will getting a hand me down Camry. If he wants a BMW, that's not a bad direction to take. Does he currently fix stuff with you? 

Something with 2 seats (fewer distracting passengers) a stick (harder to be distracted with a phone) and low power. Miatas or minitrucks fit the bill nicely. As a former 16 year old minitruck driver I can attest that there is still plenty of fun to be had in one, and the ability to haul one's own stuff off to college/first house/etc is very handy. Also easy to make friends when you're the only one around with a truck.

In reply to STM317 :

2 useable seats, stickshift, and still capable of hauling stuff but not comfortable for a group of rowdy, distracting buddies?  Oh yeah, and still ticks the BMW box?  What about a 318ti?

Current 20 yo son got a 635CSI as his first car. It was a maintenance nightmare. It's gone. 

Traded up to a Ford P71 Crown Vic. Reliable as an anvil and does just about everything. Autocross, rallycross, and track days. He loves it. Doubly true when he can win FS against the Mustang crowd. 

Current 16yo son will be using my XJ Cherokee as his transportation. For autocross he gets to drive the Abomination. 

Honda Civic Si, any generation. Fun to drive, simple to maintain, cheap to insure, cheap to fuel, practical, and easy to modify with great aftermarket support.

I cut my teeth on old BMWs and Miatas, so I like those options too. BMWs will be more expensive to own and maintain, assuming that's a factor.

Eldest daughter didn't care what she drove and ended up with a grandma fresh 2000 Accord.  V6, auto, beige and boring.  She treats it like an appliance and it chugs along reliably.

Son wanted a stick shift and his mother used my child support money to buy him a 2013 Fiest SE.  It's actually pretty cute and nice to drive.  It also has just as many quirks and issues as the 19 year old Honda.  If I had been the one choosing his car he'd have ended up in an NB Miata, stupidly easy to work on and nail the sweet spot between the anvil reliability and simplicity of the NA but simpler to wrench on than my NC.

Next daughter is wanting an "elderly stick shift truck" so we're keeping an eye out for just the right one to come along.

What about a Cobalt SS? Cheap to buy, easy to source parts for, they handle great, are reasonably fast but don't have the "hey watch this" problems of a Mustang, and its something he can grow with over time. Good at the autocross, can wax it and take it to local car shows, good "hobby" car.  

Keeping with the GM theme, the Saturn Vue Redline? Practical, semi-sporty but not something you'd worry about him going out and racing, and it has a Honda V6 for reliability. 

The Ford Focus, gateway car to hot hatches. Find a rust-free example with a stick. Plenty of work can be done to them for bonding projects, it makes a killer autocross car with some suspension work, and with under 140hp he's not going to get into too much trouble. You can also go for and SVT if you want to turn up the wick a bit.  

Jeep XJ. Reliable, basic, tough, easy to wrench on, parts are stupid cheap, and if he gets into off-roading speed wont ever be a problem. 

Prius C. It says "your not my real son, and I hate you" 

pinchvalve said:

Prius C. It says "your not my real son, and I hate you" 

LMAO.  

I always forget about the Cobalt SS. Super capable car that's a bit of a sleeper.

I'll have a 2004 Acura TSX up on the For Sale board in the near future.

It's an automatic, but it's in good shape, incredibly relaiable and not hard to work on, low miles, and reasonably fun as a daily driver.  Enough pep to not be scary, but not enough pep to be scary.

I've even autocrossed it, but that is definitely not its mission brief.

Do you want my B16-powered CRX?

In reply to Timlank :

Miata. Is the modern British roadster. I wish the British still made cheap fun roadsters, they don’t so go with the Lotus Elan WannaBe 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yes, he is spending more time helping with all sorts of stuff around the house and garage. He’s increasingly seeing the benefit in terms of satisfaction, money saved, and being able to get the things he wants 

Without more to go on I'd say an older Lexus IS300.

I was in this exact same spot just a few months ago.  Recently purchased a 2003 BMW 530i Sport package.

Pros:

It's got some size.  Not a rolling minicar deathbox.  Not a big wallowing pig either.

It's cool.

Last of the DIY BMW's.

Reasonable gas mileage.

Cons:

BMW's appetite for maintenance/repair

There are a fair number of 6-cylinder E39's out there, some with stick shift.  I've seen good runners for ~2500 with around 200k on the clock.  We opted to pay a bit more for a very nice one with 125k on it.  I've heard it's best to avoid the V8.

My 15 year old son hasn't gotten his permit, and doesn't care.

I'm a failure as a parent.

Timlank said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yes, he is spending more time helping with all sorts of stuff around the house and garage. He’s increasingly seeing the benefit in terms of satisfaction, money saved, and being able to get the things he wants 

This is the biggest thing. Get him something that he thinks is cool. Something that he can walk out of class and see in the sea of boring hand me down CUVs in the student parking lot and say "hell yea, that's my ride" That's how you build a car guy. I personally have a soft spot for the older 5 series cars. The E34? I suck with BMW chassis codes to be honest. 

Floating Doc said:

My 15 year old son hasn't gotten his permit, and doesn't care.

I'm a failure as a parent.

Of my four kids only my second daughter is reeeeeeely into motorsports and cars. The big kids wanted to drive, but only because they're super independent, not because they have any interest in what they drive. As long as they have a passion for something, then you're doing fine. 

Full size Chevy truck, 2WD, short cab, short box.

• Dirt cheap.  Maybe even cheaper.
• Huge aftermarket meaning tons of cool used parts on the cheap
• Very simple to work on
• Very cheap parts
• Extremely well documented online.  No struggles to find info on how to fix stuff
• Full frame, thick doors, large crumple zones
• You won't cry when he wads it up or puts a big scratch in it.
• 2WD will teach you how to drive and has the opportunity to actually handle and go fast-ish down the road.
• Seating for 2-3 means at least he won't be stuck being the driver when him and his buddies go out to do dumb stuff.

Being able to get tailights for pennies and sensors at Autozone at 9PM at night has a certain value when you overtighten some little widget, snap it, and still want to drive to school tomorrow.  Not doing that with a BMW.  

Floating Doc said:

My 15 year old son hasn't gotten his permit, and doesn't care.

I'm a failure as a parent.

My 20 year old sister doesn't have her license and hasn't shown much interest even after my dad bought her a convertible Mustang. I myself had to wait a month after I turned 16 because of my grades and Kentucky state law at the time.

Also yes, I agree with GMT400. The truck I have now is what I wish I had in high school. (Probably way too young to make that statement but whatever).

I'm weird though, I don't know if I have the same taste as the 15 year old in question.