When is Toyota Corolla the answer?

My daughter turns 16 in 2015, and my plan is to get her a "starter car" for her birthday. Something that she will drive for a year, have a few scrapes in, and then trade up to something newer/nicer. I would like small, safe, reliable, 2-door if possible (fewer kids in the car means fewer distractions) but kinda cute and with an automatic preferred. Cars like the Tercel, Paseo, Echo and Corolla immediately come to mind. Clean it up, tune it up, put on some snazzy wheels and voila. I am OK with some minor work, but have no desire for heavy body work or chasing electrical gremlins. Any other suggestions?

My wife had an '01 (?) Toyota Corolla when we met. 35mpg, reliable enough, plenty of room for friends (4-door though), and hugely simple to work on.

Would drive again.

Unless you go really old, the Corolla is 4 door only. I can't imagine 16 year olds are going to care about 2 door vs 4 door, if it's got 4 seats they'll squeeze in. So do you want a 2 seater or 4 seater? If it's 4 seater, a million choices...all the ones you mentioned plus Sentra, Accent, Civic, Focus, etc...

Saturn SC1/SC2 would be a great choice too. They're reliable and cheap, and the plastic panels will shrug off high-school parking lot door dings.

Given that new drivers are almost guaranteed to have an accident during their first couple of years of driving, I really like seeing them in a slightly bigger car for their first. Camry, Taurus, Altima. Just putting a bit more steel around them until they get more proficient at the skill of driving seems prudent to me.

Corolla is the answer here. Or Civic, Celica, Scion TC, etc.

Fiance has a Corolla. 2003 or 2004. The one that is an ugly blob instead of a bland but decent looking blob. I dislike it; I find it wheezy and underpowered. If it had a stickshift, it would be fine. The interior is rather spartan to me, and the materials are durable, but not nice compared to my Miata.

It is a great car though. Good mpg, never broken down on us. If we were staying in the area, we'd probably be getting her a new[er] mini SUV, and I'd be taking the Corolla as a beater.

KyAllroad wrote: Given that new drivers are almost guaranteed to have an accident during their first couple of years of driving, I really like seeing them in a slightly bigger car for their first. Camry, Taurus, Altima. Just putting a bit more steel around them until they get more proficient at the skill of driving seems prudent to me.

2003 Corolla gets a 5 star rating from NHTSA.

Get her a Celica and pull the rear seats

Is there a reason not to out her in a manual? Aside from the fact that it will make her a more attentive driver, almost none of her friends will be able to drive it, which means less liklihood of shenanigans. Also the need to shift precludes the "phone in one hand" syndrome that kids seem to have these days.

2 doors is not a requirement, it just makes the car more cute and less likely to be the default taxi for her friends.

She WILL know how to drive a manual, it is a requirement of getting her license, but I figure that automatics are easier to find. The biggest concern that I have with kids today are their damn phones and distracted driving. A manual may prevent her from texting while driving, but it may also make it 100 times worse. I'm torn on that one. She is responsible and bossy, so no worries about friends driving.

I am seeing the Protege pop up a lot, but I doubt I will buy local because of rust. My goal is to drive something home from a business trip outside of the rust belt.

+1 on if there are seats, they will fit. Regardless of doors.

I also second the mid size. If I was looking for a kid's first car, I would consider a 3rd gen Taurus(oval car) with the base vulcan V6. Dirt cheap buy in, safe, reliable, and low operating costs for it's size. The engine has enough TQ to not suck with an auto, not be under powered, but tame enough to not promote shenanigans.

The answer here is first Gen Insight. Slow, two seats, better in a crash than a Paseo (or similar) and kind of cute, I guess. Find one for 3500 and sell afterward for 2700 with some rubs.

I've got a southern rust free protege5 auto...

Gen1 RAV4, Camry, Rolla, all are good choices. 97-99 Camrys are practically free these days. Same with that era Rolla, actually. I have a couple of friends with extra Rollas of around Y2K.

Why not involve her in the process? It will be her car and she needs to learn to take care of it, so offer to help buy the car as long as she helps with the buy in as well by picking it out paying for insurance or helping with the purchase, etc. then sit down and start looking at cars/trucks/etc.

Why condemn her to a craprolla, what's she done to deserve that? What about a Focus ZX3 or something with some sole?

We got my step-son a 96 Corolla with ~250k on it, but otherwise good condition. He has no interest in cars, and not much more interest in driving, so it's been perfect for him these past 3-years.

I've driven it a couple times, and while not fun, it doesn't have any bad traits.

Check insurance rates befor getting set on anything.

Another vote for a ZX3 Focus. Avoid 2000. 2001+ are decent cars. Parts are cheap. It's more fun to drive than a typical Toyota; its an econobox that would at at least appeal to an enthusiast.

Saturn Ion comes to mind.
The original Saturns were loved by many and somewhat remembered. It seems to me that Ions are completely forgotten.
Sold from '03-'07 in 4 door and 2 door coupe. All years on 4 doors had a traditional 4 speed trans but for '03 and '04, the coupe version got a CVT auto trans. This CVT trans should be 100% avoided.
All years offered a good 5 speed manual.

The 2.2L 4 cyl, Ecotec engine was shared across the whole GM lineup including Chevy Cobalt, Malibu, HHR; Saturn Ion, Vue, L-series; Pontiac G5 and Grand Am. It is a good engine.
In all, the car is just GM parts bin and served for the basis of the Chevy Cobalt that was launched as an '05 model.

A real benefit to you is that these Ions are still plastic paneled. Since PA vehicle inspections focus on rusty body panels, these plastic panels should be beneficial.

Easy to find, typical samples:
http://youngstown.craigslist.org/cto/4755755569.html
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/4793339361.html

Ion Wiki

I thought about this a lot, given that we had the daughter drive for one full year before getting her license. She was one of the "moving to NYC after grad school and will not need a license/car" types who are frustrating...especially when it's me having to go and pick her up.

We thought about a Sidekick/RAV4/older CRV, mainly for upright seating position and visibility. She ended up with a '99 2 door Accord EX, which is nice enough for her to take care of...and for me to pick up the slack.

My first car was a 93 corolla. There's plenty you can still do with it, but it's reliable, safe, slow, boring, etc.

I wouldn't exactly call the FWD Rolla I had "boring." It actually out ran anything up to about a super-car. Just a plain JDM 4AG in it with a few extra valves.

For stricly two people.

• Smart for two
• Short cab compact pickup
• MR2/S
• Miata

Corollas are excellent transport though.

Corollas were on my short list when hunting a car for the Curmudgeonling. Around here people seem to think they are made of gold along with Proteges and Civics so I wound up with an '03 Saturn ION 3 which is the top of the line, it has all the power accessories, alloy wheels, ABS, traction control etc. In the 2 years we've had it (mileage just turned over 163k) I did a fair amount of preventive maintenance, but it has had 2 failures. One was the plastic mounts breaking off of the wiper transmission, $65 part (Dorman) and about 30 minutes. The other was a crack in the electric engine cooling fan blade which caused a helluva rattle, Rock Auto $80.00 and about 30 min again. Otherwise, just routine maintenance.

Smart cars are Mercedes. They have Mercedes reliability and repair costs. Run, don't walk, as far away as you can.