I'm sorry but I think getting kids fast/powerful cars for their first car is beyond stupid.

I don't care how mature anyone's son/daughter is, the chance of them hurting themselves is going to go through the roof in a high hp vehicle.

Get her a V6 stang or something?

I knew of someone who got their 17yr old a ZR1, might as well give the kid a gun and tell him to point it at himself.

 

turbo hayabusa!

 

I know plenty of kids who get fast cars before they should... and then they wreck them.



Buy her a used Honda Accord/VW Passat and call it a day.

 

IMO the idea of getting the old school and restoring it AND getting her a reliable safe care like an accord or a civic SI ( a bit more fun) for her everyday transportation needs. Whoever said an e46 M3 is a good first car to learn on is either (1) smoking crack or (2) has had their kid karting since age 3 and the kid is already a better driver than 95% of the idiots on the road. If I had an M3 for a first car I would not have seen my 17th birthday, or would have have seen it in custody. It's just not a smart thing to give to a newly licensed driver, unless they have been properly trained prior and can fully respect the machine and the consequences it can bring, most 16 yr olds just don't have this respect. Growing up, my dream car (realistic dream car, not like a testarosa or anything) was a 5.0. For a while it was looking like I was actually going to get one for my 16th birthday. Then Mercedes came out with the ML, which my dad had to have, which meant I would be getting his Grand Cherokee until it was time for college. That Jeep saved my life, wish I still had it.

 

1st car should be SLOW and SAFE!

 

woah

 

I will say this. By other peoples standards I am a great driver, and eventually someone will run into you. It's inevitable. I think that it would be better to get your daughter a safe car, possibly one with some guts even, and wait on the mustang for later.

In the end it's definitely up to you, but seeing a totaled '68 mustang sitting in traffic would kill me enough, whether I paid for it or not.

 

A little preface: I'm probably younger than you, I'm 23, and I have a 17 year old sister. I still remember being that age very clearly, and the years after that. Also, people supposedly mature at different speeds, so YMMV.

If she wants to restore a Mustang, go ahead and restore a Mustang with her. I'd love to restore a car with my dad, it'd be a great thing to do as a father/son thing, my neighbor and his dad restored a boat, they had a lot of fun in the process. It'll be a great bonding thing for the two of you to do. Just make sure it's a car you'd want to restore on your own if she gets tired of it after a few days.

That said, don't get her a car you'd want to drive normally. If I had a vehicle that was in any way powerful, I'd be dead by now. Either that, or I'd have limped away from the first wreck from luck. When you're a teen (and even after that) really really stupid ideas somehow don't seem that stupid. Like powersliding in a random intersection. Or Launching your car full throttle off a red light. Or just going really, really fast. Furthermore, young people are much more easily distracted, think about it this way, your daughter has a cell phone, she probably text messages a lot, is on the phone a lot, etc. She's going to go out with her friends driving and talk to them while driving. And when her favorite song comes on, she's gonna crank the stereo and sing a long. All this while having (in the scheme of things) virtually no driving experience. And even then, even if she doesn't make a mistake, there's thousands of other people on the roads (many of them who don't belong there - but that's a totally different matter), and they tend to suck as drivers. So she might be doing everything fine and still get wrecked into.

Do yourself a favor and get her something that's not that fast, and very safe. And remember, it's her first car, she will crash it. My little sister got a new Lincoln MKX before she turned 16, within 6 months she crashed it and did something like $7k damage. They claim that the guy in front of her crashed into the car in front of her, and then she wasn't able to stop in time and hit him, but realistically, if that happens she was too close/fast.

Get her something safe, with fantastic braking, and that you won't care when it gets destroyed (interior wise or completely). The Honda Element is probably what I'd pick if I had a kid to get a car for now, maybe a Scion xB. Both are relatively practical, can look somewhat decent, can stop pretty good, are pretty safe, and don't cost a lot when they get wrecked.

 

Im more of a watcher on this forum but i do feel compelled to write something here.

My first car was/ is a e46 M3, I got it 6 months after I got my license as a 16 year old. I'm almost 20 now and i still have the car without any incidences. Im not saying get your kid a M3 or a fast car in general. All Im trying to say is that some young people can handle it.

from a restoration standpoint and this works for nice new cars too. you have to think about where its gunna be parked everyday for most of the year, in a high school parking lot. Lots of bad drivers, on top of, most kids dont care how many hours you have spent on a restoration and the jealous ones will do stupid sh*t i.e. kick, spit on, even key the paint.I wouldn't write this if i hadn't seen it happen or had it happen to me.

so in the end its your call but think about the factors that are involved thoroughly before you make that choice. I wouldnt go with a total crapper, try something with a good amount of useful power yet not a weekend racer.

 

The teen driver might hate you first,but reality will sink in .
Great safe affordable car
Get her a used Mercury Grand Marquis.Majority were senior driven and well cared for,big and safe,plenty of room,enough power.and fully loaded with luxury options.OK,it only gets 19/20 mpg around town but they don't spend all day driving anyway.
Smooth handling and not likely to be raced about,but they will have to be schooled in driving a full size auto.
After they have 50,000 miles under their belt let them buy what they want,with their money!

 

I think alot of you people are looking at this thing the wrong way. If she is interested in cars and wants to drive a fast powerful car eventually, what I think you should do is this: get her a mid 90's lt1 or ls1 camaro/trans am. These cars are fairly cheap and still come with a 6 speed and some rwd power and the car is new enough to come with most newer standard safety feature. This way you can get her a cheaper car that she can slide into a few ditchs, bang up and beat down without the fear of either getting to hurt or wrecking a beautiful classic. This has been my plan for the kid I will someday have. If you get them a little fwd econo box, your going to have her running into all the same manual trans, rwd, bigger power problems that she would have with getting her the mustang from the getgo. Better to have her learn on the same platform that she's going to move on to later.

Obviously this is just me chimming in my 2 cents, but I think it's a reasonable idea.

 

My parents bought a Nissan Murano as a kid car because it was big and therefore safer. I said I didn't want it and went out to buy a Mk4 GTI (arguing that a smaller car with better handling is just as safe). My parents didn't like the crash test ratings, and offered to pay half on a Mk5 GLI. Despite the fact that I hated having my parents own half my car, I think getting rear-ended hurt a bit less in the sedan than it would have in the hatch.

And for recommendation against an SUV (or that 68 stang)...The car in front of me stopped short and I was able to stop the GLI without hitting him. My brother in the Murano behind me couldn't stop, rear ended me, and both of our cars were towed :/

 

I have been in a family owner collision repair business for over 30 years. My thoughts are stay away from the compact cars, and look for safety. What a young driver wants, and what they really should have are 2 totally different things. I as a young driver I wanted certain cars, and my father guided me in a different direction. At that time I did not really understand, but today I do. I thank him, I still love cars, I am here to drive them, and now I have to boys to guide along. Interesting world if looked at with logic.

 

hahaha