wanted WTB kid car

[WBrownie]

Any older Camry or Corollas out there in the TGO universe? Camry or Corolla. My son needs to get to school and flight training classes. 15 yo so as long as there’s no major issues. Long time car guy for Toyota but I’d pay premium for grandmas car.  Central TN preferred as I’m in Franklin. Will come with cash

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[Losvaqueros]

Just curb one. JK good luck!

[Buz]

Deleted

Edited yesterday at 03:33 AM by Buz
Sign in account issue. Reposted.

[Buzz]

I don’t have a car for you, but I’ll pass along our story as food for thought. 

I am a Toyota guy also. When we bought our first kid car in 2015, I looked hard for a suitable Toyota or Honda. Even older/high mileage Toyotas and Hondas seemed overpriced for what they were, even at pre-pandemic prices.

I got some great advice from a friend who has a pack of kids that had already been through the learning-to-drive phase. He said to get something inexpensive, put good tires and brakes on it, and mentally write it off as already totaled. The drivers in the high school parking lot have all been driving 2 years or less. Accidents are guaranteed to happen. The chances that the car survives are low. If an airbag deploys on a cheap car, it is almost certainly totaled.

We ended up buying a 2008 Mazda 3 with about 70k miles on it. It was 7 years old at the time. Base model hatchback. Nothing fancy. No backup camera, blind spot warning, etc. It came pre-equipped with some dents, dings, and scratches. It has been a terrific car and has since been passed down to 2 younger siblings to learn to drive. Youngest currently has it at college 2 hours away. It is 17 years old now and looks crummy, but still runs great.

Our Mazda has been involved in a few minor fender benders plus a deer committed suicide by T-boning the driver’s door at full deer sprint. (Wife happened to be driving the car. She was unharmed  Deer was KIA.) It is a miracle our Mazda is still on the road after all it has been through.

My friend’s advice was spot on. It reduces stress in your life when you let the kid learn to drive a car that you truly don’t care about. View it as disposable. No need for a car that could go 200k+ miles in this situation.

Save the Toyota money for the second car. Upgrade them before college after they have a couple of years driving experience. The second car has a much better chance of survival.

Edited yesterday at 04:06 AM by Buzz
Clarity

[WBrownie]

4 hours ago, Losvaqueros said:

Just curb one. JK good luck!

My guy! Spoken like a hero. I would but the dealer I work at now is tight as a frogs azz and nobody trading the old stuff anymore 

[10-Ring]

7 hours ago, Buzz said:

I don’t have a car for you, but I’ll pass along our story as food for thought. 

I am a Toyota guy also. When we bought our first kid car in 2015, I looked hard for a suitable Toyota or Honda. Even older/high mileage Toyotas and Hondas seemed overpriced for what they were, even at pre-pandemic prices.

I got some great advice from a friend who has a pack of kids that had already been through the learning-to-drive phase. He said to get something inexpensive, put good tires and brakes on it, and mentally write it off as already totaled. The drivers in the high school parking lot have all been driving 2 years or less. Accidents are guaranteed to happen. The chances that the car survives are low. If an airbag deploys on a cheap car, it is almost certainly totaled.

We ended up buying a 2008 Mazda 3 with about 70k miles on it. It was 7 years old at the time. Base model hatchback. Nothing fancy. No backup camera, blind spot warning, etc. It came pre-equipped with some dents, dings, and scratches. It has been a terrific car and has since been passed down to 2 younger siblings to learn to drive. Youngest currently has it at college 2 hours away. It is 17 years old now and looks crummy, but still runs great.

Our Mazda has been involved in a few minor fender benders plus a deer committed suicide by T-boning the driver’s door at full deer sprint. (Wife happened to be driving the car. She was unharmed  Deer was KIA.) It is a miracle our Mazda is still on the road after all it has been through.

My friend’s advice was spot on. It reduces stress in your life when you let the kid learn to drive a car that you truly don’t care about. View it as disposable. No need for a car that could go 200k+ miles in this situation.

Save the Toyota money for the second car. Upgrade them before college after they have a couple of years driving experience. The second car has a much better chance of survival.

Great advice. I'm a Toyota guy as well but I've owned several Mazdas over the years and each one has been a great vehicle. I bought a 1990 Mazda MX6 for $900 off of eBay while in college. I drove the piss out of it, loaned it to anyone who needed to drive somewhere, hauled dead deer in it and many other such abusive activities. It never let me down other than breaking the timing belt while still in my driveway, which was a fairly easy repair as it wasn't an interference engine. I gave it to a friend when I got done with it but got my $900 out of it for sure. 

Edited yesterday at 11:12 AM by 10-Ring

[doug77]

I have renewed faith in the world. I am happy to hear that people are not buying new cars for 16 year olds.  I raised 3 daughters(now age 35, 31 and 27)  When the oldest was almost 16 I bought a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee from a good friend.  Each girl drove it about 2 years until they went off to college and I bought them a better(used) car.  I still have it at the farm (untagged and uninsured). I believe this builds character and gives them something to strive for. Sorry for the rant I guess but keep up the good work parenting. 

[WBrownie]

My first kid did get an 08 4Runner 4x4 V8 with 122k. She rolled that (low speed) in less than 3 weeks. 

[doug77]

I hope she wasn’t injured. Probably not something she will forget. 

[willki]

I agree with all those that say buy a disposable car for your kids first car.  I have bought 3 first cars so far.  2 were totaled before their drivers HS graduation.  Both were hit from the rear so not technically or legally the drivers fault at all.  BUT, new drivers don't drive like the rest of us do and they stop when we would have proceeded and brake when we might have accelerated.

**** buy and install a dash cam!!!

Neither of my drivers were at fault as it turns out and legally was never in question as they were hit from behind.  But, as a parent, it was very comforting to watch that footage after the accident and see that my child was driving safely and carefully when they were hit.  More importantly, if the accident wasn't quite so obvious it could have been very important to have footage to show who was really at fault.

[WBrownie]

2 hours ago, doug77 said:

I hope she wasn’t injured. Probably not something she will forget. 

She was fine.  It was pretty low speed 

[doug77]

That is a blessing. 

[monkeylizard]

+1 to Mazda. All the reliability (some studies show even better) of Honda and Toyota without the Toy-onda markup.

I've had several and currently own three of them. One north of 200K miles and my daily with 115K. My '07 Mazda 3 hatchback got to 195K before I spun a rod bearing. I abused the crap out of that car :D.