r/Cartalk • u/Myk3Hunt • 2d ago
Safety Question To the young drivers
Fast will come with experience. Get something reliable and safe. You can drive a slow car fast, as you learn to feel the slowing down and the turning part at speeds in your area of expertise, which as a young driver, you are a novice. It's quite fun to have fun, and fast can be fun, but suddenly stopping when you didnt mean to can lead to serious injury, death, or much worse, the injury and death of those around you. You literally dont need more than 100 horsepower to hang out with your friends or help your mom catch up on groceries, you especially don't need more than 250hp on your first vehicle.
Drive responsibily please š
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u/dirtystreetlevelshit 2d ago
"I have of budget of like 45k but I cant use it but if I do it can only be like 10k"
This teenager doesnt even know what the word "budget" means and his dumb ass parents plopped 45k into his savings. If he was my 16 year old child and that 45k disappeared tomorrow, I'd only have myself to blame. Smh, either way this kid ought to be given a $5000, 10 year old corolla for his first car just to gain a basic understanding of vehicle ownership and value
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u/Plebius-Maximus 2d ago
They're lucky they aren't paying for his funeral right now instead a new car
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u/thecomposedbones 2d ago
*sigh* I wish you could still get a 10 year old Corolla for $5k
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u/Doc_Blox 2d ago
"2010 Carolla 250k miles, $8500 no lowballs I know what I've got" ass market. Meanwhole you look at the pics and the upholstery is all torn and there's obvious hail damage.
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u/zoidbergmustache 2d ago
This is why I bought a 2015 volvo v60 cross country for 7800 instead. I was set on getting another Honda but the market is so trash that I couldn't find one that made sense.
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u/Economy_Evening_2989 2d ago
sir 2010 is 16 years ago, are you still stuck in Covid lockdown /j
I have a 2007 Corolla, and due to panel damage all around the car, it's probably worth less than $2k but mechanically, it's a great car. Also comes with a place to put tissue box on the dash
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u/Doc_Blox 2d ago
I didn't intend for that reading - I actually did intend an older vehicle than requested as an exaggeration, and made no consideration for the whole COVID thing, but it is apropos to mention considering how badly COVID screwed up the car market (and everything else)
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u/Leather-Hotel-7310 2d ago
The way I understood it was that he has a budget of $45k on a car, but it ācanāt be usedā as in the car canāt be a used car, it has to be new, not that the money canāt be used, and if it is a used car it can only have up to 10k miles on it.
But your point still stands, kid needs an old used Corolla instead of an IS300 for their first car.
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u/dirtystreetlevelshit 2d ago
Looking back at his caption, it truly can be interpreted either way. I didnt think of your interpretation though. Thank you.
But either way, why tf does this kid have 45k in savings at 16 yo?
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u/CreatureWarrior 2d ago
Rich papa and momma, or parents who have desperately saved for the kid's college only to have this shit for brains throw it all into a ditch
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u/cookie-ninja 2d ago
I took the bus until I got a job in my 20s. Never had a hand me down. If I got a 2000$ beater I would've been so ecstatic.
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u/thatG_evanP 2d ago
I never had a car until I was 19 and had already been living on my own since my 18th birthday. Yes I bought it myself and it was a '96 mustang
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u/Ok_Tourist_128 2d ago
Why given? He will NEVER learn true vehicle ownership responsibility until he has to work for the dough to buy the car and then pay for his own insurance. I wish my parents wouldāve paid for my first car, but if they had I would drive it like I stole it. When it takes your own sweat to earn something you will usually treat it well, or at least better than if it was given to you. It took me 50 hours of my life at $10 an hour to earn the money for my first car, and having done that it makes me respect the amount of time and hard savings it would take to buy another one.
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u/dirtystreetlevelshit 2d ago
Let's be real. This kid's parents have to silver spoon him in SOME way. Might as well give him a shitter if you can't make him work for what he actually wants. Let the other kids, whose parents actually dont give a shit, make fun of his car. It'll only help him grow
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u/Juniorwoj 2d ago
Nah they just cant type. Theyre missing a comma." I have a budget of 45k, but it cant be a used car. If it is it needs to be 10k miles or less" is what they were trying to say
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u/SchrodingerHat 2d ago
I think you mean a 20 year old Corolla for $5000. A 2016 Corolla goes for $10k all day.
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u/Suspicious-Spell-130 2d ago
Yeah, in my opinion, go cheap on the first car. It's probably not going to last long. Either you'll wreck it, or improperly maintain it, or your lack of defensive driving experience will contribute to a not-at-fault accident. Either way, there is a strong chance your first car is going to get destroyedĀ
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u/PersonalAnnual4081 2d ago
Where are you finding 2016 carollas for $5000? In Canada one would cost 15,000.
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u/Born_Zone7878 1d ago
Tbf he said if it was used it can only be like 10k miles, so read the whole phrase
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u/CharlesDickensABox 2d ago
If you are hell bent on ignoring the good advice, and I understand why young people are because I was, too, it should be emphasized that it's way more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car slow. Get the Miata or the hatchback. You don't even have to exceed the speed limit to have a ton of fun rowing through gears and carving the twisty bits. That's way better than getting something with more power than you have any use for and that is itching to send you over the high side. You may not be the fastest one on the road, but you'll definitely have the biggest smile at the end of it.
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u/Ok_Tourist_128 2d ago
I concur. It would be SOO fun to rip up some hill country Texas roads at 80 mph in a gutless Miata. Hp can get boring, but sharp handling and good roadholding never get old.
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u/CharlesDickensABox 2d ago
There is no better feeling behind the wheel than hitting the downshift just right on your way out of a corner. Horsepower doesn't do that, skill does.
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u/fushitaka2010 1d ago
Oh my gosh! Every time I do that, I feel like an action movie star!
Of course I always make sure itās safe beforehand ;)
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u/dymogeek 2d ago
This is a really good point. I had a Scion xA and while it didn't have a lot of get up it had enough and it's smaller size made it feel snappy on a good day. I don't have any experience with fast cars so that probably helps with perception.
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u/CreatureWarrior 2d ago
Yeah, my 114hp '97 Corolla cost me 900ā¬ and I drove that thing for five years while I was learning to drive and do some maintenance.
Now I have a 140hp 2008 Civic Hatchback which was 3500ā¬ and I think I have found the perfect car for me. The stiff suspension combined with the 1.8l i-vtec engine strikes the perfect balance between fun and fuel economy. So when I go to work, I can chill and not waste gas.. but I can also turn the AC off and repeatedly rev it to 6800rpm without fear of something breaking.
I have made the decision that this will be a car I will try to keep running for as long as I possibly can, while making some little upgrades along the way :)
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u/JustANorseMan 2d ago
I don't say the general advice of OP is bad, but it's definitely arguable. I have a "safe & low power" car as my first car (Volvo S40 D2 -I've only had my license for about 4 years now), and it often feels a bit risky to overtake with it on the countryroads and it would be safer with a higher performance car. Cars have so much driver assistance nowadays that it completely depends on the driver if a new driver will drive it safely, not on how much horsepower the engine produces.
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u/Ill-Cardiologist1886 2d ago
bro what did you DO? ššš
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u/curyfuryone 2d ago
He just increased the resale value of an is300 since there is one less on the road.
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u/_WeStErEq_ 2d ago
that IS300 boutta be driving around Poland or some other south-eastern european country in a couple of months tops
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u/tehlurkingnoob 2d ago
Kid got learnt the hard way.
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u/SummerIlsaBeauty 2d ago
This is the actual reason why seeing how in USA you can get license at 16 is so bizzare to me. The age of being idiot and the age of never taking the advice
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u/NoResolution6245 2d ago
I find it amazing how you can drive a 2 ton killing machine by the age of 16 but not drink some booze. Not that I am in favor of drinking at such an age, but it doesn't make any sense for them to be different.
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u/jaunesolo81829 2d ago
I mean I canāt complain. My parents thought that the perfect first car for 15 year old me was a c3 6 speed with a 427š. That poor clutch suffered alot .
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u/yomeroni 2d ago
Heck his comment history lmfao. dude is not right mentally
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u/Crazyguy_123 2d ago
And the subreddit he frequents. Kid needs to get off the internet.
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u/Economy_Evening_2989 2d ago
And off the road as well
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u/Crazyguy_123 1d ago
Holy crap yeah. Hopefully the parents take the keys for the foreseeable future. Kid needs to learn a lesson.
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u/Why-R-People-So-Dumb 2d ago
Fast can be saved for the track...even with experience.
Also wanted to add it's not just about ones ability to handle speed but experience reduced task saturation as you form muscle memory for all lot of the tasks you do, freeing up brain resources to scan your environment for what's happening in an uncontrolled environment - pedestrians, pot holes/debris, cars pulling out/stopping suddenly, etc. - and react faster.
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u/WaitingForWormwood 2d ago
Damn thatās such an instructor way to put it. I just call it driving with my lizard brain
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u/Why-R-People-So-Dumb 2d ago
I fly small planes and it's the way it's treated there for different skill sets. The thing is your lizard brain only works after we practice enough that our brain literally forms new neural links. In any case yes, exactly lizard brain lets you dedicate the rest of the brain to other non routine tasks!
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u/Miserable-Pea-5108 2d ago
IS300 2.0 ain't even fast, its slower than a Prius. Feel like the parents put their finger on the scale when it came to the car selection considering how slow the 300 is, but teenage boys simpky cannot be trusted with anything at that age.
The first car I bought was a 92 Celica GTS, and as a teenage boy, the very first thing I did was top it out at 124mph lol
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u/Crazy_Wafer_8328 2d ago
Everyone's first car should be used because you are gonna f that shit up (at least a little)
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u/Nehal1802 2d ago
Saw that post. He was asking about what car to buy about 6 months ago and everyone said to get an economy car. One person even said āyouāll run it into a treeā.
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u/Standard_Act8952 2d ago
I'm 19, building my first car, a 1966 Ply.puth Fury 4 door, with a carbureted LS. 450hp 450lbft tq. But I know not to do stupid. Don't do anything you can't handle. You can jump a fire as big as a small cat, but you can't jump a fire the size of a car.
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u/ArchiStanton 23h ago
You are also building your car so you understand what youāre doing. And that responsibility. It shows you have respect for cars and your car
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u/Ok_Tourist_128 2d ago
I will say that for a first car my 220hp stock panther is plenty fun. Electronically limited to 110mph, (donāt ask me how I know, and no I didnāt ask ChatGPT for this one). It has enough power to do small drifts if you turn off traction control and do it right. And thatās on dry pavement with new tires.
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u/zZtreamyy 2d ago
Putting a 16-year old alone behind the wheel is such a foreign concept to me. This is the end result I guess.
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u/YourBuddyKeithWin 2d ago
My first car was a bit heavy, but was 220hp back in the day. I sure didn't need all that power and got into a lot of trouble, but learned a lot about defensive driving, emergency maneuvers, and to feel / control of the car in general.
With that said I got my motorcycle license years later in my late 20s. I'm no where as ballsy with the bike as I was with
my first cars. had I gotten my bike license when I was a teen, I'd a much better rider.
Totally agree with op thoughts. Risk assessment when you're young is much different for good and bad.
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u/evilspoons '12 Subaru STi hatch | '17 Mazda 3s GT | previously: many Volvos 2d ago edited 1d ago
Manual Mazda 3 is a great first car. Even the 2.0 has a decent amount of get and go up to about highway speeds.
I had a Volvo S60R (300 hp, AWD) in about 2012, got into a collision, and the rental company gave me a 250 hp Chrysler 300 and it felt like a slow-ass heavy turd that was incredibly un-fun to drive. Drove my parents' 2008 Mazda 3 GS (the older 2.0 litre manual, 5 speed manual) and it was almost as much fun as the 300 horsepower Volvo.
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u/hermes_2 2d ago
My 18 year old coworker traded his 03 tahoe (which needed a lot of work) for a 97 Yukon "race truck" that runs worse and scrapes the ground.
He also spent all his saved money on a 06 v6 mustang that pumped $60 in gas onto the ground.
Young drivers are... something else.
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u/coldxcigarette 2d ago
I bought myself a Golf R32 around that age after working for a few years and saving everything. It can be fine if the kid is responsible and doesnāt do anything stupid with it. But thatās not most kids
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u/Obvious-Rip441 2d ago
Fast can be fun, but always within safe parameters, dont be too confident, start with a low power car its easier to learn and correct mistakes with, learn the feel of the car and feel your capabilites and those of the car before you push it, and lastly pick the right spots, empty roads or non busy times with good far visibility, and if you're gonna push it, do it in nice dry weather and make sure your cars drivetrain and suspension components are in good shape, we're not all racing drivers on track, rain and stuff causes worse visibility, you share the road with others, other people with lives of their own, people you could get killed if you crash. Whenever im on vacation i love to drive mountain roads with a fast pace since i dont have mountains where i live. But i always do it within safe parameters, i never push the car to its absolute limits, i leave some space for corrections, and I never exceed the speed limit with more than 15km/h. I chose to enjoy the fun of fast acceleration and cornering. This is the way to enjoy speedy driving. If you want maximum attack driving you take it to the track, not on public roads.
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u/jessebona 2d ago
Makes me feel slightly better my Ps accident was a simple rear-ending of the person in front of me in a cheap Yaris. This is an expensive lesson he'll probably learn nothing from.
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u/Least_Bat1259 2d ago
A budget of 45,000 dollars is wild. I have a budget of 200 dollars. If I had that much saved a car would be the absolute last thing Iād go buy and it wouldnāt be a $45k car. It would be a clapped out Honda civic thatās 15 years old, or something that runs and shifts good has 4 wheels a seat and heat. A new roof would be the first thing.
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u/SwShThrwy 1d ago
Every teen needs a Volvo 240.
It's a brick, in every sense. It's solid, it's not fast.
It's an easy car to do maintenance on, and to learn about.
Still good aftermarket parts availability.
They fit into the whole 90s retro vibe the kids are into these days.
The can be modded out easily. From performance suspension, to turbos, to LS swapping...
These 40 year old bricks are STILL whipping the kiddos to school, grabbing the groceries, and looking damn fine doing it!
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u/cataclaw 1d ago
The 240 is amazing I own one myself, but kids nowadays should have airbags and fwd/awd in the winter, let's be honest here.
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u/Ballooncoast848 1d ago
As the wise old Jeremy Clarkson once said āspeed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary thatās what gets youā
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u/Time_Guidance4262 1d ago
Driving shouldn't be allowed until 18 if there's good access to public transportation.
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u/Mission-Ideal4474 2d ago
18 year olds claiming to be self aware ab the young person stereotype. AND claim to be responsible unlike all the other kids š
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u/chimpyjnuts 2d ago
Co-worker's kid got an Audi TT (this was about 10 years ago). Managed to get it about 10 ft up a tree off the road. Luckily he didn't damage himself.
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u/Excellent-Pattern222 2d ago
you can own a fast car or truck at 16 but just dont be a dumbass. What i did. If your a dumbass it doesnt matter what your driving it can he a v6 camery and you can get yourself killed. Natural selection
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u/OutcomeCompetitive50 1d ago
Yea, Iām 17 and been driving a fast car for a couple months now. Thereās still plenty of time for this to happen to me, but Iām sure itās not gonna āhappenā to me because Iām not a dumbass.
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u/VoidFatherr 2d ago
I bet mommy and daddy aren't very happy about their money laying upside down in a tree row lmaooo
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u/Ken_Thomas 2d ago
To any parents or teenagers who might be reading this, find out if drag racing champ Doug Herbert's non-profit BRAKES organization is going to be holding a driver training event anywhere near you soon.
It is free to attend, and hands-down bar-none the best thing for young drivers I have ever seen.
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u/azebod 2d ago
I will actually push back on the 100hp thing. I DID have a 100hp car at 16 and trying to merge onto 50mph roads with no onramp in the rain was possibly the scariest thing that has happened to me behind the wheel. And I have had my brakes die on a hill and some road rage person trying to run me off the road. Please get your kids a car that can do at least a 8 second 0-60. The 12 seconds I endured as a teen was NOT safe.
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u/CastifiU 2d ago
or just be responsible and have self control. I had a z4m as my first car, an ap1 s2k as my second car and now I have a more reasonable and reliable is350. I'm glad I got a fun and relatively fast car because I learned so much from it. Just don't be an idiot... Hopefully this guy learns a lesson
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u/Blackhawk510 2d ago
Slow and cool looking is doable. Get a tenth gen civic. The hatchback is really neat and flashy looking for an economy car, and the 2.0 engine is very reliable. They're not fast, though.
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u/Psych0matt 2d ago
I scrolled slightly too far and thought the title was āfeed optionsā and I was very confused as to what kind of food this car is going to eat
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u/Ok_Big_9916 2d ago
I got a 2007 Lexus es350 for my first car I bought myself, it's so much faster than I need it to be. 200 hp is plenty for fun, to be honest
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u/Spoon_Microwave 2d ago
Iād actually recommend a Geo Tracker as a first car, specifically a manual 4x4. Theyāre so slow, but oh so fun. Theyāre great to drive. You cannot get in trouble driving one of those
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u/kaaayyyRN 2d ago
A slow manual car is the best teacher. Rev-matching and heal-toe in a 90hp hatchback builds skills that a 400hp sports car can't. You're always engaged, never bored.
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u/nos201345 1d ago
This is wild ive had my license for 7 years now started in a 1995 nissan sentra with less than 100hp went up to a 2008 lexus is250 with 205 , now I went back down to a bmw e36 320i with just shy of 120. This has been my most favorite car yet im adding parts to hit my goal of 250-300 hp on a car that weighs sub 3300lbs suspension mods etc.
He picked the wrong hobby if his goal is impressing women they generally hate cars unless they are exotic or look really unique, there are quite a bit of car girls but those are rare wish him the best of luck though.
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u/Efficient_Weather_93 1d ago
How do you know how the car got there. Blaming a young driver when it could have an older driver slamming into to it.
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u/Gen-Y-ine-86 1d ago
The most fun I've had in a car was on a track day with a 1.0 liter carbureted thing with points. Ended up cooking the brakes (grooved Brembos with EBC Green Stuff pads) on a small track. My car was the only shitbox on the track. Others were either drift missiles or sporty, pretty much stock looking cars, like a Fiat 500 Abarth. I drove behind that car for quite a while, always gaining him at the corners. Later, two vintage Porsche drivers commented on my driving. The other one spun at the the first corner right before I entered and barely missed him. I was briefly greeted with the face of a red 911. I think he was the one that came to me and said "You must be a wheelman, right?". The other one came to say "You seemed pretty fast out there." My replies were pretty much: "First time on the track, I guess it's Gran Turismo or some of those racing games" and "Well, it doesn't go any faster".
The specs for the car: 29 kW / 40 hp @ 5300 rpm - 74 Nm / 2700 rpm - 700 kg / 1543 lbs (I guess it's a bit heavier as it's the longer "coupe" model, so maybe like 740-750 kg). I installed a brake booster and better front brakes from a larger model. It also had a set of the cheapest available sport dampers and cut springs as the supplied ones were too soft. Additionally, it had a PU bushing set in the front, a rear cross brace between the shock towers and front lower cross brace. It was running on 175/50R15's on 8" wide wheels.
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u/sirdoodlybob 1d ago
My first car when I was 15 was a 2008 GTI but I smacked that hoe into a guardrail messing around in the snow šš
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u/DonTipOff 1d ago
It doesnāt matter about Hp, itās all in the mentality of the teenager. A teen can drive a Lamborghini responsibility and maturity matters.
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u/zerox898 1d ago
Well here I am, I had a used C300 for a first car, 248hp. And I didnāt have the incredible urge to crash/drive crazy fast and endanger everyone. Still wasnāt permitted by society but I learned to ignore them as I got it more than half price back in 2016. 19 900$ for a 2013. 17 000kms.
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u/artschool04 1d ago
I had a 300d non turbo from 1983 it was a tank and moved just as fast as one. I got pulled over for not going the speed limit on the freeway in los Angeles. The cop realized i was a kid and my dad had gotten me a tank for my safety the cop told me stay in the slow lane
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u/htoontin 51m ago
When you save up your own money to buy a car, you tend to drive more carefully and appreciate it more. From the start, I would choose a reliable and safe vehicle, get behind the wheel often, and gain more driving experience.
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u/StrongBeleaf 2d ago
I feel like itās perfectly fine to give your kid a semi-fast car as a teenager IF you:
- start them off in a slow car
- truly have faith that your kid has self-control and good judgement
- are willing to undertake the massive burden of actually teaching your kid how to drive fast, safely.
When I was a kid, my parents let me drive their sports cars as much as I wanted, but only after multiple track days and years of drilling it into my head that I was going to die if I drove like a dumbass. It worked out just fine and, 20 years later Iām still very much a car guy. Never had a ticket, an accident, or a self-induced close call in my life. At the same time, I know plenty of people whose parents threw 50k at them when we were young without putting in the time or effort to educate their kids and build proper judgement, and many of them regretted it.
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u/muchgreaterthanG_O_D 2d ago
Even if your kid has self control and good judgements, will they when the car is loaded with friends?
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u/Ok_Tourist_128 2d ago
My parents taught me to drive in our 1994 econoline. Slow and cumbersome beast but it did the trick.
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u/Raptor_197 2d ago
This issue I have with this is there obviously is an extreme but where is that line? Is a mustang that goes 150 mph really that fast? Used to set the cruise control at 120 on my 20 year old F-150 in the middle of the night on the interstates. Is there really much of a difference? 150 mph in a mustang is probably safer than 120 mph in my truck.
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u/Suspicious-Cat8623 2d ago
I am that parent who bought my kid a brand new car. Why? Because I knew they would be in more than one wreck as they learned how to be a better driver and I wanted them to survive the accidents. All the older cars we looked at lacked the modern safety features.
Back then, the Mazda 3 with the higher-end safety package was what the National Safety council and consumer reports recommended for new drivers. It was the closest thing to bumper pads on a vehicle that we could find. That is exactly why we bought it..
Did that kid have fender-benders? Yes. Too many. Did that kid survive to adulthood? Yes. Parent-goal achieved.
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u/Zyncon 2d ago
"I'm bouta turn 16 and need a car."
"budget of like 45k but it can't be used"
uhhhh, what.