How to shop for your teenager’s first car

An admission: whenever I think about my teenager getting behind the wheel, I begin to ponder a move to a destination where cars are outlawed and all transport is undertaken by bicycle. You too might have similar daydreams, all too often encouraged by the sight of teens either driving thousand-dollar bombs held together with gaffer tape, or worse, those in supercharged V8s being navigated under a ‘Drive it like you stole it’ personal motto. Ugh.

Of course while the move to a far-away foot-traffic-only retreat in rural Tasmania sounds idyllic, what’s far more realistic is to give in to your child’s desire (or in most cases, desperation) to drive, and therefore conduct a detailed search for the best and safest car for their age group.

Overwhelmed? We’re only too happy to help narrow down what to look for in your teenager’s first car.

Sure, your child will make noise about wanting an over-the-top sports car like so-and-so got from their parents, but we’re going to stop you right there; no child needs an overpriced luxury vehicle for their first car – a move that will only serve to spoil them as adults. That said, what you also don’t want to do is go old-school and opt for the cheapest thing that scrapes into the roadworthy list by a whisker.

If you can’t buy the car new (keep an eye out for drive-away or runout deals), buy it ‘as new’ as you can. Yes, purchasing a new or newish vehicle will be more expensive initially, but not only will it come with less hassle (no mechanical inspections or repairs required), it is likely to have all the up-to-date safety features that every inexperienced driver needs to help keep them safe.

Got your eye on an SUV? Perhaps keep looking. While SUVs certainly have their place in the family home, it's likely your teen can just as easily get by a smaller car, and with a lower centre of gravity. This will help them handle the roads a little easier than a larger, higher vehicle.

For the same reason, you want to avoid buying them a car that has too much power. You know how your teen likes to test both their curiosity and your boundaries? Things will be no different on the roads so let’s not tempt fate.

If you need to add more weight to your argument as to why your teen requires a smaller car, remember this: assuming they’ll be paying for the costs of running and maintaining the vehicle (and they should), cars with smaller engines are far more fuel-efficient and therefore far cheaper to run. Look for something with an official fuel consumption claim around that’s six litres per 100km or lower.

Of course, the most important thing to look for when it comes to your teenager’s first car is safety. No matter which vehicle you end up going with, always make sure you visit ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) and check that the particular make or model you’ve got your eye on has a five-star rating.

The car should have up-to-date safety features such as autonomous emergency braking, collision warning, blind spot alerts, anti-lock brakes, and electronic stability control. These features may vary by age and budget so a tool like How Safe Is Your Car can help identify must-have features.

If you need a little help deciding, look no further than a Toyota Corolla SX, the winner of the 2022 Drive Car of the Year Best First Car award. The car not only has a five-star ANCAP safety rating, it’s equipped with advanced Toyota Safety Sense technology which includes devices like Pre-Collision Safety System (Toyota's name for autonomous emergency that can detect other vehicle, pedestrians and cyclists) to keep young drivers informed of the speed limit.

Add to that seven airbags (including side curtain airbags), reversing camera, rear parking sensors, stability control, lane departure alert with steering assist, and a host of other advanced driver assistance tech.

Ask the team at Drive why it won the category, however, and they’ll tell you it wasn’t just the safety features but the combination of low running costs, excellent resale value and more accessible insurance premiums. As Joshua Dowling, National Motoring Editor at Drive, put it: “The Toyota Corolla SX is stress-free to drive, feels secure on the road, is comfortable in the daily grind, has good visibility all around, and has most mod-cons covered. It’s a safe bet in an overcrowded market of more than 500 cars.”

What could be more reassuring to a parent than that?