Quote:
Originally Posted by PropellerHead
They may be a reasonable alternative until the unthinkable happens. Would you put your child behind the wheel of a Honda Fit or one of these?
|
Yes, and I have done so.
We put our eldest daughter in a Toyota Echo Hatchback, now called a Yaris. Youngest in a Civic. We focused on driver training with both of them, something that gets missed by many new drivers. That meant manual transmissions, car control, driving on snow and ice, skid control. Yaris is gone, replaced by a new Focus.
Also, both girls drove on four of the best winter tires I could get (Blizzaks, and Michelin Ice) in the sizes they needed. So many parents let their children drive around on all season tires.
The eldest went to skid school as part of her new job. They used Focus sedans for the course, same as her new car (except they used automatics, because so many people these days don't know how to drive a standard transmission).
Since you are showing pictures from the IIHS, you should look at their web site. The Civic, and Focus, are top safety picks. So is the Fiesta, for that matter. As was the Fit, a few years ago. The Echo wasn't, but it had reasonable crash test results at the time. It wasn't sold in the US, so the IIHS didn't rate it. Our sixteen year old asked at the time if she could have my Z4, instead of a used Civic. Do you think that would have been safer, giving a new driver a Z4 3.0si with sports package? No way, IMO.
I know my 2003 X5 had good crash test results when it was built, but that was eight years ago.
Carrying extra weight around doesn't make one safer. It just makes it more likely that the vehicle or pedestrian you hit will suffer more damage. And a more powerful and heavier car has two strikes against it for a new driver, IMO.