My turn to chime in, yay :eek:
I'm 16 going on 17. Don't have my license yet, but grew up on 5 acres driving lawn tractors, real tractors, backhoe, bulldozer, trucks, go carts, bikes, quads, etc. Right now I'm practicing in my mom's 87 Dodge Caravan. The epitome of un-coolness, but I personally think the green slime growing on the hood makes up for its ugly aesthetics :laugh: When I get my license I will most likely be driving that for 2-4 months until I get a small pickup, (really old mazda or something similar that I can stick my bike into) or finish restoring my 1960 Ford Falcon :yeehaw:
The personality of the teen girl determines which car she should get, however I feel rather strongly that NOBODY should get a new car handed to them on a silver platter. I believe that kids should have to either buy their own car, or have a beater car given to them by their parents if they deserve it. An old inline six cylinder is a cool, safe car for a teen. Decent gas mileage, 2-3 tons of steel protection, repairs are cheaper, (If you get in a 15 mph accident in a ford focus, you'll pretty much need to replace the whole front end. Get in the same accident in a Falcon or similar and at most pay 2 bucks for a can of spray paint to cover the tiny scratch or chip that came off) and although they'll go fast, they take longer to get there than newer cars (depending on the car of course). Mid 80's cars would work fine too, but not as cool.
Jeeps and trucks have too high of a center of gravity, plus for trucks at least the fuel costs will be a lot higher.
My dream car is a Volkswagon Thing covered completely in duct tape, then sealed with some sort of clear coat. :thumb: