When I turned 16 I got my mother’s 1990 Geo Prism. I loved that car even though it was old and crappy. I have so many good memories of that car and time spent riding around in it! I wanted something nicer but I took what I got and was happy. When that car died I purchased a 96 Mazda that is getting on in years that I will be selling in May. I can’t tell you how many people I have heard with new cars moaning about how they have no money and they pay so much for payments and insurance. I have no debt at all and I attribute that to owning only older vehicles that I paid for in cash. I have fantastic credit and I don’t worry about how I am going to pay rent every month. I think that is a much better gift to give your child than a camaro or a porsche.
Are you stating this, or the mother about 6 cylinders being more powerful in the 80’s? The turbo 3.8 is the only six that I can recall that was laughing at V8’s then. Otherwise for the Camaro, I believe the 3.8L v6 in the very early 80’s was about 110hp, even the lackluster 4.4L V8 at the time was rated at 120hp (about the closest call I can see, I don’t know the 1/4 times, but this could be close due to weight factors). The 5.0L v8 around the time for a Camaro was around 165hp, and the 5.7L v8 about 190hp. The 2.8L v6 was around 130hp after fuel injected was added (112 hp before).
Parental Advisory I think you misunderstood Magiver’s comment. I think they are trying to say that a current production V-6 has more horsepower than an early eighties V-8.
Looking at the Ford Website I see the only V-6 offered in the Mustang is 210 HP
Letting Google do the walking, I found this site that gives year by year specifications for Mustangs. I started looking at 1980s vintage Mustangs. 80-84 no factory Mustang had 210 HP or more. In 1985 the 5.0 produced 210 HP. In 86 the horsepower dipped, and then was back in 1987 to above 210.
So the statement that a current year V-6 Mustang has more horsepower than an earlier 80’s V-8 Mustang is a true statement.
Two things leap to mind here. First off is that Mustangs in the early 1980 were slow. A 1980 Mustang with a 2.3L engine putting out a whopping 88HP probably did 0-60 in dawn to dusk.
Secondly all cars are getting more HP now, not just Mustangs.
Teens should have a doggy but reliable first car. A Honda Civic being waaaaaay top end.
My first beast was at 16 with hand me down pinto wagon with 120,000 miles on it. By the time I finished University it had 165,000 miles. Man, I would park that car where no other car dared to park. Whenever we went to SF to go see punk shows, I was always the one to drive. Never burgled but frankly could never tell if it had been vandalized. :o Spray painted it when I ran the college radio station.
I got my first new car at 40
Re-reading it, I see it now. Gotta love 3rd shift.
My first car was a hand-me-down. My little sister wrapped my mom’s 1972 Chevelle around a phone pole (not injuring herself in the process amazingly) and mom said I could have it if I paid for the repairs myself. Which I did. I was more proud and careful of that car than my pals who’d bought more expensive (mine was paid for by the time I inheirited it) cars with their parents co-signing a loan.
I cannot imagine what it’s like to be able to just go out and buy a car for your teenager. My sister and brother in law, who are doing quite well, are talking about either a new mercedes or volvo for my niece, something nice and safe and new so that they won’t worry. I suppose, but I believe that status is a factor. Oh well, not a choice I’m probubly ever going to worry about making.
How are they so graphic? I just saw some pics of a car smashed against a building. Badly smashed, but no gore.
The graphic photos, which showed a worker mopping up blood and putting something in a bag, and which showed what was left of Catsouras’s head, have been removed from Snopes. The images of the girl’s head have haunted me. The only way I can put it was that what was left of her head ‘just didn’t make sense’, if you get my drift. Very horrible.
Exactly what Johnny L.A. said. Hard to comprehend what the pictures were showing and even more difficult to describe. Be glad you didn’t see the pictures.
I feel sorry for most kids trying to learn to drive. I consider myself very lucky in that I grew up in the country and was able to start learning on tractors, trucks and motorcycles. Back in the ‘70s I would also drive on the country roads, as long as I was with a parent.
I was 11-12 years old. I regularly drove manual shift pick up trucks and small dump trucks at the time on our family owned mobile home park as a service guy. Setting up new homes.
Times have changed of course. But the experience I got driving as a very young teen made it easy for me to transition into a responsible driver.
I won’t ever have children. But if I did, they would be getting experience behind the wheel way before they turned 16. Country roads, jeep trails, anything. It won’t help them when they really encounter traffic and the assholes that are out there. But at least they would know a little bit about the machine that they are operating.
Once you know the machine, THEN you can concentrate on preventing other people from running you down.
Growing up in somewhat rural Maine, just about everyone I knew was in some kind of car accident, and it didn’t matter whether it was a piece of shit or a nice ride.
I was *thrown from *a Honda that flipped at about 60 mph… Two firends were hurt pretty bad in that accident.
I went off the road in a Oldmobile Cutlass that I was driving stupidly.
List of other shit that turned out all right:
Two friends hit a car head-on, and their heads hit the windshield in a Monte Carlo.
Two friends rolled a Toyota pickup truck on a dirt road.
A friend and his girl flipped into a field in a 5-cyl Audi when he pulled the e-brake going about 60.
A friend of my brother died when his trans-am went off the road.
I believe that every year I was in high school, at least one person died in a car crash. I was just up in Maine at Christmas and 5 kids from another High School had just died in a car crash.
It’s crazy in some places up there. It’s winding, hilly, dark country roads that are in bad condition and sometimes icy. I was actually suprised how big a deal the local news makes out of it in Maryland when kids die in crashes because it seems to happen all the time where I came from.
It doesn’t need to be a sports car. ANY car goes fast enough to fuck you up if it rolls.
Trunk your comment reminds me of the story told about flying a Piper Cub. “It’s a very safe airplane, it can just barely kill you.”
You can kill yourself in any car. There are some cars where due to the power to weight ratio, or handling (or lack thereof) it is more likely.
I totaled my first car ( A 1961 Simca worth about $100 dollars) when I slid into a wall at 15 mph. For sure not a problem with too much horsepower. This was the last accident I had for the next 34 years. So I guess I learned my lesson.
With my kids, I was very happy to see my son get his license. Being the only driver in a 4 person family coupled with my frequent business trips was a serious drag. When my son got his license I struck a deal with him. I would supply him with a car. He had to take his little sister to school, and do the chauffeur duties when I was out of town. At the time, through work I could lease a car that came with free service and included insurance. For a 16 year old male in LA I basically made an insurance payment and they threw in a free car. 
He drove a Volvo V70 station wagon, then in 1998 I had a chance to lease a slightly used company C70 Convertible for $100 less per month than the wagon. I jumped on that with both feet, so my son spent his senior year driving a brand new convertible.
He had one accident in the wagon, it was neither horsepower or handling related. He pulled out of a parking space without looking and got the front bumper torn off. Shit happens. He has not had any accidents since.
He never even got a scratch on the convertible. He treated it like his baby, and I can tell you he did not want to give it back. 
With my daughter, when she got to driving age, we no longer had the cool employee lease, so I gave her my father’s old 89 Volvo 240. She drove that for 5 years, and just a couple of months ago, went out and bought a new Ford F-150 pickup. She has had no accidents.
To quote Webb Wilder said in How Long Can She Last (Going That Fast)?
"Lord you need horse sense
to handle horse power "
You misread what I wrote. 6 cylinders “are” (present tense) more powerful than the hi performance V8’s of the early 80’s. A 3.8L will produce 200 hp or more today compared to 165 hp 5.0L in 1980.
I had a shit car when I was in school, a 1986 Ford Escort station wagon hand-me-down from my parents. Over the few years I had it, I had just about every problem you could ever have with a car. The damn thing practically fell apart as you drove it. I was stupid a few times (it had a round speedometer and I once drove fast enough on an empty country road that it registered M on the MPH at the bottom) because I was curious and fearless, but never had a serious accident. I actually avoided several serious accidents because my dad taught me how to drive defensively.
The car I wanted was his 1968 Cougar, but he sold it over a year before I was old enough to start driving. I wanted to restore it, since it had been just sitting for several years at that point. That would have been a sweet car. And probably more reliable than the piece of junk I got instead. A friend restored a 1968 Mustang with his father’s help and drove that most of the way through school. He never did anything particularly dumb, though the car was fully capable of causing serious trouble. He had put hours and hours of work into the thing and was terribly protective of it. He also knew that if he had even the most minor problem, he would have his privileges to drive it pulled.
The most serious crash at our school was a Volkswagen Rabbit that was crushed in a side collision when the girl driving didn’t check cross traffic well enough at an intersection with a country highway. High speed was not involved, and the only stupidity was not being quite careful enough.
It really depends on the person whether a performance car is okay or not. My kids will probably get my old car or a cheap but reliable model. I won’t shell out for a “nice” car. In the very unlikely event that they can afford it, they’re welcome to buy their own car, but if there are any problems at all, there go the driving privileges. Insurance costs will be a consideration too, and I will discuss that with them.
My parents made me pay for part of the insurance because I didn’t buy the car. They made sure I knew how much it cost (more than insurance for the both of them on both the other cars put together, since I’m a guy and I got my license at 16) and impressed on me that they were willing to support my freedom as long as I didn’t abuse it. If I screwed up, I was going to be riding a bus for a while, and they wouldn’t be helping with the insurance any more.
Seconded. Curiosity made me click the link. I spent the rest of the day wishing I hadn’t, and I’m not easily squeamed out.