I suggest you stuff that pride of yours in the trunk AbbaZabba and be fortunate you can pick which vehicle you are getting, and that you’ll be driving at 16.
I didn’t get my license until I was 20, because nobody was willing to help me (practice-wise). My first car was a Ford Pinto, shit brown and falling apart, and I loved it because it was a car and it gave me the freedom to go where I wanted to.
Relax, AbbaZabba. Those two rides are much cooler than you think. Most folks don’t think the Beetle is a girly car, and you’ll find it’s great fun to drive. Once you find a cooperative girlfriend, you’ll discover the advantages of driving a van that has a bedroom-size back seat. 
So “dance with who brung you,” and don’t worry about your image. You are who You are, not who your car is.
Some of the rest of you are getting pretty snappish for the IMHO forum, in my opinion. Calm down, awright?
As long as it has a standard transmission. I rented one once, and it seemed the automatic transmission was sapping some “pep”.
Still, better an automatic Beetle than Incubus’s car! 
Oh: They made a movie about the Pinto. Chariots of Fire*. 
[hijack]
I’m still puzzled by the idea that a “cool” car means a sexy guy. I don’t get it. I’ve never gotten it. The guys I used to know with fancy sportscars were jerks. I’ve always looked at guys in brand new convertibles or Mustangs and thought “Aha. Drives with his penis, does he?” and crossed them off my “interesting men” list.
Cars don’t make you cool. Being cool makes you cool. Cars are transportation.
Maybe I’m missing something here? Wouldn’t surprise me – there are a lot of girly things that I seem to lack.
'Scuse me. I gotta go work on the dryer. We finished putting down a new kitchen floor yesterday. I gotta go buy and cut the molding around the walls too.
[/hijack]
<Abe Simpson voice>
Back when I was a whipper-snapper …
… snore …
</Abe Simpson voice>
HEY! First off, get the hell off the “fruit” crap, kid. This is 2003 you know, and some of us “fruits” are getting to the point where we’re feeling like beating the living crap out of little shits like you that want to appear oh-so-manly by bragging about their “hot” car and how many “chicks” they’ve “nailed” … :rolleyes:
OK, OK, I’m not in The Pit here, so I’ll lower my blood-pressure a little. Besides, committing a hetero-bashing wouldn’t accomplish much in the long run. And anyway, you’re not quite 16 and you probably aren’t always aware of what you’re saying.
You’re gonna be sixteen and mom and dad are going to be trusting enough of you to loan you a car occasionally? Seems to me that you pick the sportiest of the two and run with it.
I had the choice between a 1968 Buick station wagon and a 1971 VW Beetle when I was in High School. I drove the Bug most of the time 'cause I had to pay for my own gas and the Buick got something like 10 MPG. Besides, complaining to my parents about the fact that neither car was cool enough for me would have guaranteed continued reliance on the bicycle…
Now, if you want to be REALLY cool, get a job, save up a little scratch, go take a Motorcycle Safety Foundation course and go get yourself a true “chick magnet” bike. It takes a hell of a lot more skill and cajones to ride that it does to drive a simple car - and it’s a lot more fun. In the long run, building those kinds of skills will make you infinitely cooler than simply picking the car that fits into the “what’s cool” category among your friends this month.
But really, lay off the homophic crap, 'K? You’ll get a hell of a lot more respect around here anyway. The LAST thing you want is a big Harley Riding fag like me coming after you.
Anyone remember that band, Gay Bikers on Acid?
I know. But doesn’t it put your panties in a wad? When here we are, all trying to fight ignorance and stuff, and some snot-nosed kid marches in and impudently asks questions, usin’ derogatory names for homosexuals? Don’t it?
You have the choice of TWO FREE CARS and you have a PROBLEM WITH THIS???
If you don’t like the cars your family has, get a job and buy your own. Are your parents going to pay your insurance, too? Because in that case, for God’s sake drive one of their cars! Insuring somebody your age is crazy expensive, and if you buy your own car, you should pay your own insurance.
I’m jealous when I see somebody driving a Bug, BTW, I think they’re really neat little cars.
If you really dislike the thought of looking like a “dumbass” or a “fruit” so much, get a job and pay for your own damn car. I’m sure that whatever it is you can afford with a part-time job will be much cooler.
I know how to drive stick. I’ve known or a while… I’m not wonderful at it, but practice makes perfect! But the point of fact is that mothers husband things that its a mans truck and it would be defiled if I were to drive it. The bastard.
This is easily the most insulting thing anyone’s said to him, and I can feel it because I’m sixteen too. Call him a whiner, or whatever, but at least let him be a whiner by his own fault.
Not to mention there will be a Doc-wearing dyke hitching a ride with him.
Drive the van…you can always fit friends that don’t have cars in it, and you’ll be super cool because you give their sorry asses free rides around town.
My parents had a '94 Eagle Vision, and I wish they’d kept it and given it to me. My mom loved that car, and the styling’s still fresh after all these years - nicer than my new Accord, I dare say.
Listen, kid: I started out in an '82 Chrysler LeBaron convertible. Kids at school called it the pimp car. It went from 0-60 almost in the half-hour it took me to get home from school. But it was a ride. Eventually I bought my grandfather’s '92 Celica, which I loved and only sold after I had a kid which necessitated something I could put a car seat in. That got replaced with a '96 Caravan, which eventually needed so many repairs that we sold it and my parents, wanting something reliable, helped me lease the new Accord. Here I am, at the age of 19, driving a sedan. I must seem like the sorriest teen ever to you. But I’m happy.
So my advice: Get over yourself. Drive the Beetle, or the minivan, whichever they’ll let you. And be grateful you’re not hitching a ride.
Compromise and get a Vdub westfalia van. Best of both worlds.
This kid’s getting for free his choice of two cars to drive, and he’s all worried because
Anybody else reminded of that old Shakespearean quote: Methinks he doth protest too much?
Ah, well, he’s only 16. He’s got a long time ahead of him to grow up, and learn to accept himself and others.