{"id":9286,"date":"2019-02-25T07:19:13","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T21:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/?p=9286"},"modified":"2020-06-20T00:16:02","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T14:16:02","slug":"should-you-buy-your-teen-a-safe-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/blog\/should-you-buy-your-teen-a-safe-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Buy Your Teen A Safe Car?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I recently came across a couple of articles that had been inspired by some research put out by the British Medical Journal\u2019s Injury Prevention* <\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 This research looked at the type, size and style of cars driven by teenagers who were killed in car accidents over 2008\u20132012, and ended with a recommendation that \u201cParents should consider safety when choosing vehicles for their teenagers.\u201d\u00a0 Automotive bloggers seemed to break out with the advice that parents should buy cars for their teenagers that had absolutely every safety feature, active and passive, under the sun.<\/p>\n

Now, I am the parent of teenagers and young adults, both of whom drive.\u00a0 I know that heartwrenching feeling when you know that your beloved son or daughter is heading out solo onto the roads, where horrible things can happen.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also had two of those phone calls that begin \u201cHi Mum, I\u2019m all right but the car\u2026\u201d\u00a0 (In both these cases, the car in question was owned by the teenager in question.)\u00a0 I would be the last person to be reckless and to advocate putting your teenager in a tinny little piece of aluminium. Nevertheless, I\u2019ve got one or two issues with those articles that other automotive bloggers have put out.<\/p>\n

First of all, let\u2019s look at that assumption that the parents are going to buy the car for the teenager \u2013 and the best thing is that you buy them one of the latest models with all the gadgets.\u00a0 My reaction to this was \u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what circles you move in, but even among the more well-heeled of my friends and acquaintances, very few of them, if any, are going to go out and plonk down a sum with five digits for a brand new SUV that will have the teenager\u2019s name on the ownership papers although Mum and Dad are the ones forking out.\u00a0 Do people actually do that?<\/p>\n

Society is seeing a few problems coming from young adults entering the workforce with the idea that they can get the latest, best and most expensive without having to work for it, also known as an entitlement mentality.\u00a0 My teenagers won\u2019t and didn\u2019t get something expensive of their very own without having to work for it and pay for it.\u00a0 This was my first issue with a lot of those other articles out there.<\/p>\n

Buying a car for the family that\u2019s a new one and that\u2019s got the right safety features, that\u2019s another story, however.\u00a0 I know that in our family, we did indeed go and purchase a big 4×4 with good safety features that our teenagers could learn to drive on.\u00a0 However, the purchase of this car came with a little speech that stressed the following points:<\/p>\n