another new car experiment - Ford Energi
 

So my son is finally doing driving school (turns 18 next month - yikes) and the time has come for him to do the car thing. My original plan was to do the modern day equivalent of what my parents did for me. Back in '77 when I turned 16 my dad bought me a '67 Bug with about 100K miles on it (was $1K iirc). They covered my insurance, I paid for gas and had to keep it running. I count myself as being lucky to have had that opportunity and its time to pay that forward. I figured the rough equivalent would be about a 10 year old Civic, probably cost about $5K or so. Pay cash, should run another 100K miles, call it good.

Great plan, until I talk to his mom (my ex). "OMG, that's a death trap - he needs something bigger and safer." Having dealt with her now for 18+ years I know what battles to pick and which to avoid. So then I start looking at some newer Hondas, but the prices jump quickly. 6-8 year old Civics for $10K+. Plus it turns out they aren't that cheap to insure due to high theft rates. Since the purchase of the car is coming out of my liquid savings (aka the rainy day fund), getting much over $10K starts to look not so attractive. Especially when I'm looking at $2500/year to insure the boy and college coming up.

So that leads me to alternatives that are cheaper up front, and also cheaper to run. The boy wants a pure electric but that isn't practical (he evidently helped his marine bio teacher convert an old VW bug convertible to electric last year at school). At any rate after looking at various possibilities I ended up leasing a Ford C-max Energi plug-in hybrid. With a state rebate it ends up nothing out of pocket and a really low monthly payment. In 3 years we'll figure out what the next step will be - I think a lot of circumstances will change by then.

That aside, I'm really impressed with the car. It is well appointed (with a few ergonomic fails like the SYNC interface), is peppy off the line, handles light but well, and 150 miles into driving just city miles I'm at about 57 mpg - and that's with only plugging in once, so mostly running on gas and regen. It'll do 20 miles on a full charge, with a full tank of gas you get another 500+ miles. At this point I'm getting about 3x the mileage of my X1.

It is a fun car to drive - not exactly sure why because it doesn't have some of the features that one might typically want/expect like brutal power, sporty seating, etc. But the battery makes it quick off the line, and the engine kicking in is seamless. There is something to the gamification of driving - getting smooth braking to score well on regeneration, etc. It really is about fostering smooth and calm driving techniques and moods. For some reason I end up a lot more calm after a drive in either this or the i3 than I do in the X1. Still trying to figure out if that is just "new toy" syndrome or whether there is something else at play.

Ford is making some really interesting and nice cars right now. Nothing necessarily sexy or sporty about this car, but as a transportation orb that is dirt cheap to run and for whatever reason entertaining to drive, it is a win so far.

http://nostatic.com/photos/cmax1.jpg

interesting.

So he's getting ready to start driving at 18. My only concern with providing something nice and new for a first car is the almost inevitable damage usually due to inexperience and youthful exuberance, but maybe being a bit older and more mature than at 16 will help.

Yeah, that is a concern, but that's what you have insurance for. He also is a very risk averse kid and isn't into partying or really many social things. Basically he'll be driving with me in the car for the next few months under his permit, then he'll have his full license maybe after the first of the year. Then most of the driving will likely end up in the summer going to/from the UCLA Marine Aquatic Center which will hopefully be his summer job (he's been a counselor in training for the last few years) and then college which is TBD.

I've seen 16 year olds with brand new BMWs and Mercedes around here - that seems crazy. I'm hoping a responsible 18 year old with a Ford won't be crazy.

dang..that kid is 18?!!!! that makes me................................oh no!!

+1. Holy hell have I been on this board a long time.

Yeah, that's the real scary part of this thread :D

When I joined he was just about to turn 5...

Zack has been driving for over a year now. We went with your original plan - he's driving a 2000 Ford Explorer limited (loaded) that had 80K miles and was dirt cheap. I like it that he sits higher up and is visible on the road. Lots of space for his baseball and JROTC stuff and he drives his friends rather than him riding along. That is important to us - I taught him how to drive many years ago in my manual transmission Audi TT. Zack is an excellent driver and clean (alcohol/drugs) as a whistle. He drives quite a bit (15K miles this year) so the gas bill is nothing to sneeze at.

The take away here is that the insurance for his car is minimal ~ $100/month and no car payments. I would imagine your insurance is so high due to the value of the car?

It's going to happen, that's just part of being a new driving teen.

Ford is making some really great cars right now, I think they have some of the most appealing stuff out there.

Circa Nov 2002 - Big Bear Run II

Calvin standing to left of Zack - time flies!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...vinZachary.jpg

I found both my kids benefited from having to pay for their own cars. Made them really pay attention to what was happening while driving as they knew how hard they had to work to get the car. No accidents and both are well out of their teens now, so no, accidents aren't inevitable just because they're new drivers.

Even if you defy the odds, high school parking lots are a freaking battleground. Colleges aren't much better. Really hard to not end up with door dings and parking scrapes from all the other inexperienced drivers.

18? My grandson is 8, and is already sizing up either the 914 or the Miata for himself. The gear shift still has him a little baffled though.

Plug in hybrid would be perfect as a commuter. You can do the BMW high and low end hybrid comparo now.

The C-Max provides a fairly high view as well. Sort of midway between car and SUV.

What is killing us on the insurance is not the C-max - that actually is less to insure than an 8 year old Honda Civic (that shocked me). The problem is that with Progressive he has to be covered on all our cars. And actually mine is the killer - my X1 is pricey for his coverage. The i3 actually is pretty cheap to insure.

Actually Calvin is interested in learning to drive stick. But he's taking a AAA course with classroom and in-car instruction and the teacher won't cover stick. Plus in LA, I want as few distractions as possible while he's getting his road legs. I think the plan will be to pick up a cheap stick car (older Miata is a candidate) down the road to teach him and have as a weekend car.

We'll see. Maybe it is just because I'm getting older and seeing less days ahead, but I figure circumstances will change and we'll just roll with it. No purchase or lease is the "lifetime solution." Be curious, have fun, don't kill anyone or get arrested, and try not to go broke :D

A Miata is shockingly cheap to insure. I went from an integra sedan to a turbo convertible two seater and the insurance dropped more than 50%

Do they have that street survival course around LA anywhere? No time soon it looks like.
Tire Rack Street Survival | "Teaching Your Teen Driver to Survive Behind the Wheel"

The AAA course seems pretty good. It is like 50 hours of classroom and 10 hours of behind the wheel (individual). We may switch insurance to AAA as I think we'd get a discount based on him completing the course and they may not require coverage for him on all of our vehicles.

I inquired about a used Acura as well when I was looking. They aren't cheap to insure either. Turns out both Honda and some Acuras have incredibly high theft rates which pushes the insurance way up.

****e. I remember when he was just a weeee little lad. I am officially old.

Check into this school as well. Free and it is all about defensive driving (read the story behind it)

The Best Online Driving Training Schools – Putonthebrakes.org

+1 Where does the time go!

Tell me about it. Only incident we ever had with either of the kids cars was when our son's Accord got a smashed fender one summer while he was playing summer ball at a tournament at UCSB. We came out from watching the game and found the left rear fender caved in from someone, probably in a big 4x4, not making the turn into the space next to his car. Really disappointing having that happen at a school like that but it must just be the kids up there as now my brother's son is having his rear view mirror smashed on a semi-regular basis too. I write it off to spoiled rich kids that have no idea of how hard it is to maintain anything nice since they're given everything these days.