I feel I must offer my opinions and expierances on this subject.

I am just shy of 21 years old, and have had my SVX since I was 18. My first car was a 1986 Chevy Cavalier Z24, which I still own. From my own expierance, if I had my SVX as a first car, one of these things would have happened:

A. I would have destroyed the car mechanically.
B. I would have destroyed the car physically (crash etc.)
C. I would have destroyed the car physically, and killed myself. (the most likely of the three.)

I am very VERY glad my parents chose to not allow me to have a 'fast' car like the SVX when I first got my license.

This is what I recommend: Get a cheap, reliable, slow car, such as the older 'land yachts' like Ca$h mentioned. Have fun beating the crap out of that car, then in a couple years, invest in an SVX.

I consider myself to be truely lucky in that I was able to purchase my dream car when I was only 18 years old. I'm glad it wasnt any earlier though.

Best of luck,

Mike