Is an SVX a good first car for a teenager?

[svxfiles]

Originally Posted by Chiketkd

Well Svxfiles should chime in here. He got an SVX for each of his teenage boys....

-Chike

I love my sons, Dave, and Nick, and I bought each of them an SVX.

It is a classy, safe, cool, safe, good handeling, safe, sporty, safe, adequately powered, safe, reasonably priced, safe, durable, safe, all wheather car!
Did I mention safe?
IF they screw up, like I did as a teenage driver, I want to be able to kick their @sses from here to the curb, without them being dead.

230HP, 100 mph in a precision vehicle is safer than 60 in a KIA!

[$ gest24 $]

Originally Posted by svxfiles

\IF they screw up, like I did as a teenage driver, I want to be able to kick their @sses from here to the curb, without them being dead.

230HP, 145 mph in a precision vehicle is safer than 80 in a KIA!

Or any speed in a riced out Honda... Your reason for hooking up your sons was my mom's exact same reason for buying me one.

[madj80]

I don't recommend the SVX as a first car for two reasons:

#1) The cost of repairs. ($1,000 for a windshield)

#2) It is a collector car. Your son is bound to hit something with it.

My first car was a crappy 1989 Firebird with a V6 and automatic trans. If it was a V8 and 5speed, I would probably not be posting this message.

On the other hand, having all wheel drive is good for a teen learning how to corner at high speeds or in bad weather.

I would suggest a Honda, Nissan or Toyota. Something that has an abundance of parts and is easy for your son to work on himself.

[TomsSVX]

Originally Posted by madj80

I don't recommend the SVX as a first car for two reasons:

#1) The cost of repairs. ($1,000 for a windshield)

#2) It is a collector car. Your son is bound to hit something with it.

My first car was a crappy 1989 Firebird with a V6 and automatic trans. If it was a V8 and 5speed, I would probably not be posting this message.

On the other hand, having all wheel drive is good for a teen learning how to corner at high speeds or in bad weather.

I would suggest a Honda, Nissan or Toyota. Something that has an abundance of parts and is easy for your son to work on himself.

To be completely honest, the design allows for easy access to almost every part of the car. It is by far one of the most simple cars to work on. In My Humble Opinion that is....

Tom

[$ gest24 $]

Originally Posted by TomsSVX

To be completely honest, the design allows for easy access to almost every part of the car. It is by far one of the most simple cars to work on. In My Humble Opinion that is....

Tom

You have a valid point. Things are very easy to get to (except the flippin ECU).

[Crusader]

My first car was a 1984 pontiac fiero 4cyl with a 4.10 4spd manual tranny... I still have it but I can't seem to find the problem in the electrical... the shop that put the engine back in when the clutch was rebuilt messed something up pretty bad.

Second car was an eclipse with a base motor, would have been a great car and I would probably still have it had a tire not blown and threw me into a guardrail totalling it.

Third car was the SVX. By far the safest of the three as I've been in quite a few bad situations with it and one time even got hit pretty hard from behind. No injuries no major damage to the car... In my opinion if you want the safe factor and can afford the insurance then it would be a good choice, just so long as you can discourage them from testing the top speed of the vehicle.

[ensteele]

First, welcome to the site. You centainly got a lot of answers for 1 question. I feel that this may not be a good first car, but after thinking about it more while reading all of these posts, it would depend on your son. I would agree that he should have to put something into the car, price or insurance to feel the pride of ownership. One thing that needs to be said is that is can go REAL FAST and Speed gets lots of young (and old) drivers into trouble. Test drive one first and then decide what you want to do. I liked the suggestion of giving your son the other car and keeping the SVX. It is a classy car and you would probably love it. Good luck with the decision.

[svxcess]

I feel the same way as Tom. When I recently found what was to be my 17 year old son's first car, a 1992 SVX, I felt that this was the safest thing he could be driving. He is a very good driver and I know that the SVX would serve him well in almost any situation he might encounter. How many times on this site have there been threads about serious SVX accidents where the car gave up its life so that the driver sustained minimum or no injuries?

During this last snowstorm here, with over 22" of snow, both of us separately had close calls, mainly because of the inattention and negligence of other drivers. Had it not been for the AWD and overall stability of these cars, an accident could probably not have been avoided. I wouldn't put him behind the wheel of any car that I would feel uncomfortable driving myself.

I feel much more secure with him in this car than the Mustangs he was originally considering. He bought this car entirely with his own money and has come to have a respect for what this car is... and is not. He is also aware that negligence and abuse leads to repair bills and maintenence that are totally his responsibility. To paraphrase Tom, "if he screws up big time, I rather there be just one less SVX in the world; totalled children can't be replaced."

Originally Posted by svxfiles

I love my sons, Dave and Nick, and I bought each of them an SVX.

It is a classy, safe, cool, safe, good handling, safe, sporty, safe, adequately powered, safe, reasonably priced, safe, durable, safe, all wheather car!
Did I mention safe?
IF they screw up, like I did as a teenage driver, I want to be able to kick their @sses from here to the curb, without them being dead.

230HP, 145 mph in a precision vehicle is safer than 80 in a KIA!

Originally Posted by TomsSVX

Definately get something with a standard transmission. Learning how to drive while driving a standard will leave your son much more well versed in driving any other kind of car. If I may be so bold as to suggest allowing him to learn how to drive a 5 speed truck. Thats what I started out with, I am much better off nowadays.

Tom

I agree, there's no reason to not know how to drive a manual. I'm disgusted by the amount of people that don't know how to drive manual trannys.

I think if you're sticking to subarus any of the other subarus would be a great starter car. My personal suggestion though would be a BC/BF/BJ, yes I'm partial. They are super cheap, and can use most any other subaru part available. A turbo would be great if you can score one, as they're easily modifiable if your kid gets the itch, plus the torque on those *****es is crazy!. An untuned Turbo with a 16g, turboback, a tiny ass saab 900 ic, and some other minor bolt-ons made 214hp@5250 and 251lb/ft@3200! This is like $1500-2000 worth of mods, untuned and it's making more torque than an STi on the same kind of dyno. Pretty much it's similar to an EJ255 in performance for like 2 grand in money. Of course tuned, and with a better intercooler, bigger injectors, etc would make more power, but just to give you some idea. Pretty much if you want your kid to kill himself get a BC/BJ turbo .

Or just get another Impreza, they're pretty cheap, and fairly fast with the right tranny.

[DreamingOfSpeed]

Sorry i was in a rush earlier (late for class) and forgot too add:

Insurance of a teenager on an SVX can be rather high. I dont know exactly what my dad pays for my insurance (yeah yeah i know i'm lucky) but its higher than both his and my moms full coverage cars combined for my minimum coverage. I'm 19, female, never crashed, got my driver license when i was 18, got straight a's in high school, have a 3.2 GPA in college, took drivers training twice, and had my learner's permit for 4 years. I get every discount possible (except no accident, my brother drove that one right into a tree 3 days after getting his license) and yet my insurance is still very high. My insurance company considers the SVX a sports car and a luxury car so its the same class as corvettes.

Also your kid may be come over confident in the AWD. I know i have a tendency to think 'oh i can make that curve at 50 MPH.' b/c i have AWD (havent done that recently thought) and when its wet out it seems like its pointless to slow down. You dont want him to think all cars do as well as the subi in certain conditions and then hop in something else and learn the hard way. I drove my moms honda while subette was in the shop and i there were several times the first day or two i nearly lost it b/c i was used to subs.

Oh and since madj80 put it out there, i agree its a collector car. If he smashes it he's smashing one of less than 14,000. I take car of subi b/c i know she's special, he may not get how special his car really is.

And he might pick up this annoying habit of 1) talking about his car alot 2) washing his car very ofter 3) talking to his car (yup i talk to her) 4) searching for the 'power' light at every intersection, ruining his gas mileage.

I've found my car is great for picking up 23 to 30 year old guys in. They all seemed to want one in high school. Is your son into that type thing?

[It's Just Eric]

Originally Posted by DreamingOfSpeed

I've found my car is great for picking up 23 to 30 year old guys in. They all seemed to want one in high school. Is your son into that type thing?

lol. Hey now, dont forget, its just as much the driver as the car with theese things

Er....with the way the car handles that is....

Hey, any one else notice that its all the teenagers saying its a bad car for teenagers to drive?(me Included I suppose)
Is the man who made the thread even still reading?

[DreamingOfSpeed]

Originally Posted by It's Just Eric

lol. Hey now, dont forget, its just as much the driver as the car with theese things

Er....with the way the car handles that is....

Hey, any one else notice that its all the teenagers saying its a bad car for teenagers to drive?(me Included I suppose)
Is the man who made the thread even still reading?

I think thats b/c we know all the fun things we do in the SVX and dont tell our parents about. (ok well i might tell my dad some stuff but only the stuff i think he'd think was cool. Not the stupid stuff.) The adults all seem to say its a safe car, but its not so safe when your in an empty parking lot trying to get it sideways. (oh i love fridays after campus closes)

I've been asked out by lots of men who wouldnt ask me out if they didnt know what i drove. and i've had several guys ask out and before i can say yes or no ask if we can take my car. i had a stipulations that if we do take my car you must follow to ride in it.

My suggestion. Used subaru wagon.. legacy or outback. Why?

Dependable.

Parts aren't $$$$ like SVXs.

Easy to repair, and cheap.

Durable enough to slide off the road without major damage.

Lots of room for hauling friends places, and whatever gear they need for activities

And..um... well. It's a wagon. So frankly I'm sure your son would appreciate the 'cargo space'.

Edit: Also, SVXs suck premium. That's something to consider. While nice to drive and very safe, SVXs start to cost a LOT of money when they're abused. Even general upkeep isn't cheap, since parts are 3x more than any other subaru.

PS: To whoever chimed in that their insurance company classifies the SVX as a sports car, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND SHOP AROUND. You are wasting a LOT of money. I checked into it... mine is considered a 'coupe', because my company doesn't consider a car with 4 seats, and automatic transmission a sports car. It's not cheap to insure, but I'm not wasting tons of money insuring it either.

[-JJ-]

I got my SVX when i was 19 (im 20 now), i found that i have a huge apreciation for it bacause i crashed my first car (Toyota Celica) i then had to drive a subaru sherpa for a year , then a 1990 liberty with many problems, so getting the SVX was like absoulute luxury and makes driving it everyday that much more enjoyable, If i had a son i would not buy him a car, he would help pay for it, as i had to, and it would not be a fancy car, so when a nice car comes along later in life he would have a greater apreciation and care for it.

Just my opinions

Great site. No flames and some very good discussion. Just some more info. My son is 15, still about 18 months away from his license.

He is a freshmen this year and got a scholarship to a private high school in Delaware. (academic). I promised him if he got the scholarship, I would get him his first car.

When I pulled into his school parking lot, I saw three H2's, several BMW's, some asorted riced out Acuras and Honda's. New GTO's, and several new trucks.

I am a shift worker, not a milionaire, but I would like him to have something nice. I am keeping my 1995 Impreza for my winter car (cheaper than snow tires on my STI, and it allows me to insure the STI as a pleasure vehicle).

My budget is going to be about 4-5K, which will need to include initial maintenance (tires, brakes, tune-up).

We still have some time to look. But the SVX has unique styling, it is affordable, and it's not a GEO or a kia.

Thanks again.

Jeff