Ah, high-school graduation time. Parents, you're one step closer to dropping your kid off on the steps of a college campus or watching them head out for their first job. What better way to reward them for their sheepskin than with a their first (used) car.
But wait. They're young, impetuous -- and they are more likely to crash. To protect them, your biggest investment, the Wall Street Journal's Joe White wrote a l-o-n-g article advocating that you buy them a car that only a grandma could love -- practical, safe, cheap and above all, completely boring. If they didn't hate you enough already for grounding them for pitching M&Ms into the lamp shade, give them a car that will extend that dislike at least another generation.
White reasons that there is a nexus between Insurance Institute ratings for safety and Consumer Reports ratings for reliability. So to save you having to slog through his long explanation, here are his recommendations for recent vintage yawn-mobiles:
2004-2006 Toyota Camry
2005-2007 Honda Accord
2008-2009 Chevrolet Malibu
2008-2009 Ford Fusion
2006-2009 Subaru Legacy
2008 Ford Taurus
2003 Lexus ES
2006 Audi A4
White, we suspect, figures it's better kids be bored than dead. Can't argue with that.
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I don't think the A4 and the Legacy belong to that list, they are probably not the fastest car but I dont think they are grandma's car.
