We’ve all been new drivers at one point. Some may have approached first-time driving with caution. Others may have been reckless. Either way, we can all agree that when you’re a first-time driver, there are a lot of things about cars that you still don’t know about.
Because of this, parents often get nervous about letting teens drive. To help ease the anxiety, we’ve named 10 fun and safe cars for teen drivers that parents can consider. We’ve also listed down some perfect cars for any first-time driver. Meanwhile, you can also consider cars that have features such as these:
10 Buckle To Drive
This feature is available in the 2020 Chevy Traverse, Colorado, and Malibu. According to Chevrolet, the Buckle to Drive feature gets activated the moment the car is on Teen Driver Mode. So long as the driver is not buckled up, this feature will prevent him or her from shifting the car out of park for up to 20 seconds.
Once the driver presses the brake pedal, an audible alert will be heard. There would also be a message displayed that reads, “Buckle seat belt to shift.”
9 Rear Vision Camera
For a lot of drivers, backing up can be quite a challenge. After all, cars typically don’t offer much rear visibility. Fortunately, that all changed with the help of rear vision cameras, a feature that would make driving much safer for teens too. With this camera, you can readily see what’s behind you as you leave a parking space or park the car.
Today, there are a lot of car models that already offer this feature. In fact, it’s probably available in the 10 cars with the highest Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) safety ratings.
8 Cruise Control
Even when it comes to adult drivers today, maintaining a safe distance from the car ahead is a constant challenge. In fact, it’s considered a culprit of distracted driving. In the case of a teen driver, there is always a chance that they aren’t always able to keep a safe distance from the car ahead of them.
And when they get distracted chatting with friends in the car, there’s a chance they could bump into another car without even realizing it. That’s where cruise control comes in. When it’s activated, the feature adjusts speed to help maintain a safe distance.
7 Lane Change Alert
Unfortunately, lane change accidents do occur and when they do, the consequences can be grave, even fatal. This can be the result of distracted driving or the driver’s lack of knowledge in road safety. To keep this from happening, some automakers have equipped their cars with a lane change alert system.
The feature is available in Buick cars where the car flashes a warning symbol if the system detects a vehicle in the car’s blind zone. The system would also warn the driver if there is a fast-moving vehicle in the lane change zone.
6 Automatic Emergency Braking
A recent study conducted by the IIHS has found that this feature has resulted in fewer truck crashes when combined with a forward-collision warning system. And when it comes to teen drivers, this feature can certainly keep them safer on the road too. That’s because if they fail to take sufficient actions to avoid a crash, the car itself would apply the brakes.
Last year, it was announced automatic emergency braking will become standard on most cars. However, not everyone is pleased. Nonetheless, more and more car models are including this feature today.
5 Speed Warning
Sure, there are a lot of perfect first cars for filthy rich teens. Unfortunately, a lot of them tend to be powerful and fast, which can lead to trouble especially when the person behind the wheel is inexperienced.
With the help of a speed warning feature, parents can readily set a maximum speed for their teen. If the driver exceeds that speed, the car will instantly activate its audible and visual alerts. The idea here is the teen would slow down the moment the alerts are heard or seen.
4 Speed Limiter
For parents who want to be certain that their teen driver won’t just speed up recklessly, finding a car with a speed limiter feature would be a good idea. Fortunately, this feature is already a part of Chevy’s teen driver technology.
According to the carmaker, its speed limiter will restrict the car’s speed to 85 miles per hour. Meanwhile, there are also devices that parents can install in their teen’s car to limit the speed. According to Tire Review, there’s one called Highway Guardian that limits the car’s speed to 73 mph.
3 Audio Limit
When you’ve got a car that’s got a great audio system, it's pretty tempting to bring the volume all the way up while listening to your favorite sounds. This is especially the case if you’re driving something like the 2020 Chevy Corvette with the most powerful stock audio system ever.
However, encouraging them to go all out with their sounds can lead to serious consequences. It is possible that loud sound can become a driver distraction and cause a car crash. This is why finding your teen a car that comes with an audio limit feature is a good idea.
2 Report Card
Any parent would tell you that it’s practically impossible to constantly supervise their teen’s driving. Fortunately, you don’t always have to be around just to know how well your teen is driving. Instead, you can just get a car model that comes with a report card feature.
In the case of Chevy, its report card feature readily displays the distance driven and maximum speed the teen drove in. In addition, it would also tell you the number of forward-collision alerts, overspeed warnings, wide-open throttle, and more.
1 Restricted Vehicle Mode
When you’re looking for a teen driver feature that does it all, consider something like the restricted vehicle mode, which is available in Ford vehicles. This feature can be found in Ford’s MyKey. With this feature, you can set a maximum speed limit for the car.
Not only that, but you can also set chime reminders that would go off if the car reaches certain speeds. This system also comes with a seatbelt reminder and even a low fuel warning system. MyKey also comes with a radio content filter. That allows parents to block stations that play explicit music.