No hand me downs available. I drive a bmw, wife drives a Acura. Although I would like a new ride, she's not getting a car as nice as these for her first set of wheels. She is pitching the idea of me handing down my car daily.

2) Volitility is your friend. I put 70,000 into investments in 2008 and 09. That alone is worth at least $350k today.

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Wow, you must have invested extremely wisely to get a 5 x return in that time frame. The S&P 500 is a little under 2200 today. It was under 1,000 from early October 2008 until August 2009, with a low of 750 in March of 2009. If you have invested every penny of that $70k in the S&P 500 on the absolute lowest one day, it would not be worth $350k today.

as a bicycle commuter who lives near 2 colleges, my suggestion is to wait awhile before you buy her a car!

Beyond all the pages on income savings etc to more to the point:

We just bought our 16 year old daughter a Hyundai Elantra. With all the cash rebates and the $4,000 we got from a 2003 Ford Expedition that we taught her to drive in, it worked out to about $13,000. We looked at several used small SUVs, CRV, RAVs, etc and decided to go for the new car given the warranty and potential problems with the used cars.

For the money the car is really nice, gets great gas mileage, great warranty and is much easier to park than the Expedition.

As for insurance for a 16 year old with good grades and who did the driving classes I think its about $900 a year to add her to our cars whether she got a car or not.

As for $13,000 not having to get up at 4:30am and drive her to swim practice then pick her back up and drive her to high school it's worth every penny.

She's a good kid, gets good grades and realizes a car is a privilege. If things change bye bye car.

We have purchased a 2004 Toyota Rav4, 2008 Hyundai Elantra and a 2009 Toyota Corolla. All three have been reliable used cars.

We looked at cost to purchase, cost to insure, reliability reports and ergonomics.

I checked and found some notes I made of cars to look for when we last were on the look out for a used car about a year and a half ago...I think its mostly compiled and pared down from various Consumer Reports articles and lists:

Acura TL 2005
Acura TSX 2005Ford Focus 2009-2011
Honda CRV 2005
Honda Pilot 2005
Hyundai Elantra 2008 - later
Hyundai Sonata 2006-2014 4cyl
Kia Optima 2007-2008 4cyl
Kia Soul 2010-2011
Mazda3 2011-2013
Mazda6 2009-2013 4cyl
Mazda6i 2009-2013 4cyl
Mitsubishi Outlander 2007
Pontiac Vibe 2005-2008
Subaru Imprezza 2009 or later
Toyota Avalon 2005
Toyota Highlander V6 2005-2007
Toyota RAV4 2004-2012 4cyl

That's what his ex obviously thought too

I guess I'm in the vast minority on this topic compared to most responses - I bought my daughter a car when she got her driver's permit at 15 1/2 so she had 6 mos experience driving her own car before she got her license and headed out along (and w/ my younger daugher to/from school). She pays for gas and a portion of the maintenance but otherwise I pay for it. I wanted her in something safe, roomy, not small, and decent gas mileage. She's also a complete car nut so was very involved in finding something that worked - my only real deal is I told her this is on the only vehicle I'll buy for her so has to last through college and into her first well paying job.

She got a 2012 Audi Q5. All-wheel drive, 4 cylinder, very reliable and safe, and has plenty of room. I wanted the room as I figured when she and friends drive somewhere together they'd take the most comfortable car - which has panned out. I'd rather she be driving than her friends.

She's now a senior in high school, busy with sports and work aside from school and I don't regret paying for such a nice vehicle for her for all the reasons above. We live in a busy area of OC (SoCal) so she drives a lot.

That reminds me of the rich girl at my high school. One of the school counselors spent his whole life saving up for his dream car (he also had a side job as a real estate agent). He got himself a sweet BMW (I don't remember the specifics). Rich girl likes car and asks her dad for one and he buys her the same car. Too much car for her and she rolls it within a week. He buys another. That one lasted a month. Then he got her a new Civic.

The rest of us had 10+ year old Civics or similar. One guy had a VW Bug that would slow down to 35 oh the freeway going up a steep hill with 4 of us in it. If we got hit, we just took the insurance money as cash and banged out the dents as best we could. Cars were sold when we went off to college.

Really? Seems to me after taxes and healthcare you don't have a 100k left.

I did for my kids what my parents did for me - they would let me use the car when in h.s. but I had to buy the first car myself, although my dad co-signed the loan when I bought my first car at age 19. In fairness however, dad did purchase my first motorcycle when I was 16. I do remember a girl who's parents purchased her a brand new Alfa Romeo sports car in h.s. She was a snotty, self entitled little bitch then and I'm sure she's the same today.

What about Ford ot BMV? Strong and safe cars.