[DonSor]

Fast and good on gas seem contradicting. It's the horsepower to weight ratio. Your son initially indicated he wanted a wagon or a hatchback meaning he is somewhat on the domesticated side (you're lucky). Then there's the money factor as someone asked how much are you willing to dish out. Fast cars are known to cost more on insurance. Honda has good small sporty looking hatchbacks and so are VW and Toyota. Paramount is reliability. My four kids had the following cars. New Beemer 318, Used Chevrolet Nova, Used Camaro and Used Sunbird. Fairly good starting choices. Now grown ups , their choice of cars were not as good.