What Is The Best Car For A Beginner??

[gillman6000]

I am a beginer at driving. I am buying a new car, a begginer type of car. So what car should I get for myself, a beginnner, but i can mod it easily into an "experienced" driver type of car, and in a low price range?

[igor@af]

- manual
- turbocharged from factory
- rear wheel drive or 4 wheel drive

[youngvr4]

what igor said

[kman10587]

- manual
- turbocharged from factory
- rear wheel drive or 4 wheel drive

Celica All-Trac Turbo, Eclipse GSX, RX-7 Turbo (2nd gen.), 300ZX Turbo (1st gen.)

Just to give ya some ideas

[S2CorollaR]

He'll get himself killed mighty fast in any of those cars.

Get something with sub 170 HP.

Maybe a Civic SI, a Foxbody Mustang possibly, but that would push the limits. For your experience I would highly recommend a GSR. It has very nice power when you get the experience and it's not too powerful. Try to avoid RWD cars. My first car was a 1968 Pontiac Firebird and I can't count the times that I slipped out the rear and almost died. And before any gear heads come in with that, "That car is perfectly ok, you don't know how to drive" That's the thing, no one knows how to drive with low experience and shouldn't put themselves in a powerful car with a lot of its grunt in the rear wheels.

[Sticky]

Something like a Taurus or a lower model Civic, not incredibly fast or powerful, easy to handle, and not incredibly exensive.

[NISSANSPDR]

Something definitely sub 170HP...something he can learn what speed is and handling...

[S2CorollaR]

Yeah, learn his limits, learn throttle control. And like Sticky said, something inexpensive, so maybe the GSR is out the window.

The thing is, no one avoids dings, not even young drivers if they are going to drive fast and learn to drive fast. You don't want to get thousands of dollars in repairs for minor dings and dents or engine repair. Find a car that has moderate power (150-170HP) that doesn't have terribly expensive parts.

Polygon can give you info on Chrystler Le Baron GTC turbo coupes. Those are relatively cheap, hard to find, but great for beginners and for modders. (Mid 15's to high 14's stock, which is on par with Celica GTS's)

The most important thing... Get used to the flow of traffic and be ready for random instances, because driving fast is VERY dangerous. It's not easy or a game at all, not even with a car that has 170 HP or less.

I took a GSR up to 145 MPH when I was 18 and it was pretty crazy at that speed. How crazy? My gf at the time yelled for me to stop and grabbed my arm and the car almost flew off the road just from a small nudge.

Get used to the throttle on whatever car you get because it means life and death. The throttle is the life of the car, no matter how much HP it has. You can go from 15% power to 100% power with that pedal's pressure.

[igor@af]

bah...

He can learn in a performance car just as well. Just can't be stupid - never go above the speed limit for a while, for some months, with that he will get used to the car a bit.

Some kids are stupid enough to kill themselves no matter what power the car has. I recently heard a story of someone going over a 100mph on a country road in Jetta and a passenger is still in comma as I understand.

So long as you're disciplined and smart, having a powerful performance car as your first car is not that dangerous.

[kman10587]

Agreed, any car with 150-170 HP is gonna be fast enough to get yourself killed in. He might as well start getting used to RWD or AWD.

[k3smostwanted]

yeah...if you throw him in a FWD 80 hp car he will just eventually have to begin all over again when he gets a more powerful AWD/RWD car. it would be pointless. just be extra cautious the first few months. might as well learn on what you want instead of pussy footing around with a geo storm.

my ---i think a 240sx is almost too perfect of a beginner car for someone who wants to get into some serious RWD action. its not all that powerful, it handles good, and you can find them for fairly cheap (well you used to be able too). then when learn that, you can sell it to some kid who wants to jump in on the latest fad to hit the US, for twice as much as you paid for it. or keep it, and the tuning options are almost endless.

[S2CorollaR]

They have a saying, "You never learn your limits until you hit them..."

That saying is 100% true. Put him in a 250HP RWD car and when he finally does test his limit, he might get himself killed. He needs to learn HIS limits, not the limits of a car itself. Once he learns his limits and his curve of learning, he can move up.

It's not best to start yourself off with a strong platform and adjust your level of experience to it. You get a car that is most close to your level of experience, and then you learn with it.

[k3smostwanted]

Originally Posted by S2CorollaR

They have a saying, "You never learn your limits until you hit them..."

That saying is 100% true. Put him in a 250HP RWD car and when he finally does test his limit, he might get himself killed. He needs to learn HIS limits, not the limits of a car itself. Once he learns his limits and his curve of learning, he can move up.

It's not best to start yourself off with a strong platform and adjust your level of experience to it. You get a car that is most close to your level of experience, and then you learn with it.

right, being cautious, alert, and smart. but i dont understand why someone would start with a FWD car barely able to break into the 20 second range, when what they really want is to drive a 400 hp RWD/AWD street car. im not saying he does, but i am saying, start with something that you can learn on. you have to put yourself in a position to push your limits. after about a week of driving a geo storm, im sure that a average joe schmo will have that pretty much down pat and hasnt even pushed their limits yet. you act like driving is rocket science. average in town driving is the same in every car, unless there is snow on the ground or something. you accelerate, you drive defensive, and your brake. driving isnt all that difficult....

i mentioned the 240sx because it is a good learning car for something beyond driving in town. a 240sx can serve you some learning experience if you take it to a local track or you go to a parking lot and see some charateristics of the car. and if you havent pushed your limits still, then you can at a turbo kit or some bolt-ons and see what you can do then.

[NISSANSPDR]

You dont give kids something fast they can kill others w/...ppl down south get Corvettes and Supra's...and ppl die b/c of it...they end up street racing b/c they think they are hot sh!t and innocent ppl die...

In a fast car...you tend to go faster than you would say in a car that takes forever to get to 70mph

I am not saying stick him in a Geo Metro...but something where he wont put his foot down and then look up and realize he's going 110 in a school zone!

[S2CorollaR]

What about the extremes? If he's barely experienced in driving, he's bound to be barely experienced with engine mechanics. No offense to you being a Nissan fan, but anyone knows an Integra GSR would make mincemeat out of a 240SX with stock engine, and the learning curve on the GSR will be much friendlier to beginners.

Him being an average mechanic, you can't throw that, "Swap in an SR20DET, put in like 3k$ and run 11's" crap because that doesn't apply to beginners.

The problem with the 240SX isn't just the RWD, it's the fact that it only has what, 140HP stock? Once he learns on it, he'll push the limits of it, and even when he reaches them, if he does get the swap, he won't apply those limits correctly.

You have a learning curve and limitation for every car you drive. You get a 1995 Mustang GT and learn on that, then you amp up to a Z06... You won't be able to apply the aggressive driving knowledge you learned to the Z06.

I'm simply pointing out that he'd be much safer in a GSR or something similar, and when he does learn, he will have a car that is relatively quick. He learns on a 240 that's great, but when he gets bit by the horsepower bug, it's not a simple obstacle to cross. Not to mention the fact that an SR20DET doesn't perform incredibly well stock.

When you take out engine swaps, him wanting to run 12's, and cars that will outpar Vettes after a "simple" 5,000 dollar build, he'd be much better in a FWD car than a RWD car.

I don't know... Maybe you're strongly mistaken about what it's like to drive when you're young, but I've been driving for a "mere" 6 years, and I remember fully well what it was like to drive that young.

Let me describe it for you:
I couldn't handle the freeway. I was too sensitive at the wheel and couldn't keep the car straight at speeds above 75MPH. Once I got to higher speeds I started to swerve left and right like I didn't have control over my arms or the steering wheel. It's like you have no sense of judging speed when you're that inexperienced.

Don't even mention throttle. It was either too little or too much gas, and if I was driving my Firebird, I'd be dead now. My mom, thankfully, put me behind the wheel of her 150HP heavy Oldsmobile Cutlass automatic for the first 8 months of my driving. It was incredibly underpowered but had some gruff since it was a V6 mid entry sedan. I peeled out a lot coming away from stop signs because I had no perception of throttle pressure. Hell I didn't know what "throttle pressure" even was.

Being that young, you have a heavy foot because you're not used to the gas. It's also incredibly hard to judge stops. A lot of times you push it really close and do a big # on the brakes. I had a lot of jerky stops and whenever the light would turn green while I was still rolling to a stop, I nearly shit myself as I would skyrocket across the intersection from going from heavy foot on brake to heavy foot on the gas.

With that description are you going to tell me with a serious look on your face that I was capable of driving a Twin Turbo Supra or a Corvette just by "driving defensively"? Because if you do, then you really have no credibility giving advice to someone asking these kinds of questions. Try to take out the performance enthusiast point of view when a freakin' kid asks you for advice on getting a car. A lot of kids die out there and it's not 100% their fault. A lot of times stupid parents buy their kids the hottest car they can get, sub 25,000 dollar price mark, not realizing that their child only has a 6 month driving experience under their belt, and the car that they are picking can outrun police interceptors.