Helping Your Teen Purchase Their First Vehicle

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Cars.com. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

When my eldest son turned 18 back in November, the first thing he said was, “I’m saving up my checks to get a car.” Which is all fine and dandy, but we needed to reign in his expectations as far as car buying went. Not to mention preparing ourselves for him to be out on the road with something he owned himself, and therefore not having a say as to where he could go and with whom.

So we decided to visit Cars.com to see what type of used vehicles were available and what our son might be interested in. We found some really great deals! 

I choose the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive Passion, nice and compact and only enough room for two. That would mean he couldn’t have a ton of his friends riding shotgun and less distractions. He choose the Toyota MR2 Spyder, fast and sporty. We compromised and choose a Jeep Liberty Sport and a Hyundai Tucson Limited. 

Cars.com was awesome on providing details on each of the vehicles so that we could really do a comparison between the vehicles that we choose. What I love is that each vehicle gives you an overview of the following:

• Price
• Estimated Monthly Payment
• Mileage
• Free Carfax Report
• Features
• Price Comparison Tool
• Added Features

Having all of this information right at our fingertips made narrowing down the choices much easier. The best part of all is we were able to do all of this in the comfort of our home, without having to visit a bunch of dealerships to get the information we wanted. 

Once we had the vehicle selection narrowed down, we discussed the other important necessities of car ownership. Making monthly payments, the cost for upkeep (gas, tires, oil changes, etc.), insurance premiums and being prepared in the event of a major repair cost.

He’s armed with the knowledge of what he will need to have in place before he can purchase a vehicle, and we’ve narrowed down the selection of the type of vehicles that he wants that we all can agree upon. So when the time comes and he’s pulled together his downpayment, he’ll be ready to take on this new responsibility knowing everything he needs to know ahead of time.

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