Ask an expert

My 16 yr old daughter wants to buy her first car. What would you recommend? As parents we are interested in the safety aspects, abs braking, airbags etc. She has $4,000 to spend.

Sally

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 19 January 2009

Unfortunately $4,000 doesn't buy the latest and greatest but it will get you something reasonable if you are prepared to look around.

You can also buy a pile of trouble if you are not careful.

Stay away from anything with a turbo, lowered suspension, four wheel drive, or a high performance engine as a definite.

It may also pay to ring around a few insurance companies and ask what models they will or won't cover if your daughter was to be on a nominated drivers list.

I would stick to mainstream Japanese.

Have a walk around some of the new vehicle distributors and ask them if they have anything suitable coming into stock. Quite often they are keen to move vehicles in this price range onto wholesalers rather than put them on their own yards.

You may get lucky and find something they have themselves have serviced for a few years and the previous owner has decided to upgrade.

Tell your daughter it's important to look beyond the stereo system when buying a second hand car of this value.