20 best used car deals for teens

Looking to get your teen a car for commuting to a summer job or heading to school in the fall? We’ve rounded up a collection of good, safe choices with attractive pricing.

While teens may have their preferences—sorry, no Ford Mustangs on this list—you should choose a car that prioritizes safety, reliability, and ease of use for inexperienced drivers.

We focused this list on the 2009-2010 model years for cars that cost less than $12,000. Some models have key safety equipment as standard, such as side air bags and electronic stability control, while others might not have added those features across the board until later years. (For example, ESC was mandated for the 2012 model year.)

We encourage you to buy your teen a car with as many safety features as possible, especially ESC. This typically means looking at a relatively recent car. A side benefit of doing so is that a relatively late-model car should have many good years ahead of it, making it likely to see your teen through college.

See our full list of the best new and used cars for teens. And chck our our guide to teen driving.

The cars listed include an average price for the models available in that year when buying from a dealer. These prices are also 26 percent to 53 percent less than the retail price when the vehicle was new, and we expect some negotiation or buying from a private seller can yield more savings. All have at least average reliability according to our latest subscriber survey. For the price calculations, we assume used vehicles from 2009 will have 66,000 miles and 2010 about 51,000 miles.