Poor Blizzie! Hopefully you can get your second machine back online and stable!

All shined up and ready for another summer of fun, Jonathan. Too bad this is the only view you will ever see.

At least until you skidded into a ditch because of your primitive suspension and drive system. RWD = ditchmonkey. American suspension, either A: soft and boatlike or B: bone-jarringly stiff.

In all honesty, I'm annoyingly big on practicality. I want something that will get me from point A to point B without any unplanned stops at any point C's cheaply and for a long time. That 12k of yours would get me 4-5 years of transportation (with maint.) - about 104k-130k miles. Never happen with Detroit and highly unlikely with German at that cost. That leaves Japanese. I've had too many folks with Nissan's complain about the dealers for too many years for me to consider that despite the good quality. I eliminate the luxury lines like Lexus, Infiniti, BMW, etc. as I can't see paying a 25-50% premium for an equally equipped vehicle that forces you to pay 20-30 cents a gallon extra just to run the engine. That pretty much leaves Toyota. I've got 260K miles on my PU now and finally replaced the original clutch around November (240K+ miles). It's not broken down on me; I've not had to replace a part that broke on me as none have. My wife's Toyota is 125K+ in 6 years with very similar experience.

However, the original point was about vehicles for new 15-16 year old drivers. Anything that runs decently, is old, big, heavy and not zippy is a good choice. They're all too likely to make a mistake so anything you can do to improve their odds of survival is a good thing. Folks that buy their kids a brand new high performance sports car or lux SUV at 16 are stupid and begging for grief. Kid wants a car, they can pay for it. They learn to appreciate it a lot better that way. Even better, odds are they'll live longer.

If you skid into a ditch, it ain't the car's fault. You have to know what your capabilities are and what the car's are and not exceed those. I hate that counties are so big on paving roads. I think restricting new drivers to dirt roads for the first year or two would be a great thing. When you can take your car around a 90 degree turn at normal speeds without braking or slowing, you're ready for paved roads.