I’m in Southern California and looking for a reasonable first car lease for a 16 year old.
Looking for something safe and affordable (my initial thought was Honda Civic but I don’t know much about cars) so something that is at least somewhat in that price range, but any brand.
Would be eligible for rebates so electric / hybrids are an option.
I have good credit and also have heard that doing a 1-pay lease could be a better deal?
Thank you for reading and I appreciate your responses!
Lots of factors can go in here. What size car? Does it need to be new (may be cheaper to buy an older car)? What’s your budget? How much does she drive? Does it need any specific features?
At first glance, Civic or Corolla are always good starting points, but depends on a lot of these factors.
There’s also a ton of dealers/brokers representing SoCal here, so you’ll have no shortage of options.
Ioniq plugin, should be around $150-180 all in.
Thanks for the response! 10K miles would be plenty.
The budget isn’t exactly set because an electric car (no gas) could be more expensive. Something in the Civic / Corolla range give or take higher or lower depending on the situation.
No specific features matter. Just a safe, relatively new starter quality car.
Whether it’s a hatchback or a sedan or a crossover isn’t that important to me.
Yea but You need a time machine LOL
Our NY dealer still sells them for $179/179, but I definitely have no idea what’s going on in CA.
Check out the list at the below link. They do a pretty decent job in categorizing and ranking cars. So you should be able to see cars in the Civic class and compare features and safety ratings. I’m sure there are some other ones as well but I like format of this the most.
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/rankings/small-cars
But as anyone here will tell you because a car falls within a certain price range, it may not lease as well as something else i.e. You may find a car more expensive than a Civic but able to get a better lease deal. So figure out which cars would work best and do some research on prices, incentives and leasing deals from there. The people here are great at helping evaluate lease deals. Good luck!
Just pick up a Corolla SE from Cody. $215. ALL the safety equipment a 16yo will need. Yeah it’s not going to impress their friends but it’ll get the job done.
I’m having trouble also. Just got a good job and currently have a Daily 2006 Honda Civic only 140K miles. It’ll probably run another 3-4 years at the least.
I’m comparing from getting a Civic Si lease, Alfa Romeo giulia, or going the stretch for something nicer like an Audi S line or Mercedes C43.
Weird thing is in my past I’ve owned an Giulia, c450 and c43(just love the exhaust and transmission so much).
Funny thing is I work for Honda and don’t even see these type of deals. Then again I work for a family owned dealer so we keep gross not volume.
+1 for Civic because Corolla is too boring. It would destroy a kid’s love for cars.
Don’t lease a car for a 16 year old.
A 16 year old is likely to put some good dents in this car. Or spill red Bull all over the seats and so on.
I propose you pay cash for a 10 year old Camry or Accord or a Taurus. Nothing too fancy. Not too much horsepower. If the car looks bad so what - they’re 16.
Don’t lease a car for a 16 year old.
My former 16-year-old self hates this comment for being so right! Bastard 
Exactly what I was going to suggest. Except I would argue that the Corolla SE is a pretty cool car for a 16-yr old. I also thought my ‘87 Volvo 740 was cool when I started driving though, so I’m probably not an authority on the cool part.
Didn’t you say in another thread your credit score is 600?
This was just discussed in detail
Bunch of amateurs on here. Obviously would be best to get the kid an m3. Horsepower…chick magnet…what could go wrong??? Besides bunch of tickets…wrapping the car around a tree…getting a girl pregnant at 16. All normal events in life 
I think leasing can work for a teen. Definitely buy some sort of lease damage insurance and make them pay for it. This does not necessarily have to be from the finance guy at the dealer.
Evaluate your circumstances and see if it makes sense for you. Leasing worked so well for me since I knew I did not need a car in college. Your child may need one after high school. Just stuff like that to consider.
Source: First car was a lease.
I leased my own car as a teen (well, 19, STILL COUNTS!) and I’m still not sure how TFS approved it with fairly limited credit but it was pre-2008 when they were chucking money at everyone - and honestly it was the best thing for my finances at the time.
I had driven some complete shitheaps and the repair costs were killing me. Having a brand new, safe, cheap, reliable small car for 3 years was a godsend.
/thread…