I was pretty fortunate growing up. Obviously, my parents recognized my interest in cars from a young age, and after having roughly 16 years to think about it, decided that the first few months of driving should be on a, “May I have the van?” basis, before presenting a choice I could afford on my after-school wage: lease a then-new Mazda Protege5 or buy a 1990 Volvo 740 Turbo. Uh…
The brick is still with me, albeit in storage, but it was a great car for high school: enough room for friends, comfortable for long trips, robust on any road, cheap to fix (know anyone else who’s blown up a ‘red block’?), and very easy to find in a parking lot. Minus points include a driving experience (and seat position) fit for couch potatoes, lift-off oversteer, poor fuel consumption, and styling that repelled high school-aged girls. I can blame its boxy looks and not mine, right?
A Volvo P1800 ES would have been my ‘dream’ car in high school, but in hindsight, I’m glad I was driving a car tough enough to (mostly) survive the first years in my care. An ES, well, I’m not so sure it’d have emerged unscathed.
So whether you’re going off to college or know a 16-year-old with some cash to burn, what’s the best classic car for a student?