here's what I did
Posted By: mom of drivers on 2008-02-19
In Reply to: Need advice on teenager vehicles......sm - LMT
We happened to have a ྗ Camry available when our eldest turned 17 and got his driver's license. It was a little gem of a car and had belonged to my father-in-law. When my FIL could no longer drive, he gave us the car. It was 13 years old and only had 38,000 miles on it. He literally only drove it to and from church and other errands around town. Because the car was free to us, we didn't sell it our son. But, he did have to pay for gas and all scheduled maintenance, such as oil changes. We did pay for insurance for him, but on the condition that one ding that caused his insurance rates to go up would mean that he was off our policy totally, which meant he could not drive any of our cars. (We kept the Toyota in our name.)
Now, here's the point that many other parents disagree with: His driving was VERY much supervised for 6 months after he got his license. Our state (PA) says he can have his license at 16. We made him wait until 17. He could have driven others in his car when he first had his license, and we said no. Not even siblings. Our son is a good kid, decent grades, an Eagle Scout, busy with great activities, etc, just like your daughter. None of that replaces experience. And they need to gain experience driving on their own before they can handle distractions in the car. Even good kids are easily distracted by friends in the car. We only allowed short errands at first. No driving to school by himself during that 6 months probation. As inconvenient as it was, I drove with him to school nearly every day. He drove, I sat beside him. He got out of the car, I drove home. At the end of the school day, I went back to meet him. He drove home. The school parking lot is always a dangerous situation -- lots of inexperienced teen drivers showing off, going too fast, not watching. My being in the car with him gave him that extra supervised experience he needed, even after the state had given its blessing for him to drive alone.
I know it sounds overprotective, but I can't think of anything that we allow our children to do that is more dangerous than driving. The news is full of good kids with good grades who have died in car accidents. Lack of experience usually has a lot to do with those accidents. I wanted my sons to have as much experience as possible before they were on the road. I also have to say that we live in a very congested suburb. They attended school in the next county, and it's a good 30 minute drive through heavy traffic in the morning and after school.
This is what worked for us. I do encourage you to work up gradually to unrestricted driving with friends in the car to allow your daughter to gain more experience. It can only help her in the long run.
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