Keep Your Teen Out Of The Driver's Seat With These Great Features And Benefits

Teenagers and driving can be an unfortunate deadly combination, and in fact, 60 percent of teen deaths in Australia are caused by auto accidents. Whether the driving age in your province is 16 or 18, you may want to keep your teens as passengers for just a bit longer if you're worried about their safety. To get them excited about their continued existence as passengers rather than drivers, consider looking for a new car that has some of these fun features and benefits:

Room For Friends

Are your teens in a lot of activities such as team sports or competitive debate? Do they enjoy outings to the movies or sporting events with their friends? If so, it can be useful to have a vehicle that fits many of their friends. With a new 7-seater SUV, you can take your teen and their closest friends or teammates to their events in comfort and style. If you want to be the dedicated parent who drives all the teens in your child's social group to all of their events, you could even consider buying a passenger van that fits even more people.

Built-In WiFi

More and more new cars and utes are being manufactured with built-in WiFi. With that feature on tap, your teens hardly ever have to unplug. They can bring their tablets, laptops and touch screen devices right into the vehicle with them. If you have a kid who loves to game or a kid who would really appreciate extra time studying on the way to school, they will likely be eager to use the WiFi and relax as a passenger. That can sound far more appealing than being burdened with driving themselves to and from school and activities.

Built-In Apps

In addition to having WiFi, many new cars now have several apps built right into their connectivity services. Instead of having to listen to boring radio stations, your teen can pop on his or her favourite homemade station from his or her favourite music streaming app, or if your new car also has built in video screens, your teen may even be able to continue "binge watching" a series on his or her favourite movie streaming app.

Safety Features

In addition to entertainment apps, many new cars come with safety features. If your teen is concerned about safety, he or she may be willing to mature a bit before he or she drives on his or her own. To make the issue clearer to your child, consider sitting down and reviewing the risks of teen driving. Namely, teen drivers are 20 times more likely to crash than more mature drivers.

If your child is moved by the safety argument, enhance his or her feelings of safety by investing in a new car that has a range of safety features.  Some of the features you may want to consider include passenger-side airbags, stability control, brake assist and emergency signal systems.

Affordability

Adding many of the safety features mentioned above may garner you a discount on your auto insurance. Keep that in mind as you shop for a new car, and look for one that is affordable to insure. While considering the issue of affordability, also keep in mind how much you are saving by not having a car payment for your teen and by not having to pay exorbitant insurance costs for a new driver.

Talk with your teen about the affordability aspect, and if you truly want to keep your teen safely in the passenger seat for a few more years, consider offering him or her cash. Instead of paying for your teen to drive, offer to let him or her have the cash you save on insurance premiums and car payments.