I looked into getting a Subaru Outback Sport once (seemed like a reasonable Colorado car when I first moved here). Threw that out that window when I got the quote for insurance, despite being older than 25 and having an immaculate driving record at the time. The teen males zipping around in their WRXs ruin it for everyone else.
Yeah, I want the WRX (STI if I can afford it whenever I get around to being able to afford a new car in the first place). I won't be happy with the insurance rates.
I was getting quotes earlier in the year, and for me it was around $120/month. I guess in some states/circumstances, the STI will have a lower insurance rate... basically due to the premium price; I guess it's figured that, since it's quite a bit more than the fairly entry-level performance sedan price tag of the WRX, that one is more likely to be more cautious and likely more mature. Which also makes sense considering the average age of an STI owner is quite a bit higher than the average for the WRX.
I'd rather the STI, for handling purposes (and it looks better), but I imagine if I am able to afford a car in the near future, I won't be able to afford the STI and would settle for the base Rex.
At any rate - with a learner's permit, can one drive with ANY 18 year old? For some reason, I thought it had to be a parent.
I know in Ohio, with a learner's permit, it is illegal to have more than one passenger in the car.
That much inexperience, plus that much power, with that many distractions... plus, like any kid, he's gonna showboat and try and impress the group in the car. That's a dangerous combination and yet again he proved why that is so.
We haven't had split-in-half car accidents around my city (that I am aware of), but we have had plenty of similar accidents under similar circumstances.
Mustangs, Trans-ams, Firebirds... they quite often found trees, and First Responders found bodies. It happened enough in Ohio to warrant a passenger limit - and they were being targeted for other distractions, like cell phones, prior to the current trend to ban them for everyone.
At the same rate - you can give a kid just about any car and some of them are gonna tread fine lines and test limits, some of them finding the lethal result of pushing past limits at the wrong time. It's hard to really blame anyone in particular - sure a powerful car will tempt some, but just about any car can get to lethal impact with tree speeds, and many are far more prone to lose grip when compared to a Rex.
As youngins, many of us probably tested similar limits, to varied levels of success. I had my own close calls when young, especially when I first got my Dakota (RWD). I hesitate to say it, but we've all been there. Some of us just had better luck in terms of timing for failures, for various reasons. Maybe we were more cautious around certain circumstances, and were only more daring when the road was wide open - and maybe only where it was straight.
As for cars splitting in half - it's not a failure of engineering. Most of these cars will actually survive far more than cars of yesteryear. Safety is constantly improving. As someone mentioned earlier - high speeds, plus the right angle of impact, with a well-anchored thin object (tree, pole, etc), can render steel as pliable as butter.