The best cars for teens in 2023: Which Toyotas made the cut?

Are you about to send your teen driver out on the road? It’s nerve-wracking, we know, but now is as good a time as ever to cut the cord. As long as your teen is prepared, you need to be, too – but you can also give yourself some peace of mind by getting them an appropriate car.

Consumer Reports and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety team up every year to compile a list of the best cars for teens, and Toyota hit almost every category of vehicle this year. We’re impressed, and we’re also ready to help put your teen driver in a new Orlando Toyota before they hit the highway.

What makes a used vehicle one of the best cars for teens?

How do Consumer Reports and the IIHS determine what the best cars for teens are? Basically, the safety that they being to the table. Here are the criteria that used vehicles have to meet in order to be considered for the list:

• Good IIHS safety ratings (especially in the moderate overlap front, original side, head restraints, and roof strength tests)
• Features that discourage dangerous driving or risk-taking (for example, sports cars, cars with curb weights under 2,750 lbs, and large vehicles with long braking distances are not considered for the list)
• Four or five stars from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
• Above-average reliability
• Above-average handling
• A standard electronic stability system
• A dry braking distances of fewer than 145 feet at 60 mph

Safest Cars for Teens: Best Choices

Here are the used Toyotas that made the cut for the Safest Cars for Teens: Best Choices list in 2023:

• Toyota Prius (2014), Small Cars
• Toyota Prius v (2015-2017), Mid-Size Cars
• Toyota Avalon (2015 or newer), Large Cars
• Toyota RAV4 (2015 or newer), Small SUVs
• Toyota Highlander (2014 or newer), Mid-Size SUVs
• Toyota Sienna (2015-2018), Minivans
• Toyota Tacoma (2016 or newer), Pickup Trucks

Safest Cars for Teens: Good Choices

Here are the used Toyotas that made the cut for the Safest Cars for Teens: Good list in 2023:

• Toyota Corolla (2013 or newer), Small Cars
• Toyota Prius (2013), Small Cars
• Toyota Camry (2013 or newer), Mid-Size Cars
• Toyota Prius v (2013), Mid-Size Cars
• Toyota Avalon (2013-2014), Large Cars
• Toyota RAV4 (2013-2014), Small SUVs
• Toyota Highlander (2013), Mid-Size SUVs

What makes a new vehicle one of the best cars for teens?

For new vehicles, they need to be a 2023 IIHA Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick Plus. Here are some other marks that new cars have to hit:

• They have to come with standard vehicle-to-vehicle automatic emergency braking.
• They must have average or better scores in the Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings.
• They need to get good scores in handling and dry braking tests (like the used cars criteria)

And any cars with above-average insurance claims are automatically excluded from the list.

Safest New Cars for Teens

Here are the cars that made the Safest New Cars for Teens list:

• Toyota RAV4, Small SUVs
• Toyota Highlander, Mid-Size SUVs

Those aren’t the only other new Toyotas we’d recommend for teens, though. The 2023 Toyota Corolla, RAV4, RAV4 Prime, and Toyota Venza are IIHS Top Safety Picks, and the 2023 Toyota Camry, Highlander, Sienna, Tacoma, Tundra are IIHS Top Safety Pick +s.

Find the best cars for teens (new and used) at Toyota of Orlando

Ready to find the best car for YOUR teen driver? Come down to Toyota of Orlando today. We’re open seven days a week at 3575 Vineland Road, just off I-4 near the Millenia Mall. You can also call us at (407) 298-4500!

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