Best Used Cars Under $20,000 for Teens

The temptation—often born of necessity—is to buy a less expensive, bare-bones model or to pass down an older family car.

Our "Good for Safety" and "Best for Safety" lists don’t include subcompact cars and other vehicles under 2,750 pounds. Research shows that this class of car doesn’t provide adequate protection, specifically in multiple-vehicle crashes. We also did not include large SUVs and pickup trucks, which can be difficult to handle, especially in emergency situations. Large SUVs and pickup trucks also often have longer braking distances than smaller cars and SUVs. Finally, large vehicles pose a greater risk to other motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians.

For families or new drivers who can afford it, buying a new car can be the right move, particularly with lower loan interest rates and factory warranties. If you can afford a new car for a teen driver, we have a separate list for that.

Despite elevated car prices, we limited our budget to $20,000, though there are also many good choices for even less. Our updated list includes more than 70 vehicles priced under $10,000. An additional 48 models from our list come with standard automatic emergency braking and highly rated headlights, all of which can be found for less than $20,000.

These recommendations focus on “Goldilocks” models—cars that provide the best all-around protection for inexperienced drivers by both helping prevent collisions and providing protection from a crash. Among the features to look for are active driver assistance systems (ADAS), which are becoming widespread and are now available in many late-model used cars. Systems like forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and blind spot warning are proven features that can help avoid collisions and are worth seeking out if your budget allows it.

We’ve organized our list into three groups, distinguished by level of safety. The third group (available to Consumer Reports members only) are the safest cars that are also CR Recommended. This means that these vehicles also meet our stringent requirements for road-test performance, reliability, and owner satisfaction.

• Good for Safety Under $10,000
• Best for Safety Under $20,000
• CR Recommended Used Cars for Teens

For complete road tests, reliability, owner satisfaction, pricing, and much more, click on the model names below.

To make the cut to be Good for Safety, the vehicles must have:

• Price under $10,000.

• A curb weight over 2,750 pounds. This is because small, light vehicles don’t provide enough protection in multiple-vehicle crashes. But despite their greater mass, large SUVs and pickups don’t make the list because they’re often hard to handle in emergency situations and often have long braking distances. We also excluded sports cars, which can encourage dangerous driving.

• Controls judged not to be overly complicated by CR’s automotive engineers and usability experts.

• Average or better scores from CR’s routine and emergency handling and braking tests.

• A Good rating in the IIHS driver’s-side small-overlap front crash test. Launched in 2012, this test replicates what happens when the front left corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object such as a tree or utility pole.

These picks meet the next level of our safety standards. To qualify, these cars go beyond the Good criteria used above by also requiring:

• Standard automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems that earn an advanced or superior rating from the IIHS in the original vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test. AEB cuts police-reported front-to-rear crashes in half, IIHS research has shown, and rear-end crashes make up nearly a quarter of all crashes teens are involved in.

• Standard good or acceptable headlights based on testing by the IIHS.

These are the ideal choices for all-around performance and safety for teens—and drivers of all ages who prioritize safety. These choices meet the safety criteria required to be among the best used cars for teens, as outlined above, but they also meet Consumer Reports’ high standards for a recommendation, which factor in road test performance, reliability, owner satisfaction, and safety.