With used car prices skyrocketing and new car inventory reaching depleted levels due to the semiconductor chip shortage, it’s tough to find a good deal on any vehicle. Regardless, they do exist. Case in point – the 2008 Ford Focus recently make Kelly Blue Book’s Best Compact Cars Under $5k list, and Consumers Reports named the 2011 Ford Fiesta as one of the least expensive cars to maintain. But for those looking for a great used vehicle for up-and-coming drivers, Consumer Reports’ Best Cars for Teens Under $20k list has a few additional suggestions.
Those suggestions include, as it turns out, a couple of Blue Oval products. The 2011 and 2014 Ford Taurus makes the full-size car list with prices as low as $6,700 and $9,600, respectively, while the 2014-2015 Ford Edge made the cut for mid-size SUVs with prices around $11,104. The newer 2018+ Edge also made the list but costs a bit more at around $19,600.
Consumer Reports assembled its list of Best Cars for Teens Under $20k by looking for vehicles that are good values but are also safe, since teen drivers are four times as likely to be involved in a crash as someone over 20 years of age. Thus, CR teamed up with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) to make its selections based on hard data.
A grand total of 61 vehicles met CR’s safety criteria, which includes either a four- or five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a good rating in all four of IIHS’s crash tests, average or better CR emergency handling test results, above-average reliability based on CR survey data, electronic stability control, and 60-0 dry braking of 145 feet or less, as well as prices ranging between $6,400 and $19,800.
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Comments
After taking delivery of a MME several weeks ago, the salesperson said they would love to get more Fusions in trade.
The 2019 Edge Titanium that we bought for my wife been almost perfect in 40K miles. An erratic shifting issue was fixed per a TSB that required a calibration update. The second item was the start-stop bypass switch was sticking and successfully repaired by a replacement. Other than that it’s been routine maintenance.
We bought a used Ford Edge Titanium AWD with Ecoboost 2.0 engine in January 2023. Thankfully, we also bought a 3rd party powertrain warranty from the KIA dealership that sold us the Edge. A few weeks after we bought the vehicle we started seeing the Check Engine Light (CEL.) Local mechanic reported code p0304, misfires on cylinder #4. We replaced all 4 sparkplugs. After a week or so, the CEL lit up again. We replaced the ignition coil for cylinder #4. After a few days the CEL lit up again and we noticed some coolant consumption. Doing the research I wish I had done before the purchase, I learned the 2018 Edge with Ecoboost 2.0 engine are notorious for coolant intrusion into cylinders due to a bad engine design. Apparently, the bad head design allows coolant to deteriorate the head gasket and coolant then intrudes into cylinders leading to inevitable engine failure. I’ve heard that this engine was later redesigned to eliminate this issue. We will have local mechanic use a boresight to inspect cylinders for signs of coolant intrusion. Hopefully our 3rd party powertrain warranty will pay for an engine replacement if and when this engine fails.