Best New Cars for Teen Drivers

Safety, reliability, affordability and practicality are all important considerations for households with teenagers looking to get behind the wheel. The best cars for teens that we highlight in this list combine all of these positive attributes into one well-rounded and desirable package. Let’s not forget the ever-important aspect of style, and some degree of utility is helpful as well.

This list of the best cars for new drivers includes four-door sedans, hybrids, an electric car, a compact SUV and even a small truck. While these are all great choices for teens to use today, they are also appropriate options for families with children who may not be of driving age just yet but will be thinking about getting their permits within the next few years.

All of our selections offer top safety marks from government regulators (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA) or the insurance industry (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS). If you’re looking for the best used cars for teen drivers, check out this related article.

Jump to: Our top picks for teen drivers

2025 Subaru Impreza
2025 Honda Civic Hybrid
2025 Toyota Prius
2025 Toyota Camry
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 6
2025 Mazda CX-50
2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz

2025 Subaru Impreza

The compact Subaru Impreza comes with standard all-wheel drive, making it a great choice for buyers who live in snowy regions. Subaru offers both sedan and hatchback versions of the Impreza, and we like the added utility offered by the hatch. With a starting price that's well under $25,000, the Impreza is the least expensive car to earn a spot on our list of the best new cars for teen drivers. The Subaru Crosstrek is basically the same as the Impreza, but it sits a little bit higher and as a result looks more like a crossover.

The Subaru Impreza is a Top Safety Pick from the IIHS and earned five stars from the NHTSA.

Edmunds Rating: 7.6 (out of 10)
Average Owner Review: 4.8 (out of 5)
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2025 Honda Civic Hybrid

The Honda Civic is a slam dunk. In fact, the 2025 Civic Hybrid earned top honors as the Best of the Best in Edmunds Top Rated awards this year. It boasts 200 horsepower from its smooth engine and electric motor combination, and it scoots from 0 to 60 mph in just 6.6 seconds. Getting 49 mpg combined is icing on the cake. Considering that the average new car in America costs nearly $50,000, it's noteworthy that the best all-around passenger car in America starts around $30,000. That's a legitimate deal.

The 2025 Honda Civic sedan is an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ and it earns five stars from the NHTSA.

Edmunds Rating: 8.2 (out of 10)
Average Owner Review: 4.5 (out of 5)
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2025 Toyota Prius 

The Toyota Prius is the best-selling hybrid in history. It's primarily known for its fuel efficiency, but the latest version introduced in 2023 nudged the style and performance meters up considerably compared to the Prius models of old. Don't worry, it's still extremely efficient with EPA estimates of up to 57 mpg combined. But it's now sleek both inside and out, with an easy-to-use infotainment system and all the latest driver aids to keep your teen safe behind the wheel.

The fifth-generation Toyota Prius is on the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ list and earned five stars from the NHTSA.

Edmunds Rating: 8.0 (out of 10)
Average Owner Review: 4.3 (out of 5)
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2025 Toyota Camry

The Toyota Camry has long been one of the most popular cars in America, and for good reason. It's roomy, reliable, affordable and, for 2025, more fuel-efficient than ever before. That's because all new Camry models are powered by Toyota's well-sorted and proven hybrid technology. It gets as much as 50 mpg combined, making it nearly as miserly as the smaller Prius. While the midsize sedan may not set teen hearts aflutter, it's actually reasonably fun to drive with a stiff chassis that provides a smooth ride and solid cornering performance.

The Camry is an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ and received five stars from the NHTSA.

Edmunds Rating: 8.1 (out of 10)
Average Owner Review: 4.2 (out of 5)
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2025 Hyundai Ioniq 6

Hyundai offers multiple electric cars, but we've singled out the Ioniq 6 for this list due to its comparatively low purchase price, strong safety ratings, stylish design and reasonable range. Two battery sizes are offered, a smaller 53-kWh standard pack and a 77.4-kWh option that offers up to 342 miles of range. Even better, the sleek Ioniq 6 outperformed its estimated range in Edmunds' testing. When you do run out of range, the Ioniq 6's fast 232-kW charging ability can push it from 10% to 80% in as little as 18 minutes.

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 is rated as a Top Safety Pick+ from the IIHS.

Edmunds Rating: 8.1 (out of 10)
Average Owner Review: 4.7 (out of 5)
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2025 Mazda CX-50

The Mazda CX-50 is an Edmunds Top Rated small SUV. It feels like a step up when compared to its most direct competitors, and it's more fun to drive, too. But it's not the cheapest SUV in its class. In fact, with a starting price right around $30,000, the CX-50 is one of the pricier options. It does come standard with all-wheel drive, a nice advantage that helps justify its cost. The CX-50's standard 2.5-liter engine delivers EPA estimates of 28 mpg combined. There's a turbocharged option that adds some extra excitement, but that's probably not necessary for teenage drivers.

The Mazda CX-50 is on the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ list and received a five-star grade from the NHTSA.

Edmunds Rating: 8.1 (out of 10)
Average Owner Review: 4.0 (out of 5)
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2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz

If your teen really wants a truck — or you think you might be able to have one car do double duty for your teen and your own occasional runs to the hardware store — the Hyundai Santa Cruz might fit the bill. It’s only been on the market since 2022, but it shares a lot of its structure and powertrains with other cars from Hyundai, including the compact Tucson crossover. It’s on both the IIHS Top Safety Pick and NHTSA five-star lists, which is not something that can be said about its most obvious competitor, the Ford Maverick.

Edmunds Rating: 8.1 (out of 10)
Average Owner Review: 4.6 (out of 5)
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You don't need more than four cylinders

Every single internal combustion engine car on this list of the best cars for teen drivers is powered by a four-cylinder engine. Some offer turbochargers to make more power and offer quicker acceleration, and some bolster their gasoline-burning engines with electric motors that add torque and lessen fuel consumption. You may have grown up thinking that V8s are great and V6s are adequate, but today's modern crop of four-cylinders offer plenty of power for driving around town and merging onto the highway.

What's the real cost?

Keep in mind that expenses for a teen driver’s car don’t end with the purchase. Higher insurance rates, fuel, maintenance and repairs all factor into the total cost of ownership. Edmunds' True Cost to Own tool estimates a model’s buying, ownership and operating costs over a five-year period. Feed these numbers into the TCO calculator and a proprietary algorithm crunches the numbers, also factoring in depreciation and any interest on financing and tax credits, if applicable, and forecasts it into five years of total ownership cost.