Car shopping for your kid? Parents magazine gives the nod to Subaru Impreza for teen drivers

I’m a car guy, for sure. But I also happen to be a dad. And I have two kids headed off to college this fall, with a commute of about 30 miles each way in a climate that gets its share of wintry weather. As I’ve been thinking ahead to what sort of car our family should look for to support this next step in their lives, the Subaru marque, with a nice offering of small, fuel-efficient cars that happen to be all-wheel-drive throughout the lineup, was the first to cross my mind. So the timing was fortuitous when a Google Alert showed up in my inbox about a Subaru press release announcing that Parents magazine endorsed the 2020 Subaru Impreza for teen drivers.

Granted, the Subaru press release isn’t new, so this particular Google Alert email was one of those “better late than never” cases.

The Google Alert system, which is supposed to notify users when websites add new content containing specified keywords, is understandably imperfect. And frequently, it mistakes old content that has moved to a new location on a website for new content.

While I originally missed it, Subaru’s April 2020 press release about the Parents magazine endorsement of the Subaru Impreza for teen drivers showed up as an alert in my inbox on December 29. But, given my current car-shopping situation, I’m glad it did.

When I mentioned to one of my kids that I thought a Subaru might be a good fit as the daily driver for the college commute, her eyes lit up—understandably because she has become a big fan of the Fast and Furious franchise. Nevertheless, rest assured that I won’t be going shopping for a modded Subaru WRX equipped with NOS and a fartcan exhaust.

I know better than to put something like that in the hands of new drivers. And I also won’t be buying the specific 2020 model that Parents magazine is endorsing.

But a nice, used stock Impreza?

Yeah, that might be just the thing for a daily commuter that is nimble, reasonably fun, reliable, and equipped to deal with the occasional drive home from campus on snowy roads.

Here are some of the strengths Parents magazine points to in their endorsement of the Subaru Impreza for teen drivers:

• Five-star overall rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
• Standard Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, which, according to Subaru, provides “better stability, efficiency, and a quicker response to slippery conditions” by helping to “provide a seamless transfer of power to all four wheels”
• Fuel economy up to 36 mpg during highway driving (which, by the way, will likely be the primary setting for my kids’ daily college commute)
• Ample cargo space with sedan and 5-door body styles

According to the automaker, Parents magazine also noted that “97 percent of the Imprezas sold in the last 10 years are still on the road today,” which is a welcome statistic for a buyer like me who is likely to be shopping “the well-used market” for my soon-to-be college students.

Yeah, scholarships help. But they definitely don’t cover everything.