Parents buying a car for their kids has little to do with driving skills and everything to do with the incorrect teaching of economics and responsibility of vehicle ownership.
My son got my wife's old Corsica for free, but he also had to take on the responsibility of paying for the insurance, repairs and maintenance.
Those with nothing invested tend to do things with a vehicle (or any material object) they might not do if they had their own money invested.
The majority of teenagers are simply not geared to be responsible about much of anything, especially driving, and unfortunately some of them will carry that attitude their entire life.
Responsibility is a learned trait that comes with good parenting, age and learning from your mistakes.
Responsible driving is no different except that any mistake, even a minor one, can be fatal.
The average 16-year-old has no grasp of how being irresponsible just once, especially in a motor vehicle, could impact the rest of their life.
As for the other end of the spectrum, most of us senior drivers hate to give it up when the time comes, even though most of us know when that time has already arrived.
It is then our kids, or other adult, who has learned responsibility, will take the keys from our hands and keep us off the road.

 

Moving away from age, but didn't insurance companies at one point determine rates based on gender? They charged higher for men than women. I heard about it.

 

Honestly I don’t think I ever noticed? Maybe once here in CA. I had to go look and my policy shows my wife and myself the same cost.But maybe that’s because of the age thing (36+)and no accidents or negative traffic violations? They send me my usual $200 good driver reward every year.

 

Yes, and that is still true today.
The average young male pays about 14% more than a young female.
Again, it is all based of statistic and here are a few.
New car purchases: Male 60% female 40% Used car purchases: Male 49% Female 51%
There are currently more female drivers 117 million, than male 115 million.
On average, men drive about 13,356 miles per year. Women drive around 9,838 miles per year, which is about 26% fewer miles than men.
Male drivers account for 74% of all fatal accidents and the majority of those the driver is age 25-34.
In those fatal crashes 20% were males and 12% females that were speeding and under the influence.
Males accounted for 69% versus 31% for female.
Nearly the same rates apply to motor vehicle violations as well.
Female drivers on the whole, are more careful than male.
Female drivers also show a reduction in accidents and traffic violations as they grow older and out of their teens.
The majority of male drivers do not show this reduction until they are nearly 30.
Example: The number of 2020 vehicle accidents faults: 5.39 million men drivers 3.72 million women drivers.
Despite what we males may think we are basically, especially those of us who are teens and seniors, on whole are far more dangerous on the road than females are.
Hence the insurance rate differences.
However, if you have no accidents or violations, once you attain the age of 30 the rates basically start to level off the same for both sexes until you reach age 60.
After 60 is like the teen years as far as insurance goes, it can be all over the board depending on your record and health.

 

Here is my take about this.

Men drive more than women (I am pretty sure you said this kind of already), and as far as I know and their car choice for men is more demanding and picky compared to women (this gets back to your car choice point from earlier).

Several responses I have heard from about the majority of younger women I have talked to about driving licenses or driving are:

• "I don't have a car, I drive my parents car." (And several responses said their parents have Toyotas)
• "I don't have a driving license. I take public transportation."

Additionally, the younger crowd of women I have talked to who do have cars have brands like Toyota (Camries, Priuses), Subaru, Mini Cooper, and Mazda. Those brands do have performance models, but they drive the mainstream standard models with horsepower less than 200.

Most guy friends I have talked to have cars that are marketed for performance or are modified for performance, sportiness or speed:

• 2011 BMW 335i
• 2008 BMW 6-Series (V8)
• 2019 Toyota Camry XSE 4-cyl (Modified with 300 hp) (My friend who owns it drives his sister's 2019 BMW X5 also)
• 2013 Honda Accord Sport
• A BMW (Don't know the model exactly)

Also, the Mustang 5.0 is the car several young guys want (at 16!). But that being said, just because I heard several guys drive these cars doesn't mean there are other guys who drive standard mainstream trim configuration models or brands.

Speed, a bigger engine and horsepower can make up a high risk combination. According to the IIHS:

"Avoid sports cars or anything marketed for power, which can tempt teenagers to test the limits. Beware of high-horsepower versions of mainstream models, which make it too easy speed."

I know I am young as well and drive a Mazda making greater than 200 hp, but I am kind of explaining my view of gender rates.

 

The car doesn't really matter when you're a teen.
I used to burn as much rubber off my mother's Bonneville as I did my uncle's SS.
It was just cooler to do in the SS but equally as foolish and reckless.
I stopped doing that when it was my tires I was paying for.
You also just never know with insurance rates.
I traded a 2-year-old 1980 base model Chevy pickup for a 1973 Corvette with full options and largest engine and my insurance went down.
Go figure.

 

post 17 couldn’t be more off base nationally speaking . Sorry up to the response most responses were good.



Oh and I suggest learning how auto manufacturers advertise their power ratings especially Mazda.
To bad because some so called Muscle Cars could technically get lower insurance costs if they were used.

SAEJ1995 & SAE 1349 .

 

That's an interesting hypothetical. I could see insurance companies eventually lowering rates for younger drivers as more data is collected showing safe drivers in that age group.

 

Not likely going to happen as current data continues to show 18 to 26-year-olds have the highest incident rates, accident rates, most DUIs and other driving issues when compared to other drivers across generations.

 

One counter-argument I can think about making the rates for young drivers the same as people 25 or older is this influencer.

The most disliked influencer, Jack Doherty was reading the stream chat on his phone while driving a McLaren in the rain. He started speeding and ended up hydroplaning the car, crashing it:


Jack was in the young driver group (he was 21 at the time of the crash). If young drivers realize, what Jack did was illegal or if the insurance company refuses Jack's claim, that could send a message to young drivers that insurance companies are not messing around in terms of rates.