['ol Pinion head]

Years ago i was asked to rationalize a performance F-body for my soon to be driving son. This suggestion was supposed to "stick" as I owned a new one @ 18 (still own it). Several local longtime friends/shop owners brought up which one of my 2nd Gen T/A's I was going to give to my son for HS. My response was why should i waste the effort? In the back of my mind was the fact, there are better vehicles to put him into that will make it out of a HS parking lot w/o damage. Then the Safety issue loomed heavily. We live on the outer rural fringe of a very affluent suburban area. When you navigate the horrible traffic flow in "town" & the erratic flow of the nearby interstate, it pays to have a vehicle that you can be intune with what's coming up. The lower the vehicle, the tougher to see ahead & respond w rapidly occurring events. Just too many 4WD pickups & Fullsize SUVs everywhere. As such a performance F-body, Challenger, death trap Miata or Soltice just won't cut it.

For first vehicle, in 2013, put my son in a 97 Cherokee. Really slick little Cherokee after some paint, tires & little f/e work. Since '88 had put over half a million miles on 4.0 Cherokees, with very good results, so knew small problem issues & how to repair. For my son, part time 4wd could come in handy in the winter & room for 3 teammates to pile in with 4 doors made it a no brainer.

Sending my boy off to college/play ball, we put him in my wifes previous 2WD 4Runner Sport. Phenominally reliable vehicle, sporty, not that dated. Having owned a few early full-size Blazers, then several 4.0 XJ Cherokees, the safety contributions of 4Runner Sport's VRS & Stability Control are a vast improvement in driver safety. 3 times now, those features have proved they can save the lives of a vehicle load of people. This esp holds true thrown into a really bad situation with an inexperienced driver.

As such, & for 5-10K, just about any '06-09 2WD V6 4Runner Sport would be a good recommendation, lower mile one preferably, but since they are so depenable & will go 300k miles, hard to find lower mile ones. Another strong recommendation would be a same front bodystyle 4WD Tacoma 4door. In clean condition, such a Tacoma will have held its value very well, hard to find for under 10K.