investingdad wrote:... And her own insurance ...
Regarding this... I think it is not always so easy (depending on what one's goals might be).
Our umbrella policy requires all drivers living in our house (at least our daughter, who is the only driver in our house besides my wife and me) to be considered when determining the umbrella premium (umbrella and auto policies both from USAA). Due to a driving record (accidents) that, generously, could have been better, our auto rates increased and we were forced from a USAA underwritten umbrella to third party umbrella. I never looked seriously into ditching USAA, as I figured we could live with it until she graduated college, moved out, and actually did get her own policy.
Long story short, my point is that I thought that we could somewhat isolate our daughter onto her own, albeit probably very expensive, policy and have her poor driving not affect our other auto rates and our umbrella rate (and policy type). In that context of USAA, that was not true. We were stuck as long as she was living at home.
About the car choice... I don't know enough about the ins and outs of the BMW, except that it is 10 years old, to comment on it. I can say that we bought our daughter a Honda Civic. It was 4 years old at the time and was "Honda Certified" by the Honda dealer, so it had an extra year on the warranty (or something like that). It has been reliable, except that I wish it were more resistant to the damage caused by repeatedly running into immovable objects (light poles in parking lots, curbs, parked cars, etc). Other than that, I can't complain.