DD1 will be getting her permit soon so license in about 6-9mos so we are starting to think about cars.

I could hand down my car to her. At that point it will be nearly 10 years old, around 140k +/- miles. It's a Toyota Highlander, so big but not huge, and at the time it was top of the line but now it doesn't have more common safety things (no driver assist stuff, the backup camera screen is tiny). And it's starting to show it's age in weird annoying ways that don't affect driving (ex: the hatch back needs to be manually closed bc the button doesn't work).

We could get her a new car which would have more of the safety features that are becoming more common/expected now. DH is a bit extremist and believes this car should be a Tesla bc it's "the safest car on the road - don't you want her to be safe?!?" I was thinking something kind of in between lol.

If you have a new or recent driver, what type of are they driving? Which did you look at/consider?