After my trip out to the Kelley Blue Book Headquarters where I test drive five of the 16 top cars for families I consider myself a KBBDad. I’ve got the app on my phone and I won’t be going into another dealership again without checking it first. While I still have some years yet before either of my kids go off to college, please don’t make me do the math I’ll faint, I do have friends who are bringing their kids off to school right around now.

So, I thought I would share with you some information from KBB.com that was shared with me. Namely the 10-Best Back-To-School Cars for 2016, which includes information for the 10 best new cars for students that cost under $20,000, and 10 Best Used Cars Under $8,000, which offers more cost-effective vehicle solutions for students and their parents. Both of these best car lists are from the editors at Kelley Blue Book and the B.R.A.K.E.S. information is from our friends at Kia. These are great resources for college bound kids. Cars that won’t break your bank accounts. Speaking of not breaking the bank, at the end of this post you will find several tips for first time car buyers that are really perfect for anyone looking to purchase a car.

Before we get to those tips I do have some Teen driving Safety tips that the folks from Kia shared through the the B.R.A.K.E.S. Program, a non-profit Teen Pro-Active Driving School founded by Top Fuel drag racer Doug Herbert in memory of his teenage sons, Jon and James, who were tragically killed in a car crash on Jan. 26, 2008. The B.R.A.K.E.S. curriculum includes advanced, behind-the-wheel training from professional driving instructors including: skid avoidance, distracted driving awareness, panic stopping (ABS activation), drop-wheel recovery and car control.

According to a study by Dr. Paul Friday of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the North Carolina Department of Transportation, 84 percent of all B.R.A.K.E.S. graduates since 2011 had no crashes, and 93.6 percent of all students since 2011 had no moving violations following the course. Perhaps most importantly, B.R.A.K.E.S. graduates are 64 percent less likely to be involved in a crash in their first three years of driving.

Doug Herbert has provided 10 tips that I’d like to share with you regarding how to keep young drivers safe on the road.

Even though my kids are too young to drive, yours may not be. So I’m sharing the tips below that I think may be useful to you and your family. There are B.R.A.K.E.S. schools all over the country, so feel free to go to http://www.PutOnTheBrakes.org with your kids to register their teens in the course.

Top 10 Teen Driving Safety Tips Everyone Parent Should Know

1. We put this one first since it is a big one! While your teen likely will never admit it, you serve as a role model and often help shape their habits – driving and otherwise. Remember to always wear your seatbelt, never drink and drive and avoid distractions – including texting!
2. Establish a safe driving contract with your teen. It is important to keep an open line of communication regarding safe driving habits. Visit http://putonthebrakes.org/parents-teens to download a contract today and be sure to display it in a prominent location such as your refrigerator at home as an ongoing reminder to you and your teen.
3. Ensure your teen does not become reliant on cruise control to maintain appropriate speeds. Cruise control should be avoided when roads are wet, since many systems do not compensate for slick roads and may cause an unintentional loss of control.
4. Encourage your teen to leave space between them and large trucks. An 80,000-pound truck is not very maneuverable and has many blind spots. Teach your teen to not squeeze into spaces in front of a truck.
5. Trucks require a large stopping distance. Also, teach your teen to not ride alongside a truck, especially along the right side. Large trucks have many blind spots and often cannot see vehicles alongside them. This is especially dangerous since trucks have a large turning radius.
6. Encourage your teen to drive defensively. Remind your teen to keep their eyes up and look through the car ahead of them. This will help your teen be ready to respond to traffic situations around them.
   Give your teen a “Hall Pass.” In other words let them know that you will give them a ride home fromANY bad situation with NO consequence. Discuss with your teen that they may have made a bad decision that could have had a very bad outcome but calling you for a safe ride home was a good decision.
7. Teach your teen to properly adjust their mirrors to reduce blind spots. Proper side mirror adjustment slightly overlaps with the rear view mirror, in other words, you will NOT be able to see your rear of your car in your side view mirrors, they will be adjusted farther outward and therefore reducing the blind spots.
8. Practice, practice and more practice. You spend countless hours practicing for sports including football, soccer, baseball, etc. with your teen. Driving with your teen is important and critical to helping them develop into a safe and responsible driver. The more hours a teen can spend behind the steering wheel of a car the better. Practice makes perfect!
9. Talk to your teen about safe following distances. Highway speeds require increased following distances. As a general rule of thumb the minimum following distance should be at least one car length per 10 mile per hour, in other words allow six car lengths for a speed of 60 miles per hour. At night or during poor visibility or rain these following distances need to be increased. If someone is tail gating you or following too close pull over or let them pass. Remember faster traffic is always encouraged to be in the left hand highway lanes and slower traffic and trucks in the right lanes.
10. Keep initial driving lessons to less than 30 minutes and increase the times commensurate with the teens’ ability. Do not bring additional passengers along and most importantly, keep your cool. Expect mistakes and don’t over-react or over-correct. Don’t expose your teen driver to heavy traffic or situations that require more advanced capabilities until you decide they are ready to tackle it.

Car Shopping and Buying Tips for Students and Parents:

• Do Your Research: All the information you need to make a smart car-buying decision is available at KBB.com, including both expert and consumer reviews and ratings, Price Advisor information including Kelley Blue Book Fair Purchase Price, side-by-side comparisons, safety and reliability ratings and more.
• Know What It Is Going to Cost You: Once you’ve narrowed it down to a few models that you are interested in, be sure to check out not only what it will cost you up front to buy the car, but also what it will cost you over time to own the vehicle. KBB.com’s 5-Year Cost-to-Own information for new cars can help you determine both.
• Drive At Least Two or Three Different Models: It’s easy to enjoy a test drive in the vehicle at the top of your list, but without driving one or two others to compare, you might easily miss out on something you’d like even more.
• If Buying New: Always use a vehicle’s Fair Purchase Price, not Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price, as your basis for comparing vehicles and negotiating with the dealer. Kelley Blue Book’s Fair Purchase Price reflects the prices people are typically paying a dealer for a new car, based on new-car transactions and adjusted regularly as market conditions change. Kelley Blue Book’s Fair Purchase Price may be hundreds or even thousands of dollars less than MSRP.
• If Buying Used: Whether buying from a private party or a dealer, it’s always a good idea to have any used vehicle checked out by a reputable independent service shop. When purchasing from an individual, check out the private-party value from KBB.com as well as Kelley Blue Book’s Quick Condition Quiz. These items will help you determine the “actual” condition and value of the vehicle.
• Consider Certified Pre-Owned (CPO): When you buy a CPO vehicle, you get the value of buying a used car with the peace of mind that comes from getting new-car-like features, such as a manufacturer-backed vehicle warranty, full vehicle inspection and more. Learn more about buying CPO, compare all manufacturer CPO programs and even search for CPO vehicle inventory in your local area on KBB.com here: www.kbb.com/certified-pre-owned/
• Shop Online: Use the Internet to find the exact vehicles local dealers in your area currently have on their lots. You can check out inventory in the ‘Cars for Sale’ section on KBB.com to save time and hassle of driving around from dealership to dealership. This way you can choose wisely which models you want to go test drive.