This is bigger than choosing the vehicle, and you have a great opportunity here. So, here's the deal - as his dad, he's asking you to help him make a good choice, but he is young, and part of his uncertainty is that he doesn't have enough experience to know by what factors he needs to evaluate. So, this is less about choosing the material item and more about learning how to think, and you know more than you know - so how do you help him learn what you know?
- how long will his commute be?
- what will his $ tolerance be for fuel costs?
- does he like small and zippy, or will the commute in small and zippy stress him out from bigger vehicles that don't respect following distance, bright headlights, etc.?
- would he rather have a larger vehicle for comfort?
- children planned in 4 years?
- does he live in an area where AWD is truly good to have, or is FWD adequate? (in my northeast experience, AWD only goes as well as the FWD in front of you)
- what are his values as far as his vehicle expenditures, debt tolerance, reliability, image?
- what worked for you at his age?
btw - most pilots I've known have preferred smaller vehicles, especially earlier in their careers, and they tended to look around and wander in their lane. a smaller car or midsize car leaves a bit more room for that. I don't know if that's a normal thing, but I do know from the few hours put in, flying a plane requires one to let it drift a bit and not micro-correct like we do for lane control. maybe it's a thing?
-m