A lot of people find it hard to resist the combined pressure of convenience and teen nagging when it comes to letting teens drive. In our busy lives, it's helpful to have kids who can ferry themselve around....and who doesn't get weary of hearing them bug you for their own car?
But costs are a big part of this situation....and one of the the biggest costs, and possibly your biggest financial surprise, may be the huge jump in your insurance bill. This is largely because teens, both inexperienced and often easily distracted, are involved in a proportionally higher number of accidents than other drivers.
Insurance costs can jump 100% to 300%+ when you add a teenager to your list of family drivers. So you definitely need to check with your insurer before handing over the keys. You can get discounts for a number of reasons: putting your teen's car insurance on your policy for a multi-car discount, buying your teen a car with certain safety equipment, your teen being a good student, or restricting how much your teen can drive the family car. Ask your insurer about such discounts, then do some comparison shopping with other insurers.
Otherwise, you may get a different sort of "sticker shock" when you open your next insurance bill.
A good brochure to explain insurance to your teenager is available at the Insurance Information Institute's website at http://www.iii.org/media/publications/brochures/oops/
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