I'm going to be a senior next year, so I know some things about teens. Most teens love their car more than anything else. Most parents assume that their kids need cars to get jobs, so it's the standard 16th birthday present, along with a contract to get employed and pay for car insurance and gas. It "teaches responsibility." In my state of Illinois, driver's ed is a required class, and it is an unwritten law that a car is needed to "keep up" with other kids. Another thing, teens are incredibly self-centered and competitive to get the best material goods, but that's another rant.
If you want to know how obscessed kids are with cars, some tool said I was wasting my money on an $800 bike when he just got new $800 rims for his gas-hog Camaro.