First car: buying old vs Leasing new?

So i'm getting a car soon and i'm 19 i have about $4500 saved up from work. That could buy me a (sort of) old car right there (2004ish), but my parents are willing to help me out some. I'm looking at honda civics.

but my parents are insisting on me LEASING a BRAND NEW car. I have a few concerns with that:
1. Let's be real: i'll probably get in a wreck sometime over the 3year. Lease, and that's gonna cost a fortune
2. I don't even want a brand new car. I don't drive that much - only to work and to college (which is like 300 miles away) but once i'm at college i only return for holidays, so driving the nicest car isn't the most important thing to me.

here's what my parents have against old cars:
1. "unsafe"
2. Gonna break down

their second point is pretty valid but either way i'm looking at something like a honda civic which is proven to be reliable. They might not help me out if i choose to buy an old car because they are so against it.

which do you think makes more sense

Added (1). lol i have a job and i'm a 4.0 engineering student so

Leasing a car is a horrible idea. You will be throwing away money the entire time you have it because it is in basic terms just renting it. At the end of the lease you can purchase the car for a huge percentage or the retail price but it will be thousands more than the car is worth. Do your homework before you consider this as an option, don't take my word for it but seriously investigate it. I personally think it should be illegal for companies to do that to people but that's just me. Lol. I would be looking for a good used car if it were me. Hope this helps.

Just because a car is "proven reliable" doesn't mean it is. I bought a 2000 Ford Focus sedan for 3k, ended up spending over $1200 to fix things I didn't know was wrong with it. Supposed to be one of the most reliable used cars out there. Don't get into a lease at 19. If you're going to get a new car at this age, own it. Take your 4500 and get you a nice used car

Leasing a vehicle looks good until you dig into it. You pay your monthly payments and at the end you give them the car back and have nothing to show for the payments. BTW if you are in school how will you make the monthly payments. Oh your going to get a job and then your grades will suffer.

You obviously don't understand leasing, which makes it a bad choice for you. It sounds like leasing might work for you if you simply understood it and were making your decision based on that good understanding.

You can buy reliable, low mileage used cars for less than $12,000 and your monthly payments should be less than $250 p/m which is about the same as the lease payment would be. You would have no mileage restrictions and would get clear title after the contract ended.