mmarshall

I'm starting this thread, not for myself (I'm single, never been married, and have no kids) but for the benefit of many of you here at CL who have to face these questions or will soon BE facing them. I'm sure many of you....and your wives and husbands.....think about this quite often.

What set of wheels should I buy my son or daughter? How much of the bill should they foot themselves...for the car and insurance? How much can I.....or they..... afford to spend? Should I buy a brand-new cheap car like an Accent or Rio or an older, more expensive car for the same bucks? Can I trust them with a high-performance car...are they mature enough? Should they have a job first?

I'm sure there are many ideas and opinions on this. Being single, for once I'm going to shut up and turn the floor over to the parents here.....................

Vegassc400

I've made both my kids a deal already. Keep all A's & B's on their report cards from 6th grade on and they can have a used car (under $12K) when they turn 16. They can pick the car as long as it meets my final approval. They must pay their own insurance. Whether a part time job somewhere else or working for me.

Fiya

I think my parents had a great idea. They doubled any money I was able to save for my first car, then they surprised me with a $2000 bonus. I really earned that car with their help it helped me appreciate it.

InfiniD

Whatever you parents do, please do not buy your 16 year old kids, brand new 30,000 dollar cars. There's absolutely nothing wrong with parents helping out, but your kids don't learn anything about life when everything is given to them. I see this scenario every now and then in one of our richer neighborhoods. Every one of these kids that I talked to was a brat. Most of them ended up crashing their cars and they would get a new one. Incredible.

mooretorque

Several things come to mind.

1) Both my boys will go to Bondurant or one of the other high performance/teen driving program schools at the earliest opportunity and likely for a multiday course. I strongly feel that even a teenage boy, invulnerable tho he may feel, can learn more from one session demonstrating the loss of control involved in violating the pertinent laws of physics. Plus learning how to recover from same. And it's a lot of fun of the type that appeals to young men (and, uh, some not so young men) , so I think they'll be willing participants. If they want to go to "driver's education" to learn how to parallel park, fine.

2) Both will be driving used vehicles with adequate power and predictable handling. But I doubt anything that would fit in the high performance category will be in the driveway (except my car). And evidence of driving irresponsibly will lead to loss of driving privileges. Repeated episodes may lead to vehicle sale. If they want to race, we'll talk SCCA.

3) Grade requirements at that point yet to be determined, but they're making As now. Regardless, if they fall below the gradpoint requirement, the keys will be mine (well, they will be anyway, but you know what I mean).

4) I may pay insurance premiums as long as the grades stay up (still thinking about this one, but the boys are 8 and 10.5, so I have a while to ponder). They'll be required to maintain the vehicles to my standards (which will be reasonable) and that money will come from their allowance/jobs.

I want to emphasize responsibility, accountability, and the development of maturity. For that, they've got to have room to try and, possibly, fail. And I'll be there to pick them up and help them try again. But I'm also going to try and give them the tools to succed.

GFerg

When I got my license in High School, I drove my moms car around until I was able to purchase a car on my own. Thats what I recommend parents to do. It worked fine for me. I was basically sharing my car with my mom. Didnt mind it. She didnt either. She drove me to school, I would get a ride home from a good friend, and on the weekends or other non conflicting meetings I would take out the car, and if there was conflict, then I would drop them off somewhere or vice versa. I would recommend parents to do that for the first year. Saves your kids money, and when they get older, they can buy their own. I dont know how you would feel about it, lending your car out to you son/daughter, but I am a damn good defensive driver nad my parents trusted me very much with their precious cars.

Freshman year of college, I bought my 97 Maxima, for 8grand with warranty and 55K on the odometer which I thought was one hell of deal. My parents pay for the insurance, and sometimes gas. I take care of maintance and everything else. I care to much for my car considering that I paid for the acr myself, so I dont want anything happening to it all. I'm very **** about my car and I dont want to loose it. I will flip a s****. However if anything does and I pray everyday that nothing does happen, my backup car is the Lex. Oh Yeah!!

The following year, my dealership traded in a Lexus ES300 for pretty cheap, and I ended up splitting it with my parents. So basically I own 1 and a half cars. So now we use it for nice days out on the town and or for weekend getaways and such. Off and on they have been thinking about selling and not selling. Sometimes they feel it takes up to much room other times they dont think so. Whatever.

Basically, I am just an example of what yall can do for your daughters/sons considering what they have done for me. It worked perfectly and I couldnt have been happier.

alexulan

Ahh my first car. Because of good grades and just got my license, I was 16.
Had to pay for my insurance.

Dad picked up a 84 Grand Fury from a Police auction for like $1500.

We had it painted for like 300 buck ****ty brown.

I picked up a huge 10 foot CB antenna and put it on the rear quarter panel where the original Police car had it.

I terrorized the whole neighborhood and the school for three years in that car.

Here comes the Narcs!

Especially on the highway at night you could clear out the left lane in a heart beat.

Even cops had to do a double take to see if it was one of their own.

We threw in some 6x9 and 8" in the rear deck so it was a Narc mobile with Beat LOL

I learned so much on that car.
Breaks, Starter, Carburetor adjustment and cleaning, Luckily my neighbor was way into cars and would give me a lot of help.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Last week when I was standing in line at a McDonald's, I overheard 3 late high-schoolers/early college? girls talking about parents buying them cars. One of them, "Ewwww, my dad is going to get me a 97 Lexus Ewwww....a 97, could you believe it, it's like ten years old ewww?" One of the other friend , "Well, you're lucky b/c I have an 88 Nissan Sentra, could you believe it, a sentra." I left that line before I could even say "You guys are such BRATS!!!" Didn't want to waste my saliva

I am married, but no kids yet. I don't think any right-minded parents should buy their son/daughter a car beyond $20,000, especially for high-schoolers and undergraduates! What does that leave? Basically a typical gas-saving, low-insurance econo-car that they need to save their time and money invested into their education so they can afford a $30,000 themselves.
When they graduate or reach the graduate level, then the parents could buy/help out with the car of their choices.

To me, education is top priority.
I wouldn't even get to the subject of rims if they're still in high school or undergraduate. I would tell them that I'd rather these $ into a better car for you later on .

GFerg

LOL, I saw this dumb show on MTV where this 16 year old girl was shopping for a car. She was looking at Mercedes Benzs with her dad, they walk outside and she sees a black 2004 Range Rover HSE and jumps for joy. Says she wants that car and nothing else. Come to find out, its used and gets out upset. Next thing you know shes screaming again. Her Dad bought her a brand new Range Rover in white. Your talkin about 30K cars for your first car, this girl got a 70K truck for her first car. Talk about spoiled brat.

GFerg

Or money into a house which I am currently doing.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Even better When the house appreciates , you've got equity

Baby ///M3

I am not yet a parent but I suppose I could've been one if I was in a hurry.

Since childhood, I've always earned praises and gifts from my parents by doing well in school or contributing to the household.

I suppose that's also why I treasure a lot of my childhood toys very much; after all, they had to be earned and taken good cared of.

Driving a car, on the other hand, is a completely different experience. Although I've had disagreements with my parents when I was younger, I now understand why they had so much concern for my safety. In their perspectives, it's always better to be safe than sorry. No matter how slight a chance is for me to get hurt.

Obviously, I didn't understand their perspectives when I was 16. I couldn't understand why they had suddenly worried so much about my safety and driving cars.

I ended up having my parents pick me up/drop me off in high school, walking in college, and driving an 89' Nissan Pulsar in graduate school.

Now as an adult, I finally understand why I had to walk when I was younger. Had I insisted upon what I was told when I was a kid when it comes to having cars (Berkeley = New 300ZX or RX-7s or Supras; Stanford = New Mercedes SL or BMW 8 series; Harvard = New Lotus Esprit or NSX), I probably wouldn't even be here now.

Nowadays, I can finally appreciate why my parents did what they had to do. I am glad that I didn't have a car in high school, and I am content that walking in college maintained my health and kept me from being fat.

There's always time to enjoy having a nice car/house somewhere in your life time. Having a proper education in school and safely making it through your teenage years, on the other hand, is definitely a one time deal.

That's all it matters.

Jon

RA40

iTrader: (6)

In my instance, mom/pop had a bank account set-up that became available to me at 18. So nearly all B-day or X-mas money went into that account. When I graduated HS, part of that account went to buy the car and they paid the other half. Anything additional was paid for through my working for it. (I still have that car BTW.)

While I tend to agree that kids should have a starter car to learn. Many kids from affluent families have the resources to buy them nice new cars. Nothing wrong with that...yet to some, it is a meanignless gift that they show-off and I've watched them ruin the car in short order if not crash it. In some instances, parents turn a blind eye and give them more freedom than is warrented for a 16 or 17 YO...in some cases 18-21. As a parent, if my child could demontstrate the maturity and responsibility, I would take that into consideration as to a car they liked.

Off-hand, Camry, Corolla or Scion.

I know one fellow who's mom runs a successful business. She bought him multiple cars, a 4000 sqft house and allows him to indugle in his shopping sprees through a compnay C-card. The guy at 34 is clueless. Life to him is buying expensive things, playing with them till he tires and goes on to the next.

mmarshall

Some good suggestions here....and I'd like to add one of my own. I think it is a good idea for ANY new prospective Drivers' License applicant, no matter WHAT he or she is going to be driving, how much it costs, or how old it is, to spend at least one Friday or Saturday night at the Emergency Room of the local hospital to see first-hand the results of drinking, reckless driving, and irresponsibility. More often than not it is NOT a pretty sight, and one picture in this case is worth MORE than a thousand words.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

il put a unique perspective on this seeing as how i just turned 16 this past thursday. i have been offered a car a number of times by family members over the yeards and have rejected each and every one of them. most of them had kids (my cousins) who got brand new 4Runners and Bimmers when they turned 16, but, when i look at them, out of like 6, only 2 have jobs that pay well, the rest are doing random jobs w/in their rentz companies. now i have nothing against them, its their life, but personally, im looking forward to driving my 1988 Camry with 250,000miles+ on its clock and earning my own car. i know that its like suicide for me, since im taking classes designed for seniors and college freshmen as a sophmore but if i can pull it off, a job and school, then the car i get at the end, no matter what it is, will be a hellofa lot sweeter than if my rentz just gave me the one i want in the first place.