How picky are you when it comes to cars for your son and daughter?

[sld]

I was pretty much self sufficient by the age of 16. I have made it easier for my kids.

I did realize that the first car you buy them has a good chance getting damaged so we went pretty cheap there. After a year with no issues I would get them something fairly nice. Usually it was a 10 to 15 year old car with over 100k miles but in decent shape.

Upon graduating college (the oldest 2 so far) I bought them something nicer, but still far from new.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I have 5 kids. Been married a few times. My oldest, a daughter was rough on equipment. First car was a 600 dollar chevy corsica. I would come out of the house in the morning to head to work and see vegetation hanging from the undercarriage where she had run over a shrub or gone in a ditch. I don't know how that child survived. The car didn't last too long, and my wife found a Volvo 960. We put her in that, and after year it started acting up.....Daughter was driving better by then and I came across a 1985 saab that looked like it had just rolled out of the showroom. IT had less than 100k on it so I bought it. Manual transmission so I had to teach her to drive it for a couple weeks. 1 month after buying her the car, She got rear-ended at a stop light. Car was totaled. She was pretty much ok. That car was replaced with another , newer Saab. She had that till college, and it got hit in a parking lot by another student.....after it was repaired, I took it back and gave her an old chevy blazer s-10 platform that had been my mother's. I never paid for her gas...she always had to work and pay her own gas. When she graduated college she wanted a "cute car". So she bought a POS suzukie and gave me back the blazer.
My oldest boy is still driving that blazer....he is starting his 3rd year of college next week. I have 2 17 year old boys who are in driving school right now and they will be sharing a 98 cherokee. One of them has been doing yard work and saving. He wants an older truck....I'm not buying it. The other one has a wad of cash in the bank but has said nothing about a car. I think he just wants to hold on to his money until he leaves for the military to plunk down on a car. The youngest is a girl. My wife is driving a mazda crossover right now and that will probably go to the girl. All my kids are pretty good, and none of them are without challenges. The oldest two were at the top of their class....the next two are hit or miss with school...and the youngest will probably be a doctor or a Veterinarian. I have always made my kids work. Stacking firewood, maintaining the yard, etc. They don't always do a good job and sometimes it's more work for me to deal with them than if I just did it myself...but over time it pays off. Sometimes I feel like I'm spoiling them too much....sometimes the youngest ones pay for the sins of the oldest ones. I can tell you for certain that they all have been miserable and dirty working on our land in the last year. And the year before that, when we were trying to rehab a property to help pay for the land, I worked the heck out of those kids. Blisters and broken skin shoveling gravel and mulch, and tearing out ancient shrubbery. They may not be saving up their money to buy the car themselves, but there was always work.
My last thought, in this long winded response. I'm a bit more worried about reliability for a girl.

 

[George2615]

I'm in the same group as most and always had to buy my own cars. But, used cars were cheap back then. I cannot tell you how many $100 specials I bought over the years and had to fix up to drive. Those days have long gone. No one ever gave me a car.

My kids have grown and gone but I did help them find decent used cars when they became driving age. There were quite a few I turned away because they needed too much work. I have to admit I did pay upfront for a few of the kids cars. Some partially paid me back, some did not. I guess as we grow older we want our kids to have it better than we did.

Schools should offer driver education courses, (not sure if they still do that). I also have seen first hand a few times that when a parent buys a vehicle for a child that NOT ALL, but a lot of kids have no incentive to treat the car with respect and drive it carefully. You tend to treat any vehicle better when its your money paying for it. Parents need to explain the responsibilities and upkeep of owning a vehicle not to mention insurance. No matter what training they get or how careful they are they are still inexperienced drivers and accidents will happen.

Where was the child endangerment when we were young riding in the back of an open pickup, no seat belts, air bags, ABS, traction control, power brakes, power steering etc. in cars.
If parents have the money to buy safer vehicles for their kids then I say go for it. It just didn't happen in my family.

 

[CCWKen]

I took driver's ed in junior high school at age 13. You were supposed to be 14 but they let me take it since I would turn 14 by the time the class was over. I got my license at age 14 and bought my first car for $50; A 1952 Chevy. I earned every dime of it and paid for my own gas, maintenance and insurance. That was a time when you could buy a 13-14 year old car for less than $100. It was also a time when a gallon of milk was 49 cents and gas was 20 cents. Minimum wage was 90 cents an hour and I remember working at Dairy Queen when the minimum was bumped to $1.10. For a high school kid, that was a lot of money back then. And it sure beat mowing and trimming lawns in the heat for $3-$5. And that was before weedwackers. Sidewalk trimming was done with loppers a few inches at a time.

In any case, times change. There's no way a high school or college kid could earn enough to buy a car now days and pay for the things needed for school. Even if you're looking at a 13-14 year old car. Those cars are pretty much junk or a money pit now with only a few exceptions. (My own!) The old adage; "they don't make 'em like they used to" lives on. Gone are the days of a tune up with a tach/dwell and timing light. And few kids today can even change their own oil. It takes parents to support the transportation needs of their kids. It's either that or your kids are selling drugs.

 

[MossRoad]

I guess I would be a bad parent because if my child wanted a car they would have to earn it... not saying I wouldn't offer advice...

My real point is just about all of the folks I work with think it is paramount to child endangerment to put a teen behind the wheel with out ABS, AirBags, Roll Over Protection, Traction Control... etc.

Well..... my kid has a 2004 Sable. Its O.K. and she paid for most of it. We helped just a little. It has air bags and anti-lock brakes. It also is in the shop for about $1000 in necessary repairs today.

Anyhow, last year she was driving our 2013 Impala on a local hwy in a heavy snowstorm. A semi passed her at high speed, the car swerved violently, she hit the brakes and she lost control. She said she screamed, let go of the wheel and covered her face as she thought she was going to go under the semi trailer, and the car straightened itself out without her input. I'm convinced it was the anti-lock brakes, traction control, and stability control that prevented her from going under that truck or off the road.

Really, in this day and age, with all the safety features on modern cars, why would anyone put their kid/wife/family/non-enemy in an older car for a daily driver? To quote Beldar Conehead when his daughter was going to the prom with her boyfriend...

Beldar Conehead: Take my car, its re-enforced alloy superstructure is far superior to that of your broken down, rusted out **** box.

 

[ultrarunner]

I guess that is the question...

I have an older 68 Mustang that my niece/Goddaughter loves.

My brother told me he would never forgive me if I gave her an unsafe car like that.

Here is the kicker... I restored a 68 Mustang for his 16th birthday from one end to the other... he paid parts and zero for labor... complete drive train, body, paint, interior...

Owned that car 25 years with the same engine/trans I rebuilt... it was stolen once and he got 7k settlement... we fixed it up and and he later sold for 9k to someone in New Zealand... he paid $2600 for the car and parts when I restored it.

He put 134k miles on it the years he owned it... and made a good money on it... and now his daughter wants the same and he has made it clear no way no how...

He did say if I wanted to buy her a late Model Accord he would be OK with it... like that is going to happen.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

My real point is just about all of the folks I work with think it is paramount to child endangerment to put a teen behind the wheel with out ABS, AirBags, Roll Over Protection, Traction Control... etc.

Yes, there are a lot of idiots like that.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

I took driver's ed in junior high school at age 13. You were supposed to be 14 but they let me take it since I would turn 14 by the time the class was over. I got my license at age 14 and bought my first car for $50; A 1952 Chevy. I earned every dime of it and paid for my own gas, maintenance and insurance. That was a time when you could buy a 13-14 year old car for less than $100. It was also a time when a gallon of milk was 49 cents and gas was 20 cents. Minimum wage was 90 cents an hour and I remember working at Dairy Queen when the minimum was bumped to $1.10. For a high school kid, that was a lot of money back then. And it sure beat mowing and trimming lawns in the heat for $3-$5. And that was before weedwackers. Sidewalk trimming was done with loppers a few inches at a time.

In any case, times change. There's no way a high school or college kid could earn enough to buy a car now days and pay for the things needed for school. Even if you're looking at a 13-14 year old car. Those cars are pretty much junk or a money pit now with only a few exceptions. (My own!) The old adage; "they don't make 'em like they used to" lives on. Gone are the days of a tune up with a tach/dwell and timing light. And few kids today can even change their own oil. It takes parents to support the transportation needs of their kids. It's either that or your kids are selling drugs.

This. This is very insightful and true.

 

[MossRoad]

I guess that is the question...

I have an older 68 Mustang that my niece/Goddaughter loves.

My brother told me he would never forgive me if I gave her an unsafe car like that.

Here is the kicker... I restored a 68 Mustang for his 16th birthday from one end to the other... he paid parts and zero for labor... complete drive train, body, paint, interior...

Owned that car 25 years with the same engine/trans I rebuilt... it was stolen once and he got 7k settlement... we fixed it up and and he later sold for 9k to someone in New Zealand... he paid $2600 for the car and parts when I restored it.

He put 134k miles on it the years he owned it... and made a good money on it... and now his daughter wants the same and he has made it clear no way no how...

He did say if I wanted to buy her a late Model Accord he would be OK with it... like that is going to happen.

Its one thing for you and me to drive older cars.... we don't care as much for ourselves as we do our loved ones. :laughing:

 

[KennyG]

When my kids started driving we needed a third vehicle. It was "cash for clunkers" time and I couldn't find a low mileage used car. We bought a leftover new car and I was happy with having my daughter drive a new car. I let my son buy an MG Midget so apparently I don't worry so much about him.