Question on 21 year old buying a car

[paulsharvey]

For something you're going to spend over 1/12th of your life, and 1/8th of your waking hours in, there is something to be said for something you like, not strictly functional. It's somehow less painful to send a $650/month payment in for a vehicle that is awesome, then a $500/month payment on something you dont enjoy.

 

[Sigarms]

There is Cool and then there is pragmatical. All my cars have been practical. I have absolutely no interest in pretending to being cool. Even when I was single. If the date thought, I'd have an expensive car or something, that's a one time date. Cause I don't tell them about any thing else. Books and Covers. If they don't want to read the book.........pass.

I'm the same way.

My boy however is or was not, particularly when he turned 17 and wanted a Mercedes LOL

His own money, his own decision, even if I thought it was a mistake and told him so.

That said, he loves cars, and he loves working on them. There are much worse habits for young men IMO

When he took his Mercedes car door apart, he blew me away. That car has some really screwed up engineering.

He worked on the his mustang by himself, and not certain what he did, but if definitely had more power after the work. He made a lot of friends on base when he helped guys on their car, that's for sure LOL

He figures a more practical car will be easier to work on himself, and I'm all for that line of reasoning.

He sends me a picture of a watch. Apparently a guy gave him a watch over there that didn't work and told him if he could fix it, it's his. Told me he took the back plate off, figured out what the issue was, and now it's working. The kid is actually mechanically inclined. He didn't get that way until he bought his first car, and for that I'm grateful he bought the Mercedes, added the fact he was smart enough to trade it in.

Realistically, he probably doesn't need our signature for a loan, but when you 21 one year old boy is gaining independence and is now halfway around the world away from you, if he asks you if we could co sign "if he needs it" for a car you'd be hoping he'd get (being more practical), it seems like a dick move to say no.

 

[Sigarms]

For something you're going to spend over 1/12th of your life, and 1/8th of your waking hours in, there is something to be said for something you like, not strictly functional. It's somehow less painful to send a $650/month payment in for a vehicle that is awesome, then a $500/month payment on something you dont enjoy.

That's what he's working on, something that he would enjoy driving, as well as being more practical.

I'll give him credit, those two he looked at are actually pretty nice looking. When our Pilot goes out, we'll probably be buying a much newer one, but I told him the cars he was looking at is something that I wouldn't even mind buying. It's kind of nice when your son agrees with you LOL

 

[Sigarms]

There is Cool and then there is pragmatical. All my cars have been practical. I have absolutely no interest in pretending to being cool. Even when I was single. If the date thought, I'd have an expensive car or something, that's a one time date. Cause I don't tell them about any thing else. Books and Covers. If they don't want to read the book.........pass.

You made me think...

That's exactly what my dad use to think.

Mom passed away, and he was getting tired of his old Pontiac and he was also tired being the taxi driver for the family in his area because he could still drive at age 73 (back then). He wanted 2 doors, seats to small in the back to haul people, and a trunk to large enough to carry his clubs. Most importantly, if he were on the interstate doing 60 and wanted to pass a semi, he wanted to hit the gas, and have some "get up and go" in his own words.

He was also cheap, no more than 13K on a car he told me back in 2007 when he said he was interested in a new car LOL

He got that first accord back in 2007, second one around 2012, and the last one in 2018. He was visiting us out to dinner one night when he visited, and he saw his same accord coupe, but newer in a blue he really, really liked. I found out they stopped making them in 2017, and it just so happened that I found one in the color he liked locally, and pretty much the only one I could find in NC in 2018 at the time.

I told my dad they don't make them anymore, and that they now have memory seats so he didn't have to keep adjusting the seat. Told him if he was interested, I'll call the dealership. He told me he be down that weekend, drove 8 hours, and traded his old one for a new one.

He loved putting both windows down and open the sun roof, and play his polkas! Thought it was the best of both worlds because it was just as good as a convertible (when our son sold his mustang locally, we let him drive his grandfathers car for a couple of weeks on base, and he put a smile on my face when he said he had both windows down and the sunroom open driving back home, just like gramps LOL).

I'm glad I talked my father into his first "fun car" other than one he talked about in 1950 when he was in his late teens.

Learned a lot from my dad, and if and when I retire in my 70's, I'm going to do the same thing he did, buy an impractical car and have fun driving it!

Age 86 in the pic the first year he moved in with us. I was coming home and he was coming up from our local home road to go out for a ride. Luckily a year later, he decided to let the grandkids drive him around in his car because it was just getting to be too much for him and we didn't even have to ask him to stop driving as he knew he was getting old...

 

[JasperFrank]

Had a younger co-worker that said his dad, was giving him a 90's Corvette. I said to to him, do you know what your insurance on that car, being under 25 will cost you? He didn't know, I pulled a number out of you know where, it would be about $1200 a month. He shopped around insurance, an sure enough, it was about 1200 a month. So he bought a small truck instead, with his own money.

 

[Sigarms]

Had a younger co-worker that said his dad, was giving him a 90's Corvette. I said to to him, do you know what your insurance on that car, being under 25 will cost you? He didn't know, I pulled a number out of you know where, it would be about $1200 a month. He shopped around insurance, an sure enough, it was about 1200 a month. So he bought a small truck instead, with his own money.

I'll give my son credit. That is EXACTLY why he stayed away from a 8 cylinder and just went with a 6 banger in a mustang, as he looked into it and what the increase in his insurance would be.

 

[paulsharvey]

Had a younger co-worker that said his dad, was giving him a 90's Corvette. I said to to him, do you know what your insurance on that car, being under 25 will cost you? He didn't know, I pulled a number out of you know where, it would be about $1200 a month. He shopped around insurance, an sure enough, it was about 1200 a month. So he bought a small truck instead, with his own money.

I would expect high insurance on a sports car, but not a corvette? Yeah, in theory it has the features of a sports car, but is driven by 60 y/o dentists, every other Sunday. Dont know that ive ever seen a corvette listed with over 60,000 miles, and most are like 25,000 miles on a 15 year old car

 

[Sigarms]

I would expect high insurance on a sports car, but not a corvette?

I believe his point was the vette was a crapload on the insurance.

From what my son found per insurance is it's not so much that the car is classified as a "sports car" but the size of the engine and age of the kid driving it. V6 mustang I believe is running him around $1,200 a year. V8 mustang would run him over 10 grand a year.

I was hauling my Kubota into town for service a couple of years ago. I was doing 55MPH on the highway and found it funny I was passing a brand new Vette LOL Needless to say, the driver was far from young.

 

[WinterDeere]

I would expect high insurance on a sports car, but not a corvette? Yeah, in theory it has the features of a sports car, but is driven by 60 y/o dentists, every other Sunday.

??? I and nearly every one of my friends had our Corvettes in our 20's. We had Camaros and Mustangs in our late teens... poor-man's Corvettes.

This would have been the 1990's, and we were buying up 10 - 20 year old C3's and C4's, putting heads and custom cams in them... one buddy even did a roots blower on his C3. I never liked the C4 much, but the C3's were a thing of beauty to my 20-year old eyes.

 

[paulsharvey]

I was mostly joking about the corvette, but no, I dont think of them as a sports car, but as an old fart car...

On insurance; its a mix; if full coverage, the value of the insured vehicle, driving history, age, and risk profile. On liability, its just risk, age, and driving history. Oh, and of coarse level of insurance. If your on liability, or have any vehicle worth less than maybe $10k, i would assume its minimum legally required.

Risk is not just your accidents/driving record, its a complex data base, thats knows this age, this vehicle, this area, is likely to total a vehicle every 3.5 years.

With the risk profile, its not always obvious which vehicles are more expensive vs less; a 2006 Chevy 1500 might be higher risk then a Camaro, or a Yukon might be higher risk than a 350Z