Buying your kid a car

Parent Cafe
41

<p>Ditto what cpt just said - I had a friend in college whose family had a bit of money… lived in a giant house and their cars were a mercedes, a bmw, and a saab (all technically belonging to the parents). My friend let me drive the mercedes (it amazed me that he let me do this and thought his parents would be so mad) multiple times. That being said, I was a better driver then him so I guess he figured it was ok. They dinged that car up so badly. </p>

<p>When they got the BMW, the parents made a rule that none of their three boys could drive it because they wanted to keep it nice. I did laugh though because not too long after that their mom gave me her keys and asked me to go pick something up for her… in her car. So I actually drove it before her own kids did. I guess that means she didn’t care that I drove her Mercedes.</p>

42

<p>OP, this sentiment “it’s just frustrating that some kids get a free car of their own” is one you will see a lot in life. Cars are just one small piece of that sort of thing. You’ll meet people who have trust funds, whose parents buy them condos/houses, support them, get them jobs. It’s just the way it works. DH has a colleague who has a business passed down to him. He worked for Dad for several years, and got the whole kit and kaboodle handed to him, whereas most people working at this business or at anything have a long, hard climb and never become the big boss regardless of competence simply because there are not enough spots for all who so qualify, and there are those who have an “in”. </p>

<p>My neighbor lives in a house much nicer than mine, kept up much nicer than mine, furnished much nicer than mine, and I know the only breadwinner doesn’t make all that much. Grandparents provided house, provide the lawn and house care, and gift a lot of the furnishings and decor, plus pay for the grandkids ECs that cost a fortune as they are into horseback riding and a number of other very pricey venues. I was just complimenting their flowers and wishing that I could do the same, as the blooms are paltry this year. The estimate I got when I listed what would make a dent in the yard color, and this is from Home Dept, was well over a couple thousand dollars, and still would not be close to their yard. My neighbors were happy to tell me that the blooms at a local nursery and the services were stellar, but I know those prices well enough that it wasn’t even a consideration. We pay out of our own pocket and that well has to weather a drought. </p>

<p>My son lives in Manhattan, and has a very tough time making ends meet. He has scads of friends who own or have their living quarters covered by parents or other relatives. They don’t have to work and some who do have jobs that family got or helped them get. My son, on the other hand, is very, very lucky and privileged in that he has no school loans, and we do help him out here and there, not to the extent of some of his better heeled friends and acquaintances, but there are even more out there that have nothing but what they can raise themselves and the fall back they have to use and their financial situations and lives are even more precarious. It’s just the way it works at life. It is wonderful to be born into a family that can provide emotional, physical,material and financial resources, the more the better, but you are stuck with what you have in those regards.</p>

43

<p>I’ve told this story before.</p>

<p>I went to my son’s high school looking for him for reasons that make a story as well. As I asked around, people were texting and calling him with the “mom alert”. As I made my way up the hill back to the main buidlings of the school, I was just about blown off the road by a green Explorer going like a bat out of hell. Behind the wheel of that car was my son. The one without a license. </p>

<p>A few months later at a mother’s coffee at the school, I heard a woman loudly justifying the expense that she and her DH had laid out in getting DD a brand new SUV. DD was SOOOO responsible, and they wanted her to be driving, not one of the other irresponsible kids in cars that might not be in good mechanical shape and as safe. So they got their DD a new SUV that she drives. I went over to her and and recognized a decided resemblance in the woman’s face to the girl sitting shot gun to my son when he just about ran me over (okay, slight exaggeration here). I asked the woman what kind of car she bought and was told it was a Ford Explorer, and again, how safety ruled and how responsible of a driver her DD was. I asked if it were green, and she was surprised I knew. I then introduced myself. </p>

<p>She was overjoyed to meet the mother of her DD’s friend who was at the house (they lived nearby) all of the time, and she told me what a wonderful young man my son was, and how she would come home from work and how her DD and my son were always studying, and how he so enjoyed the dinners she’d cook him. </p>

<p>All I could do was thank her for her hospitality, the meals, the rides ( and the use of the car and daughter, silently).</p>

44

<p>

There are also a lot of new grads who are paying for their rent/expenses by themselves.</p>

45

<p>When I turned sixteen and got my license, my parents practically pushed me out of the house because they were too busy to keep driving me to all my activities. They gave me my dad’s Buick, and my dad got a Cadillac. My parents don’t believe in new cars so I will never expect one of those, and while a Buick isn’t very attractive, I was grateful for it and the free gas and insurance. Just yesterday, I got something close to my dream car, a Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GS convertible for my high school graduation, and while I can’t take it to my college due to the crazy parking permit rates, it will be here for me when I come back! It’s my parents way of showing how proud they are of me and all of my accomplishments in high school. ;)</p>

46

<p>This:

</p>

<p>DS inherited the Grampa-mobile - a 10 year old Buick.</p>

<p>DD inherited the family minivan with 150,000 miles on it.</p>

<p>Neither was ecstatic, but a free vehicle is better than none.</p>

<p>They pay their own insurance, gas, and maintenance.</p>

47

<p>Yep, bought D a car at 16 - 4K in good shape and lots of metal!!! My parents also got my sister and I decent used cars (lots of metal) b/c they hated the idea of us riding in cars with other kids - at their mercy - before DWI even existed and teenagers drove drunk a lot.</p>

<p>That isn’t the case now with my DD, but I still like the idea of her controlling where she goes and when she leaves.</p>

48

<p>If my kids want a car they can buy one themselves. A car will last perhaps a decade. I’m buying them a college education. That should last a lifetime.</p>

<p>That said, we did have 3 cars in the family for a while. S1 used the oldest (10 year old minivan) to drive to CC for math classes. But it was our car and he used it for our convenience.</p>

49

<p>DS had his driver license in his junior year in high school, and still did not have a car. (He still has “negative income” due to attending a professional school.)</p>

<p>In this past year, we kept thinking about how to get him a car, but no action yet. The distance between us is an issue. (Is it worth shipping a car?) The road driving condition (drastically different from ours here in the dry and sunny state) is another. Zipcar" (now a part of Avis) is an option DS thought about but we have a concern that it may not be available when he needs. </p>

<p>I recently heard there is some weekly rental program from Herz. Maybe this is what he needs. I heard he may only need the car for at most 3 or 4 periods in a year, each period being a few weeks.</p>

<p>Any good suggestions? His location is New Haven, CT. Some periods may be in the winter, and this what worry us who haven been living in the south for life.</p>

50

<p>^ If he just needs a car for a few weeks, all of the rental car companies do weekly rentals, the rates can be pretty cheap. </p>

<p>Is he over 25? This could be an issue with some rental car companies.</p>

<p>Hertz on Demand, which is free to join and is similar to ZipCar, has cars in New Haven. Join both and your chances will be good that a car will be available. No age limit for Hertz on Demand either.</p>

<p>Nothing you can do about winter driving except get some experience with it. It’s not that hard.</p>

51

<p>He is over 25. So the age is not a problem.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

52

<p>Thanks, FenderGirl.</p>

<p>Perhaps I should put this into more user-friendly format, so that parents/others can put their own costs in. So, the Annual Cost for a Teenager to Have Her Own Car Table:</p>

<p>Insurance:
Excise tax:
Registration:
Inspection:</p>

<p>(Not annual costs, but per-mile, or per ten thousand miles, costs)
Tune-ups:
Brakes:
Oil changes:
Tires:
Miscellanea:</p>

53

<p>I’m not sure the details of me getting my car such as the insurance, taxes, and the like. All I know is that my car was about $17,000 and my mom said I increased the insurance about $1000 or $2000! I pay for gas. </p>

<p>Insurance: I probably increased the amount $150 a month
Excise tax: unknown
Registration: unknown
Inspection: unknown</p>

<p>(Not annual costs, but per-mile, or per ten thousand miles, costs)
Tune-ups: under warranty
Brakes: under warranty
Oil changes: under warranty
Tires: under warranty
Miscellanea: I pay about $50-$60 a month on gas</p>

54

<p>

</p>

<p>Insurance is priced rather individually; go to insurance company web sites to check on the price change before adding another car, so you can compare the effect of different cars (and also ideally before a new driver is licensed).</p>

<p>Tax, registration, and inspection fees vary at least by state; you should be able to find those which apply to your state from your state DMV web site.</p>

55

<p>One of the projects the 8th graders at D’s school did this year was to be assigned a “person” and do all the research for that person’s car needs-in other words, to fill out the cost form above. The characters they were assigned ranged from teen drivers to older, wealthy retirees, and they had to speak to real car dealers and insurance people. The research included safety features and accident statistics as well as the above.</p>

<p>The kids were shocked at how much a car would cost in addition to the car itself, but it was a great life lesson because they will all remember this when they are driving age. It also drove home (no pun intended) the safety issues that go along with driving.</p>

<p>When we get D a car, it will be “ours”, for sure. We’ll catch a break on repairs and maintenance thanks to my S and his cousin being car experts, but the gas will be the expensive part. It won’t be a new or fancy car, and we would never be buying her a new one for a graduation or anything. This will be a matter of utility, not luxury or reward.</p>

56

<p>I’m a senior, and will be getting my license next week. I waited a long time to get my learner’s permit, and then when I wanted to get it, my birth certificate was lost. Long story short, I’ll be turning 18 next week, and can finally get my license. </p>

<p>I think if I really needed a car, I could convince my dad to help me buy one, if my parents had the money – but they don’t. My step-sisters were allowed to use our crappiest minivan (a 3 door one with peeling paint) when they first got their licenses, before they scronged up the money to buy cheap Volvos from my step-sister’s employer. </p>

<p>I’m somewhat lucky… My uncle bought my aunt’s '95 Jeep Cherokee from her estate, when she died. He drove it for a few years, then let it sit when the registration lapsed… Fast-forward 5 years later and after helping him clean 5 years of mold off of it (and getting stung on the arm by 2 hornets and in between the toes by a yellow jacket while doing so) and sealing a hole in the roof, in a week or two I’ll have a shiny, low-mileage (about 100K miles, as it’s been sitting for a long time) car of my own. He says I worked for it, so it’s all mine. </p>

<p>I’m really grateful… I’m going to a school in a city where you kind of need a car to get to all of it, so it’ll be a lot of help. Plus, I won’t be moving that far from home, so it’ll be nice to be able to come and visit my friends who are still in high school, or going to community college.</p>

<p>All in all, I think parents don’t owe their children cars, but if they want to buy their child a car, it’s a nice gesture. I’ll admit I’m a bit jealous of some of my classmates… Our parking lot is full of new BMWs, new lifted Jeeps and trucks, and even a 1980 Trans Am, in perfect shape. And one classmate has both a 2011 Mustang GT and a '69 Sting Ray with a big block and a 4 speed. But hey… His parents can afford it, and don’t mind it – all comes down to personal choice.</p>

57

<p>My dad passed his 2001 Taurus down to me when he got a new car as him and my mom were sick of picking me up from soccer practice, soccer games, ECs, etc.</p>

58

<p>Eli,</p>

<p>You have some sweat equity in that Jeep. I hope it works out okay for you.</p>

<p>

There are some sections of town, very wealthy areas, where one might be ‘really’ jealous of the cars the students have that were handed to them. And you should see what some of the cars running around an area like Beverly Hills/Bel Air are like. And that probably pales to what some people are driving in Dubai (although I’ve never been there). But really there’s no point in being jealous of any of these since as has been mentioned, there’ll always be someone around handed more than you. Take pride in that Jeep you put a lot of work and some pain into.</p>

<p>PS - I wouldn’t look sideways at a 1980 TransAm or the vanilla BMWs but the 69 Vette sounds pretty interesting (and a friend of mine has one).</p>

59

<p>As others have said this is individual to families, this can be individual to children within families and their specific situations. Our oldest drug his feet on his DL. He walked to his hs job, or rode his bike. We finally pressed him at 18 to get the DL as he was going to our local community college and was going to need to drive. He used money he’d saved, graduation gifts, and a graduation gift from mom & dad to buy his own used car. He pays all associated costs. We did buy him new tires last year for his birthday.</p>

<p>When S1 was 17yo and a rising Sr. he had a wonderful opportunity for a FT internship where he would actually be working using skills and producing for the co. (ie no making copies and fetching coffee). It was about 20mi each way. At that time we also knew we were rezoned out of the hs district. S3 would be staying but we would be loosing transportation. A used car for the younger boys to share made sense. We cover insurance and maintenance. S2 covers gas when he uses it because he’s had great jobs that afford him income. We cover S3’s gas as he hasn’t worked yet and drives because of the lack of bus. S2 used the car for his internship his Jr/Sr summers and did drive his Sr year. S3, now a Jr (17yo) drives to school saving me the 6:15am trip, as well as gives him the flexibility for his ECs which run to 4pm some days, 8pm others. This summer S2 will take the car to his out of state internship. S3 will simply share my car. As you can see, it’s just an ongoing decision of who needs what and how we can accommodate that.</p>