<p>I am just a little curious as to how parents see this.</p>
<p>My parents allow me to use one of their cars, but I had to get a job before I got my license and pay them a $500 down payment. The money that I make from my job goes towards insurance, upkeep of the car, and gas.</p>
<p>I believe it’s been quite beneficial. I have learned what it takes financially to have a car, the responsibility to keep it nice (as in clean and checked up regularly), and the entry level job has shown me that I can’t get that far with such a low wage.</p>
<p>Do you let your children “borrow” cars, or do you give them their own car? Or are they expected to buy their own? What’s your reasoning behind it?</p>
<p>My kids did not have cars in high school, largely because I had a flexible work schedule at the time and could almost always drop them off and pick them up when necessary or allow them to borrow my car. </p>
<p>One “kid” is now a second-year graduate student and the other is a college junior, and neither has yet owned a car.</p>
<p>Given the ages that they are now, I do expect them to buy their own cars when the time comes that they need them. (Conveniently, each inherited a car-size chunk of money from one of their grandfathers when he died.) If it had been necessary for them to have cars in high school because I could not meet their transportation needs, it might have been a different story. My husband and I are the ones who chose to buy a house in a neighborhood that is not served by public transportation, so we might have felt a certain obligation to find a way to meet the kids’ transportation needs in another way, which probably would have involved getting an additional car.</p>
<p>In the family I grew up in, I was given full-time access to a car when I got my license, with the provision that I had to do certain errands using the car and take my younger sister wherever she needed to go. But that was in a family where all the adults had inflexible work schedules. Giving me full-time access to a car benefited my mother and stepfather as much or more than it benefited me.</p>
<p>Our cars become the kids’ car as a matter of hand-me-downs more or less. H is pretty hard on cars since he travels a lot for business so he racks up the miles pretty good. So we gave oldest D his old car. She went to college at just the same time that middle son learned to drive. When HE left for college, we gave the car to oldest D and she took over all insurance and any maintenance. Just recently we bought a third car ('99 with 70,000 miles) for youngest D to drive. Mostly we did this as a matter of necessity that if the kids need to be somewhere I was taking them. There is no bus to school and so until March of this year I was driving approximately 30 minutes each way to take youngest to school. Truthfully, their getting a car is more a matter of my convenience than their independence.</p>
<p>D1 didn’t have a car in high school or college. When she graduated and got a job she bought herself her first car. D2 is on the same path - now in college and never owned a car.</p>
<p>I think there are a lot of factors that go into this decision to include, but not limited to:</p>
<p>1) Financial situation of parents
2) The ability of kid to work, some parents support EC’s so much with their kids that their ability to produce income is limited
3) The perceived responsibility / maturity level of the child
4) The parents overall philosophy on how to raise their kids</p>
<p>I think for a lot of different reasons you will get different answers. I bought my son a car. He plays a lot of sports and I support that and with his rigorous academic and athletic schedule the amount of money he could make from a job was limited. His school is a 30+ minute drive from our house, so I was not willing to take him every day so buying him a car also made my life easier.</p>
<p>We provided our son with a car to use during the last year of high school. Because he went to college that allowed freshmen to have cars, and because he would be doing off-campus internships, and because he could come home for holidays with the car, we let him take the car with him. He has paid for all gas and upkeep, (but not insurance) from jobs he has had in the summer and during the school year.
For college graduation, we are giving him the pink slip to the car. It’s a pretty generous gift from the monetary standpoint, as the car is still in great shape. I imagine he’ll drive it for another 5 years at least, at which point he should have a good job and may want something different.
So, we did give him a car, but it was sort of over a period of time. Our son has always worked very hard both in and out of school and is sort of a Boy Scout, literally and figuratively. We could afford the car and we wanted him to have something safe.
Yet we also wanted him to have a stake in it- gas and maintenence. This worked for our family. I know our son appreciated having the wheels, and in SoCal you really can’t work easily without them.</p>
<p>Our daughter used a family car in high school, and didn’t need a car on the east coast for college. She uses public transportation and has no immediate need for a car.</p>
<p>Son assumed the role of chauffer when he got his drivers license. This was a matter of necessity since his dad travels a lot and I work 34 miles (60+ minutes) from home. In exchange for relieving us of the driving duties (and getting excellent grades) he doesn’t have to pay for anything. We cover gas, insurance and maintenance. When he goes away to college the car ('98 Accord with 140K miles) will hand down to his sister. </p>
<p>We are very fortunate that Son has received a 90% scholarship to his dream school. Assuming he graduates, we might use some of the $ we saved for college to get him a new car. But, that’s 4 years away. Too soon to know if it’s realistic.</p>
<p>We have an extra car (plain 'ole Ford sedan) that the kids share and use to get back and forth to high school, job, etc. They have to buy their own gas, wash it, keep it waxed, clean, pay for oil changes. We pay the insurance and any major repairs. Fortunately because they are 3 years apart oldest left for college when middle got a license, middle will leave for college this fall same time youngest gets a license. They have to “work it out” when they are all home at the same time at Christmas, summer breaks, etc. After college that they are on their own to buy their own car.</p>
<p>I live in Tennessee. It’s very showy and superficial here, so parents will give their children flashy new convertibles for their sixteenth birthday to “keep up with Jones’s” so to speak.</p>
<p>Everything is kind of spaced far apart, so not having a car is very difficult where I live. </p>
<p>It seems that my parents have gone against the norm and have had me and my sisters work for a car (older sister bums off boyfriend and twin sister will not get a job so she bums off boyfriend too). I am the only one who has worked for it in my family.</p>
<p>I have another issue I would like your opinions on, if you don’t mind:</p>
<p>I am grateful I have a car to use (it’s a 2000 dark green Mustang convertible). However, the gas my father demands that I put in the car is BP ultimate. Gas prices have soared lately and now it’s over $3 a gallon. I have resorted to just using the car to go to school and back (I also have to ferry around my twin sister and foreign exchange student for their social activities occasionally, so that too) but I am still having trouble making ends meet. All my money is going towards gas and insurance and I am really nervous to approach my father to help.</p>
<p>My parents want us to learn the value of a dollar. But I feel like I’m learning the value of how some people don’t do anything and get the same benefits.</p>
<p>We bought our two son’s old clunkers when they turned sixteen. The deal was that they had to have a job before we would buy the clunker. They got the jobs and the clunkers.</p>
<p>Both worked year 'round at their jobs soph-senior years of h.s. and took care of their vehicles. They learned a LOT about car maintenance. We did pay the insurance. They paid for gas and maintenance.
We live in a suburb without public transportation so their having trucks to drive was very helpful for me.</p>
<p>This will always be the case throughout life. However, because you are “learning the value of a dollar” you are actually in the better position, although it’s hard to see it now.</p>
<p>All of these are important, but I would add:</p>
<p>5) Whether the student actually needs a car in order to meet his/her transportation needs, or whether those needs can be met by mass transit or by having other family members provide the transportation.</p>
<p>I’m with the other posters whose kids have gotten hand-me-down cars from us. What else could we do, I kept getting hand-me-down cars from my mother and right about the time our daughter left for college we found ourselves with four cars. That would have meant one car would be parked in front of the house and I didn’t want to make the postman mad, he gets extremely upset if there is a car too close to the mailbox. So we gave our daughter one or the 10 year old cars with the understanding she could not leave it parked at the house.</p>
<p>We bought a used extra car when the first kid started to drive. It was (and still is) our car, but the kids use it. They always had to share it between the 3 of them, and pay for their gas.</p>
<p>You car is 7 years NEWER than mine just as an FYI and 9 years older than our kids’ Ford. That said, we do give our son’s a few bucks for gas when they take their younger brothers to and from ‘stuff’ during the years that the younger brother did not have a license. Minimum wage part-time jobs barely give the kids enough to fill the car up once a week. I think you could nicely ask for your parents for a couple bucks for gas when you have to drive your exchange student and sister here and there. The worse thing that happens is they say no. As to premium gas, then why the “premium kid car?” Do your parents have a different one you can take to and from school that runs on “regular?” </p>
<p>To other parents that might be reading this and contemplating a purchase…there are many, many fancy big SUVs in the high school parking lot but kids don’t have the money to gas these suckers up, so do your kids a favor and buy them a reliable, safe, boring sedan that doesn’t suck a ton of gas unless you’re intent is to buy them a vehicle that they won’t be able to drive very much because they can’t afford the gas…two ways of looking at the situation.</p>
<p>We have a spare car that that S drives (10 year old Accord with 100K on it). He is a high school senior. He is not taking the car to college as a freshman. If he wants to take the car in future years, he’ll have to pay for insurance, gas and maintenance. If it’s still running when he graduates, he can have it.</p>
<p>Not sure yet what we’ll do with younger 2 D’s, they are years away from driving.</p>
<p>We purchased a very nice new car for our daughter last summer after quite a bit of thinking about what to do. </p>
<p>When it came down to it, I didn’t want her driving an unreliable, less than ultra safe car, especially on the highway. I have multiple airbags and safety features in my car; why would I put her in anything less? Heaven forbid, if she is in a serious accident, at least she’ll have some protection. She’s a good kid in every way, and she’s made many sacrifices in other areas of her life, so I felt that she deserved it, as much as anyone deserves a new car.</p>
<p>I pay for gas, etc. She’s way too busy with sports and ECs to get a job, although this summer that may change…</p>
<p>If you’re going to buy them a vehicle that uses up that much gas when they don’t have the wherewithal to pay for it, you might as well slash the tires or disable the parking brake yourself. Good advice about the sedan.</p>
<p>My S inherited our oldest car when we purchased a hand-me-down car from H’s colleague (it was coming off a lease). We were ending up with 4 cars and only 3 drivers so it seemed ridiculous. S wanted/needed a car to get to interviews & food shopping for him & D (who is at same campus). We got a great deal & shipped the car to San Diego. He caught the train & drove it back up to LA & has been insuring, getting AAA, maintaining and getting gas for it ever since. He has not asked for a dime this year above the partial tuition we pay (he has merit aid for the rest of tuition & has paid for all his room & board out of earnings–summer & during the school year).</p>
<p>S & D were able to drive up to SF to visit their aunt with the car & go back to LA over Spring Break. They will likely travel a bit in it this summer as well. It’s a 1992 BMW with 140,000 miles on it, but the mechanic says it still has many more years & miles in it. S will likely drive it across country to his new job in VA this fall.</p>
<p>D has not agitated much for a car, since she still only has her learner’s permit and no driver’s license. She has never driven much & LA is not a great place to learn to drive, especially the main urban area, where she currently attends school.</p>
Good advice about the sedan.</p>