<p>When he/she wants a car, can he/she take out a loan? I thought you must be 18.</p>
<p>Also, how much is insurance for your 16 y.o.?</p>
<p>When he/she wants a car, can he/she take out a loan? I thought you must be 18.</p>
<p>Also, how much is insurance for your 16 y.o.?</p>
<p>Insurance: way too much. </p>
<p>When my son was 16, he attended high school about 1.5 miles from our home, and he did not have a car. In fact, he did not own a car until age 23 – up until then he always relied on public transportation and his own two feet. It is amazing how much walking he did – when he was living on his own in the city, he would routinely walk about 3-4 miles each way to work. (He could take the bus – he just ended up enjoying his walk )</p>
<p>My daughter attended high school that was father away from our home - it was about 12 miles away – and the public transportation was almost nonexistent (it would have taken her at least 90 minutes each way, and she still would have had to walk half a mile to the bus stop from our house) – so I got a car for her to drive – but the car was in my name, not hers, and she understood that it was <em>my</em> car, provided for her use. It was worth it to me, given the time involved in chauffeuring her around – but the point is, it was largely for my convenience, not hers.</p>
<p>If you are going to allow your 16 year old to buy a car, either they will have to work and save enough money to pay cash (at which point they’d probably be 18 anyway), or you or another relative are going to have to be the lender. I’d put the loan agreement with the kid in writing, in case they “forget” to make payments to you later.</p>
<p>Insurance is astronomical.</p>
<p>Both of my children bought their first cars when they were 16 with their own money that they had earned as newspaper carriers for 2 years, paid in full, no loans, no payments to mom & dad or anyone else. They had to buy their own gas, tires, repairs, etc. We paid the insurance on the cars as long as they got the good student discount. When my son fell below the cut-off for the discount, he was required to pay the difference. Insurance depends on where you live and whether the driver is male or female; males having a much higher premium on average and, in my opinion, deservedly so! Ask how much it increases when a truck is totalled! Scary!</p>
<p>A 16 year cannot get a loan; they are not an adult and cannot enter into a legally binding contract, which is exactly what a loan is.</p>
<p>“way too much” and “astronomical” = numerical estimate?</p>
<p>OK, this is sadly nostalgic. I married when I turned 16, and my H (quite a bit older and gainfully employed) bought me my first car (surprise, that marriage didn’t last). My daughter, however, had a small trust account which we cashed in to buy her first car before filing for financial aid. However, after several driving lessons, she decided she wasn’t ready. Now, at 18, still not ready. Interesting – my three oldest kids all waited till mid-twenties to start driving – does this say something about the trauma of driving around with me when they were little? My eldest still eschews motor vehicles and commutes using a recumbent bicycle most of the time (except when he’s transporting his kids). Anyway, my daughter doesn’t need a car (good public transit in her college city) and Air Alaska is quicker and cheaper for trips home.</p>
<p>Although a 16 y/o can buy a car be wary of selling a car to anyone under 18 since they’re a minor and can easily rescind the contract if they change their mind after receiving the car.</p>
<p>Insurance will definitely be higher but will not be quite as high if they’re being insured on a relatively inexpensive car - i.e. no Beemers for a 16 y/o.</p>
<p>I bought my first motorcycle when I was 16. Dad had to co-sign on the loan though. We thought it was a good way to begin to establish my credit rating.</p>
<p>I have a 87 Subaru I let my kids, twin 17 year old boys, drive to school. Insurance cost is $50 a month for liability only. Car cost me $400 and it runs great around town.</p>
<p>Just don’t get fancy and the costs are quite cheap. (at least in Montana)</p>
<p>But that’s because there aren’t any other cars to run into in Montana. :)</p>
<p>When my S was 16, both his grandparents died and he used one car to get to HS and college. We sold the other to a good friend for his boys’ use. Both cars were older but low mileage and among the safest. All these factors kept insurance down.
I’d recommend posting a sign at local nursing homes for used cars.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I live in MA and the insurance rates are unbelievable. They start rates for kids at a very high amount, and they have to have many years of a perfect driving record before rates start getting reduced.</p>
<p>I have minimum insurance coverage on my daughter’s 10-year old car and the cost is approximately $1,400 a year. She has no driving infractions - if she were to get a speeding ticket, the rates would jump up at least a couple hundred. She cannot drive my car because I have a loan on it, which means I have to have a much higher policy on it. To add her as a driver to my car would cost me a lot more. I have maximum coverage on my 2-year old car - with a speeding ticket on my record - and my rate is less than minimum coverage on her beater car.</p>
<p>The minimum insurance means if she were to get into an accident that was her fault, they would not cover damage to her car at all - only to the other vehicle.</p>
<p>When he/she wants a car, can he/she take out a loan? I thought you must be 18. </p>
<p>Also, how much is insurance for your 16 y.o.?</p>
<p>quick answer: I don’t think any bank would lend a 16 year old money for a car. We would never lend our kids money or buy them a car at 16. We did add our kids to our insurance when they got their licences but that was 17 for our son and 18 for our daughter. The youngest a person can have a license in Pennsylvania is 16 1/2 and that’s after driving for 6 months and having 50 hours of on the road experience. I think it cost just a couple of hundred more for each one. We live in a semi-rural area and they are rated on our oldest cars.</p>
<p>I got my first car when i was 20 and payed ~ $110/month for insu. Less than a year later I was paying more than double that amount for only libality insu. because of a little accident I had. Ended up driving without insu. That wasn’t a bright decision (led to suspension of license…etc)</p>
<p>I got my kids cars for my convenience, also. They are my cars, and I have had to occasionally remind them of this by asking for the keys back temporarily, to achieve attitude adjustments. Frankly, considering the costs including purchase, gas, repairs and insurance, it probably would have been cheaper for them to take taxis everywhere.</p>
<p>Living in a rural area with no public transportation, I could not wait until my sons could drive. H and I have the same arrangement as dt123, we own the cars, they pay for gas and insurance. The use of the cars are under our jurisdiction. We have witnessed to many kids driving poorly maintained cars bald tires (very dangerous in winter weather) etc, and to many kids dropping ECs to increase work hours to keep the car on the road. My kids are safer drivers than many of friends and I would rather have my kid behind the wheel then a passenger. These cars cost 3 to 5 K and were 5 to 7 years old when acquired. H and I also drive older boring, but well maintained vehicles to keep the overall cost down.</p>
<p>Same as above, in son’s case, he got one of our oldest cars, 10 years old with 150,000 miles on it. He paid insurance and gas. Insurance wasn’t too awful because of good student discount, it was registered to us and it was a 'beater" car. No BMWs for our kids. DD got a little nicer car, 5 years old with 50,000 miles on it. She paid for half of the car, we matched her money. She drives it under our jurisdiction. She pays gas and insurance plus oil changes, etc.</p>
<p>I agree with daffymom. I have two sons aged 17 and 20 so it has not been easy to swallow the insurance increases they have brought as each one became licensed and started driving themselves around. We now have four cars in the driveway but all are in the names of my husband and I and are insured under our auto policy. </p>
<p>I work in the insurance industry and have talked to enough people to know that there are definite legal pitfalls to trying to put the cars in our son’s names and trying to set them up with their own minimum limits insurance policies. It may save some money but it could expose your own assets if they were ever to have a major at-fault accident. (Parents borrowing the kid’s minimum limits insured car need to be careful too because if the parent was to have an at-fault accident, the parents’ own policy might refuse to step in and pay damages after kid’s policy is exhausted, exposing the parental assets to risk). It is complicated stuff, so please explore the insurance issues with your own agent to decide what will protect you and your child best. Be sure to get every insurance discount available to you- good student, driver training, student-attending-school-over-100-miles-from-home (and car is left home), etc. Also strongly consider adding an Umbrella policy to your insurance portfolio. The costs are very reasonable and its limit will stack on top of the limits provided by your auto policy and also go over your homeowners liability policy. An umbrella policy is important to have anyway but becomes especially important as your kids start driving your cars around. </p>
<p>Even with all this, our auto insurance costs a good chunk but we grimace and bear it. My 9 year old car is our family’s “newest” car and has 183,000 miles on it. My husband’s car is 14 years old with 192,000 miles on it. Sons drive cars that are 15 years old and 16 years old respectively. We maintain our cars carefully and they run great but in our affluent town full of expensive leased vehicles, I am sure we look a sight!</p>
<p>As much as we hated the idea of buying a 3rd car for our kid to use, we decided we had more control in the long run. We trusted our kid’s judgement, our rules of vehicle usage, our curfew,etc.—and the power it gave to us as parents–more than various friends who would be doing the driving if rides to movies, events, etc were always ‘bummed’. They are ‘at the mercy of the driver’ when they are out and about–when attending social events, school functions/sporting events, especially at night–unless they are behind the wheel themselves. If our rules were violated, the car sat in the driveway at home and WE did the chauffering. Times with a new driver are unsettling, to say the least. Sad reality, but certainly true at our house!</p>
<p>I was very jealous of the states that have wonderful laws designed to protect young drivers–Like limiting the number of passengers, earlier curfew, etc. We didn’t have that luxury and it’s never easy to be the only family on the block with those ‘house rules’. Would be much easier if everybody had the same common-sense rules to follow!</p>
<p>How does a 16 year old buy a car? Well in this household…they didn’t. We, like others, live in a rural area and did a happy dance when our kids could finally drive themselves back and forth to ECs. And WE (the parents) bought a cheap and old (and I mean OLD) car for the kids to use. It was inexpensive both for maintenance and use. However, the insurance was a killer. Our deal was that the kids had to be on the honor role or we would not pay for the insurance. Period. And both knew that they would NOT be taking this clunker to college. We get the “away at school” discount for both while they are in college and our insurance rates are about $500 a year less.</p>
<p>Every 16 year old I know with a car has had parental assistance. He can easily buy a car himself with cash, you can buy an old lemon for $100 sometimes–a friend of a friend wanting to get rid of a car, a relative with an extra car he can’t bear to sell to a stanger, etc. So buying the car as a singular transaction can be done. But then comes all of the paper work, getting the car safe, …and the insurance. Without parental intervention, I don’t know a 16 year old who can deal with all of that. You want your kid in a safe car that is not going to break down anytime, you want the paperwork to be in order, and he needs insurance. Unlikely he is going to get it on his own. And much cheaper (though cheap is the wrong adjetive for the cost of car insurance) on the family policy. But then you are assuming the risk of his driving record for future costs.<br>
It is possible, and I am sure there are 16 year olds out there get there cars and everything else needed on their own, but most of them have mom and/or dad stepping in at certain points of the process.</p>