<p>My son and a group from his high school are driving 12 hours to Spring Break in Florida. He’s organized and planned the trip for months and has looked forward to this for years. I have all along told him he can take his car - an 04 Hyundia Sonata with 75k miles on it that has alway been maintained and reliable, but he’s been campaining to take my 07 Honda Odyssey van with 39k miles on it. He would have 3 or 4 other passengers. Pros to him taking the van are it’s safer, more comfortable than his car, plus we have a maintenance contract for repairs on the van if it would break down. Cons of driving the van is I’ve heard from many people that the friends abuse any vehicle going to and from Spring break when they’re in HS which I don’t want. Pro for driving his car is he drives it everyday and is more familiar with driving it. If his friend’s abuse it, it’s his car. Con for driving the car is it’s slightly less safe IF in a major accident and if it breaks down on the road, it could be a nightmare getting it repaired. My husband is against him driving the van. I would feel he’d be safer driving the van but the van could very well be abused. They’re going to Panama City Beach…I’d like other parents opinion PLEASE!</p>
<p>IMO - I would not let ANY non family member drive my vehicle unless I was in the car or at very least, an adult that I am very familiar with. </p>
<p>Putting young teens in a car for any road trip is dangerous. Statistics show that non-family members in a car driven by a teen driver raises the chance of an accident. Even the “best drivers” and “good students” can make poor decisions. Why take the risk?</p>
<p>Tell him some other family has to volunteer a car, yours are not available.</p>
<p>Part of growing up. There will be two boys sharing the driving who have been friends for years who have never had an accident or a ticket. It’s pretty common in my area to drive to spring break without the parents involved as a high school senior. I know it’s sexist, but after having taught his two sisters to drive, he’s so much better than there were as a driver. He’s going - question is old car or new one?</p>
<p>Someone else was going to drive but one of the dad’s passed away so they dropped out. Believe me - I wish they’d flown but now airfares are way up.</p>
<p>If the kids got into an accident, what sort of liabilities to your son and you are we dealing with? I honestly don’t know the answer since I’m not a lawyer. Maybe someone can educate all of us on this.</p>
<p>Do you know the insurance implications? Does your policy have roadside assistance? AAA? Have they read the article about the kid who died in Panama Beach this week?</p>
<p>Yes - my son and his friends are football players as well and we live 30 minutes from where the student came from who passed away. I never went to spring break when I was in high school 30 years ago, but my husband did and drove, as many other kids from our high school.</p>
<p>I would not let my HS kid go on a spring break with friends driving 12 hrs. </p>
<p>But if going is a given, I’d go with a safer car. You can make his friends sign that if they trash the car, they share the cost of repairs with your son.</p>
<p>I agree that your van is safer. You or your H can drive them all down in it, make sure there is no unacceptable behavior in the van and then drive them all back. Your insurance company will thank you. No, that won’t work…you and H can drive the Sonata and the boys can drive the van. And then you and H can find a spot slightly away from the boys to spend the week. Not with them but not far.</p>
<p>There are just too many ways the original trip could go wrong for my family’s budget.</p>
<p>I agree with dragonmom and while it is likely they may take many trips like this in college that we may or may not know about, while still in HS I have to err on the side of caution and how I’ve always done things.</p>
<p>Is taking the auto-train an option? </p>
<p>I don’t think I could risk my car but I would make sure they had AAA or similar should they get in a bind but I would also want the other parents of kids in agreement as to who would be on the hook if they ran into trouble or needed repairs. Just because it is your son’s car doesn’t mean you should have to be the immediate financial well they tap if there is an issue. Maybe have all boys going put down a “deposit” that they get back upon the safe return of either car and/or to be used in the event of damage or repairs with an agreement they’d pay off any additional as needed.</p>
<p>Financially though we could not take the risk so I would try to make sure my costs would be foreseeable which either scenario here would not be.</p>
<p>Although I’d never allow for the trip to begin with, in answer to your question, they should take the van since you say there’d be “3 or 4 other passengers”. Having 5 in a Sonata for a 12 hour drive (twice) wouldn’t be fun - especially for the middle person in the back. Assuming the vehicles are in reasonable condition either one should be fine as far as reliability goes but the van would be more comfortable and perhaps allow for less distraction for the driver which is one of the greatest dangers for boys that age doing a driving trip like this in addition to the potential alcohol issue at the other end. </p>
<p>I’d lay down a rule up front and make sure he agrees to it that “he’s” responsible for anything that goes awry - abuse, spills, tears, broken interior items, etc., even if it was one of his friends who did it (and ‘he’ can deal with getting the friend to make it right with him later). If you (or H) don’t feel that this bunch can manage the trip without a good chance of abusing the van then that’s all the more reason why they shouldn’t go in the first place - i.e. a maturity issue.</p>