<p>newyorka, I think your concerns are valid. If someone gave me a giant diamond necklace as a gift (yes please!), I sure wouldn’t wear it at college. The problem is that the car is a practical means of transportation as well as an expensive status symbol. In addition to the good advice here, I’d say remember to keep your sense of humor about it. One of my college friends had a fancy BMW and we would sometimes give him a hard time when he drove us places (“Hey John, is this where you keep the Grey Poupon?”). When you offer to drive your carless friends around, which you should, and they tease you about it, go right along with the joke. When everyone’s laughing, things won’t be tense.</p>
<p>A Mercedes will not keep you safe if you are jacked and jumped.</p>
<p>A lot depends on the school. When we visited colleges with DD, one school parking lot was filled with BMW’s, Mercedes, and Lexus types of vehicles. Also, it sounds like the OP has a level head and will not “flaunt” this vehicle. If she/he is allowed to have it on campus (check that first), my guess is that it will be used wisely, and maybe really only for necessary trips (like going home). Just as a note, my college roommate had a brand new Volvo (back when the dinos roamed). It was a state school where most kids drove their parents cast off Chevy, Ford or Buick models…and they were old. My roommate was quite wealthy, something I didn’t really even realize until years AFTER we graduated (even though I was a guest in their home a lot). The family was very modest in their approach to living and did flaunt their very very privileged financial status. That was the key. Roommate was just a modest kid…very down to earth and nice. I never thought once about her car at the time. It was a car…and didn’t define her. Enjoy your dad’s gift, and just be yourself.</p>
<p>You have a valid concern. Frankly, there are safe reliable cars (see crash ratings) other than Mercedes. I also agree not to look at a gift horse in the mouth. I know lots of kids who drive fancy cars. They also dress in regular clothes, some volunteer their time, some work at $8-10/ hour jobs, and they do regular things like play in a band, play computer games, etc. The point is that they don’t behave in a snobby manner. They are willing to get dirty and do some grimy work. They are accepting of friends from families with lower incomes. Some do invite their middle class friends for ski trips, week on an island or in a time share, and they pay for everything for them too. It all works out.</p>
<p>Get a chauffeur’s uni to go with. :)</p>
<p>From what you are saying a Benz will not be too out of place. There are other students with nice cars around. An “E” class Benz is a nice car but not really that flashy. </p>
<p>As others mentioned as long as you are not in your face about it your friends will love you for who you are, and not judge you by your car. </p>
<p>My good friend in college normally park her BMW 3 series car a little ways away and was very low key, so unless you know her well enough to get a ride or been out with her, you’d never know. </p>
<p>Enjoy your car in good health and fortune. You seem like a great young person.</p>
<p>i got a mercedes c class for my 16th birthday, and even though my school is pretty upscale, i got remarks.</p>
<p>yeah some people are going to judge you for it, but most of the people aren’t going to care at all. its just your car, and people shouldn’t assume that it is a reflection upon you and your attitude towards others.</p>
<p>My mother is totally horrified about this and wants me to return the car. I’m so confused! </p>
<p>I do work hard and I wish I were making $8.00/hr this summer (working for free a at an internship I found on my own in my low paying intended field vs. the one my dad offered paying big bucks in his field)!</p>
<p>I would keep the peace with dad and be thankful for the car. He gave it to you with love.</p>
<p>I think you want to feel like a self made person. Someone that can make their own way in life. Perhaps you should talk to your dad about that. Perhaps you should find your own internships, jobs and connections.</p>
<p>Let’s put it this way: a Mercedes E Class on average costs about what the median U.S. family makes in an entire year, and more than the cost to attend any college in the nation for a year. So to expect folks not to “notice” isn’t realistic.</p>
<p>But it is a gift. I always say one’s degree of responsibility to the world is directly associated with one’s degree of privilege in it. In other words, now that you have privilege, earn it. And folks will respect you for it.</p>
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<p>Tell mom “no”. Tell her it’s a generous gift from your dad and it would be rude to return it. Period. Arguing never works in these circumstances.</p>
<p>Keep the car!!</p>
<p>I just took in my d’s 14 year old Mercedes for some tune up work. She is the 4th person in the family to have the car. Over 100K miles on it and the mechanic said that it could drive for a long, long time.</p>
<p>Think of it this way. You will have the car for a time. </p>
<p>They are safe, sturdy long lasting cars.</p>
<p>You sound very grounded - such a wonderful quality to have!</p>
<p>At D’s school many of the students drive very expensive cars - I have seen BMW sports cars, Range Rovers, Mercedes, etc. I have also seen a lot of “average” college student cars. I think I would worry less about what people would say about the car and more about what could happen to such a valuable automobile. My D has had her side view mirror knocked off, the car was pummeled by hail, windshield broken - all happened at college. </p>
<p>My husband will be very jealous when I tell him your story. He drives an E500 and loves it. Difference is it took him until he was 55 years old to be able to afford to buy one!</p>
<p>Well then please assure him I only have the E350:)</p>
<p>I am reminded of the high school friend who was given a red 450 SL convertible for her 16th birthday. It went with her to Penn for college and to graduate school for her MBA. At our 30th reunion, I asked her about the car. She’s still driving it. In fact, we went out to the parking lot to admire it.</p>
<p>Tell your friends your father said he’d only buy you one car ever and you figured this one would last. Then smile and ask them if they need a ride ;)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/520684-you-were-born-third-base-you-think-you-hit-triple.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/520684-you-were-born-third-base-you-think-you-hit-triple.html</a></p>
<p>I’ve known people who had the opinion that Mercedes makes some of the safest cars in the world so I think your Dad’s reasons in his mind for giving you that particular model are sound. I think you should accept it graciously, as It sounds like you will anyway (and as you would if he gave you a used Honda instead) and not be concerned about what other people think of you (just as you shouldn’t if you were driving an old Honda).</p>
<p>newyorka, I had a nice car in college, and I promise… People’s perceptions are based upon how you act, and what your personality is. My own <em>roommate</em> didn’t know that I came from a well-to-do background until we pulled into my driveway for Thanksgiving and she saw my house… and she’d been riding in my nice car for about three months.</p>
<p>It’s all about you and who YOU ARE, not about what you drive. Enjoy having a car; you needed one anyhow! Your peers are just going to be glad that you can help them out with the midnight run to pick up Chinese food.</p>
<p>People only hated the snobby rich kids in movies because they were <em>snobby</em>!!</p>
<p>from a college student most people don’t really care what kind of car you have(i have a nice car also, so i guess take this for what it’s worth), if you also don’t really care. </p>
<p>it’s when you say(or project) “i can give you a ride in my >insert brand here<,” rather than “i can give you a ride,” that people will start to think you’re a tool.</p>
<p>newyorka, your father gave you the car out of love and caring. Appreciate it for that and enjoy the gift. You sound like a very level headed, unassuming grounded person. Those who are worth having as friends at college won’t judge you based on your car and those who judge you on your car aren’t worth having as friends.</p>
<p>And I’ll let you in on a little fatherly secret. I bet your father’s explanation about why he got you the car is as much a rationalization as it is a rationale. He obviously loves you and is proud of what you have accomplished as a person. I’ll bet he got you the car simply because he felt you had earned it by becoming the person that you are and accomplishing the things you have to date, because he wanted to buy it for you and could. I did the same thing for my daughter with a new bright red sports sedan when she turned 16. My rationale was that she needed her own car because of her work responsibilities and involvement in community theatre, voice, dance and acting classes, that our other cars were not available to her because her mother and I both work, that it was a work necessity for us not to have to chauffeur her around, that a new car was safer and less maintenance than an older used car. I even went to the extreme of justifying buying the car for her while she still had a learner’s permit on the basis that it would be safer for her to learn to drive in the car she would be using as her own. While all of this was in fact true, the reality was that I was so proud of my daughter for her accomplishments in school and community, work ethic, values, sense of responsibility and the type of person that she is that I simply wanted to do it. And I was in a position to. So I did. And while I caught a lot of flack from other parents for setting an “expectation” that their kids would press for, while a lot of parents thought I was “spoiling” my daughter, I really didn’t care. I did what I thought was right for my kid. As your father has done for you.</p>
<p>My daughter, as a freshman, took the car with her to college this past year. There are those who see the car and not her. There are those who see her and for whom the car is just an appendage, a convenience. The latter are her friends, the former wouldn’t be her friends even if she did not have a car. Don’t worry, it will all work out.</p>