Many cities have a local law that specifies a three day or so limit on how long a car may be parked on the street. In practice, these are rarely enforced when there are no other applicable parking laws (time limits measured in minutes or hours, or residential permit parking, or meters) unless someone complains, or it becomes extremely obvious (heavy layer of dust/leaves/etc., flat tires, etc.) that the car never moves.
A relative was irked because someone complained about his car being parked on the street outside his home in very nice neighborhood. He got a ticket for “abandoned vehicle,” for leaving it on the same spot parked at the curb > 24 hours. I believe the fine was > $100! He was mad! The car was driven several times/week by his teen and young adult kids.
“Maybe we park one of the adult cars on the street, like my 80K mile beast with all the parking lot dings, and store hers in the garage.”
Haha. I guess we are not the only parents whose kid drives a better car than us.
80k miles is nothing on a well-built, reliable car.
@mcat2 and @Pizzagirl you are both right! Yeah I’ll probably drive mine until 150K just like I did with the 1998 model that it replaced. It’s still a great car, it’s just that H’s and D’s both have about half the mileage of mine and not so much “character” on the body.
150,000? Oh come on. DH is driving a 2003 Honda Accord with almost 250,000 miles on it.
Yeah @thumper1 !!! H sold a 1988 Accord to his brother with 170K on it, and I am quite sure it reached the 250K mark by about 2002. You can almost never go wrong with Honda.
My car, I sold its predecessor with 150K on it while I could still get a few thousand $$ out of it. We had owned it for 13 years and I was ready for a change.
Wow, I’m blown away by the families here w multiple kids with each kid having his/her own car. And you all pay to insure these cars for teenage drivers? <>>
I do the same, keep car in the driveway. I was nervous of kid #2 driving every where, getting into accident, until junior year. Kid #2 will take a car to school because she earned the privilege.
We were pretty adamant about S not having a car at school until I decided that driving him back and forth (600 miles rt) every break (and there was Oct. break/Thanksgiving/Winter break/April break and then summer break) was a huge PITA. We bought him a car spring of freshman year and he drove it back to school after break before short term.
If you are serious about preserving the daughter’s car for her then you need to learn defensive parking (as I call it) Hubby’s car is 5 years old and there is ONE ding on it, tiny on the back bumper where someone obviously pulled up too far. He (moreso than me I confess) always always parks far away. We try to never park next to a 2-door car, especially on a windy day. Always park in an end spot, where nobody can park on at least one side of you and park way over. Park uphill from shopping carts because they will roll. My car has stayed in very good shape this way as well.
If you drive your daughter’s car you need to park it defensively so it doesn’t get dinged up like yours. If you paid for your daughter’s car, then I think you are entitled to drive it if is is nicer than yours.I would probably have given her my old car and gotten myself the newer one. We always considered the first car a kid got as a “practice” car. There is no point in getting them a very nice one because something will happen to it.
I remember being amazed when I was out with sil in her new car and she parked next to an old 2 door car. I asked her doesn’t she practice “defensive” parking? She had never thought about it. Maybe that’s why her van looked like it did…
You could rent it out via RelayRides (people rent their cars, sort of like airbnb for cars or a longer-term uber but just the car, not the driver). They provide insurance, screen the drivers, etc. I just got back from a trip to San Diego where I rented a little Fiat from a guy. Worked out great! We’re doing it again in 3 weeks when we go to Denver. I poked around a bit on the site and noticed a client of mine actually has her car listed for rent here, though I haven’t asked her how it’s working out.
But that could get you some extra cash and be flexible - you could still have it available for your D when she’s home for breaks.
My kids are 29 and 25, and neither has ever owned a car. I find this almost impossible to understand, but it works for them.
@GMTplus7, where we live, you can’t leave our neighborhood without a car. (Two “major” highways are between us and anywhere you need to go). There is no public transportation nearby (like within miles). So if we wanted our kids to work, they needed cars. And yes, our insurance is ridiculously expensive.
Wow, I'm blown away by the families here w multiple kids with each kid having his/her own car. And you all pay to insure these cars for teenage drivers? <>>
@GMTplus7 I wasn’t going to respond to that one, but since @1214mom did …
In our extended family and social circles, the “kids need a car because …” and “kids DON’T need a car because …” camps seem to be as fiercely divided as Coke vs. Pepsi or any college sports rivalry.
We both work full-time and D’s high school is downtown about 25 minutes from our home, and not on the way to work for either of us (although I dropped her off every morning for 3 years despite that). It’s a magnet school and students attend from all over our metro area, so the majority of friends don’t live near each other. The school bus comes at 6:15 a.m. and requires a transfer at the depot to the express bus to her school. She did utilize the school bus to get home on days she didn’t have to stay after for EC’s. Otherwise one of us had to leave work early or try to arrange a ride with another family or friend. Then there were the monthly Saturday workdays, etc. And going out with friends. And wanting to shop or do errands if one of us wasn’t available …
Many of the major roads near us are narrow and don’t have sidewalks, and the nearest public bus stop is about a mile. Interestingly this summer we encouraged her to walk or bike to work. She has two jobs and they’re each 2-3 miles away in opposite directions. With little 3-5 hour shifts that didn’t align with our work days at all and turned into what I called “death by a thousand cuts” when she relied on us for transportation. In her defense it really was very hot and humid for walking, she gamely tried it a few times when neither of us could drive and she hated showing up sweaty and overheated.
I was in the “high school kids DON’T need a car” camp until I came around and saw how all of us were twisting ourselves like pretzels relative to the freedom we’ve had since we bought her that car. And she loves it and feels confident.
Not to seem adversarial but I notice a lot of “kids DON’T need a car because …” tends to get directed at OTHER families’ kids, whose circumstances may be different. We’ve sometimes felt judged by extended family. Example, one of H’s siblings works within a half mile of her sons’ high school and pretty much their whole family life (and that of others in their neighborhood, school, and house of worship) is centered within a 5-mile radius. They don’t mind driving several hours to the colleges to pick them up and take them back when there are holidays and family events.
So, we respect that, but it’s just not us, and ideally no family should judge anyone else’s situation. People here in the suburbs of our city pretty much get it, it’s not a “walking city” and public transportation is an afterthought, so everyone’s in the same boat.
Each member of my family has a vehicle. To sum it up in five words: independence; lack of public transit.
When our kids were seniors in college, we shipped each of them a vehicle to help in the interview, internship, job process, md appointments and more. It was a worthwhile investment and gave them more options in their job searches; public transit was limited. The cars were vehicles that we acquired second hand for well below blue book prices. We had our mechanic check out each of the vehicles and assure us they were mechanically sound and worth the $500+ shipping charge.
We currently have 3 vehicles–2 are reliable and H likes the other. 
insurance is only an extra $350/year for the 3rd vehicle for us.
Very little public transit here. Both of my kids had cars shortly after becoming licensed.
We were lucky that H could easily drop kids off at school before they drive to avoid having to catch the bus so early. Life got so much easier once we had a kid who could get himself (and his sister) places. Got rough again when he left for college a couple of months before she got her license.
@GMTplus7, re our insurance: The eldest bought and paid for her own car and insurance. The hand-me-down cars are older, so that the insurance costs can be covered by our other two and their summer jobs.
Re parking violations: we do have parking laws but we’re out in the boonies, and the neighbors all have children, about the same ages away at their colleges. We have a decent amount of parking in the neighborhood and the streets are pretty wide.
The neighbors have been here since day one and are very considerate! We have a neighborhood newsletter. When neighbors are having large family functions, they let us know in advance, put up the party signs, and we move our cars to accommodate their guests.
@auntbea and @GMTplus7 I neglected to mention that part of our deal with D was that each month she pays half of the increase in monthly premium that’s associated with her collision deductible, as well as all of her gasoline and car washes, and she had to pay us $500 toward the car at the beginning of the summer and $500 at the end.
@ohiovalley16, I completely agree with the pretzel analogy. We also had poor, inaccessible public transportation where traffic whizzed by at 55-60 MPH minimum, on a “state” highway, and the buses that did come by were about 1h & 45 minutes apart. A Pain if you missed it.
When I had to drive the kids, I was in the car for hours!! We wouldn’t get home until late, and given our work schedules/ bumper-to-bumper traffic, I was often grouchy and was too tired to make dinner.
The used cars just made much more sense.
To answer the original question, why not drive her car and sell yours? It sounds like she has a nice little car!
We just got a car for our rising college senior. He was having trouble finding a place to live for just 2 months near his college for an internship, and I actually thought if all else fails he can sleep in the car! Well, the car has been an enormous help to him in terms of finding part-time work and housing. I was thinking all along we’d get him a car at graduation but glad we did now rather than later.