<p>Lucky you, dke for living so long in a real city. I loved living in cities with great public transportation. I hate driving. I love walking. Wish I were living in such a city now.</p>
<p>I cannot remember a car-jacking on the Eastside of Seattle in 20 years. Not even many in Seattle proper.</p>
<p>This reminds me of my high school-- kids who just got their licenses and were given a 50k allowance on their first cars
needless to say my 93 Buick was a real standout in the parking lot :)</p>
<p>I had a Ford Pinto - my Dad bought it for me senior year in college and I put it 200k miles on it before selling it. I loved that car. I still have a picture of it. I kept it through graduate school, teaching and law school and bought what was then my dream car - a Mazda RX7. </p>
<p>I got a used car for D her senior year in high school because her magnet school didn’t provide bus service and I chose to have her drive rather than be driven by her friends whose driving I didn’t trust. </p>
<p>I don’t see the benefit to condemning those who choose to buy nice things for their kids. It’s just a “so what” to me. My D rode horses and she was more envious of kids who could afford 5 figure horses than 5 figure cars.</p>
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<p>NSM- Me,too! I would move to the city and get rid of the cars in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>My kids are home on break and sons are sharing the mini van we bought when our oldest was 8 years old. They complain that the bottom sounds like it is ready to fall out but we are just hoping that it last until we move all of them out of their college frats and apartments. Daughter is driving an 11 year old used car with 130k miles back and forth to school. </p>
<p>Our two sons who happen to attend the same college will not be coming home this summer and they are putting alot of pressure on us to have a car up at school. Riding bikes is just not cool anymore. This is when I want to scream that we have four kids in college and they are just unrealistic.</p>
<p>The current rage on the internet is an 18 year old kid getting a 2003 Lamborghini Murcielago (~150K).</p>
<p>Did he get the car for good behavior or good grades? Did he save up his allowance or did he work after school? We don’t really know the whole story.</p>
<p>Heck, it was old-- a 2003. Probably had a lot of miles on it…</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>Can you imagine what the insurance rates must be on a kid driving that car???</p>
<p>I’d walk and gladly abandon a car, if I lived in the city; unfortunately, I live in the country and the closest store is about 8 miles from my house. I can walk to the library and the post-office and that’s it. Nothing else is nearby.</p>