<p>DS#1’s college gf had a long list of rules from her mom about the car, down to mom monitoring the mileage when the car was back home (or when she went to see dau) with a very limited # of miles permitted. When DS went to visit one time (they were long distance) he was able to get a MUCH better airfare to an airport an hour away, vs one closer to the college. GF had to ask permission to drive further to pick him up and the mom said NO. Um, really??? I am VERY glad that relationship ended. Mom was a real control freak.</p>
<p>I always say the longer the list, the more to miss. The more rules there are, the more rules to break. It’s like highlighting the whole page of a book, nothing stands out. If you must have a contract, use it for the make or break items. </p>
<p>I had a written contract with D when she first got her license at age 16. It was an agreement that there would be no drugs or alcohol and that if she had used either she would call me for a ride, no consequences. </p>
<p>I don’t know why you need to have a contract that says “obey the law, wear seatbelts, no texting / calling, loud music, no rowdy passenger behavior, don’t junk it up.” Wouldn’t that be the usual expectation that your daughter was raised with, whether you had a beater or an expensive sports car?</p>
<p>BTW, on the “no friends who are wasted.” I totally get not wanting to be the transport for everyone else’s alcohol purchasing (and if so, please God, stick it in the trunk so there’s no issue of open-containers-near-the-driver), but frankly I’d rather my sober kid drive a friend who was wasted to safety, than to just let a friend who is wasted try and make it on her own (or heaven forbid get into her own car). So you might want to rethink that one.</p>
<p>I</p>
<p>I never had a car contract when I passed on my car to son in his senior year. I must admit, I never thought of one. I guess if I questioned his behavior, I wouldn’t have given him the car.</p>
<p>DS learned to clean pout the car before we saw it. I guess in the scheme of things it really wasnt a big deal. Just a pet peeve.</p>
<p>Are car contracts normal? My kids don’t have their own cars at college – when home, they just share the family cars as appropriate / needed. We pay for insurance / gas. I trust them to drive responsibly and they’re not really in the cars long enough to junk them up, other than the occasional jacket left on the backseat or what-not. </p>
<p>I would add not to drive when you are sleep deprived.</p>
<p>When I got my car, my mom stressed to me what to do in emergency situations, what she expected of me, and I followed through. </p>
<p>She didn’t need to write a list out of things that I needed to know such as that the car was her car and I needed to respect it. I knew that because I respected my mom and knew a car is a large thing to give to someone. Along with my respect for her came rules I knew I needed to follow: no recklessness, obey the laws, report to her if anything is going on with the car. </p>
<p>Unless your child is oblivious to all things pertaining to safety before they get into their car, they should know to not park in sketchy areas, whether to keep the car clean to not attract thieves*, to lock their doors when they drive, etc. if you do these things, nine time out of ten your child has long time picked up on them and is aware of what needs to be done. </p>
<p>*Whether they actually keep it clean is another story!</p>
<p>Doesn’t hurt to remind your kids. We don’t remember everything (or listen the first time). Depends on the kid, of course. But, in my situation, a contract was not needed. </p>
<p>I guess we each know our own kids. I never thought of a contract. I really can’t imagine one unless a kid tends to be irresponsible. I would imagine just mentioning anything that matters to you with your kid would be enough. My kid has had a car we paid for since age 16 and in her sole possession since sophomore year of college. She is responsible. She is out of school now and in fact, today is driving 3000 miles across the country with that same car. Only expectation I mentioned for this trip is to please let me know she arrives at each night’s destination since it is a very long trip and it will ease my mind. That is all. She is very responsible and I find no need to get into all that other stuff. In fact, she drove a car from Vermont to Alaska at age 18!</p>
<p>I agree with Sooz!</p>
<p>
I brought up the topic of how often the kids call their mom or dad with several of my colleagues (who are almost one generation younger than me.)</p>
<p>I mentioned we called our kid about once a week. One coworker said he calls his parents everyday and he said his parents would still complain when they noticed “he did not pay attention to what they are saying during the call.”</p>
<p>The other said once or twice a week but she said her elder sister, who is a SAHM, calls her mom everyday - This puts her in a “bad” situation for not calling her mom more frequently. In both cases, their parents live overseas. It may have something to do with the cultural difference. (One is Indian and the other Iranian - both seem to be from a relatively wealthy family in their country - that is a part of the reason why they are capable of immigrating here and receiving good education. They seems to be able to afford several overseas/Europe trips for vacations in recent years, very unlike my family.)</p>
<p>We are about to ship one of our cars to our kid in another state. This thread gives us some ideas about what we should tell him about owning/maintaining a car.</p>
<p>We opened the hood just yesterday, and took a lot of pictures - just in case he might ask us some questions about the car later on and we need some pictures to remind us of the things under the hood.</p>
<p>My auto insurance company told us we could keep the same insurance in my state as long as he is still a student (he still has our state’s driver license.) But I am not very sure about this. The only thing the insurance agent did for us was to list my kid’s name first in the insurance policy. I am not sure how soon he needs to register the car in his state and change his driver license to his state. A lot of unknowns to us at this point.</p>
<p>We actually found out something new on this car by accident: there is a “secret switch” inside the glove box which could lock the trunk (e.g., maybe used when valet parking while keeping something valuable in the trunk.)</p>
<p>our insu made us put the car in the state the car was located more than 6 mos out of the year.</p>
<p>In terms of my kid allowing others to drive the car…when they were in high school and early years of college, I did not want them to allow others to drive the car, or at least without asking our permission. But now that they are older, I feel differently and insurance does cover it. For example, on my D’s cross country drive she is starting at this very moment, she is making the trip with a friend who will share the driving 50/50. My younger D borrowed my car recently for two trips between Boston and NYC and that D who has no experience or comfort driving my large SUV, had friends drive my car, but those friends were all responsible adults (I would not do this in the teenage years). </p>
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Same. Even in high school, she expected me to check in with her. I tried to the best of my ability, but more often that not I did. ;)</p>
<p>Back in high school, my kids did have to let me know they arrived at every destination. Once they left for college, they no longer had to do that, except for long trips (such as out of state). </p>
<p>I don’t have a contract with my child about the car but this thread did remind me to tell her not to drive out of the country (not that I think she would). I don’t think our car insurance is valid in Mexico and we need to have special printed insurance cards for Canada.</p>
<p>For insurance…if your kiddo is actually moving and establishing residency in another state, that state will have the guidelines on when you must transfer drivers license, car registration, ownership and insurance.</p>
<p>When our kid was a grad student out of state, he had one of our cars. Because he was a student and was not establishing residency there, we were able to keep him on our insurance, and let him use one of our cars. We did have to list that address for our insurance, as that is where the car was garaged.</p>
<p>But fast forward…when the same kid was no longer a student, and moved to another state, we had 90 days to get him off our policy.</p>
<p>But…P.S. Both locations were over 900 miles from our home, and we just gave the kid the car to use. No contract.</p>
<p>We have never had a car contract with our kids. Two of them had cars at school that were in our names but given to them by a relative. In our case some of those rules are a given. Don’t drive under the influence, don’t let someone else drive your car under the influence. Obey traffic laws, take notice of signs when parking. Pay any parking tickets promptly since car is registered in our name. Make sure the car has oil. Don’t ignore any warning lights. Keep an eye on tire pressure and oil level. Always drive with your license in your possession.
With our older children we had the don’t let anyone borrow or drive. With our younger D she had a truck and would sometimes pull a horse trailer. She had no experience driving a trailer and her roommate who did would drive the truck. She now has plenty of experience and can drive a trailer. We just recently visited her and my H was dismayed at how messy the truck was. It frustrates him but the truck inside looks just like her bedroom. Chaos. She sometimes lets her BF drive. We are okay with that since we are comfortable with him and feel he is a responsible driver.
In our children’s cases the vehicle they have in college will be titled to them at a later date. If they take care of it, it will last them longer. Any vehicle purchased for them at a later date is on their dime. </p>
<p>Tire pressure: We often keep the tire pressure about 34 psi or or even 34.5 psi when the suggested tire pressure is 33. This is because we do not check the tire pressure as often as we should and we heard that most tires tend to be under pressured rather than over pressured.</p>
<p>We were horrified by the fact that the tire pressure on the other car is only 26 or 27 psi the other day! Are you diligent about keeping your tire properly inflated? I do not :(</p>
<p>My tires are rarely under a significant amount. I can feel when they are over inflated or under inflated. </p>
<p>No friends or roommates drive our cars. Only trusted friends which is probably only one person. My car is my car. </p>