ncjay wrote:In my high school days, about 98% of the people had to buy thier own cars. I worked, saved money, picked out and bought my own cars. Same goes for just about everyone I knew. These days it seems many parents feel obligated to buy cars, many times a new one, for their children.
I graduated high school in 1982, from a pretty well-off school. The situation varied a bit but very few of us were required to buy our own cars, though some did. On the flip side, I think hardly any of us got new cars, either. I remember a lot of modest family-car hand-me-downs in the lot. There were a few new-money types that got given more car than they should have been, but that was a rare exception.
I was given access to our family cars when I got my license and given ownership my mother's old '67 LeMans during my senior year. I was the last of 4 kids and my father had provided us each with a well-used but refurbished car that we each helped fix up.
With my own daughters of teenage years, I've provided my elder (age 17) with 2 cars. I never really considered a new car, on general principle. The first was a very very cheap 11-year-old base Impreza wagon with over 100k on it. She helped me replace the CV boots and change the oil. I considered it disposable and when it got bent I was not too upset. It was fixable but not worth fixing. I gave her a few months of walking and bumming rides to bring the lesson home a little, but I have since bought her a 7-year-old, 70k mile Impreza wagon. She's helped on the oil change and will have to help any other work done to it. She's responsible for keeping it clean.
The second Subie was still not too expensive, but enough that it is not considered disposable. It is young enough that it will last her 10 years at least with maintenance, and I've made it clear that her next car is all on her. She knows I only replaced the first one because it was an honest accident and definitely not the result of shenanigans or bad driving. If I thought for a minute she had been doing something she shouldn't, or if she had been too cavalier about the incident, she wouldn't have gotten a replacement.
The younger is due to get her license in about 2.5 years, about the time that my wife's 2004 TSX may be considered for replacement. However, even if we do replace the TSX at that time, I won't give it to my daughter; it will still be too valuable and too nice. I will sell it and use a portion of the proceeds to buy her something slower, simpler, cheaper, and older.
. The next job was flipping burgers at Burger King for the New and Improved minimum wage of $1.90 an hour. By then I had the 1965 Falcon I'd bought with the money I saved from the DQ job. It was paid for, too, all $225.00 of it. I think the annual insurance premium for liability only cost more than the car.
She drives the RX-7 with her brother and mother. It's playing hell on the tire bill. I'm loving it.
