Car shopping with my parents - like pulling teeth, only more painful

Car shopping with my parents is the most nerve-wracking thing ever. When I gave away my Cutlass due to the move, they said they'd buy me a car to replace it. However, in BC, if you modify your car, you must report it to ICBC, get your vehicle re-certified, and then bend over. My parents don’t want me to modify my car, and I thought “that’s fine, I’ll just get a bigger car that I wouldn’t want to modify.” Then they said “We don’t want you in a big car, we want you in something like an Echo or a Fit.” The Echo’s handling was surprisingly turgid, and that’s the whole point to buying a small car. The Fit is out of my price range. On top of that, they want me to buy from someone elderly, which means all the cars I’m looking at are either boring or expensive. This is going to be fun

If they're paying, you should play along.

My first car wasn't very pleasant, but since I didn't pay for it, I had no say in the matter.

I bought all my own cars - then nobody can tell me squat.

Try not to sweat it too much. Without elderly people we wouldn't have a supply of perfectly maintained MGM Panthers and very upgradeable Buicks, for example. And you're in BC: having moved there from Ontario, you know that BC has Canada's highest percentage of, um, eccentrics. Original thinkers. OK, wackos. It's Canada's California, right? So all you have to do is locate an older person who can't drive any more and whose particular eccentricity involves an interesting car that now needs a new custodian. I guarantee that such a person is out there somewhere. Someone who is 85 now would have bought a really nice car as a retirement present for him/herself in 1995. What was it? Have fun looking. (And, as Evan pointed out, your parents COULD have said, "Cutlass too far gone to make the move? Tough nuts.")

If they foot the bill, just smile and nod, and be appreciative. Once you're paying, you can get whatever you like.

One of my son's friends was actually upset that his parents bought him a 2015 Accord as his first car. The rest of the group, including my kid who drives a $250 Civic, then 'discussed' this flawed logic with him.

Pssssssssst. Is free remember.

Stop complaining. My parents would not give me a piece of gum never mind a car. I think you should appreciate the FREE part and be telling us just how cool your parents are because they are giving you a FREE car.

An Echo can look decent.

That's the game ya gotta play. Both cars you listed are better than my first car that was bestowed upon me. Which wasn't a car. A crazy rusty 1979 Ford E150 econoline. I could look down through the gaping rust holes in the floor and see the pavement pass by. Glacially slow. No radio. Barely working heat. The main thing it taught me was spacial awareness. And to dress warmly in winter.

TL;DR you're young. You'll figure out how to have fun in whatever you get. Myself and all my high-school buddies did.

Both cars you mentioned are better than no car.

My mom told me that if I wanted a car, I had to buy it myself. And I had to kinda fight for that, because she didn't have a car until she was 24 so why should I? What does a teenager need with a car anyway?

I ended up buying her a car later. Ironically, before I was 24...

JamesMcD wrote: An Echo can look decent.

Did they call the Yaris an Echo in the north?

In reply to G_Body_Man:

I still haven't quite forgiven you for giving up on the cutlass. That thing needed a weekends worth of not very difficult work to be back on the road. You should have fixed it.

Nick (LUCAS) Comstock wrote:

JamesMcD wrote: An Echo can look decent.

Did they call the Yaris an Echo in the north? In reply to G_Body_Man: I still haven't quite forgiven you for giving up on the cutlass. That thing needed a weekends worth of not very difficult work to be back on the road. You should have fixed it.

I guess I don't know the difference.

EvanR wrote: If they're paying, you should play along. My first car wasn't very pleasant, but since I didn't pay for it, I had no say in the matter.

You see, here's the thing. In the final few weeks of living in Guelph, my parents issued an ultimatum regarding my Cutlass - give it away or crush it. Since I couldn't bring myself to crush it, I had to give it away. I bought that car, and the car my parents promised me is a replacement for my loss.

Tell them driving is lame and you just want a nice smartphone.

There's no need to argue, parents just don't understand.

If you insist on fighting for what you really want, why not try researching and presenting facts that support purchasing your choice(s) (reliability, safety, insurance costs, etc.) if you haven't done so already? Logic may prevail.

The Mazda 3 might fit their "small" requirements and it got "top safety pick" of 2016 and check out the WRX!! It got the highest possible ratings in every category and top marks in "frontal crash avoidance" (It's like Subaru knew their customers were hoons that were just going to wreck it)

The 2005 Toyota Echo only got a 4 out of 5 star overall rating, the fit got top marks in all except "rollover". You could bring this all up in casual conversation ("yeah, I was looking at the fit, but it only got a 4-star rollover, and that WRX from Subaru got top marks in every category..."). I get that you're probably not going to find an old guy with a WRX and all, but the idea is the same.

My parents weren't "car people" either. Use what you know and what they dont know against them by biasing the information passed in the conversation. Appear supportive of their suggestions while you do it

Prime example: My friends parents asked him if he wanted some cokes for when he had friends over on the weekend. "Yeah, but I don't really like coke. Let me see what else they have". He came back with a six-pack or Red Dog tall boys.

Step 1- did you pay for the g-body? If so, id say they were on the hook for the cost of said g-body.

Step 2- i don't know about canada, but in the us, you cant do anything with a car sans parents before you're 18. Own, operate, etc. So the fact that you owned a car, any car, at 15....not bad. Remember that.

Step 3- youre 16 now? You dont get to have a cool first car. You know what mine was? A beige as berkeley 1993 toyota corolla. Good thing too. I was a total knob behind the wheel, and the lack of proper respect would have killed me in anything else.

Step 4- bro. Free, probably not going to kill you car. If my parents called me tomorrow and said free car, im in. I'm 36 now. Know what i drive? A... 1993 toyota corolla!

Protip. Cool is in perception. Ive had fast. Ive had power. Ive had so many different things. I get it. Youre young. Im actually gearing up to teach a soon to be step-daughter some very similar lessons when she doesn't get a shiny new Silverado. Cool is about the bond you form. The knowledge you gain from working on a car. Spending an afternoon skinning knuckles and greasing uo your haynes manual so she runs better. Cool is knowing neat stuff about a given platform that is probably useless to anyone but yoh, and not caring (did you know toyota produced a bz designation wagon for the ae101 chassis that carried the same supercharged 4ag as the mr2, mated to a 6 speed manual? I do. ).

Bottom line, im not trying to rag you. I get it. You see shiny and fast and you want it. You're young. Be thankful you have what you're going to get, and work with that. Remember, a set of proper rims and tints go a long way. Focus on getting your wrench skills up. Learn to drive. Go knock over some cones in whatever you have. My first autox, i about got smoked by a stock mid 90s sonata. Driver straight kicked my ass. The fact that i had triple the power and tire was my only prayer. Car doesnt mean E36 M3 in the right hands.

Hungary Bill wrote: Prime example: My friends parents asked him if he wanted some cokes for when he had friends over on the weekend. "Yeah, but I don't really like coke. Let me see what else they have". He came back with a six-pack or Red Dog tall boys.

When I was a kid the parent that brought coke was always a favorite.

Whatever you do, make sure it's a manual. A manual transmission makes even the slowest, most boring cars 10x more fun. A good arguing point for parents, if you need one, it's better mpg and gives you an important life skill.

chiodos wrote: Whatever you do, make sure it's a manual. A manual transmission makes even the slowest, most boring cars 10x more fun. A good arguing point for parents, if you need one, it's better mpg and gives you an important life skill.

This has merit. Not to mention, manuals are a dying art and in most formats, red headed stepchildren.

My daughters first car was a manual. This ment that 99% of her friends could not drive her car. Even the nice little boy that drove the three series who was trying to impress her discovered that driving skill means alot more than looking cool. He being the nice little boy volunteered to move her car and came back sheepishly admitting that he could not drive a stick.

He did not last long.

It is a shame about the cutlass, but it was a bad buy in the first place. That happens. The fact that you have any deal is better than just eating the loss.

That said, let's turn this productive. What is the budget? They want small, what other factors are there?

Any pile of junk can be fun. My 97 Nissan 4x4 pickup was recently wrecked by an Oldsmobile. Being a cheapskate I found an 89 Nissan 2x4 pickup with about 400,000 miles for $700. I say about because the odometer stopped about 4 years ago at 297,000 and the previous owner said that he had driven it to Arkansas 6 or 7 times since then in addition to driving it daily. It needed window regulators, door handles, shocks and tires. I swapped all of those parts from the wreck. I am rediscovering the joys of a very underpowered (106hp) light rear wheel drive vehicle. I think that Rallycross is in it's future.

Nick (LUCAS) Comstock wrote:

JamesMcD wrote: An Echo can look decent.

Did they call the Yaris an Echo in the north? In reply to G_Body_Man: I still haven't quite forgiven you for giving up on the cutlass. That thing needed a weekends worth of not very difficult work to be back on the road. You should have fixed it.

Yes Yaris's were sold as Echo's up here for a while. I think they stopped in 2010.