Parents who buy their kid a new car? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

GottaDiesel · #1 08-02-2006, 10:32 AM

What do you think of parents who buy their kid a brand new car? Should a child have to work for things or just have them handed to them because the parents can afford it?

(We're talking soon after the kid gets their license)...

Nate · #2 08-02-2006, 10:55 AM

I leave the parking lot on my own terms, I wait for none, because nobody cuts me off when I'm leaving the school parking lot... Big, ugly, and loud. Known to play bumpercars, they fear me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/NathanEbert/Truck/Truck04.jpg

One time, some kid in a 2004+ neon srt4 cut me off... I got about 2" from his bumper, turned on the highs, and reved it up to about 4k... He didnt do it after that anymore.

Every kid (weather they tell you or not) is going to crash in 2 years... Could tap a curb in the snow, or they could smoke a parking lot devider... Hope they're involved in a single vehicle collision, because thoose are the most survivabal.
It's a 99 percent chance of crashage, why buy them a new car?

I think every kid my age should have to drive a car with no power brakes, stearing, or radio for about 2 months... They need to parallel park that car also, with no P/S, you'll be less apt to fubar it up.
Take car of all maintance also.

End of rant, but I dont like it when kids get new(er) cars.... I dont own a vehicle that's younger then me

~Nate

TX76513 · #3 08-02-2006, 10:56 AM

It feeds the fire or like the book "Money comes from ATM's". This is the last of the kids in High School, it's became harder with each one to teach monetary sensibility. Like many student parking lots ours is littered with BMW's, Porsche's, Mustangs and the ever popular Range Rovers. I had one parent discuss the merit of leasing a 3 series for his daughter. His points were well taken, but I don't agree.

Jim Anderson · #4 08-02-2006, 11:11 AM

When my now 30 year old son wanted a car I told him all I would do is sign, everything else he would have to do, from paying for it to figuring out everything that had to be done. Recently he mentioned to me he could tell the people who had their cars bought for them and indicated it was obvious they were missing something.

#5 08-02-2006, 11:39 AM

I do not mind buying a car to put in the family 'pool' of cars for the teen to drive, but he does have to pay to help operate and maintain the car. I am willing to do this because of labor laws as it is hard for a teen under 16 to get any degree of steady income, at least where we live. Now if he wants car 'X' than that is his to purchase and operate. Granted our teen driver would really like the idea of a performance car, but he is quite contend driving the two W123's. To a teen boy any wheels is better that no wheels. He knows that his friends think it is a bit odd, but he knows how good a W123 is. I think that he is waiting for is first day to drive a Mercedes to go golfing with the school golf team.

TwitchKitty · #6 08-02-2006, 12:08 PM

I worked as a teenager and paid my own way at an early age. I learned to work on my vehicles because I couldn't afford to pay to have them fixed. This molded my view of cars and probably of the world. When I look at a car I see every part of it and the functions they serve and the systems they compose. I also see them as transportation tools and status symbols and works of art. Some of the people I grew up with were handed cars, etc and they look at them as transportation tools (conveniences) and status symbols and works of art. Sometimes I wish I had their view instead of mine.

I think it would be a different country if kids spent one summer fixing an old broken lawnmower and cutting yards with it for money. The technical skills and the concepts of bootstrapping and business would go a long way toward molding character.

Mistress · #7 08-02-2006, 12:16 PM

I was raised in a rather modest household, and the saying was :"If you want it bad enough your going to have to pay for it yourself." With my own hard earned money I bought my first car an MGB, I had to pay for everything- the car, insurance, gas maintenance etc. This lesson has served me well, and with little money I have done quite well. Put myself through college, have a masters degree and am getting ready to go to paralegal school. I think you have a better sense of reality and are more hard working if things in life aren't handed to you on a platter and you must work for them. Better sense of pride with accomplishment.

iwrock · #8 08-02-2006, 12:28 PM

I currently am a teenager. I am 18 years old. I bought all my cars (off my dad), and pay all of my own insurance and gas.

I had a 400E, it was the spare car, and I paid the insurance and the gas on it. It got wrecked December 27, 2006 when it hydroplaned, and spun out of control hitting a tree. The car did exactly what it was supposed to, and gave its life for mine.

I now have a 300TE. I bought this car off my dad, as it was the spare car. I pay my insurance and gas on this car too. well yes, it may look odd at first, but it is still in good shape. It has an awesome stereo.....

Anyways, I have many friend that are well off. One of my oldest friends, Christy, has a 2006 Toyota Highlander. She has already been in 6 accidents, and she has had her license for 6 months. Her last collision involved a mailbox, 2 cars, and a tree. Its like WTF.... But her parents have 2 reasons for getting her a new car. 1) They dont have to deal with the problems of buying an old car. and 2) We never had new cars when we were growing up, so we should get them a new car....

Mistress · #9 08-02-2006, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justinwrock

I currently am a teenager. I am 18 years old. I bought all my cars (off my dad), and pay all of my own insurance and gas.

I had a 400E, it was the spare car, and I paid the insurance and the gas on it. It got wrecked December 27, 2006 when it hydroplaned, and spun out of control hitting a tree. The car did exactly what it was supposed to, and gave its life for mine.

I now have a 300TE. I bought this car off my dad, as it was the spare car. I pay my insurance and gas on this car too. well yes, it may look odd at first, but it is still in good shape. It has an awesome stereo.....

Anyways, I have many friend that are well off. One of my oldest friends, Christy, has a 2006 Toyota Highlander. She has already been in 6 accidents, and she has had her license for 6 months. Her last collision involved a mailbox, 2 cars, and a tree. Its like WTF.... But her parents have 2 reasons for getting her a new car. 1) They dont have to deal with the problems of buying an old car. and 2) We never had new cars when we were growing up, so we should get them a new car....

Justin- Tell your parents I said they did a good job raising you and please don't drive anywhere with Christy.

Orkrist2 · #10 08-02-2006, 01:02 PM

Interesting issue. I have a many friends who are relatively "spoiled". They have an unsophisticated understanding of money but also have access to a great deao of it because of family. They have been given cars like 740's, the Lexus convertible, Vette's, Boxsters, Land Rover Defenders, you name it. Can't say its done wonders for their financial accumen, but it hardly matters because they'll never need any anyway.

At the same time, teens need to get around. I didn't have a car until I was 21, buyt used family cars to get around with as a teen. I had to pay for gas, but not insurance. The cars, well, a Dodge van and a 79 Lincoln Town Car, Cartier Edition, yo.

Hatterasguy · #11 08-02-2006, 01:14 PM

When I was looking to get a car back when I was 16 or so my dad said this to me:

"Sure son you can get any car you want, I'll even help you pick it out and check it over. Just tell me when you have the money and well go look."

When of the best things he could have told me. I worked hard for my first $4k Toyota and didn't beat it because I made that $4k sweating cutting lawns and at an $8 an hour job. Then I got tired of it and started buying Mercedes.

I feel that every kid should be forced to buy there own car, it teaches them real world things. Like money doesn't grow on trees, and not to beat there cars because if they break it, they will be fixing it. I will say the exact same thing to my kids when the time comes. I don't care if I could buy them a new BMW, they didn't earn it so they don't get one.

But on the other hand I know a few people who were just given cars when they turned 16 or 17. Lots of 3 series and A4's were in the highschool parking lot. Said cars seemed to get trashed and in accidents rather quickly...

rg2098 · #12 08-02-2006, 01:24 PM

I payed for half of the car ($4500 with shipping, etc.). I pay for parts. My father pays for my fuel and insurance.

Let me say that in 2 years and 30,000 miles I have NEVER once hit anything, vehicle or stationary object.

I did get slid into twice last winter, both times by a sedan so my big rubber covered bumpers took all the force and neither time left more then a scuff.

I appreciate my parents helping me you financially with my vehicle, I could never have bought it without them. But I do know the value of a dollar and put significant work into making the money that I did pay on it. (I'm at about 5-6k now on my end)

Carleton Hughes · #13 08-02-2006, 02:30 PM

I always find it an irksome task to evaluate another's choices by my own loosely-affixed standards and principles which could change overnight.

Howbeit I am at the same time quite conscious of the pleasure of my own experience but will refrain from thrusting it's merits upon others.

Having rescued moribund mowers from the garbage,fixed them up and sold them since I was 11 or so cars were the natural progression as I grew older.

By 14 I had my first,a '51 Chrysler Windsor,paid $75.00 for it as it had thrown a rod thru the block but as many here can attest,a Chrysler flathead six can be taken down and repaired practically blindfolded,this was especially needful as my Mother had refused all my entreaties for car money with the rejoinder"why?so you can develop another costly habit?sell more lawnmowers".......toughlove I guess.

At first I drove it surreptitiously for a year until I got my permit/license and enjoyed every minute of it,solid,built like a bank vault,which I once had occasion to be thankful for as I had just turned sixteen when I discovered that alcohol,if consumed often enough,often produces symptoms of drunkeness,an experiment I have never repeated,behind the wheel of a motor vehicle,that is.

TheDon · #14 08-02-2006, 03:00 PM

my mom said i can have what ever car i want as long as i pay 100% for it, i pay fuel, insurance, do my own work on it, etc... i do have friends that are spoiled and their parents pay for everything while they sit at home doing nothing or just screwing around doing stupid stuff... while i the hard working kid has to work 25 hours a week which cuts into my time for studying and projects and the idiot children get to dick around on their parents bill... i guess we will know who is going to leave the earth when the time comes

snp8990 · #15 08-02-2006, 09:37 PM

Back in the day,when my neice was learning how to drive my brother and I bought her a brand-new Golf.We bought it for her because we thought because shes a girl,this is a great car.Even though,before that she had to learn driving on my 560SEL,a 240D and the Previa.Her brother,had to work his way up from a beat up Mercury Sable,a Buick Century,190D 2.2,a nicer Maxima and finally his dream car,the 1995 S320.Then as my son was learning how drive,I taught him on the T100,Odyssey,S500 and sometimes he drove the 230S(once or twice).I always tell him that if he gets into an accident,he will pay for all the damages,and insurance.If he gets a ticket,he will have to pay his own insurance.He drove a '99 Jetta Wolfsburg Edition.Great car,very heavy,good in the snow,powerful when it needs to be and great on gas.But all those kids were hard-working kids and were great students.