GG - there is a difference between what you are doing with your son, versus what some parents do.
You obviously realize that your son needs to learn responsibility, and you take the time to instill values in him that will lead him towards becoming a responsible adult. I think many parents would agree that there is nothing inherently wrong with helping a (well deserving) child out by giving them a good used car, or reasonable new car. I do not think giving a child a used car or reasonable new car is neccessarily doing them a disservice, as long as you do like you are doing, and make them understand and handle the insurance, gas, and maintenance that goes along with it. However, I would be quick to let the kid know that if the grades slip, or if he gets in trouble (even if the trouble has nothing to do with the car), the car is a privilege and that particular privilege will be revoked until he gets things back in line.
I think the disservice part comes in when "Johnny 16 Year Old" shows up in the high school parking lot with his loaded up '07 Mustang GT. Couple that with the fact that his parents are also probably paying for the car insurance (regardless of whether he gets a speeding ticket or 2), giving him gas money, and taking care of all maintenance issues for him as well.
In NJ, last week, in a town a few miles from me, a 17 year old HS student upon just leaving school and driving a 2003 Cadilac with two school mates in the car, hit a small school van driven by a woman. All four were killed upon impact.
Speed?
Oh, yeah, the driver was the captain of the football team and supposedly a very good kid.
BTW, a study, years ago, indicated that for most HS kids who got a car their grades went down.
Don't get me wrong....I'm not hear to tell anyone how to raise their kids. But, I still stick by my comment, if there's no skin in the game for a teen when they get a car, we're doing them a disservice. I still don't see how a car that the teen isn't responsible for, makes them a better person. Matter of fact, I think it does them more harm than good.
I think most of this stems from the recent observations I've had with some of my son's friends. I'm fortunate enough that I can provide my son with a comfortable life. He doesn't have to worry about food, shelter, an education. I've got those covered for him.
He's learned some hard and expensive lessons (as have I) along the way. I lifted his license for a year when he was 16 after he wrecked MY car. Courts wouldn't do it, but I did. After I gave him his license back, he was faced with some humongous insurance premiums (he had to work and save up for 8 months to afford his insurance premium, again). He learned a lesson from that. He's been stranded before by not keeping his maintenance (battery) up to date on his car. He learned a lesson from that, too.
He worked, scrimped and saved for a couple of years to get enough money from me to match his $$$ to get a car. He learned a lesson from that.
What I hear from some of my son's friends is that they're entitled to a car. I don't get that. To add insult to injury, they don't want just any car, they want the sporty, bigger buck models. And, they'll whine, cajole, cry, threaten, and browbeat their parents until they get what they want. Some of those parents cave. I refuse to let anyone to be that manipulative towards me.
What's worse, the parents pony up the $$$ to get them that sporty ride, It's easier than to teach their kids what it really means to own a car. The kids learned nothing. The parents have succeeded in doing little more than placating little Johnny or Janey for a little while so they don't have to get involved. Nothing's learned or taught.
i don't think a high-schooler or college-bound child needs wheels. nope. i thought most colleges didn't allow kids to bring vehicles (not only a distraction, but also a parking headache) on campus anyway. only time you'd be allowed to have them is if you lived off campus... but if you live off campus, shouldn't you be walking to / from class everyday and concentrating on studies?
i know i had to concentrate on studies.
i did not need a vehicle in high-school or undergraduate school. by the time i went back to grad school, i owned my own vehicle. when i was a junior in college, i got a very well-used and rusted VW Rabbit that got me through to my first job, where i bought my first (used) vehicle.
my parents initially helped me with insurance while i was still in college. by that time though, I was 20 and had slogged through 3 years of engineering school, on my way to the last year and interviews.
now i know there's going to be exceptions and true needs, but i think kids are given vehicles much much much too early. at 17 or 18, what do you know about the world?
i know there are gonna be parents saying our child needs a ride out to college campus, but i don't buy it. i think we have an obligation to drive our children to campus and back each semester. a good way for us to review what just transpired, or review what needs to get done to get the new semester started off right.
i guess i'm old fashion.
a kid having any sort of vehicle in high-school? i'm with you. just say "no, sooooo sorry. that's what the bus is for".
The best car for a teen is a big domestic boat with the smallest engine available. This past weekend my son drove my 2000 Concorde off a cliff into the trees. Car was destroyed, kid didn't get a scratch...until he got home!
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
a kid having any sort of vehicle in high-school? i'm with you. just say "no, sooooo sorry. that's what the bus is for".
well, i needed one to get back and forth to work after school and on weekends. But I paid for everything on the vehicle out of my own pocket ... well almost everything. Parents ponied up $1k for each of their kids as an advanced HS graduation gift. Both my brother and sister had to pay it back when they didn't graduate.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
I don't think so. You would be hardpressed to find a college that does not allow vehicles.
For freshmen, maybe...
My daughter is a freshman at Colorado State University this year, and both her and her roommate have a car with them on campus.
When we went to the orientation 18 months ago, the question came up about the need to have a car. Of the 4 or 5 kids on the panel, they were split on the subject .. some said yes, others no.
My daughter comes home every other weekend, and it's about 90-100 miles one way. Plus, she will venture off-campus occasionally for a trip to Target or the movie theatre.
In my opinion, it has worked out well for her to have a car. Fortunately, she also happens to live in a dorm at the edge of campus, so she's never had a problem with parking.
what do you when there is no bus by the time they get out of practice, after school meeting, or help? next year is college, so back to no car. i don't see any reason to deny it in the mean time. my philosophy is to give my kids the reasonable advantages i can, and to let out the rope a bit, too. before my daughter got her license, she had driven in ct,ma,ri,ny,mi,oh and in. since then, add pa,md,de and nc. i still worry when they take the car, but they gotta grow up.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
I need your guys's opinion. My 15 year old son turns 16 in June so we have been looking around for some good 1st car options.
We've got it narrowed down to 2, but we don't know which one to buy. What would you guys recommend for a teen, a 2002 Altima or a 2000-2001 Maxima? We want to stick with Nissan since my son likes the styling of both cars, but at the same time me and my wife like how reliable they are.
and make sure you have good tires on it. even the 4cyl is pretty powerful and a handful in slippery conditions. not to pick on the altima, a lot of cars are that way.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
I would suggest a used POS of any make or model with as little horse power as possible. When they learn to drive for real then they can get a decent car.
your children will grow up, mine will too. just differently. everyone's got different / unique situations. i know that.
we are enablers if you think about it. yes, you are giving her an advantage, but that is your choice. she certainly isn't entitled. a necessity for her to have her own vehicle? i don't believe so... but this is your way of letting out the rope. that's fine.
i personally think today's children "grow up" a tad too fast. quotes intentional. children are given too much autonomy and often are involved in TOO MUCH after school actvities with people and at places we can be ignorant of.
maybe they could be comming home, doing their homework, helping to make dinner or do other housework chores around the house...
i presume if one has a daughter or son, by 15 or 16 they can grocery shop, cook for themselves, do their laundry, balance a checkbook...
it's encouraging to hear your daughter got a lot of driving experience BEFORE she got her license. that's really good.
questions: does she check all four tires before she sets off to drive? does she check her oil and other fluid levels periodically when she fills up the car? does she check for spots on the ground underneath where she parks? would she know how to check and correct the tire pressure, oil and other fluid levels in the car if they were low? does she check that all the bulbs on the vehicle work? would she know how to change one?
and would she know what to do if she hit a patch of ice, got caught in a torrential downpour, came up upon some thick fog, entered an area with many deer crossing the road? what if she was being tail-gated? what if someone in front of her was acting out in road rage, was involved in excessive speeding or making excessive lane changes?
does she keep appropriate following distances? can she recognize when some other driver may be falling asleep or is distracted? does she have good mirror scanning behaviors? does she even know how to set her side view mirrors properly to limit her vehicle's blind spots?
exporer....obviously, you're a caring parent. That's commendable. By no means am I suggesting that a parent shouldn't offer their kids "reasonable advantages" that we, as their parents, may or may not have had.
Resourcefullness is a good lesson to be taught, too. No bus after practice? I guess I'd have to ask how you and your kids deal with that now? Certainly, they didn't start practices just when they turned 16. Resourcefullness will go a long way to alleviating that issue.
No car in college? From what I'm hearing, rules are different for every University. I know when I was going to college, if you were a Freshman and Sophomore, and you lived on campus, you weren't allowed to have cars. It's still that way today at my alma mater. That doesn't mean some didn't flaunt those rules, but those that did have a car, put more effort and energy to hide the car from the campus cops than they did getting to class.
I can say that I walked...and walked...a lot.....when I was in college. I can also remember taking the invariable (and dreaded) early a.m. classes, and being one of mayby 30 kids walking to class, on the entire campus (all the rest of the students were smart enough to sleep in, getting into later classes). To make it easier, most colleges have shuttles, now. Kids just have to plan a little better to take advantage of them. When I needed to come home, it was either my parents coming to pick me up, or Greyhound (on my dime). Didn't have any issues with any of that.
I'm not saying I had it tough. My parents had become much more successful later in life (like after I graduated). But, when I was going to college, they didn't have the wherewithall to pick up every little expense I had, so they picked up none of it. If I wanted to go to college, I had to pay my own way. It proved to me how much I really wanted that education. Same way with a car, if I wanted one, they didn't stop me from getting one. They just didn't pay for it.
Truth told, some of my fondest memories in school were surrounded by those times when I hoofed it....in the early morning hours....on freshly fallen snow, to get to class. It cleared my head. Plus, it kept me in shape. During the Fall/Spring, I used a bike (sometimes in the winter, too).
Speaking of resourcefullness, I finally did buy a beater for my junior/senior year, when I was living off campus. Bought it during the summer with summer job change. I thought I was the "schiznits" since I had now graduated to having a car (for mostly beer and pizza runs). I learned resourcefullness with that car. It ran (or should I say, sputtered) about half the time. I learned auto mechanics with that car (if I wanted to keep it on the road). Did you know when you have worn brushes on a starter that a good whack with a heavy wrench will gain you another 5-6 months of use out of it before replacing it? Do you know you can buy perfectly serviceable batteries, brake pads, etc at the junk yard for about 1/20th the price of new ones? Add a few scraped knuckles and you're good to go. Did you know that instead of a tune-up, you can pull the plugs out of your old heap, sandpaper the tips, put them back in and get another 10K miles out of them?
Growing up has as much to do with resourcefullness as it does anything else. We all know this. Sometimes letting our kids figure it out for themselves is the best lesson (as opposed to bailing them out of trouble each and every time).
While most of my tyring times with a car were viewed as "damnable luck" when they happened, I view them fondly, now. Plus, I'm no worse for the wear.
I hope I'm not coming across as an "oldster" here (I'm "just" in my 40s). But, my teen (and early 20s) years taught me a lot about resourcefullness, drive and ambition. A portion of those lessons were surrounding the buying/maintaining of a car (as humble as it was). I'd be remiss if I didn't pass those same lessons on to my kid (he hates it when I call him "kid"). They are good lessons to be learned.
i'm also in my 40s. at the colleges i went to, vehicles were also reserved for upperclass men and women.
i too can remember walking to early classes in snow, sometimes stinging as it blew horizontal, and sometimes up to my waist in the drifts.
i can remember lectures in classrooms where the steam heat was so uncontrollable, we had the windows wide open to make it remotely comfortable, and with the wide open windows - it snowing in the classroom!
right of passage? yes, college built true character in me.
i think the kids today have it entirely too easy.
i'm sure our parents thought we had it too easy back then also.
i think if explorerx4 wants to get a good reliable car for a son or daughter, that a parent's perogative. but i'm all for what you are saying.
there's got to be a balance in all things. i just think setting up expectations in a child (and at 16,17, 18 that's mentally what they are) for a car easily gotten and easily paid for and maintained is a disservice to both parent and child.
you are just beating me up! i didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth, i was lucky if i had a spoon! i'll make some random comments on some of the previous posts, which i know were made with the best of intentions. my daughter does not check the tire pressure or the oil level. it is still my vehicle, and i do that. besides, it does not use any oil. i want point out again, that giving my kid a car to drive to school is a convenience for myself and my wife. my kids schedules change every year. we live about 7-8 miles from the school, so walking is out. sometimes she has to be at school early, before bus pickup. sometimes late, after last bus pickup. i figure taking ap math and physics, being on student council, playing violin the the school orchestra(back row, though), rowing on the crew team, attending chuch youth group meetings and teaching religious ed to 2nd graders is a pretty fully plate. i'm sure i missed a couple things and am glad we don't have to drive her to all those activities. her first quarter grades were her best ever. too bad she says 'like' every other word. :sick: she put in an app at some school in oxford, oh. can't quite remember the name.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
figure taking ap math and physics, being on student council, playing violin the the school orchestra(back row, though), rowing on the crew team, attending chuch youth group meetings and teaching religious ed to 2nd graders is a pretty fully plate. i'm sure i missed a couple things and am glad we don't have to drive her to all those activities. her first quarter grades were her best ever
that's great, but the point we were trying to make ultimately is there are many things about vehicle ownership and driving you need to teach her.
yes she should be doing those checks, even if it's your car. i'd start by showing her the dip stick and the zen of oil... not as intellectually challenging as AP Math or Physics, but a worthy subject.
how many people do you know that even know how to open the the hood on their car? not many, i suspect. maybe i should ask her to check the transmission fluid on the explorer she drives. :surprise:
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
i'm not surprised by these forums to learn how many people don't read their car manuals, so no, i'm not surprised that many wouldn't know how to find the hood release.
you can start by showing her how to open and secure the hood. then, yes, how to check the transmission fluid level.
but don't stop there, besides the oil and transmission fluid, show her how to locate the power steering resevoir, the coolant (and how to safely check), the brake fluid, and the windshield washer fluid level. they all can significantly impact her ability to safely get to her destination if they are low.
then, show her how to use a good tire gauge and an air chuck.
show her how to check for a problem with a headlight, taillight, or the center-mounted stop light. show her how to use the emergency flashers.
if you're feeling particularly adventurous, show her how to properly use a car jack on level ground, and put on the spare tire. tell her about the hazards of changing a tire on a highway or a busy or poorly-lit road.
it's basic stuff, i know, but it could save her from being stranded, or out the expense of the vehicle or a large repair bill. and proper vehicle operation and basic maintenance could mean the difference between an accident and none.
with all sincerity, don't cut corners. with a car comes a great deal of responsibility people don't think of: for property (yours and hers) but more importantly the safety of oneself and the other people on the road with you.
and if she gets involved in a serious relationship with someone else, you want to assess and assure that person also has the predicate knowledge that comes with vehicle ownership. your daughter and your future grandchildren are riding in it as well. :shades:
user....you're right. My parents thought I had it too easy. I think my son has it too easy. He thinks he has it hard because other paerents are GIVING their kids nice cars. I keep trying to tell him that the burlap bag material I buy for him to wear ain't cheap.
As mentioned, my son is 20. Yes, he's an adult. But, as I remind him all of the time, until he's out on his own, making his own way, without "the old man's wallet", he hasn't made it, yet. That said, I'm very proud of him. He's going to school full time and on the dean's list. He's working part time to keep out of the free cheese line and to keep his wheels on the road. All he has to do is to take care of what I ask him to take care of (the car and it's expenses). I've got the rest covered.
He's still learning and I'm still teaching. Some of the lessons he likes, some he doesn't. All of them are good lessons, though.
explorer...as I said, I'm certain you're a fine parent. I've got two sisters. I can remember my late father having heated dinner discussions with them about societal inequality of the sexes. My sisters' stance was always pointed towards the "females get no respect (or equality)" part of the debate. They were right. But, so was my father. He stated that there is no respect or equality just given to you in this country. Equality had to be made by each individual. Regardless of race, gender or creed, he felt all individuals had to be proven worthy of respect/equality.
That's why he didn't have different rules for any of us. If they didn't get a car, I didn't get a car. If they wanted something, they had to find a way to get it. So did I.
Owning a car for a teen (or 20s) idividual teaches those lessons, if they're responsible to find a way to get it themselves....be they male or female.
The overall lesson....you want something? Go out and get it. Don't wait for someone to give it to you. Can't think of a better time to teach that lesson than at 16 when it comes to cars.
When I lifted my son's license after his wreck, it was more of a hardship on me having to haul him around for school and extra-curriculars, than it was for him. For my son, it was just embarassing having his parent haul him around, or God forbid, he had to take a bus. But, a lesson was taught, and learned.
I had a 4 cyl Altima, and I think it's a good car that does everything fairly well. It's reliable, nimble and handles well, good safety and gas mileage. The 4 cyl is quick and has the necessary power to pass in any condition. I had Firehawk tires on it, never had a problem with traction.
I sold it to a high school kid when it had close to 100k miles. The only problem it had was a passenger side door that wouldn't open. I was playing the old "lock/unlock door" trick when my wife was trying to get into the car, messed up the door... then my wife messed me up. :sick:
They are both great cars. I'd pick the one with side airbags and ABS. If both are equipped that way, go with the Altima with a 4 banger. If both are sixes, go with the Maxima as it would be a tad slower.
i know everyone has good intentions with their posts but they remind me of something a guy a used to work with said; 'I have a wife, a mother, and a mother in law, I don't need you too!' apologies to all the wives and moms out there.
if you can figure out how to check the transmission fluid in an explorer, let me know. it doesn't have a dip stick. :P
i guess everyone is going to fall out of their chairs when i tell them my kids have cell phones. i pay the bill and even pay extra for 'texting'.
in the mean time, letting my kid drive MY suv is ok with me. when they buy their own car, they can get whatever they can afford. they want to drive a 'range, but it up to them to figure out how to do that!
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
oh well, i see that's tricky. so the fact there's no stick removes one of your obligations to demonstrate to her. but only one of many associated with her ride.
no more preaching. we've exceeded your budget. :shades:
my point is, nobody has the answers that will work for everyone. to me there is a whole lot of stuff more important in life than being able to check the oil, not that being able to check the oil is a bad thing. yale university exceeds my budget. :surprise: at the end of the day, my kids will still be driving one of my cars, until they get their own.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
my kids are into 'csi miami/vegas'. there is an episode on tv right now where some foreign tourists are killed. they show a shot of the driver's door panel. my daughter says "it's a chevy". i say how do you know that? she says, 'i just know'. guess what? it is a prior gen malibu.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
Graphic, I think you are handling your son very well and, compared to how we raised our kids, you are not being too easy on him.
We paid for their college, gave them our used cars to drive, paid for their insurance, and gave them a reasonable amount of spending money. Both of them worked during the summer but not during school.
Now they are both married. They have very good jobs and spend their money wisely. They both appreciate everything we have tried to do for them.
I think that was geat taking away his license after he had a wreck. When I was 15 I drove my motorcycle through a stop sign and lost my license for a couple months. That taught me a lesson and ever since then I have come to a full stop at every stop sign, even though it seems to irritate the drivers behind me.
I don't know that there's any one correct way to raise our kids. We only do what we think is right.
It was as much a PITA for me to lift my son's license as it was embarassing for him. I'm the one who had to haul him around to different school/friend activities....or, he had to take the bus. That said, it drove the point home. He rear ended somebody. He was busier worrying about the stereo and his cell phone than he was paying attention to driving.
I didn't lift his license to be mean. I told him I just didn't want him hurt. He's too precious to me.
When I was teaching him how to drive (his driver's ed classes were woeful), I kept stressing over and over again to keep a safe distance, pay constant attention and not to be distracted because as we all know, situations change quickly on the road. Apparently, I didn't emphasize my point enough. So, I had to make a stand to drive it home more emphatically. License was lifted.
When he went to court, I was hoping they would take a stronger stand so I wouldn't have to. Surprisingly, they didn't. So, I did. The court fined him (which HE had to pay, not me) but let him keep his license.
Since that time, he's as careful a driver as I've seen. Lesson learned.
It's amazing how well he takes care of the maintenance for his car since he's got his own skin in the game. While he's got what seems like the whole university library stacked up in his back seat, he's religious in changing his oil and checking all the maintenance requirements for his car. He knows it's got to last him for at least another couple of years until he graduates and he gets on with his career. He also knows that there'll be no "bank of Dad" coming to the rescue for his transportation needs. Everything else, I cover for him.
We bought our daughter a Civic in 1995 (she paid for part of it), but the rest of the cars were hand me downs - one Altima and a few Accords.
They both appreciate it very much. Because we gave our daughter and her husband an Accord in 1998, they were able to buy a house just before the price boom and it has almost tripled in value since then. Of course, we appreciate the two grandchildren even more.
In a serious point did you really expect him to follow exactly what you were trying to tell him he needed to do? Or did you feel he was going to slip up? I think you handled the aftermath of it really well.
I see the teenage drivers around our local school campus. Which university? ( whole university library stacked up in his back seat,)
we all like cars, but there are a whole lot more important things in life. anyways my daughter drives my hand me down suv, while i drive the focus i bought 3 years ago, figuring that would be her car when she got her license. it's ok with me, it's a stick and i feel like i'm driving the scirocco i drove 25 years ago.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
imidazol.....I couldn't predict what would or wouldn't have happened when my son finally got his license. All I could do was prepare him for the crazy stuff and crazy drivers he would encounter. Like we all do, I spent hours and hours taking him out to practice driving, in all sorts of conditions. I remember one snowy day, I took him to an empty parking lot to show him what would happen if there were any sudden steering moves and what speed does on snow/ice. Going into a 360 spin drove that point home.
I spent even more hours (and a burnt clutch) teaching him to drive a manual tranny. Now, he swears he won't ever buy an automatic transmission car, ever.
When he had his wreck, it was spring. Roads were dry....sunny day. His car wouldn't start because the battery was dead (another bone of contention on that fateful day). He had bought a ratted out Camry (again, with his own funds he had saved from b-day, Christmas gifts and bagging groceries) for $1,200. He was driving to HS (St Xavier). In hindsight, I should have driven him to school, or made him take the bus, but instead, let him drive my car. He just plowed into a car that was stopped at a red light....simply wasn't paying attention to driving. Neither he, nor the other driver was hurt (thankfully), but he hit the other car hard, causing my car's airbags to go off. While he was only sighted for the "rear ender". The cop on the scene told me he was speeding, too. But, she gave him a break. Funny now, but not then, the cop called me to tell me of the accident, not my son. She said he was too afraid to make the call.
His insurace sky rocketed...from about $2K/year to $5K/year. He's worn off the points and his insurance finally is back in the $2K range. But, he struggled mightily to make the insurance payments. He did...he had to...if he wanted to get back on the road. He worked two jobs in the summer months and part time during the school year to save for both a car, and to make his insurance payment. By the time I gave him his license back, he had saved $10K. $5K for insurance and $5K (which I matched) to buy a new Elantra.
He's now a JR at University of Cincinnati currently, and doing well (Deans List...majoring in Economics). He'll do his co-op next year and hopefully graduate in '09. I had kind of hoped he would go to my alma mater (Miami) or Xavier U. He was also accepted at Loyola in Chicago, which would have been fine by me, but he chose UC instead. Nothing wrong with that. UC has a very good business school.
As you can tell, I'm proud. It's not always been easy to stick to my guns. In the end, it turned out to be right. There were times I wasn't so sure, though.
Like we all do, I spent hours and hours taking him out to practice driving, in all sorts of conditions.
That’s what I did too but it didn’t work. I put him through everything I could think of and then we did it again and again and ., except for driving in snow and driving on an open grate metal bridge. He got his license before the snow fell (early November) but he knew he wasn’t going to drive in the snow until we practiced that too, before he would be permitted to go out alone in the snow. He knew that and didn’t have a problem with that but even if he did that would have been too bad because we all know it’s a different game out there on snow.
I looked high and low and asked where there was an open grate metal bridge so we could drive on one but there just weren’t anymore around and that was pretty interesting because Pittsburgh is known as the city of bridges yet they were already phased out by the time he started to drive (1985). Wouldn’t you know, that’s the one that got him.
The very first time he took the car out alone he and three friends went to their high school football play-off game that was held at a neutral high school field in a town about 20 miles from the Pittsburgh suburb where we live. The game was well in hand (their school) late in the 4 th quarter and since it had started to rain they decided to leave so they could get an early start going to a planned victory dance at their high school. Well, there was an open grate metal bridge that had to be crossed on the school property leading from the field to the school access road that in turn exited onto the road in front of the school. He drove across this same bridge on the way to the field but it wasn’t raining then and there was bumper to bumper traffic on their way in so no problem. Now, driving too fast for conditions when he saw traffic backing up just past the bridge he hit the brakes too hard and spun into a pole at the end of the bridge (yeah, he almost made it). He took out the front clip, right front fender and passenger door, shattering the glass (his friend in the front passenger seat said he thought he was dead, the glass made so much noise when it broke). Needless to say, it was a pretty cool ride home.
So, he learned that’s what happens when you drive too fast for conditions. All of his friends swore up and down he was not speeding but I told them all, when you loose control of your car you are going too fast and in my book that’s speeding. Fortunately, no one was hurt (thank God there wasn’t anybody walking on that bridge at that time).
He paid out of his savings from working part time to have the car repaired. We did the work ourselves (another lesson I wanted him to learn, even though I was the one spending the time teaching him what to do). We got the pieces from a junk yard, then he took it to an independent body shop to have it painted. All combined it cost just under $500 dollars to fix that ten year old 75’Grand Prix (it was in perfect shape prior to this event, more than one person offered to buy it when they saw it in parking lots)..
Yes, I yanked his license for about four months and both he and his mother thought I took it too far and still do. I never said it was majority rule or a democracy in my house, when it comes to things like that it’s a dictatorship and too bad for members of the house if they didn’t like it !!!
There’s more to this tale and I’ll tell that some other time.
I was a little winded here, sorry about that. It still bothers me that I didn’t look a little harder for a metal bridge.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
For used you can get a Volvo S60 or S40 still in warranty and/or with the 100,000 mile volvo certified warranty for about the same price as a new hyundai.
He slid down a hill on ice (was going too fast), through a stop sign, across the road, off the cliff and into a thicket of trees. I guess the trees acted like a cushion because even though the nose, hood and fenders were torn off the cab stayed intact. The windshield didn't even crack. The front wheels were pointing at 90 degree angles. We found the headlights 300 feet down the hill...unbroken! Took them 3 hours to tow it out. a tree was stuck in the engine compartment. I used to think that the old cars were better for accident protection, but not any more.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Comments
You obviously realize that your son needs to learn responsibility, and you take the time to instill values in him that will lead him towards becoming a responsible adult. I think many parents would agree that there is nothing inherently wrong with helping a (well deserving) child out by giving them a good used car, or reasonable new car. I do not think giving a child a used car or reasonable new car is neccessarily doing them a disservice, as long as you do like you are doing, and make them understand and handle the insurance, gas, and maintenance that goes along with it. However, I would be quick to let the kid know that if the grades slip, or if he gets in trouble (even if the trouble has nothing to do with the car), the car is a privilege and that particular privilege will be revoked until he gets things back in line.
I think the disservice part comes in when "Johnny 16 Year Old" shows up in the high school parking lot with his loaded up '07 Mustang GT. Couple that with the fact that his parents are also probably paying for the car insurance (regardless of whether he gets a speeding ticket or 2), giving him gas money, and taking care of all maintenance issues for him as well.
Speed?
Oh, yeah, the driver was the captain of the football team and supposedly a very good kid.
BTW, a study, years ago, indicated that for most HS kids who got a car their grades went down.
I think most of this stems from the recent observations I've had with some of my son's friends. I'm fortunate enough that I can provide my son with a comfortable life. He doesn't have to worry about food, shelter, an education. I've got those covered for him.
He's learned some hard and expensive lessons (as have I) along the way. I lifted his license for a year when he was 16 after he wrecked MY car. Courts wouldn't do it, but I did. After I gave him his license back, he was faced with some humongous insurance premiums (he had to work and save up for 8 months to afford his insurance premium, again). He learned a lesson from that. He's been stranded before by not keeping his maintenance (battery) up to date on his car. He learned a lesson from that, too.
He worked, scrimped and saved for a couple of years to get enough money from me to match his $$$ to get a car. He learned a lesson from that.
What I hear from some of my son's friends is that they're entitled to a car. I don't get that. To add insult to injury, they don't want just any car, they want the sporty, bigger buck models. And, they'll whine, cajole, cry, threaten, and browbeat their parents until they get what they want. Some of those parents cave. I refuse to let anyone to be that manipulative towards me.
What's worse, the parents pony up the $$$ to get them that sporty ride, It's easier than to teach their kids what it really means to own a car. The kids learned nothing. The parents have succeeded in doing little more than placating little Johnny or Janey for a little while so they don't have to get involved. Nothing's learned or taught.
That's where the disservice comes in.
i don't think a high-schooler or college-bound child needs wheels. nope. i thought most colleges didn't allow kids to bring vehicles (not only a distraction, but also a parking headache) on campus anyway. only time you'd be allowed to have them is if you lived off campus... but if you live off campus, shouldn't you be walking to / from class everyday and concentrating on studies?
i know i had to concentrate on studies.
i did not need a vehicle in high-school or undergraduate school. by the time i went back to grad school, i owned my own vehicle. when i was a junior in college, i got a very well-used and rusted VW Rabbit that got me through to my first job, where i bought my first (used) vehicle.
my parents initially helped me with insurance while i was still in college. by that time though, I was 20 and had slogged through 3 years of engineering school, on my way to the last year and interviews.
now i know there's going to be exceptions and true needs, but i think kids are given vehicles much much much too early. at 17 or 18, what do you know about the world?
i know there are gonna be parents saying our child needs a ride out to college campus, but i don't buy it. i think we have an obligation to drive our children to campus and back each semester. a good way for us to review what just transpired, or review what needs to get done to get the new semester started off right.
i guess i'm old fashion.
a kid having any sort of vehicle in high-school? i'm with you. just say "no, sooooo sorry. that's what the bus is for".
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
well, i needed one to get back and forth to work after school and on weekends. But I paid for everything on the vehicle out of my own pocket ... well almost everything. Parents ponied up $1k for each of their kids as an advanced HS graduation gift. Both my brother and sister had to pay it back when they didn't graduate.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
did it "jump out in front of him"?
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
I don't think so. You would be hardpressed to find a college that does not allow vehicles.
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For freshmen, maybe...
My daughter is a freshman at Colorado State University this year, and both her and her roommate have a car with them on campus.
When we went to the orientation 18 months ago, the question came up about the need to have a car. Of the 4 or 5 kids on the panel, they were split on the subject .. some said yes, others no.
My daughter comes home every other weekend, and it's about 90-100 miles one way. Plus, she will venture off-campus occasionally for a trip to Target or the movie theatre.
In my opinion, it has worked out well for her to have a car. Fortunately, she also happens to live in a dorm at the edge of campus, so she's never had a problem with parking.
next year is college, so back to no car. i don't see any reason to deny it in the mean time.
my philosophy is to give my kids the reasonable advantages i can, and to let out the rope a bit, too.
before my daughter got her license, she had driven in ct,ma,ri,ny,mi,oh and in. since then, add pa,md,de and nc.
i still worry when they take the car, but they gotta grow up.
We've got it narrowed down to 2, but we don't know which one to buy. What would you guys recommend for a teen, a 2002 Altima or a 2000-2001 Maxima? We want to stick with Nissan since my son likes the styling of both cars, but at the same time me and my wife like how reliable they are.
Thanks for your help.
not to pick on the altima, a lot of cars are that way.
Why?
tidester, host
I'm betting that it dropped off in front of him. :confuse:
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
we are enablers if you think about it. yes, you are giving her an advantage, but that is your choice. she certainly isn't entitled. a necessity for her to have her own vehicle? i don't believe so... but this is your way of letting out the rope. that's fine.
i personally think today's children "grow up" a tad too fast. quotes intentional. children are given too much autonomy and often are involved in TOO MUCH after school actvities with people and at places we can be ignorant of.
maybe they could be comming home, doing their homework, helping to make dinner or do other housework chores around the house...
i presume if one has a daughter or son, by 15 or 16 they can grocery shop, cook for themselves, do their laundry, balance a checkbook...
it's encouraging to hear your daughter got a lot of driving experience BEFORE she got her license. that's really good.
questions: does she check all four tires before she sets off to drive? does she check her oil and other fluid levels periodically when she fills up the car? does she check for spots on the ground underneath where she parks? would she know how to check and correct the tire pressure, oil and other fluid levels in the car if they were low? does she check that all the bulbs on the vehicle work? would she know how to change one?
and would she know what to do if she hit a patch of ice, got caught in a torrential downpour, came up upon some thick fog, entered an area with many deer crossing the road? what if she was being tail-gated? what if someone in front of her was acting out in road rage, was involved in excessive speeding or making excessive lane changes?
does she keep appropriate following distances? can she recognize when some other driver may be falling asleep or is distracted? does she have good mirror scanning behaviors? does she even know how to set her side view mirrors properly to limit her vehicle's blind spots?
Resourcefullness is a good lesson to be taught, too. No bus after practice? I guess I'd have to ask how you and your kids deal with that now? Certainly, they didn't start practices just when they turned 16. Resourcefullness will go a long way to alleviating that issue.
No car in college? From what I'm hearing, rules are different for every University. I know when I was going to college, if you were a Freshman and Sophomore, and you lived on campus, you weren't allowed to have cars. It's still that way today at my alma mater. That doesn't mean some didn't flaunt those rules, but those that did have a car, put more effort and energy to hide the car from the campus cops than they did getting to class.
I can say that I walked...and walked...a lot.....when I was in college. I can also remember taking the invariable (and dreaded) early a.m. classes, and being one of mayby 30 kids walking to class, on the entire campus (all the rest of the students were smart enough to sleep in, getting into later classes). To make it easier, most colleges have shuttles, now. Kids just have to plan a little better to take advantage of them. When I needed to come home, it was either my parents coming to pick me up, or Greyhound (on my dime). Didn't have any issues with any of that.
I'm not saying I had it tough. My parents had become much more successful later in life (like after I graduated). But, when I was going to college, they didn't have the wherewithall to pick up every little expense I had, so they picked up none of it. If I wanted to go to college, I had to pay my own way. It proved to me how much I really wanted that education. Same way with a car, if I wanted one, they didn't stop me from getting one. They just didn't pay for it.
Truth told, some of my fondest memories in school were surrounded by those times when I hoofed it....in the early morning hours....on freshly fallen snow, to get to class. It cleared my head. Plus, it kept me in shape. During the Fall/Spring, I used a bike (sometimes in the winter, too).
Speaking of resourcefullness, I finally did buy a beater for my junior/senior year, when I was living off campus. Bought it during the summer with summer job change. I thought I was the "schiznits" since I had now graduated to having a car (for mostly beer and pizza runs). I learned resourcefullness with that car. It ran (or should I say, sputtered) about half the time. I learned auto mechanics with that car (if I wanted to keep it on the road). Did you know when you have worn brushes on a starter that a good whack with a heavy wrench will gain you another 5-6 months of use out of it before replacing it? Do you know you can buy perfectly serviceable batteries, brake pads, etc at the junk yard for about 1/20th the price of new ones? Add a few scraped knuckles and you're good to go. Did you know that instead of a tune-up, you can pull the plugs out of your old heap, sandpaper the tips, put them back in and get another 10K miles out of them?
Growing up has as much to do with resourcefullness as it does anything else. We all know this. Sometimes letting our kids figure it out for themselves is the best lesson (as opposed to bailing them out of trouble each and every time).
While most of my tyring times with a car were viewed as "damnable luck" when they happened, I view them fondly, now. Plus, I'm no worse for the wear.
I hope I'm not coming across as an "oldster" here (I'm "just" in my 40s). But, my teen (and early 20s) years taught me a lot about resourcefullness, drive and ambition. A portion of those lessons were surrounding the buying/maintaining of a car (as humble as it was). I'd be remiss if I didn't pass those same lessons on to my kid (he hates it when I call him "kid"). They are good lessons to be learned.
i too can remember walking to early classes in snow, sometimes stinging as it blew horizontal, and sometimes up to my waist in the drifts.
i can remember lectures in classrooms where the steam heat was so uncontrollable, we had the windows wide open to make it remotely comfortable, and with the wide open windows - it snowing in the classroom!
right of passage? yes, college built true character in me.
i think the kids today have it entirely too easy.
i'm sure our parents thought we had it too easy back then also.
i think if explorerx4 wants to get a good reliable car for a son or daughter, that a parent's perogative. but i'm all for what you are saying.
there's got to be a balance in all things. i just think setting up expectations in a child (and at 16,17, 18 that's mentally what they are) for a car easily gotten and easily paid for and maintained is a disservice to both parent and child.
i didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth, i was lucky if i had a spoon!
i'll make some random comments on some of the previous posts, which i know were made with the best of intentions.
my daughter does not check the tire pressure or the oil level. it is still my vehicle, and i do that. besides, it does not use any oil.
i want point out again, that giving my kid a car to drive to school is a convenience for myself and my wife. my kids schedules change every year.
we live about 7-8 miles from the school, so walking is out.
sometimes she has to be at school early, before bus pickup. sometimes late, after last bus pickup.
i figure taking ap math and physics, being on student council, playing violin the the school orchestra(back row, though), rowing on the crew team, attending chuch youth group meetings and teaching religious ed to 2nd graders is a pretty fully plate. i'm sure i missed a couple things and am glad we don't have to drive her to all those activities. her first quarter grades were her best ever.
too bad she says 'like' every other word. :sick:
she put in an app at some school in oxford, oh. can't quite remember the name.
that's great, but the point we were trying to make ultimately is there are many things about vehicle ownership and driving you need to teach her.
yes she should be doing those checks, even if it's your car. i'd start by showing her the dip stick and the zen of oil... not as intellectually challenging as AP Math or Physics, but a worthy subject.
maybe i should ask her to check the transmission fluid on the explorer she drives. :surprise:
i'm not surprised by these forums to learn how many people don't read their car manuals, so no, i'm not surprised that many wouldn't know how to find the hood release.
you can start by showing her how to open and secure the hood. then, yes, how to check the transmission fluid level.
but don't stop there, besides the oil and transmission fluid, show her how to locate the power steering resevoir, the coolant (and how to safely check), the brake fluid, and the windshield washer fluid level. they all can significantly impact her ability to safely get to her destination if they are low.
then, show her how to use a good tire gauge and an air chuck.
show her how to check for a problem with a headlight, taillight, or the center-mounted stop light. show her how to use the emergency flashers.
if you're feeling particularly adventurous, show her how to properly use a car jack on level ground, and put on the spare tire. tell her about the hazards of changing a tire on a highway or a busy or poorly-lit road.
it's basic stuff, i know, but it could save her from being stranded, or out the expense of the vehicle or a large repair bill. and proper vehicle operation and basic maintenance could mean the difference between an accident and none.
with all sincerity, don't cut corners. with a car comes a great deal of responsibility people don't think of: for property (yours and hers) but more importantly the safety of oneself and the other people on the road with you.
and if she gets involved in a serious relationship with someone else, you want to assess and assure that person also has the predicate knowledge that comes with vehicle ownership. your daughter and your future grandchildren are riding in it as well. :shades:
As mentioned, my son is 20. Yes, he's an adult. But, as I remind him all of the time, until he's out on his own, making his own way, without "the old man's wallet", he hasn't made it, yet. That said, I'm very proud of him. He's going to school full time and on the dean's list. He's working part time to keep out of the free cheese line and to keep his wheels on the road. All he has to do is to take care of what I ask him to take care of (the car and it's expenses). I've got the rest covered.
He's still learning and I'm still teaching. Some of the lessons he likes, some he doesn't. All of them are good lessons, though.
explorer...as I said, I'm certain you're a fine parent. I've got two sisters. I can remember my late father having heated dinner discussions with them about societal inequality of the sexes. My sisters' stance was always pointed towards the "females get no respect (or equality)" part of the debate. They were right. But, so was my father. He stated that there is no respect or equality just given to you in this country. Equality had to be made by each individual. Regardless of race, gender or creed, he felt all individuals had to be proven worthy of respect/equality.
That's why he didn't have different rules for any of us. If they didn't get a car, I didn't get a car. If they wanted something, they had to find a way to get it. So did I.
Owning a car for a teen (or 20s) idividual teaches those lessons, if they're responsible to find a way to get it themselves....be they male or female.
The overall lesson....you want something? Go out and get it. Don't wait for someone to give it to you. Can't think of a better time to teach that lesson than at 16 when it comes to cars.
When I lifted my son's license after his wreck, it was more of a hardship on me having to haul him around for school and extra-curriculars, than it was for him. For my son, it was just embarassing having his parent haul him around, or God forbid, he had to take a bus. But, a lesson was taught, and learned.
Why? Because I said so... isn't that good enough?
I had a 4 cyl Altima, and I think it's a good car that does everything fairly well. It's reliable, nimble and handles well, good safety and gas mileage. The 4 cyl is quick and has the necessary power to pass in any condition. I had Firehawk tires on it, never had a problem with traction.
I sold it to a high school kid when it had close to 100k miles. The only problem it had was a passenger side door that wouldn't open. I was playing the old "lock/unlock door" trick when my wife was trying to get into the car, messed up the door... then my wife messed me up. :sick:
Careful - I may have to revoke your TFC membership! :P
Seriously, thanks for the clarification.
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'I have a wife, a mother, and a mother in law, I don't need you too!' apologies to all the wives and moms out there.
if you can figure out how to check the transmission fluid in an explorer, let me know. it doesn't have a dip stick. :P
i guess everyone is going to fall out of their chairs when i tell them my kids have cell phones. i pay the bill and even pay extra for 'texting'.
in the mean time, letting my kid drive MY suv is ok with me. when they buy their own car, they can get whatever they can afford. they want to drive a 'range, but it up to them to figure out how to do that!
no more preaching. we've exceeded your budget. :shades:
not that being able to check the oil is a bad thing.
yale university exceeds my budget. :surprise:
at the end of the day, my kids will still be driving one of my cars, until they get their own.
they show a shot of the driver's door panel. my daughter says "it's a chevy". i say how do you know that? she says, 'i just know'. guess what? it is a prior gen malibu.
We paid for their college, gave them our used cars to drive, paid for their insurance, and gave them a reasonable amount of spending money. Both of them worked during the summer but not during school.
Now they are both married. They have very good jobs and spend their money wisely. They both appreciate everything we have tried to do for them.
I think that was geat taking away his license after he had a wreck. When I was 15 I drove my motorcycle through a stop sign and lost my license for a couple months. That taught me a lesson and ever since then I have come to a full stop at every stop sign, even though it seems to irritate the drivers behind me.
I don't know that there's any one correct way to raise our kids. We only do what we think is right.
It was as much a PITA for me to lift my son's license as it was embarassing for him. I'm the one who had to haul him around to different school/friend activities....or, he had to take the bus. That said, it drove the point home. He rear ended somebody. He was busier worrying about the stereo and his cell phone than he was paying attention to driving.
I didn't lift his license to be mean. I told him I just didn't want him hurt. He's too precious to me.
When I was teaching him how to drive (his driver's ed classes were woeful), I kept stressing over and over again to keep a safe distance, pay constant attention and not to be distracted because as we all know, situations change quickly on the road. Apparently, I didn't emphasize my point enough. So, I had to make a stand to drive it home more emphatically. License was lifted.
When he went to court, I was hoping they would take a stronger stand so I wouldn't have to. Surprisingly, they didn't. So, I did. The court fined him (which HE had to pay, not me) but let him keep his license.
Since that time, he's as careful a driver as I've seen. Lesson learned.
It's amazing how well he takes care of the maintenance for his car since he's got his own skin in the game. While he's got what seems like the whole university library stacked up in his back seat, he's religious in changing his oil and checking all the maintenance requirements for his car. He knows it's got to last him for at least another couple of years until he graduates and he gets on with his career. He also knows that there'll be no "bank of Dad" coming to the rescue for his transportation needs. Everything else, I cover for him.
They both appreciate it very much. Because we gave our daughter and her husband an Accord in 1998, they were able to buy a house just before the price boom and it has almost tripled in value since then. Of course, we appreciate the two grandchildren even more.
I see the teenage drivers around our local school campus. Which university? ( whole university library stacked up in his back seat,)
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
anyways my daughter drives my hand me down suv, while i drive the focus i bought 3 years ago, figuring that would be her car when she got her license. it's ok with me, it's a stick and i feel like i'm driving the scirocco i drove 25 years ago.
I spent even more hours (and a burnt clutch) teaching him to drive a manual tranny. Now, he swears he won't ever buy an automatic transmission car, ever.
When he had his wreck, it was spring. Roads were dry....sunny day. His car wouldn't start because the battery was dead (another bone of contention on that fateful day). He had bought a ratted out Camry (again, with his own funds he had saved from b-day, Christmas gifts and bagging groceries) for $1,200. He was driving to HS (St Xavier). In hindsight, I should have driven him to school, or made him take the bus, but instead, let him drive my car. He just plowed into a car that was stopped at a red light....simply wasn't paying attention to driving. Neither he, nor the other driver was hurt (thankfully), but he hit the other car hard, causing my car's airbags to go off. While he was only sighted for the "rear ender". The cop on the scene told me he was speeding, too. But, she gave him a break. Funny now, but not then, the cop called me to tell me of the accident, not my son. She said he was too afraid to make the call.
His insurace sky rocketed...from about $2K/year to $5K/year. He's worn off the points and his insurance finally is back in the $2K range. But, he struggled mightily to make the insurance payments. He did...he had to...if he wanted to get back on the road. He worked two jobs in the summer months and part time during the school year to save for both a car, and to make his insurance payment. By the time I gave him his license back, he had saved $10K. $5K for insurance and $5K (which I matched) to buy a new Elantra.
He's now a JR at University of Cincinnati currently, and doing well (Deans List...majoring in Economics). He'll do his co-op next year and hopefully graduate in '09. I had kind of hoped he would go to my alma mater (Miami) or Xavier U. He was also accepted at Loyola in Chicago, which would have been fine by me, but he chose UC instead. Nothing wrong with that. UC has a very good business school.
As you can tell, I'm proud. It's not always been easy to stick to my guns. In the end, it turned out to be right. There were times I wasn't so sure, though.
That’s what I did too but it didn’t work. I put him through everything I could think of and then we did it again and again and ., except for driving in snow and driving on an open grate metal bridge. He got his license before the snow fell (early November) but he knew he wasn’t going to drive in the snow until we practiced that too, before he would be permitted to go out alone in the snow. He knew that and didn’t have a problem with that but even if he did that would have been too bad because we all know it’s a different game out there on snow.
I looked high and low and asked where there was an open grate metal bridge so we could drive on one but there just weren’t anymore around and that was pretty interesting because Pittsburgh is known as the city of bridges yet they were already phased out by the time he started to drive (1985). Wouldn’t you know, that’s the one that got him.
The very first time he took the car out alone he and three friends went to their high school football play-off game that was held at a neutral high school field in a town about 20 miles from the Pittsburgh suburb where we live. The game was well in hand (their school) late in the 4 th quarter and since it had started to rain they decided to leave so they could get an early start going to a planned victory dance at their high school. Well, there was an open grate metal bridge that had to be crossed on the school property leading from the field to the school access road that in turn exited onto the road in front of the school. He drove across this same bridge on the way to the field but it wasn’t raining then and there was bumper to bumper traffic on their way in so no problem. Now, driving too fast for conditions when he saw traffic backing up just past the bridge he hit the brakes too hard and spun into a pole at the end of the bridge (yeah, he almost made it). He took out the front clip, right front fender and passenger door, shattering the glass (his friend in the front passenger seat said he thought he was dead, the glass made so much noise when it broke). Needless to say, it was a pretty cool ride home.
So, he learned that’s what happens when you drive too fast for conditions. All of his friends swore up and down he was not speeding but I told them all, when you loose control of your car you are going too fast and in my book that’s speeding. Fortunately, no one was hurt (thank God there wasn’t anybody walking on that bridge at that time).
He paid out of his savings from working part time to have the car repaired. We did the work ourselves (another lesson I wanted him to learn, even though I was the one spending the time teaching him what to do). We got the pieces from a junk yard, then he took it to an independent body shop to have it painted. All combined it cost just under $500 dollars to fix that ten year old 75’Grand Prix (it was in perfect shape prior to this event, more than one person offered to buy it when they saw it in parking lots)..
Yes, I yanked his license for about four months and both he and his mother thought I took it too far and still do. I never said it was majority rule or a democracy in my house, when it comes to things like that it’s a dictatorship and too bad for members of the house if they didn’t like it !!!
There’s more to this tale and I’ll tell that some other time.
I was a little winded here, sorry about that. It still bothers me that I didn’t look a little harder for a metal bridge.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
What's the cheapest USED sedan that comes with electronic stability control and side airbags (either as an option or as standard equipment)?
For used you can get a Volvo S60 or S40 still in warranty and/or with the 100,000 mile volvo certified warranty for about the same price as a new hyundai.
I would get the Volvo.
We're lucky.....there were no injuries involved in either of our cases. The outcome could just as easily been a lot worse.
All we can do is to do what we think will teach the lesson so it doesn't happen again....with worse results.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16874121/
Or leSabre. 03 has both in Limited models. I don't know about 2000, 01, 02.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
So your recommendation for teen drivers is a single seat vehicle with cell phone shielding?
tidester, host