so you have a kid.....

[jaymanek]

I will be buying my children a car for sure. It is an important age in their lives and they need support and encouragement from parents.
I wouldnt want my children worrying too much about scrimping and saving for a car at a time when education is number one.
At this age, id hope my children already understand the value of money.

Also..the best moments i remember with my dad are related to cars.. buying them, fixing them etc etc. My dad gave me the yellow W123 when i passed my test.. I had a smile on my face for months. He also bought me a set of alloys for it... that got me going with the mods!

Thats all as long as the child is responsible and mature enough to appreciate the gesture and commitment.

 

[bpsorrel]

I'm right with you on that one! The best memories I have of my Dad are connected to cars, often when we worked together to fix something! Funny really, because we didn't (don't) get on in any other way! Sad...

 

[renault12ts]

I have three daughters all learning to drive, all at university...they will buy their own cars.

 

[wemorgan]

I have three daughters all learning to drive, all at university...they will buy their own cars.

you've got bigger issues to be worried about.......weddings!

 

[BTB 500]

I had a job before I was 18, and was expected to buy a car and pay for it myself (which I had no problem with).

However my two younger sisters were both given cars

A few years later my mum did give me her Fiat 126 when it failed the MOT on body rot. But I had a 3 litre Granada Ghia at the time, so it wasn't a huge bonus!

 

[Alps]

a few years away before i have to deal with this prob, but like others on here, i had to skimp and save for my first car, i got to "borrow" my dads car and was on the insurance until i could afford my own.

I didnt smoke or drink, so managed to save where others wasted the money, the first car i bought was a BMW ( i know i know) out of my own money and this was when i was at college!

My kids can work and save up for their first cars, i`ll happily contribute to their oyste card costs otherwise!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I think I'll end up buying Baby and Junior D their first car if I can afford to.

My parents bought me my first car. They bought my sister a car too in the same month. Ouch.

I paid for my driving lessons, insurance, tax, service, etc despite being at school at the time (sister worked). I worked doing any job I could from the age of 13 and saved all my money. I asked that I didn't have gifts for Christmas and Birthdays, and instead had money, all of whichl went to running my first car, and buying my second car.

By not having to pay board, contribute to household bills, etc you could argue that enabled me to afford to pay the running costs and buy another car. Which would be a fair point. That said, having to pay for household bills whilst at school would only be a case of absolute necessity!!

I hope to be able to do the same for my children. I will expect them to work though - even whilst at school. Mrs D might have another view though!!

 

[st4]

Old man paid for my driving lessons, paid for the insurance for me to drive his car (shogun at the time) when was unable to really run or help run a car myself...

If I had kids, I'd put some money aside for them every month until they were x years old, and this might help. My Dad did that for me and it helped me a lot.

 

[mw_C32]

I have just bought my daughter her first car, a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2. I am encouraging her to pay for her own insurance and I will assist in running costs.

That is exactly what we have done for our daughter. Including the same car.

Not too bad over the last year all I've had to deal with is:

1. Dad, car wont start. ( Battery....Ended up buying and fitting a new one)
2. Dad lights not very good. ( Ended up buying and fitting a new bulb)
3. Dad, spun on ice and hit the kerb now the car feels funny to drive ( Ended up taking her down to the garage and helping her spend her money to get it fixed, cost her £120) Lesson learnt.

Overall I can deal with that in a year and half.


M.

 

[LTD]

This very topic is the reason I am here and own a Mercedes.

My daughter was allowed to start her driving lessons just after she left school to head for University. This allowed her to focus on her studies.

She passed and was duly put on my Insurance policy for my, then, VW Golf Mk5.

What started as "Dad, can I borrow the car ?" changed to "Dad, I'm away out !" and onto "Dad, what do you mean YOU are using the car ? I have plans ......" to the "Right then, I'm going to buy my own......."

So then came the dilemma - everything she wanted to buy (she works part-time and has more spare cash than I do !) was horrific and was going to become a money pit.

So we made a deal - she bought the Golf from me at 50% of the value and I then had the security that I knew the car she had as it was mine from new. She pays for all the expenses of the car herself.

She looks after it and knows the value of money - and how expensive petrol can be !!!

Once I realised I was carless - I bought the S500 and the rest is history.

 

[macscrooge]

Cars for kids

One of the problems is that the sort of cars a teenager can get insured for are either very expensive (newer small hatchbacks) or complete sheds (older small hatchbacks). If you can find one I'd suggest a Volvo 340 1.4. A very solid car, cheap (that being a relative term) to insure and sedate enough to prevent 'boy racer' behaviour.

My first car (in the mid '80s) was an Austin Maxi. I think it cost about the same as the car for the insurance (£400ish). Deeply uncool maybe, but a better proposition than the rusty (and pricier) Minis and Fiestas my friends had.

 

[HowardD]

The girls are 1 and 7, and we've been saving a little for their first cars, for 2 years now.

I want them to have the best cars we can afford when they're are old enough.

I'm not that worried about the make and model - new and safe is a start.

I'm more afraid they'll be a passenger in a car with a young, inexperienced, overconfident agressive male driver and the first I find out about it, is the knock on the door late at night from the Police.

I'm going to do what I can to prevent that.

HD

 

[timskemp]

I've got a year to go, but it's my intention to buy a third car for a number of reasons. Mainly though that with having a disabled child we do a lot of short runs for pickup / dropoff and a small car for that kind of thing would be perfect, even better if the oldest can do the run and save us having to!

 

[st4]

This very topic is the reason I am here and own a Mercedes.

My daughter was allowed to start her driving lessons just after she left school to head for University. This allowed her to focus on her studies.

She passed and was duly put on my Insurance policy for my, then, VW Golf Mk5.

What started as "Dad, can I borrow the car ?" changed to "Dad, I'm away out !" and onto "Dad, what do you mean YOU are using the car ? I have plans ......" to the "Right then, I'm going to buy my own......."

So then came the dilemma - everything she wanted to buy (she works part-time and has more spare cash than I do !) was horrific and was going to become a money pit.

So we made a deal - she bought the Golf from me at 50% of the value and I then had the security that I knew the car she had as it was mine from new. She pays for all the expenses of the car herself.

She looks after it and knows the value of money - and how expensive petrol can be !!!

Once I realised I was carless - I bought the S500 and the rest is history.

Its going to be more awkward when your youngest will want a car, that S500 I'd have my eyes on

 

[LTD]

Its going to be more awkward when your youngest will want a car, that S500 I'd have my eyes on

We have another Golf and it is earmarked for that very role in 3 years time (it's only 5yo with 28k on it at present)

I got a quote for my daughter for the S500. £14000.

I guess they didn't want her on it .........

Crazy thing is that I was met with silence when I told her that her own policy for the VW covered her third party to drive it and it's with the same company

 

[st4]

We have another Golf and it is earmarked for that very role in 3 years time (it's only 5yo with 28k on it at present)

I got a quote for my daughter for the S500. £14000.

I guess they didn't want her on it .........

Nope, I wouldn't want to underwrite a teenager driving such a powerful large car, in the wrong hands a 155mph 2ton car is going to make a bad mess. I am not stereotyping your family, but insurers just see numbers, and risk, not the people behind that.

Crazy thing is that I was met with silence when I told her that her own policy for the VW covered her third party to drive it and it's with the same company

In saying the above, I'd have kept that little fact descrete, there could be that genetic pull towards V8's, then you are down the big car.

 

[Adam230K]

My parents told me if i wanted a car i'd have to fund it.

But i learned the value of every penny i spent on the car and as a result i'm now quite an4l with my cars. Ok maybe not to the extent of some extreme people, but by normal standards i think i am.

 

[andy27168]

Hi,
My parents said if i wanted a car i would have to pay for it, so i started saving, after a few weeks they pulled me to one side and said that if i saved half of the money for the car they would contribute the rest, though they wanted me to have a car of their liking.
Me being me decided to buy what "I" wanted so i did,nt take them up on there offer, and paid £200 of my own money for a MKIII Cortina 1.6.

 

[EDZ649]

When my son was born in 1995 I took out a small endowment policy for this very reason. By the time he is old enough to take his test there should be enough in the pot to buy him a reasonable first car and maybe sort the first years insurance too. He's probably going to be staying in full time education i.e college and uni after school so there would be no way he could afford to buy/run a car...

 

[ringway]

The girls are 1 and 7, and we've been saving a little for their first cars, for 2 years now.

I want them to have the best cars we can afford when they're are old enough.

I'm not that worried about the make and model - new and safe is a start.

I'm more afraid they'll be a passenger in a car with a young, inexperienced, overconfident agressive male driver and the first I find out about it, is the knock on the door late at night from the Police.

I'm going to do what I can to prevent that.

HD

"Young male drivers are the biggest cause of death of young women in Britain."
"Almost one in two drivers killed at night is under 25."

I posted about this sad statistic a while ago here.