mudgeons' kids' first cars
 

My daughter is still a couple of years away but I've been starting to think about what I might get her for her first car.

Kinda curious what our other mudgeons have done for their teenagers' first cars. I guess I'm not sure how many of us are at that point yet. TD doesn't really post here anymore but seems like his daughter should be there now. And plaz? clyde? Alex of course. And AF but his budget was obviously way above what most of us are gonna spend :mad2:

Sorry, no help here... other than to comment that when I read the title I thought, "Holy shit time has gone fast."

I remember when you had no kids and it didn't seem that long ago. Wow.

yuppppp

I'm hoping Uber is my son's first car. Gulp. He's 12, so I have a good long time to remain terrified at the prospect.

I believe TD's daughter got a VW Golf/GTI or something like it, as she's off to college in the fall.

I'd probably opt for a Mazda something or a Honda fit. A manual would be great, to keep their hands of the cell phone...

Golf is definitely on my list

Fixed. :lol:

yeah my older son is 12 and I am sort of questioning whether he will even need a car when he turns 16. I always joke I am going to get him a smart car.

There's a nice looking Buick somewhere down south that Clyde was thinking about.

My girls share a 2003 e46 xiT. I got it about 5yrs ago, at the time it had ~75k miles. It now has 123k. Pretty lowly optioned with vinyl seats, non premium / sport package, etc. It is a great combination of size, usability and performance without being too big that they take lots of friends, too nice that they want to show it off or too fast to get them into trouble. It was about $7,500 when I bought it, and I've probably put $2500 in maintenance into it.

It is also the perfect winter beater for my wife and I. We both really enjoy driving it and not worrying about it. Being a wagon, the dog gets lots of rides in the trunk without interfering with the driver / passenger by being in the back seat

Its a little older than I would want if I was doing over, but it was perfect at the time.

TD got his daughter a GTI on what looked like a very good deal (he posted the details here AFAIK) it was in the $k-teens range.

We don't let either of our girls (19 and 20, going into soph and junior college years) keep the car on campus for more than an overnight. I don't want the risk / liability of a college kid with one of my cars on campus full time. Just something to think about when you get closer to decision time. They also don't have any financial responsibility in the car, we pay maintenance and insurance... if we're lucky it has a 1/4 tank of gas in it.

found the TD thread

http://forums.carmudgeons.com/showthread.php?t=137791

I leased my kids their first cars because I remember what I did to mine and it is a good thing I did ... at that age they kill their cars.

My sons first car was a 2015 A3 which was a nice safe car ... safety is key for the kids so check the safety ratings. My son got rear ended by a van and I'm pretty sure the driver was texting and driving, thank goodness this car was safe because the car took the hit with no damage to the passengers compartment.

My daughters first car was the 2017 A4 and again got SLAMMED into by a HUGE pickup with 3 other 17 yr olds girls in the car and again no damage to the passengers compartment. That truck totaled her car and I ended up getting her the same car because I felt it was a very safe car.

My partner gets his kids the Kia optima and does a 3 yr lease, they are safe they have a lot of cool options and heck they are in the $200 range per month.

Dan, safety is key, these kids are going to do their best to drive them safely but we need to make sure if something happens they are in a very safe car. Nothing is scarier then when you get that call ... DAD I HAD AN ACCIDENT !!!

Unfortunately I've had that call too many times and my heart beats so fast !!!

Sort of off topic, but how does insurance handle a totaled lease? Do they pay out the residual + remaining lease payments?

The deal I had with each of my 4 was that when they turned 16, I'd match whatever they had saved towards a car. My parents ended up jumping in and matching the same amount, so they effectively had to save 1/3 of what they would end up spending. I paid for their insurance, but if they wanted a car they better start saving their xmas and bday money and save something from their summer jobs. My average kid maybe had saved $1500 so they weren't getting anything special, although my one practical son ended up with almost 5K, so we ended up putting a cap on how much he could spend (and we would contribute).

I had a friend whose family owned the little local Ford dealership and he'd go to the auction in Mannheim PA with their budget and call with what he thought were good buys and bid on them for us. My oldest son turned 16 in 2001 and he bought a '95 Civic with 120K miles on it from that auction. He drove it for over 11 years before it finally died on him.

While my grandchildren aren't yet old enough to start saving money, my bet is that my kids will do it the same way with theirs.

Alex

AF, your choice is to spend money to make it safer. I couldn't have afforded to do that if I wanted to. I got those calls on all 4 kids, and thankfully none resulted in any significant injuries, but for me there were other ways to mitigate the risks.

Having said that, I was buying used cars from a different era. If you were buying a 5 year old hyundai today vs a new audi, how much of a safety difference is there really?

Alex

Car has a payoff and ACV so no different in that regard than a loan. Only difference is that you’re most likely under water on a lease if it is a car w/ aggressive residual. Gap insurance would pick up the difference if you have it. Some companies include in their leases automatically (BMW) but some might not.

In NY gap insurance is a part of the lease so with the 2017 A4 it was covered completely though I lost out on the $3k I had put up front for taxes and stuff but was happy that we didn’t get that car back ...t he damage was just downright scary.

:lol: LOL! Aside from that...

We had a plan for my oldest daughter who is 16 and can get her license in September. She was going to help me get the 91 Miata running thinking that she would get the car if she did. We were actually going to give her the twice wrecked 2013 Outback my wife has been driving for 5 years and has put 110k+ miles on, while buying my wife a new car. But now, we're not sure.

Among other things, my daughter has not been as assertive as we'd like in putting in practice hours and that's making us a little less enthusiastic. She has put in some time towards getting the Miata running, but the one thing I knew it needed was far from all the things it turns out it needs. I don't want to put the money into that car, so, as far as I'm concerned she put in the effort there.

My wife is also waffling on whether she wants a new car. If she doesn't, I think I'll look for something safeish, cheap and reasonably reliable to share with my daughter. I have something in a self interest in acquiring something I can drive in winter weather and also serve as a second family car. The Outback would be perfect for this, but if my wife doesn't want a new car for herself, :dunno:

I have two kids at driving age, but buying them cars isn't high on my priority list.

My oldest leaves for college in 3 weeks, and she'll be living on campus. Maintaining + insuring + parking a car is also dead last on her priority list. She's never been enthusiastic about driving, anyhow.

My son will be in the same boat in 2 years. He does enjoy driving, but will get by fine without having his own set of wheels.

No jobs they have to drive to/from?

We rode these a couple of weeks ago in Asheville. They were surprisingly fun and fast: https://www.pedegoelectricbikes.com/

For when their mom or I am not available to give them a ride, they're still within biking distance (~2 miles) of their PT jobs and volunteering activities. It all works out pretty well.

Were going with a Mazda 3. Safe, cheap, handles reasonably well, good visibility, nice tight chassis, severely underpowered. Perfect.

:lol:

I've always threatened to knock several cylinders out of whatever we get for our son.

Always loved the Mazda’s ... I have one for sale ... and yes it’s under powered too ... any interest for a GREAT deal :D

http://forums.carmudgeons.com/showthread.php?t=150757

Chiming in as I see I've been referenced...

Yeah, we got our (then) 17 yo a new VW GTI 6-spd (sport) last year. She has been using it to commute to her summer job last year and this year and drove herself to school and activities since getting it. She also helps out and takes her brother to his activities from time to time when our schedules conflict.

She will be taking it to college as a freshman this year in a cold place that gets a lot of snow. As we haven't had any meaningful snow in the DC area since she's been driving, that does concern me a bit. But she's been an excellent driver who does really seem to understand her car. We plan to have her do the TireRack teen driving school at a track near her college when we can align dates. For now, I'm telling her to pretty much wait until the plows come through and you can see pavement. No errand at college is *that* urgent.

It's kind of a "lot of car" for a kid, but it's also very responsive and communicates a lot about what its doing and about the road. So she's learning a lot about feel which she wouldn't be doing in a lesser car. She hates driving the Tesla because it's "too floaty" and the brakes "suck". And she's totally bought in to the huge superiority of a manual transmission over an automatic. By all means, all of you really ought to make sure your kids learn to drive stick.

The car being new means it has some technology that will make it safer for a teen including CarPlay, which only let's you deal with your texts verbally using Siri. No typing. And it reads incoming texts to you. And her and her friends all love the Spotify integration.

We did end up in the low $20Ks for the car, but it's something she'll have through her mid-20s. And it's a great car that I honestly think has instilled in her a preference for the kind of things we here have always valued in our cars.

As a bonus, almost no one she meets will be able to drive her car, so you don't have to worry about her lending it out.

She already knows that this is a huge bonus. I've tried to shame her boyfriend about this...

Might want to send her up with an aggressive set of snow tires, like Hakkas, already mounted. She won't be driving that much or that aggressively where the snows will be a detriment from Sept to the first snow/slippery mess in late October or from April when it thaws until she comes home in May. I think it makes a HUGE difference in winter safety, especially for someone not used to snow driving for the ability to stop in a moderate distance vs all seasons.

The plan is to swap for snows when she's home for fall break should we decide she needs them. I'd really rather not spring for a second set of wheels/tires. But it might be warranted.

George (most recently "Mr. The Edge" on this site) was texting me offline just the other day asking me what I was going to do about snows for our daughter as his daughter is going to school in Reno and is taking her car. He bought her a new Beetle when she turned 16, so add that to the statistical sample here.

Good point. Even performance snows would help some.

:lol:

I've taken my 14yo daughter to a big empty parking lot a couple of times now to let her drive my car a little bit. Even let my 12yo son get behind the wheel very briefly, but I was clenching my butt the whole time with him.

He was excited in a very "whoa this is so cool that my dad would let me drive his car at 12" way. My daughter, on the other hand, was excited in very much a "YESSS..this is gonna be me very sooooon" kind of way :speechle:

Scary.

I let my 12 and 10 years old drive the 4-runner offroad:D yeah a bit scary, 12 year old put some nice desert pinstripes on it.:eeps: wife was not happy

Badge of honor? :)

Took both kids out driving in a big high school parking lot yesterday, they both had lots of fun and did well.

Related Q for you parents of drivers: How did you handle driver's ed? I always thought I'd prefer both kids do a formal class/school but the ones around here have such a horrible reputation both in quality and the ability to actually get time behind the wheel scheduled. I'm now seriously considering doing Aceable for the classroom portion (it's an app they can do on their phones) and then doing parent-taught for the driving portion.

I think that there is some value in having them get seat time that is "not Dad." Even if the driver's schools are pretty shitty.

I can't say that I disagree with that. I really didn't think I would ever do the parent-taught but the alternatives do seem fairly bleak.

I recall that in my time (mid/late 90's) the best benefit was that driver's ed allowed you to get your license at 16.5yo whereas no formal driver's ed meant waiting until 17yo. So everyone did it just because of that.

But I agree with "someone other than dad." You can say all the right things but sometimes someone says it differently and it sinks in better or is more memorable.

Yeah, no such restriction here. They can still get their license the day they turn 16 (as long as they have their learner's permit for 6 months before that)