StarWarsGirl
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Same here. My first cars were my parents' old cars. They knew that I would need a car in college and that I wouldn't be able to afford one on my own. They were lenient in that I didn't have to pay for maintenance or anything until I was out of college and had a job, and then I paid for insurance and repairs and such. Then they told me, when I started realizing I'd need a new car, that they weren't going to help financially, although they would help with looking at cars. That included qualifying for a loan on my own, which I did. My mom later told me that by the time I bought my Honda, my car was in such bad shape that they would have co-signed if they had to, but they didn't. I'm still on their insurance.I think it is sweet how it can be thought that giving a kid a new car is OK. I have a grandson that was given a very used family car and managed to cause about 2K in damage to another car backing out of a parking place at school. I didn't get a new or used car from my parents. They did let me buy one, on credit, and I had to pay them back in monthly payments and pay for my own insurance and repairs. It sat in the yard while I managed, doing odd jobs, to scrape together the insurance pay back. They had it insured, but, until I was able to pay them back, it sat. It was in the back yard. To save the battery I was told to take the battery out of the car and keep it in the basement where it was warmer during the winter. Once a week I would bring it back up, put it in the car and start it up. And just sit there in the car listening to the radio, which it also didn't have. I went to a junk yard and had to take a radio out of a junked car and find a way to fit it into mine. Just a little history, back then the battery was held down by a separate bracket. I forgot that I had put it on the radiator and when I started the car up, it fell into the fan which flung it clear through the radiator creating a huge hole. So, there I was with a car that I was making payments on and saving up to pay them back for the insurance and now I had to have the radiator repaired before I could use it.
That all eventually worked itself out and I did finally get to put it on the road. I was the only one in my grade in high school that had a car so I had numerous friends all of a sudden. They had to pay me for gas money if they wanted to go someplace. Gas back then was only 29 cents per gallon but many a time all I could afford was a dollars worth of gas.
As cruel as that even seems to me now, it taught me some really valuable lessons. Never again did I buy something I couldn't afford. I never drove a mile since then without paid up insurance and more then that I was able to learn that nothing in life is free. One pays their own way or they don't go. It taught me responsibility and also taught me that I can only rely on myself. It gave me the incentive to work for what I wanted and then have that sense of pride and accomplishment when I achieved those goals.
I wasn't quite as harsh with my girls, but, they did have to buy their first cars, they did have to pay for repairs, but, I wouldn't have let them sit and look at their cars idly sitting in the back yard. I did incorporate the cost of insurance in their monthly payback payment. They also, learned a lot from the experience, and have thanked me for teaching them to be independent. I even had them do their own maintenance, like oil change, tire changes... one even did a brake job with my telling her how to do it. That wasn't for any other reason then to make it so they would never be taken by some shifty repair station giving them a line of bull about things that needed fixing. They were taught about cars and how they worked. That came about because, before we were married, their mother was talked into buying a whole new set of tires after she had slid into something in the winter and bent the metal wheel a little. She was told that the tire had to be replaced because it was bent and that the car wouldn't be safe unless all the tires matched. So she bought a whole set. I put that in my memory bank and when my girls were old enough I wanted them to know what to do and how things worked and also not to be helpless on the side of the road if they had a flat. Tire bent... really? It seems like the fact that they were made out of flexible rubber should have been a clue that it wasn't damaged it was just following the shape of the damaged wheel and when removed a miracle happened and it returned to it's original unbent shape.
I probably cursed my parents during the time when it was sitting there mocking me as I made my way to the bus stop, but, they were not only trying to teach me about life, but, they were also middle class with the I lived through the Great Depression experience and knew the value of money and just wanted to make sure that I understood what it meant to go without until I could afford it. I'm not saying that supplying a family hand down is bad, that is just lucky that one exists. But, if I had been wealthy it wouldn't have even crossed my mind to just up and buy them a new car. That just seems extreme to me.
Actually I did in a way give them both cars. They were cars that they bought, through me, and when they both graduated from college I signed over the title and whatever was still owed was wiped off the books. I also suspended the need for payments while they were in college. So, in reality they did get an almost free vehicle to start their adult lives with. I was a little more understanding and generous then my parents, but, I also had more means then they did at the time.
I just read this over and I apologize for the length of it. I'm thinking I should probably go back through my past posts and copy them to a safe place just in case I am ever moved to write an autobiography.
I did already have to file a claim on my car because of the stupid chipmunks (which we have now gotten rid of...
) and trying to explain to the insurance company that the car was in my name and that my parents had no financial stake in it was interesting. They called my dad to verify. 
I was like, yeah, go ahead, he'll tell you the same thing I just did...Your last sentence made me laugh.
