One of my first cars was a '78 Nova with straight 6, AM radio and black vinyl interior. The springs were so bad it looked like it was lowered, and I had to put a blanket on the seat to keep from burning my legs in the summer. The exhaust fell off behind the catalytic converter and the windshield washers didn't work, so you had to have some water in the car to dump on the windshield if it was too dirty. But with all that, it was a lot of fun to drive and looked kind of cool after my brother and I put some Chevy 6-slot rally wheels on it, with wide tires on the back.
I don't think todays parents will allow their kids to have such junk.... it seems (I am generalizing of course) that parents are willing to spring for around 5 or 6 thousand dollar car to gift their kid for drivers license test passing, so the kids have airbags, good disc brakes, working lights, and a decent radio. Our parents generation (born in the 40s) seemed to be fine with anything that could start and stop, and we grew up with that same mindset. Something we could pay cash for, fix when necessary with garage tools, and pay minimal insurance (bank loans require max coverage) How about you Marc? Did you have standards on what your kids could buy and drive?
I spent 3000-4000 for the cars I bought for my sons, a 2006 Grand Prix and a 2005 Malibu. I wanted something that wasn't rusted out, but wasn't too nice, because I figured they would get dinged up with new drivers. Like userbronco says below, it was worth it for me to buy them the cars so I didn't have to pick them up late on Fridays after football games or take them to early morning swim practices. Both cars are base models, and I didn't realize they didn't have ABS brakes until after I bought them. But in a way, that's not bad, because it will teach them to drive a little bit better.
The Malibu came with 15" wheels with hubcaps. It needed new tires, so I found some 16" aluminum wheels from a Saab and cleaned them up and put them on with new tires. It's not much, but I think it looks better than before.
One of my younger son's friends comes from a family with some money. They bought him a brand-new Civic when he got his license. Within about a month, he was in a fender-bender. Most of the kids I see have older used cars that were handed down from a relative or bought cheaply for them.
Another of his friends just turned 18, and he still doesn't have his license. He has an overprotective single mom, and that's a whole other story. He's supposed to be commuting to college in the fall, so he better figure it out. He'll get his mom's older Equinox whenever that happens.
I was actually talking with my brother about some of the cars we drove in high school and when I went to college, and some of them were pretty sketchy. He went to vocational school and became a GM mechanic, so he got some mechanic specials for us to drive. We had a rusted out 4x4 Blazer, a 71 El Camino with a broken spring in the back, that made the axle move when you got on or off the gas, and a square-body Chevy truck that had an engine fire, so the paint was burned off the front end. But he also rebuilt a 72 Nova and put a V8 in an S10 truck around the same time, and those turned out nice.
I turned 16 in 1979. I learned to drive in my moms 67 Beetle, and the familys extra car, a 62 Mercury Meteor, ( a fancy Ford Fairlane) the Meteor had drum brakes on all 4 wheels, with no power assist, manual steering, 3 speed on the collumn, and no seat belts. the windshield squirter was a little lever on the floor next to the headlight dimmer switch, and the windshield wipers had one speed. you got to choose, on, or , off. it had a 221 V-8, the next year Ford enlarged it to the 260, then to the 289 the following year, then to the 302 a few years after that.
when my kid was 15 , in 2015 he wanted a car and we made required him to learn a foreign language for us to contribute $4,500 to his car fund. I was always in the camp that kids can buy their own cars, but by the time they are 16, youre so tired of taking them to school, and ball practice and this event and that event etc etc, that youre willing to shell out a few grand for them a car just so you dont have to haul them around anymore. but we did make him learn a foreign language,. I didnt ever really care about his grades in school as long as he was passing. im not the kind of parent to get upset if they make a 80 instead of a 99.
I absolutly hated high school, to me it was like a prison sentence and I would have dropped out except back then, my state suspended your drivers license until you were 18 if you dropped out of school. I stayed in high school mostly to keep my drivers license, since in the days before cell phones and the internet , in rural Appalachia a drivers license was your ticket to freedom. he initially wanted a 69 Chevelle, but he quickly changed to wanting a 73-87 Chevy pickup. My minimum requirements for a car for young drivers, would be seat belts and disc brakes.
One of my first cars was a '78 Nova with straight 6, AM radio and black vinyl interior. The springs were so bad it looked like it was lowered, and I had to put a blanket on the seat to keep from burning my legs in the summer. The exhaust fell off behind the catalytic converter and the windshield washers didn't work, so you had to have some water in the car to dump on the windshield if it was too dirty. But with all that, it was a lot of fun to drive and looked kind of cool after my brother and I put some Chevy 6-slot rally wheels on it, with wide tires on the back.
ReplyDeleteI don't think todays parents will allow their kids to have such junk.... it seems (I am generalizing of course) that parents are willing to spring for around 5 or 6 thousand dollar car to gift their kid for drivers license test passing, so the kids have airbags, good disc brakes, working lights, and a decent radio.
DeleteOur parents generation (born in the 40s) seemed to be fine with anything that could start and stop, and we grew up with that same mindset. Something we could pay cash for, fix when necessary with garage tools, and pay minimal insurance (bank loans require max coverage)
How about you Marc? Did you have standards on what your kids could buy and drive?
I spent 3000-4000 for the cars I bought for my sons, a 2006 Grand Prix and a 2005 Malibu. I wanted something that wasn't rusted out, but wasn't too nice, because I figured they would get dinged up with new drivers. Like userbronco says below, it was worth it for me to buy them the cars so I didn't have to pick them up late on Fridays after football games or take them to early morning swim practices. Both cars are base models, and I didn't realize they didn't have ABS brakes until after I bought them. But in a way, that's not bad, because it will teach them to drive a little bit better.
DeleteThe Malibu came with 15" wheels with hubcaps. It needed new tires, so I found some 16" aluminum wheels from a Saab and cleaned them up and put them on with new tires. It's not much, but I think it looks better than before.
One of my younger son's friends comes from a family with some money. They bought him a brand-new Civic when he got his license. Within about a month, he was in a fender-bender. Most of the kids I see have older used cars that were handed down from a relative or bought cheaply for them.
Another of his friends just turned 18, and he still doesn't have his license. He has an overprotective single mom, and that's a whole other story. He's supposed to be commuting to college in the fall, so he better figure it out. He'll get his mom's older Equinox whenever that happens.
I was actually talking with my brother about some of the cars we drove in high school and when I went to college, and some of them were pretty sketchy. He went to vocational school and became a GM mechanic, so he got some mechanic specials for us to drive. We had a rusted out 4x4 Blazer, a 71 El Camino with a broken spring in the back, that made the axle move when you got on or off the gas, and a square-body Chevy truck that had an engine fire, so the paint was burned off the front end. But he also rebuilt a 72 Nova and put a V8 in an S10 truck around the same time, and those turned out nice.
thank you!
DeleteMy Dream Girl!
ReplyDeleteI turned 16 in 1979.
ReplyDeleteI learned to drive in my moms 67 Beetle, and the familys extra car, a 62 Mercury Meteor, ( a fancy Ford Fairlane)
the Meteor had drum brakes on all 4 wheels, with no power assist, manual steering, 3 speed on the collumn, and no seat belts.
the windshield squirter was a little lever on the floor next to the headlight dimmer switch, and the windshield wipers had one speed. you got to choose, on, or , off. it had a 221 V-8, the next year Ford enlarged it to the 260, then to the 289 the following year, then to the 302 a few years after that.
when my kid was 15 , in 2015 he wanted a car and we made required him to learn a foreign language for us to contribute $4,500 to his car fund.
I was always in the camp that kids can buy their own cars, but by the time they are 16, youre so tired of taking them to school, and ball practice and this event and that event etc etc, that youre willing to shell out a few grand for them a car just so you dont have to haul them around anymore.
but we did make him learn a foreign language,.
I didnt ever really care about his grades in school as long as he was passing.
im not the kind of parent to get upset if they make a 80 instead of a 99.
I absolutly hated high school, to me it was like a prison sentence and I would have dropped out except back then, my state suspended your drivers license until you were 18 if you dropped out of school.
I stayed in high school mostly to keep my drivers license, since in the days before cell phones and the internet , in rural Appalachia a drivers license was your ticket to freedom.
he initially wanted a 69 Chevelle, but he quickly changed to wanting a 73-87 Chevy pickup. My minimum requirements for a car for young drivers, would be seat belts and disc brakes.
thank you!
Delete