hhmmm the youth of today - high expectations or spoiled rotten by us?

[SootySport]

My dad bought my 1st. car for me and so far I have bought a 1st. car for the boy and daughter, 2 more to go but they are not interested in driving, besides they are in there late 30's now so probably never will.    I think you should help the kids getting mobile by buying a car, lessons or tax and insurance but not pay for everything.  Part of my deal is I'll show them how to wash it , service, and where things are for repairs.   Worked out alright so far as they value what a car costs to run.

[housebeautician]

My first car was a £5 100e ford pop.

Like jeff and the rest of you had to look after it myself.

Having said that i did buy my kids first cars but they were not new (A few hundred quid ) and they had to work for it.

[Mid life crisis]

I had my first car given to me by my parents because the main dealers would not give them much as a trade in when they changed theirs. Morris Minor split screen 800 cc reg AEH 430 which was worth about £50 quid. Kept it going for about 18 months despite several prangs and mechanical problems. Only scrapped it when the MOT guy told me it was not road worthy or acceptable to glue the stripped thread brake hoses into the slave brake cylinders or isoponing strips of steel onto the spring hangers   and not to bring it back to him

.

Next car I bought myself, a Triumph Hearald reg KCC 85, wish I still had that plate. Ended up removing the roof and making it into a convertible    then I rolled it on a country lane, car cut up by me and my mates and scrapped into a farmers ditch :( You could get away with that in the olden days in Wales

 

 

I had no intention of buying my two kids new cars, but the insurance costs are just stupidly expensive. It was purely a finincial and safety decision

 

 

Box is now ticked   in three years from me buying the cars they are on their own

 

[M444TTB]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Norman Verona" data-cid="1014282" data-time="1356719871"><p>

M444MTB, that's easy to answer.<br />

<br />

April 1964 a red mini De Luxe registration number ALE 477B was £477. That's after discount.</p></blockquote>

Apparently about £8k inflation adjusted! Not bad at all really.

[KugaWestie]

I bought my first car from my mum in 1987 - she let me have it for less than it was worth. Vauxhall Chevette 3 door hatch £200. I then stored it in a spare barn at the local pub my Dad used for around 9 months. I had 6 driving lessons in total, paid for by me. I shopped around and sorted out insurance myself, I think it was about £150 TPF&T.

Every car since I sorted out myself, paid for, insurance etc.

 

Dad did help me with maintenance. servicing, repairs etc.

 

I was proud of my early cars, although not as flashy as some of my mates, I knew that I had paid for them and could look after them myself.

 

My two boys are 7 and 5 years old. God knows how much insurance will cost when they come of age

[Graham0127]

My son`s 19 and still wants me to buy him a car......He`s had 3 motorbikes and wrecked them all,so I guess he can rely on Shank`s pony for a while longer.I bought my first car,a 1600E in 1977 but I did get a Jaguar XJ6 for my 21st.I think the only thing my dad gives me these days is worry!!!

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

I think things have changed so much since we were kids it's a very different world now. How many of us when we were kids left the house int he morning and weren't seen until tea time and our parents didn't worry about us. That doesn't seem to be the case these days as everyone is so hung up about child abductors etc.

 

Also I would dread to be a youngster having to pay car insurance of £ 2,500 per year. If you take a rough approximation that things when I was a lad cost 10% of what they do now that would be £ 250 where as I remember paying £ 30 for a years insurance and £ 90 for my first B reg mini. On that basis £ 900 gets you a reasonable car today about the same as the mini I had, but insurance is just crazy at nearly 100 x what I paid. I think the government is going to have to step in to do something as I worry about the number of uninsured drivers we have these days.

 

Doesn't answer Jeff's question and I would plead guilty to getting a Suzuki Vivaro that all the kids were allowed to use. But none of them owned. Although back then insurance on that was cheap at £ 200. These days all those loopholes seem to have been closed. The kids all then had to buy their own first car and pay the insurance, which they all did. With their own money. So maybe a pool car Jeff     

[alexander72]

Tractors are still the solution - there used to be tractors at all my YFC meetings.... 

[chazpowerslide]

I have said to my eldest that she's going to have to save for her first car/insurance as we won't be buying it for her, she's 13 now.

It'll be a shed and she's going to have to help re-build/restore and keep it running (all the dirty finger nails stuff) so we'll look to buying it when she's 16 and and have it up and running by the time she's 17.

At least that way she'll be able to look after it herself and have the knowledge to put it right when it breaks down.

It'll also teach her to respect what she's got.

We are prob looking at a classic of some sort to help with the insurance.

I'll teach her to drive (should be easy compared some of the guys I train to drive PCVs!!!!!!!) so we won't be spending money on lessons either.

 

When I was a lad driving at 17 was a given, now it's a privlage and an expensive one at that.

 

Chaz.

[Scottish Bloke]

Doesn't answer Jeff's question and I would plead guilty to getting a Suzuki Vitara that all the kids were allowed to use.

 

Fixed that for you Wuv x

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

I would be too embarrassed to expect or accept a hand out of many £1000's from mum and dad.. Year 1 is just the start of at least 2 or 3 furthers of big ?bucks insurance. Without employmemt and wages of their own, how can they justify the need for or sustaining such outlay

[Terry Everall]

Always paid for my own motorbikes and cars without help. 

Did help my 2 daughters to buy fiestas though as times had changed...... or maybe I am a soft touch

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

Its a slippery slope doing it for one chid if you have more than 1 as you have to help all of them then. Yes Terry - you are a softie!

[Terry Everall]

buying the cars was the easy bit as I had to service and rebuild them several times when they were brought back from university on lowloaders after hitting obstacles. Most recovery guys just looked at me and said "they are write offs mate" I couldnt afford to write them off as they only had 3 rd party insurance so I became quite good at bodywork repairs and spraying wings and bonnets etc

[User0083]

I was given my first car by the farmer down the road! Mini 998cc, had windscreen, rear heated screen, one wing mirror, engine and a wheel! Proper barn find. I was 15 and he said "You're working in butchers, use your money to get it running, be a good car that!"

I did just that and had the car from 1997, on the road in feb 2000, passed test in may 2000 and car was stolen off drive in 2006, got off drive, down road and through hedge on first corner. I constantly changed bits, heads, cam's, carbs, engine... And so on! It had a MG metro turbo engine, all bits on it and 168bhp! So a bit of turbo lag followed by an explosion of power and no traction! Hence going through a hedge into Hughes field (farmer that gave me the car to start with!). Could've re-built it, but gearbox/sump had huge hole in it, so a mate swapped it for a 1275 GT in need of loving, but ran.

Had many other cars, but kept mini as my little toy!

Anyway... Wife and sis-in-law had to buy their own cars/lessons and tests, but little half sister got all of it given to her and paid for. First car was Ex Cab skoda... "Ugh! I ain't driving that!" So replaced with a £3,500 Suzuki Ignis! Hahahahaha! Daddy paid insurance, everything... Even petrol! Wife/sis had nothing. 12 year age gap... And things have changed across the board in that time/age group.