[U47]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

/\ heh-heh...

I wished I had parents who would have supplied me with a car and insurance so I wasn't about to knock a guy for wanting to hook his kid up with a set of wheels;
But I liked the last part of your post because I, like most of my friends took the bus to and from school... with only the occasional ride home with a friend.

Geez, I walked or road a bicycle to school until I could afford a car and insurance.

[U47]

[QUOTE=U47;5991294]Geez, I walked or road a bicycle to school until I could afford a car and insurance. BUS????? No wonder property taxes are so high.

[92GTA]

The deal I have with both of my boys has been that I'll match dollar for dollar what they save for the car and that they pay for their own insurance, gas, maintenance, etc. My youngest knows that if he can't get his grades up for a work permit, no car since he won't have an after-school job. Since they need a job to save for the car and need to drive their ass to work, they are paying me in arrears on their half of the car.

I showed him the Fiero and he didn't care for it. The only v6 4th gens we could find within a couple hundred miles were all autos but we have a few months to keep searching.

Thanks everyone for all the comments and suggestions!

[Firedup6975]

[QUOTE=U47;5991295]

Originally Posted by U47

Geez, I walked or road a bicycle to school until I could afford a car and insurance. BUS????? No wonder property taxes are so high.

Surprise welcome to the future, Millennials are now getting Tesla’s how do I know? My Husbands Cousin owns a machine shop and at my Mother in laws funeral, his Son drove up in one. Both Father and Son both have one.

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by U47

Geez, I walked or road a bicycle to school until I could afford a car and insurance. BUS????? No wonder property taxes are so high.

Just to be clear;
for junior high we rode the cheese-wagon;
The bus fees were tied into the school fees at the start of the year;
For high school we had to purchase monthly (city transit) bus passes;
They were a lower rate student pass, but we had to cough this up - and for the record, to the best of my recollection, I personally had to cough up money for ever one of my high school monthly bus passes.
I also paid my one friend (who I met late in grade eleven) way too much gas money for getting the occasional ride...
I had a fast food job (Taco Bell) for pretty much the entire time I was in high school.

[U47]

[QUOTE=Firedup6975;5991298]

Originally Posted by U47

Surprise welcome to the future, Millennials are now getting Tesla’s how do I know? My Husbands Cousin owns a machine shop and at my Mother in laws funeral, his Son drove up in one. Both Father and Son both have one.

The future is what you make it. Making kids soft is no future at all.

[dstryr]

Originally Posted by Firedup6975

I would never let any new driver get into a big HP car as a first car teen or adult. They just don’t have the reaction time as an experienced driver does. Plus if they get a cool looking car out of the gait they tend to get careless showing it off. Just my opinion. My Daughter didn’t get to drive my Challenger until she was well into her late twenties. She drove my 75 TA, but never my 69.

Not her first car but I had my kid in my 69 6bbl Road Runner when she was 16... 505" motor and a McLeod clutch that a gorilla would grunt on.. lol She only drove it once, the first time on a 4-speed wasn't all that exciting to her. I think the anxiety of learning the 4 speed and the heavy clutch pretty much made her mind up that she didn't want anything to do with it. I sold that car in '16 and she's been riding my butt about it. She thought it was more bada$$ than the GTO.

I got my 69 Judge out this past spring -which she did put a few miles on spring of '17- and brought it down to where we live. It had pretty much been stored since '06. She had a blast driving it and its probably not much faster than her 07 Mazda 6 with a v6. She barrel races horses and is in college so I don't think she'll be asking for the keys anytime soon with all that is on her plate. Its fun to get the young ones interested at least.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by jerry455

The Fiero was not what the kid would like, we got it for free. I had to put a motor in it. What better way to teach your kids the value of a dollar and take care of what they helped build. I also enjoyed spending many hours working together with them. My son would not have wanted anything Japanese or German. We live in metro Detroit and those are not what we drive .

That is a really big part of it right there. I bought that 89 5.0 for $500 as a running driving car but it was a mess. My son and I both restored it, painted it, fixed all the mechanicals on it. He learned to respect the car, learned what things cost and the work involved to make it what it is, and as a result I have no worries of him going out and doing stupid things in it. He worries where he parks it, doesn't like to drive it when the weather is bad, etc.. and this type of mentality has carried over to how he treats his other car as well. I've taken him to the drag strip where he's raced his mustang on a few occasions so he knows how to handle a car, what to do and what not to do. I've let him drive our 70 RA Formula, the 69 Z/28 and other cars here as well. He's going to be the caretaker for this stuff when I'm gone so they have to learn sometime.

It's all about how the kids are brought up and how you approach the car hobby with them. I didn't have to push him into it. He grew up around it and loves this stuff.

[92GTA]

My first car was a $250 1982 Firebird S/E and I bought a v6 from an 86 Camaro for it for $250. Spent the summer after my freshman year putting the basket case together. My dad didn't know car mechanics and paid a neighbor who worked at a Ford dealership as a mechanic to help me install the engine. I freakin tore that car up tho having so much fun, most of it was illegal haha!

[jerry455]

My neighbor is a new car sales manager at at large Chevrolet dealer and he was amazed how my son always waxed his Fiero. The paint was not even a good 10 footer but it was his and he was proud of it. My neighbor wished his daughters would take care of their new cars as well as my son took care of his old one.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by jerry455

My neighbor is a new car sales manager at at large Chevrolet dealer and he was amazed how my son always waxed his Fiero. The paint was not even a good 10 footer but it was his and he was proud of it. My neighbor wished his daughters would take care of their new cars as well as my son took care of his old one.

I see that with other kids as well. Where my son goes to college there are quite a few that are into cars. It's interesting to watch them park in the far out corners of the lots, back them in, (they park out where my son parks) the cars are always clean, you can tell they are proud of what they have and are taking care of it. One even drives a very nice 68 Super Bee every day. One drives a new mustang and another drives a new Porche and they like to park near my sons mustang. Funny how nice cars attract other nice cars as if I think they feel their cars are safer when next to others that care. It's almost like a groupy thing going on at the back of the lot. funny.

[GT182]

Originally Posted by 92GTA

I find all the information regarding insurance to be interesting. I'm 38, got my license when I was 17 1/2, and I had an 82 Firebird, a 78 Datsun 280Z, a 74 Porsche 914, and a 60 Elcamino SS in high school. Not only could I get insurance no questions asked, it was totally affordable given my after school job. Has the world really changed THAT much in just the past 20 years?

The answer is YES is has!

[OG68]

Found a "Grandma" 02 Camry for my twin daughters when they graduated from high school two years ago. V6 and only with 75K on it. Cost me $3500.
At first I got the ehhh look from them but both now enjoy it for the room, (five 20 yr old girls going to a 3 day concert in Coachella), reliability, economy, (they buy their own gas) and safety (insurance is cheap)
One twin is into cars and will probably get the GTO when I'm gone. The other wants a Land Rover. Oh well.

[Don Keefe]

Here is how I handled it: Since I was paying for the car, it was ultimately my choice.

About 10 years ago, my stepdaughter was in a horrible three-car accident which was initially a head-on. She was in the back seat of a 1997 LeSabre. Everyone walked away. GM front-drive H-bodies will take a hit like nothing I have ever seen before. Assume that any car your kid gets will be involved in an accident and you will make the right decision.

I unwittingly made a Buick fan out of him and he has had two LeSabres, a 1997 and a 2002. I am fine with that. If you insist on a Pontiac, a 3800-V6 powered Bonneville would be a great choice and quite affordable.

[george kujanski]

For my oldest son: Found a 1985 Chevy Celebrity with 30K miles, (back in '96) when he was a senior. 2.8l V6, 4 door , great visibility all around. Paid 2K. He drove it thru 4 years of college, graduated, bought a 2000 TA WS6, 6 speed. Took a job in the next state, kept the Chev because it was front drive for inclement weather for drives back home. We put in an aftermarket radio, amps, subwoofers, etc. to personalize it.

Still has the TA. Point is, get the young driver a sensible car to get experience....if he/she wants something else, let them work for it. It worked for me.

george

[Pecosbill]

When I was in college I worked and saved, worked and saved to buy my first car. It took all I had, and Dad kicked in for the title fee and the license plate. It was a 1964 Lemans convertible and I cherished that car. I washed and waxed it on a regular basis and the interior was kept spotless. All of that ended up making me a car guy, specifically a Pontiac guy.

Fast forward to my son. When he was in high school his mom said we needed to get him a car so she wouldn't have to run him to and fro. He was on the baseball team and therefore didn't have an after school job. Hoping to spark an interest in cars I wanted to get him something that he could easily understand and work on without diagnostic computers and a lot of gobbledygook under the hood. I found a 1964 Lemans that had been restored with a slightly modified interior, nice sound system, original 326 4 speed, but with a four barrel added, and a fabulous custom paint job. We drove out to California to get it and trailered it back to Texas.

Did he appreciate it? At first, but not for long. He had the coolest car in the school, but it seldom got washed. He never worked on it and when something went wrong Dad had to fix it. Major fail on my part all the way around.

Fast forward to today. He's 32 and has had several cars, two of which were purchased by me when he was in school, since the 64 Lemans. None of them were cared for and none of them were viewed as anything more than just transportation by him. They were never washed unless the rain hit them.

He purchased his last car and it has received the same treatment as the previous three. The pattern of behavior has become ingrained.

The moral of this story is that you cannot instill the "car guy" thought process in your son. He either has it or he doesn't. Also, the fact that he had no skin in the game certainly contributed to the situation; if he had had to work for the money to buy the cars he may have taken better care of them.

[Will]

How about a '72 Formula 400? Worked for me.

(It is seriously a matter of luck that I didn't total that car and/or kill myself on more than one occasion)

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by Will

How about a '72 Formula 400? Worked for me.

(It is seriously a matter of luck that I didn't total that car and/or kill myself on more than one occasion)

upon thinking about this myself, I'd have to say my instance is less about luck, and more about the following factors:
1) I only got a car after graduating high school.
2) I respected the car, felt it was special, and truely appreciated having it.
3) my car as purchased was far from perfect - so I needed to put in 'sweat equity' to get it running right, and keep it running well*.
4) I had to pay insurance, and for any gas in the tank - so I needed it to run as well as possible - which brings us back to point #3.

* = To the best of my recollection, nothing was mechanically wrong with it, but that didn't prevent me from doing probably too many oil changes and "tune up's" than it really needed...