Car Payment for a Teenager
When I was a teenager and got my license, I was a bit lucky. My grandfather actually gave me my first car. It was a big yellow boat. It was 13 years old and got 8 miles to the gallon with its 350 engine.
Don't take this wrong - I was very grateful for this vehicle. It many things for me, most of all freedom. Not to mention, no more walking in bad weather or searching for rides to get to work. I loved that hunk of junk. I put a great deal of money into it, to keep it running. All of which, was for nothing, when the engine blew. :-(
I was in a world of hurt when this happened. I had a job I couldn't walk to and school hours that limited my in-between travel time. Parents that were not involved. It was a tough time for me.
When I did finally reach my mother, her suggestion "lets go car shopping." Not for a nice reliable used vehicle, but for a new one. The kind that comes with payments. She was convinced I could handle this payment thing. And since I had so little from her, I wanted to make her proud.
That is bar-none, one of the biggest mistakes I had ever made. It pushed me into a life of working to pay someone else. But I was young and had my car. At the time the payments were 1 weeks pay $142. I was not in a financially stable position.
I still wonder what my educated mother was thinking.
This past weekend I just learned that a friend of my son's, also a senior, has just purchased a Cobalt and is carrying a $20k loan. Payments are ~ $246 a month. Making me recall my own past struggles.
This young man has a job, with my son, at the big distribution center. He does make enough, if there is such a thing, to handle a payment. And the payment is less then a weeks pay. My issues come with college being 4 months away. How is this young man going to handle a car payment, insurance, fuel and maintenance while attending college.
Am I the only one who thinks a teenager should have a good quality, reliable used car? Where they can focus on personal growth instead of paying a bank?
Does this mean that his parents are debtor parents? Are they breeding a next generation of debtors?
3 comments:
I purchased my first and only new car when I was 21 and making good money - I was able to carry the car but I really felt the cost. I cannot understand how a young person (especially not even in college) can possibly afford to buy and maintain a new car let along a nice new car.
Unless I start making a great deal of money purchasing a new car will be very far down on my list of priorities even if my car breaks down. A good quality used car the by far the better purchase.
Ugh, a Cobalt? Those things are dangerous.
I was lucky in that my first truck, that I wish I still had, was paid for by a business associate. Okay, actually, he took pretty large chunks out of my compensation, but it was pretty much like not paying for it. Then, 4 or 5 months later, I got lucky (but kind of in a bad way). The business we were working on together fell through (apparently I was supposed to be doing everything, which he didn't bother to tell me), and the remainder of what I owed him for the truck was forgiven as a sort of severance. I may have paid $800 or so for that $2700 truck.
Oh wow, I'd die... I've never had a car payment, ever, or even the desire for a brand new car... No way am I ever going to throw a few thousand away like that. (Might as well donate to charity so someone who needs it can have it.)
I currently drive a '97 Mazda Miata, bought last summer with $6k in CASH. Probably the best thing I've ever done in my life, and something I'm extremely proud of too. My other sports car, a '01 Honda S2000, had payments for about six months before it was paid off with the sale of my hubby's inherited Mercedes.
I will never make a car payment in my life again, I enjoy owning my cars too much. I've got the patience to do it, can't say the same for anyone else though.
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