Did your parents buy you a car....?

My parents weren't going to buy me a car, but did in the end!

I was 17, and sharing mum's 106. She used it for work, I could use it in the evenings unless she needed it for something. Dad used to drop me at college in the morning on his way to work, and mum would pick me up, so I didn't need a car.

Then mum changed job, and couldn't pick me up from college anymore. I was partway through saving up some money for a car, but given the job change, I needed a car that weekend for college the next week. So they bought me am H reg, 1.1 Fiesta that I kept for two years. They also helped out on the insurance for my first year (which, to be fair was £1600 3rd party - no way I could afford that as a non-working 17 year old), but I paid for all the servicing and tax/mot.

They also lent me the money (bank of mum & dad) for my second car, but I paid that back quite a long time ago.
 
My parents have never bought me a car, but they did pay for me to learn, and paid pretty much all of my driving expenses in the first year.

To be honest i would refuse it if they offered me a brand new car, i truely believe new cars are a complete waste of money. Id ask for the money instead
 
^^Gord^^ said:
£1600 for a 1.1 Fiesta!!! :eek:

Where the hell do you live, down town Baghdad?
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Nope, but being 17 years old with no NCB does wonders for your insurance quote. That £1600 was the cheapest quote by a long way for the fiesta, and all other similar low powered small, low powered cheap to insure "ideal first cars" were all about the same price.
 
My Dad sold me a car!!
After giving it a service it was apparent thet the big ends were on the way out.
When I suggested this my Dad was not too happy. I certainly wasn't as it was in my first year of work and I could not afford the bill to fix it.
My Mum had a few words with him and he agreed to get it fixed - phew!!

I don't think that he was trying to rip me off, I don't think that he realised the big ends were starting to knock.
As he never went over 50mph and was always keen on changing the oil it never entered my head that there were any issues. And no, I never drove it before I bought it!!
He never offered to sell anything to me again!!
By the way, it was back in 1982 and it was a Triumph Toledo.

PeterT
 
My mum couldn't afford to buy me a car and i wouldn't expect her to anyway. Saved up and bought my own on my own insurance, expensive but as time goes on and (hopefully) the ncb build up it should get cheaper-ish.

Don't think theres anything wrong with parents buying cars for their kids, what annoys me more is kids who are on their parents insurance and driving a nice car acting like a gimp. I know not everyone does, but there used to be a kid live near me who had a scooby his dad bought for him on his dad's insurance and drove like the world was ending, didn't care because his dad would pay for anything that needed doing on it.

Nothing wrong with a helping hand, but also nothing wrong with starting off with a cheap banger to get you going, i know insurance can be expensive but at least its your own car.
 
Controversial post incoming:

Parents buying cheap first cars (as mine did) is fine in my opinion. £1000 isn't a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but can be for a 17 year old. Enough so that the kid realises that if s/he crashes it, they're going to have to fork out £1000 for another car. And £1000 is enough money to make a youngster think twice about crashing, but not so much money that they have no comprehension of it.

What gets my goat is parents who just fork out £10,000 or so for a brand new car. To have a car that expensive handed to you on a plate so early on in your life devalues a youngster's opinion of money I think, and is I think a bad thing in the long run. When I was 17, £10,000 or £15,000 was an unthinkeable amount of money - I couldn't even comprehend it, and I think in a sense, that that devalues the car in the eyes of a teenager.

I know a few people who had old sub-£1000 bangers whilst in the 6th form, and they are now working their way up, into £2000...£4000 cars. Selling old ones on and adding a little saved money to get a better car. These people now (at 22-24 years old) tend to have an appreciation for the value of money, aren't in any real debt, and live within their means quite comfortably.

Whilst those who turned up at school in brand new £10k+ cars are now, 6 years later up to the eyeballs in debt paying off finance on £20-30k+ cars, again bought brand new, which they've only got to keep up with the Jones's.

I know it's a sweeping generalisation, but I think there's some truth to the theory.
 
i know a guy that was wrapped in cotton wool like this.
his parents bought him his first car at 17 (no idea if they bought or contributed towards his subsequent vehicles though) and gave him £1000/year towards his insurance AND £20/week for petrol.
this carried on for at least 2 years after he moved 250 miles away whilst working as an MCSE/CISCO bod and earning pretty good money doing so.

disgraceful IMHO and i told him so at every turn.

i think some people should realise that just because their folks are offering a free ride it isn't necessarily the right thing to do to take them up on it.
 
My folks helped to buy my first car.

they wanted me to get a brand new car for whatever reasons...

Anyways, they paid for most of it and I payed for the remainder and all the running costs obviously.

Very nice of them, but I still had to work to keep it going and I regret not having older unreliable cars to work on and learn more from.
 
I passed my test driving my Dad's company car (Ford Galaxy :D ) and was allowed to use that when he wasn't. My Mum upgraded her car so it was suitable as a 2nd family car, so I had access to the galaxy quite a bit.

But at 18, I wanted my own car for my Gap year, I borrowed 3 grand from my parents for insurance and the car (1.6 306). Paid it back over the course of my gap year.

When on campus at uni, my dad used the 306 as he'd left his job and set up by himself. So he paid for all the running costs during that year and I still had it when I went home. I took over all running costs in the 2nd year again.

The jag was all my money (Parents didn't understand that one)

I used a small amount of the money my grandma saved to help fund the 406.

So I've had a little bit of help along the way - but have done it mostly under my own steam. They have promised me that I will never be off the road. But I don't really want to take them up on that offer - can sort it myself.
 
Although i have paid for all my own stuff, My big brother (austinpowers) has helped me out no end, he has infact bought a lot of stuff for me and helped me fit all the bits and get my car running so if he hadnt been about then my parents probably would have ended up paying for it :p
 
Matthew-1985 said:
I paid for my car myself. I also paid for my lessons, tests, insurance, tax etc myself.

But my dad paid for all of the above for my brother. :( :mad: :eek:
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How come your dad didn't treat you both equally? Sounds a bit mean.
 
parents never bought me a car, never saw the point seeing as i was too lazy to pass until 3 months before i went to uni. dad however did pay for lessons and mum did wack me on her insurance till i went to uni. so i was still spoilt driving a 52 plate corolla 1.6tspirit.

still, after uni or possibly even 2nd year, depends on money and living, might have to get me an old(er) car just for the experience of owning a bottom rung car and to make my life a little easier again
 
i was bought my first car, a £250 mk4 escort 1.4LX.

Was lovely, only problem i had was a speedo cable that broke and a small oil leak, oh, and the tappets when i first had it.

I had it on the condition that when my younger brother passed his test it went to him. I was 17 and he was 15.

Thing is, when he hit the right age he demanded the car to learn in (even though i wasnt allowed one until i passed) and he got his way.

It left me car-less for a few months, he passed his test second time and within 6 months the car was dead. He had totally killed the engine and gearbox. He then went on to kill a nova, a fiesta and another one i cant remember because he had it for such a short time. That was in under 1.5 years.
 
Paid for the lot myself.

I got a couple of driving lessons for my birthday then I was on my own. I earned about £87 as an apprentice and remember paying £12 a week in lessons. Luckily I passed first time after 10 lessons.

It took a further few months to get a car which was an old banger of a Mini. Lasted me about 3 weeks before the front subframe destroyed itself. Took about another 5 months to save up and get a VW Polo off a friend. To be honest I didn't know of anybody whose parents bought them a car
 
Shock said:
Aye it's a strange one.

He lived with his Mum all his life. She snuffed it and he followed a few years later. The house was in an absolute state and the other neighbour found a huge box of cash hidden away and loads of guns. He didn't have any close relatives but some distant one's soon came sniffing around when they found out what happened. :p
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Always the way it goes innit!

My grans neighbour died and my gran took on the feeding of his cat,the house was put up for sale by his sister or something. She actually sold everything available and wanted as much money for the house as possible("get anotehr grand if you can" comes to mind) but she hadnt even visited hthe guy in a lot of years.

So aye,i got 10 lessons for my birthday back in august,aint used them though.

My dad says he'll buy me a wee crappy car so i can damage it all i want and get used to driving. :o

MNuTz said:
i was bought my first car, a £250 mk4 escort 1.4LX.

Was lovely, only problem i had was a speedo cable that broke and a small oil leak, oh, and the tappets when i first had it.

I had it on the condition that when my younger brother passed his test it went to him. I was 17 and he was 15.

Thing is, when he hit the right age he demanded the car to learn in (even though i wasnt allowed one until i passed) and he got his way.

It left me car-less for a few months, he passed his test second time and within 6 months the car was dead. He had totally killed the engine and gearbox. He then went on to kill a nova, a fiesta and another one i cant remember because he had it for such a short time. That was in under 1.5 years.
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He isnt really a woman is he???

How can you kill cars so easily :confused: Does he know what a clutch is?
 
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timbob said:
Controversial post incoming:

What gets my goat is parents who just fork out £10,000 or so for a brand new car. To have a car that expensive handed to you on a plate so early on in your life devalues a youngster's opinion of money I think, and is I think a bad thing in the long run. When I was 17, £10,000 or £15,000 was an unthinkeable amount of money - I couldn't even comprehend it, and I think in a sense, that that devalues the car in the eyes of a teenager.
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I agree with this part of your post but I don't think parents should even pay out £1000 for a car. Be honest, you don't get £1000 for xmas or a birthday, why should you get it for a car? As I stated earlier, if you're old enough to drive, you should be old enough to work, regardless of whether or not you're at college.

I have zero respect for people who sponge off their parents or the government just because 'they're studying' - its absurd. You should be out working 3 or 4 hours a night behind a bar, that would make 20 hours a week which would undoubtedly be enough to run a cheap little motor if you needed it. I was earning £300 a month when I was at college, I paid absolutely everything because I would have been disgusted with myself to know I had taken my mums hard earned money when she could be spending it on her house or going on a holiday.

I started off in a £200 Skoda favorit, I soon wrecked that and went on to a £200 nova, another absolute scrap heap. Next was the mondeo after 9 months of saving at a £1000 price tag and then with a new job came a totally new spectrum for me, I went to the M3 and now the elise.

Sorry, but I'm not the brightest spark in the box and so if I can achieve this at age 21, I see no reason why other people can't, especially those with well off parents who get the advantages many of us don't in early life.
 
Rhyzz said:
I agree with this part of your post but I don't think parents should even pay out £1000 for a car. Be honest, you don't get £1000 for xmas or a birthday, why should you get it for a car? As I stated earlier, if you're old enough to drive, you should be old enough to work, regardless of whether or not you're at college.

I have zero respect for people who sponge off their parents or the government just because 'they're studying' - its absurd. You should be out working 3 or 4 hours a night behind a bar, that would make 20 hours a week which would undoubtedly be enough to run a cheap little motor if you needed it. I was earning £300 a month when I was at college, I paid absolutely everything because I would have been disgusted with myself to know I had taken my mums hard earned money when she could be spending it on her house or going on a holiday.

I started off in a £200 Skoda favorit, I soon wrecked that and went on to a £200 nova, another absolute scrap heap. Next was the mondeo after 9 months of saving at a £1000 price tag and then with a new job came a totally new spectrum for me, I went to the M3 and now the elise.

Sorry, but I'm not the brightest spark in the box and so if I can achieve this at age 21, I see no reason why other people can't, especially those with well off parents who get the advantages many of us don't in early life.
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Well, in my (and I expect, a lot of other people's defence), whilst I was in the 6th form, I was incredibly busy. Doing Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Music Tech A levels takes up a lot of free time (usually 1-2 hours per night of maths to keep up with the advanced further maths stuff).

I was/am also a musician, played in different jazz bands and orchestras on 4 nights of the week (monday/tuesday/friday/saturday), usually between 6-9pm or thereabouts. Were it not for the time I spent doing this in the evenings, I wouldn't have been good enough to go to music college and get a degree - which has directly led to my current job as a full time instrumental music teacher. It's not as if I spent my youth dossing about on street corners complaining that I had no money, I was too busy to actually spend anything in a social context.

If I could have found a job that would employ me for a 4 hour shift twice a week on the wednesday and thursday evening, I'd have taken it - but that wasn't realistically going to happen!

As it was, I used to do chores round the house, cook tea for the folks for when they got home from work etc., and they paid me a £40 a month allowance which put petrol in the car, and not a lot else.
 
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