Should you make your 18 year old buy his own car, or should you offer to help?

Question

My son is wanting a 2004 Chevy Colorado. He says all his friends parents pay 1/2 when they get new vehicles. He has a truck now that we paid for, and paid insurance for. I want him to learn the value of money and want him to buy this one on his own. What should I do?

Answer 1

He needs to learn that "cars" = "money". My dad told me that I needed to buy my own car so that I take care of it more. So i started saving up (which took forever) but it was worth it. Then he took me shopping for a car but the car that I wanted was a bit more expensive, My dad definately helped me out he put 2 thousand dollars more, and now I got a very good car that I kinda paid myself, so I take more care of it. Let him think that he's paying for it himself, but help him out. He needs to understand the value of the money but its ok if at the end you help him out.

Answer 2

I purchased a vehicle for my oldest daughter and will also do the same for my other children, provided that:

1. They have a job to make payments.
2. They will have to pay for it in full. This would include the interest if a loan was used to buy it.
3. They have to pay any difference in Insurance cost for the extra vehicle (they must already pay for the difference in insurance when they got their license).
4. The vehcile stayed in my name until it was fully paid for. If they blow their cash and can't make their payments, I took the keys from them.

Kids will NEVER learn the value of money if we as parents constantly give into their desires as opposed to meeting their needs. If you gave your son a truck already and you are paying the insurance on it... then you have already missed the oppertunity to help him learn responsiblity/accountability. I suggest you tell him that he must start paying the difference in insurance cost now and if he wants another vehicle, then he will have to figure out how to purchase one on his own.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Give him a copy of "The Richest Man In Babylon" and tell him that it is THE richest gift he will ever receive.

Someone I know read that book when she was doing the sex, drugs, rock 'n roll scene when she was circa 18 years old. Her life had a change of direction afterwards. Now, most of those people whom she used to mix with 10 years ago are either drugged out of their minds, dying of AIDS, living in poverty, dead, or in a drug over-dose coma. In contrast, she is a multi-millionaire, coaches young women on their own businesses, owns her own home, owns her own businesses, lobbies Senators, does charity work, and is a speaker for influential societies ... all these accomplishments before age 35.

I suggest you use the money to have a private ceremony that celebrates his adulthood, at the end of which he hands back your house keys and you hand him his dirty laundry. Give him a heartfelt hug and tell him that he is always welcome to visit, not live where his parents are. The remainder of his life is his own and what he does with it is wholly his own choice. The law and society now treats him like an adult, and the time has arrived that he is treated exactly the same way by his parents.

Answer 4

ya know what? My dad made me buy my own car. And I hated him for it. All my friends had nice cars, I had a beat up ford maverick that was half rusted away that all my friends thought was soooo funny. My father was well off, we lived in an upper middle class neighborhood and I thought it was so unfair.

I'm 40 now. Dad is gone, lung cancer took him 10 years ago. Looking back in the hindsight from a 40 year old, and after finding out years later where my dad came from. His dad died when he was 11. It was the 1950's and my grandmother was a single parent. So my dad came from nothing, everything he had when i was growing up he earned with hard work. Some of my earliest memories of my dad were of him coming home for lunch, when i was maybe 3 or 4 years old and how excited i was to see him for that half hour every day because he was working 2 jobs and taking classes at the time.
I now see what lesson my father was trying to convey by making me go out and buy my own car. Looking back, that orange rusted out ford maverick was the greatest car ever. It was MINE.

Answer 5

Since you've already helped him with his first vechile and you pay for his insurance, I don't see any point in paying half or even anything. If you want him to learn, learn the right way, the hard way. If you give in it's just going to make him think that he can push you to your limits and he'll end up getting what he wants. I do think that when kids get there first vechile I believe the parents should pay half or anything to help them out, but definetly not for the second, even if he has a truck that still runs.

Good Luck..

Answer 6

He already has a vehicle that you paid for, no I would tell him that he can buy his own. He is an adult now and has to learn responsibility sometime. My parents bought my first car and after that I was on my own.

Answer 7

If the truck is paid for and good running order make him drive it. Save money for later. Have him get a newer truck when he is 21 and then throw in some $$ as birthday present.

Answer 8

I would make him buy it on his own. If he gets into a major pinch with payments though then maybe help out that month. My parents bought my brother 2 cars and he just trashed them, he had the "I got them free, so why should I care" attitude. I am 22 and I bought my own car and I take better care of it because I know what I am paying for it. believe me - he will take better care of it if you make him work for it!!! he will also learn a little bit about money.

Answer 9

18, and a 2004 car, and a male....$$$$$$$$$$ insurance!!!!!!....check that out for yourself, the payments, at least $200 a month for the car, and a whole lot for total coverage cause that is what will be required....ask your insurance agent, you'll see....may not sound so good when ya'll see the numbers, who's going to pay for this vehicle, and tags, and insurance?.....there are kids who would die to have any vehicle, and he has one...let him save to get the car of his dreams, cause you already bought him one, and the other is just to have power under the pedal and look good for the chicks and to his buddies....18, not practical....he wrecks it by showing off, then what....(he'd never do that, oh really....he's 18)

Answer 10

If you really want him to learn the value of money have him buy the car on his own because if you help him get a loan and he doesn't make the loan payments the bank will come after you