mechanic owned.


damned well should be if it's a nissan.

7/13/2012 5:27:38 PM

1994-1996 toyota camry

7/13/2012 5:33:11 PM

the #1 answer is: mazda3 hatchback
*bam!*
http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/3130598102.html

7/13/2012 10:20:32 PM

+1 for manual 90s Accord

[Edited on July 13, 2012 at 11:07 PM. Reason : FUCK spending $15k on a car for a 16 year old]

7/13/2012 11:07:13 PM

Quote :

"FUCK spending $15k on a car for a 16 year old"

It's all relative mane.

7/14/2012 12:02:15 AM

make that fucker earn the money to buy his own car


it builds character


all he's gonna do is stupid high school shit - load the car full of 9 of his dumbass classmates, eat food in it and grind dirt into everything, probably wreck it


he's a high school kid, they don't deserve nice shit because they wont respect it - make him earn 2k and have him buy a shitbox.

[Edited on July 14, 2012 at 11:02 AM. Reason : remember how every kid you ever knew in HS treated his car]

7/14/2012 11:01:43 AM

Quote :

"too much car"

Haha, no shit. I was joking, along with the vintage Turbo, MR2 turbo, and Z06. An S2k would be a wreck waiting to happen for a new driver.

I think he should get something around $3-5k, boring and dependable, and I think that he should buy his own shit, maybe with parents matching his dollars up to a certain amount.

7/14/2012 11:14:35 PM

/thread.

7/14/2012 11:23:58 PM

the #1 answer is: 1988 mazda 323 hatchback
*bam!*

http://fortcollins.craigslist.org/cto/3126093040.html

7/15/2012 10:57:00 AM

i, too, think $5k should be the max to spend on a high school kid's car.

7/15/2012 11:09:16 AM

Volvo C30 will get him some ass. Chics at school will think he's Edward Cullen.

7/15/2012 11:49:23 AM

As a kid who's father got him the most amazing first car ever (an '84 corvette), I agree with everyone in this thread.

I learned a LOT more having to buy my own car after wrecking the shit out of the corvette. The Mazda 626 shitbox I had for the next several years, and the Saturn SL2 I bought when the transmission on the Mazda shit the bed. I still own, drive and love the Saturn almost 12 years later.

I bought myself a Lotus back in 2007 and here almost 5 years later at 30 years old am I finally at a point in my life when I can responsibly and truthfully handle driving a sports car.

It's awesome to love your kids and want them to have something cool, fun and safe. But he is going to wreck it or otherwise destroy the thing in short order and leave you with a big time bill. Save yourself the money, because he isn't going to learn shit from it. He'll learn from the next car he has to buy himself.

7/15/2012 3:46:57 PM

^
/thread

[Edited on July 15, 2012 at 3:56 PM. Reason : \]

7/15/2012 3:56:07 PM

I bought my first car for $8k.
It was the 91 maxima that my handle came from.
127hp, 180tq, 32mpg
Best first car ever.

7/15/2012 4:53:37 PM

1998 civic
10mm,12mm,14mm, and 17mm sockets
honda service manual

done

7/15/2012 5:55:31 PM

ha really nice parents to be spending that much on a car for him. 50% chance kid gets in an accident

7/15/2012 7:42:11 PM

Quote :

"make that fucker earn the money to buy his own car"

Are you shitting me, with the job market for highschoolers right now? Get real. The 90s are over bro.

get him like a 2002 civic Si. They are slow (160hp for that generation) but not painfully so; they also won't break very often.

[Edited on July 15, 2012 at 7:54 PM. Reason : .]

7/15/2012 7:50:54 PM

Quote :

"Are you shitting me, with the job market for highschoolers right now? Get real. The 90s are over bro. "

haha what a fucking excuse - gotta 'learn to earn'. Not everyone has parents who can drop 15k on a 'first car' - Hell, I know many who went without a car

7/16/2012 7:52:35 AM

I shared a car with my mom for a year after getting my license, then inherited that one when she got something else around my 17th birthday. 1979 Chevy Malibu worth maybe $1000; it wasn't fast, it didn't handle well, it wasn't "cool", it refused to start for no good reason every once in a while, it stalled out when cold. But I learned to love that car for all its shortcomings, and kept it into college, and parked it at my folks' house when the timing chain let go in sophomore year. I've held onto it since then and it sits patiently under a car cover waiting for restoration when I have the space and money.

So sometimes when a shiny new-ish car isn't just handed to you, but you have to deal with something with quirks and shortcomings, it's still something special because it's yours. I gave suggestions within the framework set by the OP in the earlier part of this post to be helpful. But when it comes down to it I, too, think that the best plan is to start with something inexpensive and work from there.

7/16/2012 11:53:35 AM

Although it doesnt have to be expensive, I imagine I'd want my kid's car to be as safe as possible and hopefully not break down TOO much (my sister got kicked off our family AAA plan for requesting a tow too often). It also should have some personality, or the kid will spend too much time working some minimum wage job to get a car that he actually likes and not enough time studying to get ready for college, which is what he should really be doing. Late-model, high-mileage car of the make and model that he likes (within the budget and not too powerful) is probably the best bet.

7/16/2012 12:25:50 PM

Quote :

"Not everyone has parents who can drop 15k on a 'first car' - Hell, I know many who went without a car"

...So that means, those who can, shouldn't?

Why don't you all leave the parenting to the actual parents, and just make with the car recommendations already.


[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 12:35 PM. Reason : RAWR RAWR RAWR I DIDN'T HAVE A NICE CAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, NO OTHER KID SHOULD EITHER!!!!]

7/16/2012 12:33:55 PM

Quote :

"Not everyone has parents who can drop 15k on a 'first car'"

How is that relevant? These parents obviously do, and that's all that is relevant here.

Some people are genuine when they are advising buying a cheaper car, but some just seem to be jealous. And before anybody accuses me, I got my first car at the age of 32. (and it cost just under 10k)

7/16/2012 12:40:32 PM

Quote :

"...So that means, those who can, shouldn't? Why don't you all leave the parenting to the actual parents, and just make with the car recommendations already. [Edited on July 16, 2012 at 12:35 PM. Reason : RAWR RAWR RAWR I DIDN'T HAVE A NICE CAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, NO OTHER KID SHOULD EITHER!!!!] 7/16 "

no, it means that a good way to build work ethic is to get a job and earn something - because there is something meaningful and oftentimes fufilling with working toward a goal and achieving it.


like I have said, a motherfucking honda accord.

mother

fucking

honda accord.



As for jealousy, doubtful that any steady garage posting user is going to be 'jealous' of some HS kid getting a car bought for them - I mean really, the OG crew has been out of college for what, 4-5yrs now?



AND second edit - I think that both sides of argument should note that this isn't an argument of parenting or whatever, more of a 'sharing of strong opinion' we're all gayragers, right?

[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 12:59 PM. Reason : -]

7/16/2012 12:52:52 PM

Not that I made the jealousy point, but I bet you people weren't singing the praises of a good work ethic in high school when you had a $2000 beater and other kids had $15k+ cars. I'm sure there wasn't any jealousy going on back then

7/16/2012 12:59:03 PM

fwiw, my dad bought me an '88 accord. my best friend bought a brand new 2001 F350 Crew cab dually powerstroke, at the time was like $42,000 with incentives.... I didnt really care that much... but needless to say he drove when we 'had to go places' hahahaa

7/16/2012 1:01:36 PM

my first car was a e46 330ci. I don't think I would have "learned anything" by driving around a shitty car for a few years, but that's just me.

7/16/2012 3:54:42 PM

Quote :

"I've held onto it since then and it sits patiently under a car cover waiting for restoration when I have the space and money"

just in case

Quote :

"How not to store your car: I have seen so many cars destroyed by rust this way. This is what I call the "rust incubator", the car basically is never dry and receives fresh moisture from the ground daily. Better option if you don't have a garage is actually to park it on top of a tarp in a sunny spot. "

7/16/2012 4:04:42 PM

there are many recommendations in this thread.

proving that youre a fucking idiot and i cant wait for your kid to crash his $15k car(i dont want any bodily harm) and make your rates go up.

jobs are easy as fuck to find. any moron with half a brain can get one

7/16/2012 4:38:22 PM

It's in a sunny spot, on concrete, not dirt. Checked it a couple months ago and the few rust problem areas have not advanced appreciably. Though I have heard that before and have considered the tarp idea. I'd just have to do it by jacking up one corner at a time because it occupies the only flat spot on the driveway.

7/16/2012 4:46:11 PM

I didn't have my first "nice" car until i had graduated college and was working for a couple years. prior to that my grandpa loaned me a 1972 Chevy C-10 Pickup that I drove for about a year until i saved enough money to by my first car, a 1983 Honda Accord. That one got totaled, not my fault, and then i bought a 1987 Honda Accord which I drove all through college. Didn't buy the M3 until I was almost 25.

i vote for older Honda Accord! Cheap, decent power, easy to work on, reliable. all you need for a 16 yr old.

7/16/2012 4:51:23 PM

my 88 accord coupe would run 100 all day long at 4k. actually got it to 8,3xx rpm free-revving in the high school parking lot.

7/16/2012 5:06:45 PM

I say buy your kid whatever car you can afford. Who wants to ride around in a shit box in high school. I was given a $30K car when I was 16 and I think I turned out fine. When I did crash my car like all kids do, I paid for the repairs. I actually had to help my dad build a car trailer for 4 months before we took the car to the body shop and I worked to pay for the materials. Thats how I learned to weld, lol.

7/16/2012 5:32:04 PM

Quote :

" Not that I made the jealousy point, but I bet you people weren't singing the praises of a good work ethic in high school when you had a $2000 beater and other kids had $15k+ cars. I'm sure there wasn't any jealousy going on back then "

I don't remember that many having $15k+ cars, but I wasn't jealous of them. I had a pretty clean, fairly low-mileage '71 Cutlass with a 350/350 combo (350 Rocket 4bbl). Prob about as quick as a 5.0 fox body, which would have been a really cool HS car at the time. I had prob $4000-something in it. Def no more than $5k...it was pretty cool, esp for HS.

[Edited on July 16, 2012 at 8:25 PM. Reason : I paid half, parents matched my dollars]

7/16/2012 8:25:11 PM

Quote :

"When I did crash my car like all kids do"

All kids don't crash their cars. I didn't. My brother didn't. My best friends didn't. I probably put ~30k miles on my parents 40k-50k cars back in high school, and I didn't get so much as a speeding ticket. Believe it or not, some people just don't suck at driving. Am I the best driver in the world? No. Was I good enough of a driver/responsible enough not to fuck up a 50k car at 16? Absolutely. This kid might not be a terrible driver.

plus odds are that if you did get in a wreck, you're probably a little safer in a lot of these 15k+ cars than some 2k beater.

7/16/2012 11:56:36 PM

I'm going to second the recommendations I've seen for a truck or something truck-like.

A slow-ass jeep will have enough power to get you out of trouble and should be reliable enough to get him through college with relatively minor repairs.

Based on that list, I'm guessing your son hasn't thrown out the idea of driving something like that. I was still happy with my 1990 cherokee laredo as a first car. My parents did buy it for me and it was around $4k. Was fine except for the fact that it was a pain in the ass to start some days (my 2000 cherokee hasn't had this problem ever).

I'd almost encourage a 2 door pickup truck with a lower end engine option just to keep him from being the guy that hauls around all his friends and to avoid giving the vehicle enough power that an inexperienced driver would have a hard time in slick conditions.

7/17/2012 12:25:21 AM

Getting something better than the 12 MPG a jeep would get wouldn't be the worst idea in the world with gas prices around 3 bucks a gallon.

7/17/2012 12:31:26 AM

Oh god please do not buy your child a car, especially not one he/she will like.

Working a shit job to save up for a car is an important period in a well-rounded child's development. Its what turns care-free kiddies into responsible, hard-working adults. Your kid will probably never experience the same level of desire for an inanimate object for the rest of his/her life. Might as well channel that energy into something useful, like learning good work values.

Buy a car and "loan" it to him/her if you really need your kid to be mobile now.

7/17/2012 2:57:54 AM

Quote :

"When I did crash my car like all kids do"

something fundamentally wrong with this statement.

Quote :

"in 1999-2000 they made a gti (MK4) with the base 2.0 4-cylinder engine. this can be had cheap, visually is a gti, fairly slow (115 hp), fwd, hatchback, 2-door. cheap to maintain and the 8-valve 2.0 is the most reliable engine vw ever made. i've seen them run out of oil and still be fine. great car for a 16 year old. the engine was available in a golf and jetta through 05ish. "

Since VW stripped out their MkVI Jetta that base 2.0 liter engine is back.

If you want to buy your child something safe that's one thing. But let's be honest here: any car built within the last decade is a very very very safe vehicle. This isn't the 70s or early 80s. Every car sold these days is a well built reliable and safe car. However most newer cars are more powerful, and in the hands of an inexperienced driver that is a danger not a safety. Additionally too many people think they're invincible in these newer cars with all their electronic nannies. That's not the case and nobody can defeat physics.

7/17/2012 9:52:47 AM

Everything is relative. $15k might be acceptable for synapse. If I had to buy a car for someone (ie: child/relative), it would probably be in the $4k-$6k range. But I regard that a lot of money. We all value money differently, as do our priorities.

That being said, I'm totally with most of the posts in here.

High school kids can get a job, if they try hard enough. 16 year olds in NC, maybe not so much because of labor laws involving minors. But regardless, there are plenty of places hiring (fast food, gas stations, grocery stores, department stores, etc). Hell, the movie theater just up and hired like 5 new people lately in Cary.

7/18/2012 10:25:03 PM

Ended up going with a 09 manual TSX sedan (base). I was hoping for less than the 201hp, but 0-60 in 7.8 doesn't scare me that much. Similar horsepower in a MKv GTI gets you to 60 in well under 7 seconds.

Was also hoping for coupe but selection is pretty limited on these.

8/29/2012 11:46:35 AM

nice job. how much is the insurance on that?

8/29/2012 12:12:08 PM

safe, quick, no burnouts, cheap, reliable.

does not look like girls car.


[Edited on August 29, 2012 at 12:35 PM. Reason : .]

8/29/2012 12:34:48 PM

^ Ha. The boy wasn't wanna look like a ricer-kid.

8/29/2012 12:49:23 PM

based on your requirements, i believe nothing less than a Corvette will satisfy this kid. just buy a used C5 and be done with it.

8/29/2012 3:16:59 PM

Shit, I GAVE my little brother my Firebird that I bought with the money I worked my ass off for in high school, but, no, he wanted a truck. My parents bought him a brand new Mazda (with my Firebird as a trade-in), which he then wrecked. Then they bought him a brand new Honda Fit, which he then totaled. Then they bought him his dream redneck truck, some toyota texas edition w/ big tires. The first car that they bought me cost $1500 and died after less than a year. No, I'm not bitter. Why do you ask?

8/29/2012 10:14:53 PM

Your brother sounds like a dumbass.

8/29/2012 10:22:39 PM

I also kind of had a brother like that but the order was reversed. He destroyed all the cars before me and my other brother got a chance to drive them. :V

8/29/2012 11:08:14 PM