How did you help your children get their first car?

[GoodSteward]

It has been a while, but I wanted to check in and have this question. How did you handle your children's first car?

I drove an old hand-me-down car with a lot of problems. I couldn't even take it out of town. Not long after, my dad bought me a 5-year-old 1998 Toyota Camry that I picked out and handed me the payment book. I still miss that car and wish I wouldn't have sold it to my brother later trying to help him out.

My older two have been working for about a year now at Chick Fil A (part-time of course). My daughter will turn 16 next month, and my son will turn 15 in July. They've both been promoted to trainer and are considered two of the best employees they have (At least that is what we keep hearing lol). They both have savings and pay us for gas and cell phones. Now, we are considering what to do for cars. My current thought is to help pay for some of a newer car. I don't want to buy so old/high mileage that they are looking for a replacement by the time they are 18 and have to start out life on their own with a car payment with everything else. They have been in debt a little before. They have both owed me for some things (Band instruments, Macbook, apple watch, etc) and paid it all back. I am trying to teach them about the burden of debt, and the need/freedom of getting back out as fast as possible. That way, hopefully, they treat debt responsibly. They both don't like owing, and can't stand their accounts getting too low. My son refuses to let his bank account get below $1k. He created that on his own.

Then I learned the market - that I thought was settling back down some (used market) - is about to stir back up again based on the news I'm reading. My deal with my daughter was to pay $5k towards something and she would pay the rest. The goal was a $12-15k car. She told me she wants to make sure she pays more on it than I do since it is her car. I'm good with that lol. However, if the market is going to swing back up, it will be pointless to wait to let my son wait and save up more if the avg price is going to increase that much anyway. So we are considering doing it now for both.

Do you guys think I'm crazy? lol

They are homeschooled, btw. Plan to graduate early through Penn Foster in a year or so and work full time while they decide what to do from there. I'm hoping if we do all this, within a couple of years they will have the car payment out of the way.

For those who worry, I only owe on my house and a Macbook pro at the moment. No issue carrying a couple of payments short-term if something happens.

[disneysteve]

Our daughter's first (and only) car was $5,000. She paid $3,000. We paid $1,000. Grandmom paid $1,000.

[corn18]

Well, I bought a new car for both of my daughter's when they turned 15 1/2. This was before I found this forum and changed my spending habits. Financed 100% of both (along with our other two cars, an RV and a horse trailer). I wouldn't recommend that, although my oldest still has her car and my youngest sold hers when she moved to South Korea.

I have no idea what the right thing to do is. I can say that them having a car and not having to pay on a loan or to us, really freed them up in life. If I had it to do over again, I think I would give them a budget and then buy them a car. They can pay for gas, insurance and maintenance.

[GoodSteward]

Our daughter's first (and only) car was $5,000. She paid $3,000. We paid $1,000. Grandmom paid $1,000.

What was it? How old and milage if you can remember?

[GoodSteward]

Well, I bought a new car for both of my daughter's when they turned 15 1/2. This was before I found this forum and changed my spending habits. Financed 100% of both (along with our other two cars, an RV and a horse trailer). I wouldn't recommend that, although my oldest still has her car and my youngest sold hers when she moved to South Korea.

I have no idea what the right thing to do is. I can say that them having a car and not having to pay on a loan or to us, really freed them up in life. If I had it to do over again, I think I would give them a budget and then buy them a car. They can pay for gas, insurance and maintenance.

They have to pay for those things as well, or a bulk of them. They will stop paying us for gas, and just put it in their own car (mainly my daughter as they work the same shifts, so she will take them to work instead of me or my wife).

[ua_guy]

My dad bought my first car, and he bought my sister's first car too. I'll be honest, I look back, and it's...bittersweet.

The agreement was good grades and intentional saving of any money we made, all in prep for attending college - which they also paid for. The cars were titled and insured in my parents' names to keep insurance costs low and also maintain a level of control if our agreements fell apart. They never did. We both went to college, graduated, and started productive lives. Since dad was paying, both my sister and I drove small, economical cars lacking most features. And that's how it was. Sometimes mom and dad paid for gas, but we paid for a lot of it on our own. My sister had an 87 Escort with about 60k miles, it was maybe 5 years old when dad bought it. I was pretty young....might have been $3000 in 1992 dollars . My first was a 92 Cavalier with the same amount of miles, but it was $4000 in 1999 or so...a little older.

The bittersweet piece for me was, I was a car guy, and so was my dad. But he had some history in his youth with fast cars, mistakes he didn't want me to make. I wanted to buy my own car, if it meant getting the car I wanted. For a moment he humored me. I found a used black 91 Camaro Z28, big loud V8, leather, fairly low miles and less than 10 years old. I was ready to buy it. The answer was no, not under my roof. So I ended up with a little 4-cylinder Cavalier, also used and about the same age. I was bewildered because I was responsible and had the cash for the Z28 and I didn't see how I'd get myself in trouble with it. lol. Looking back, it was a huge missed opportunity for my dad and I to connect during those years. We are very different people and the car thing was about the only thing we had in common.

I also credit that moment as the deciding factor in a not-perfect decision later in life. Fast forward to post-college, first job out of school, living on my own. I passed my training exams at work, and the next day I went down and traded in my little car at the time, a Ford Focus, on a newer Camaro Z28, black with black leather. I left the dealership sideways in it, in a cloud of tire smoke. I took out my first car loan on it, and it was a lot with rent and all of life's other expenses. Part of me did it to spite my father. I never got in trouble with it, never missed a payment, and it didn't screw up my life. But it sure was a fun car.

[myrdale]

My father purchased my first truck. $3,500 in around 1997. It was 1985 Chevy S-10 with a V8 motor from a 1979 Nova. I paid for the gas and he covered the insurance and maintenance. It was a fun truck but not really dependable. I left it at home the first couple of years at Auburn and just biked ever where.

In 2001 we purchased my Frontier, 2002, 0 miles. $20,000 iirc. He paid the bill while I was in school and I paid during the summer. When I graduated in 2005, I took over the payment completely with about $8,000 left. I cleared that up in my first 6 months of working. I traded it in about a year and a half ago with 319,000 miles.

[disneysteve]

What was it? How old and milage if you can remember?

2010 Hyundai Accent purchased in 2016. We don't recall the mileage but it was fairly low like 40K or so we think. She still has it though the time to replace it is probably approaching.

[GoodSteward]

I appreciate the responses.

In the meantime, My son decided to ask some of his online friends what he should look for, and his closest friend that lives out of state went nuts. Jealousy I guess? Told him it was terrible we were letting him get into debt (lol I'm the one in debt technically if we finance), but then this kid's mother texted my wife telling us we were horrible for considering this. Just floored at how some people feel they have a right to run into someone's business and start causing drama.

My wife asked how to respond. I told her don't. We don't owe them an explanation.

[Jluke]

What is exactly the point of their employment?

seems like they are working just to pay for cars, gas, insurance and other stuff?

trying to follow but they both work at the same place?

maybe you just need a kids’ car that they share.

tough call of course I only worked jobs that paid minimum wage back in the mid to late 90’s.

[kork13]

My kids are still 9+ years out from even possibly getting a car... But my rough plan is similar to yours, where we'll offer a car for $XXXX, and they're responsible for anything beyond that. The other strategy I've heard alot is to match their spending dollar for dollar (they pay $5k, you pay $5k).

As for myself... I got my first car for a whopping $1 and a ride to the airport, from a family friend moving back to the US (from Guam). It was a 1989 Mitsubishi Galant in painful shape, and I got it in 2002.... I may have overpaid. But in any case, it worked well enough for me, and got me around until I got into a wreck (not my fault) & totaled it in 2004 before I graduated high school. I didn't get a replacement, as I was headed to college in Colorado the following summer.

My father helped me buy my next car in 2006 -- he put $10k down on a new Civic for me, I put down a few thousand, and got I got a loan for the balance (on my own).

[GoodSteward]

What is exactly the point of their employment?

seems like they are working just to pay for cars, gas, insurance and other stuff?

trying to follow but they both work at the same place?

maybe you just need a kids’ car that they share.

tough call of course I only worked jobs that paid minimum wage back in the mid to late 90’s.

They got jobs to learn how to save, pay for a few things, and start working to form good work ethic. I also wanted them to know what it was like to pay your own way on something.

They bring home around $650 a month at the moment, sometimes more. They both work at Chick Fil a and pretty much keep the same shifts. The plan was to let my daughter take my 07 Prius and start taking them to and from work, and then I was going to get something else. However, she really wants to pay for her own car and I won't sell that one. It's on its last leg, and I've already replaced the hybrid battery in it twice *aftermarket stuff* and I don't want her to inherit that mess.

[GoodSteward]

My kids are still 9+ years out from even possibly getting a car... But my rough plan is similar to yours, where we'll offer a car for $XXXX, and they're responsible for anything beyond that. The other strategy I've heard alot is to match their spending dollar for dollar (they pay $5k, you pay $5k).

That was what I started with, but my daughter wanted something a little better and wanted to make sure she payed more for it than I did since it will be hers. Her idea, so I'm ok with that. I guess she will be able to say she owns more than I do, so it is hers lol.

[disneysteve]

That was what I started with, but my daughter wanted something a little better and wanted to make sure she payed more for it than I did since it will be hers. Her idea, so I'm ok with that. I guess she will be able to say she owns more than I do, so it is hers lol.

Have you thought about whose name the car will be registered in? We registered our daughter's car in my wife's name because it made the insurance considerably cheaper. So while we all consider it to belong to our daughter, technically it is actually owned by my wife. At this point, we could probably transfer it to her name as she's 6 years older now. She was only 20 at the time. I've never bothered to look into what impact that would have on the rates now.

[Jluke]

Are they contributing to a Roth IRA?

I can see the whole working and saving thing but owning a car at that age seems like a bit much and a lot of money that could be saved for later.

my parents added a third car for the kids.

I worked summers only from junior year high school through college. That money went towards books and live like a college kid with no money.

when I graduated college and bought my first car, they gave me $500 towards it.