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<p>I guess the profusion of new cars for college-bound kids in my area has more to do with messed up priorities rather than wealth, huh?</p>
<p>I wasn’t calling you guys specifically poor so don’t take offense, I was merely speculating about how many people with 2200+ SATs etc. on the chances forums have low incomes. It is very strange to me since where I live, the kids who do better in school and on SATs are usually rich</p>
<p>This is why I love CC, not only do I get a rare chance to talk directly to some of the smartest young people around the world in one place, I learn tons about lifestyles in other places</p>
<p>not saying that the profusion of new cars in your area has anything to do with anything other than the profusion of new cars in your area. Also, I actually like that you enjoy your new car so much that you want to post about it. That’s fantastic.</p>
<p>But, it’s not a wise financial choice. When you drive off the lot with your new car, you have just lost a ton of money. However, if you drive off the lot in a pre-driven car? You have lost no value whatsoever. It isn’t wise.</p>
<p>I do not have a new car yet. The OP asked who all gets new cars for college. I was commenting on a trend in my particular area. What have you contributed to this thread?</p>
<p>When I signed up for CC, I was under the impression that when there is a question, you try to answer it. </p>
<p>The OP specifically asked… “I was wondering how many of you parents bought a new car for your kid in college or about to enter college.” So I said many kids in my area get a new car for college</p>
<p>where is the problem here?</p>
<p>I told my son that if he gets into a top 50 college we’d buy him a car. But we never said what type of car. Here’s one I’m considering: [Ford</a> : Escort:eBay Motors (item 200392718162 end time Oct-19-09 19:15:00 PDT)](<a href=“http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-Red-Ford-Escort-4-Door-Sedan-115K-Needs-Repair-CD_W0QQitemZ200392718162QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item2ea8563752]Ford”>http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-Red-Ford-Escort-4-Door-Sedan-115K-Needs-Repair-CD_W0QQitemZ200392718162QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item2ea8563752)</p>
<p>^^^I wonder what “needs repair” means? Is he good at car repairs?</p>
<p>Good heavens, no.</p>
<p>^ this.
My husband drives a 1964 1/2 ton Ford pick up and a 1992 Ford turbocoupe t-bird.
I drive a jeep from 2002- my older daughter has never owned a car in her life and she is 27 ( although she does use a zipcar), and while I would love to be able to get my younger D a car for her college town to make getting to jobs easier- it wouldn’t be a new car and it doesn’t look like even a used one is going to be possible for a while.</p>
<p>The cost of ins alone is ridiculous and neither one chose a college where students gained status from * shiny*.</p>
<p>Got my younger son a yellow Corvette for his 16th birthday. It fit in his pocket. went to school, told his friends we got him a car, and they asked to see. Out came the Matchbox. Hilarity ensued.</p>
<p>Onthefly, the reason many of us don’t have the “wealth” to buy new cars for our kids is that we are PAYING FOR COLLEGE. My kids were told in middle school that the Family EFC did not include a car, insurance or upkeep. We’re hoping our two 10 yo cars (one w/135k miles, the other with 165k) will hold up another two years until after S1 graduates.</p>
<p>My college soph has let his learner’s permit expire twice. Has yet to get behind the wheel. My HS senior has a permit, but hasn’t made it a priority to get out and practice. We live in an area with excellent public transit, which they have no problem using. S1 attends college in a major city – no screaming need for the hassles of a car.</p>
<p>OTOH, where I went to HS, parents didn’t pay for anything more than the local community college, but kids got new cars for their 16th birthdays. Different rites of passage, I guess.</p>
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<p>^ ya thats what i’m talking about, different priorities. But everyone got mad at me for some reason when i was just commenting that in my area getting new cars is very common even though people are note exceedingly wealthy</p>
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<p>CountingDown, are you related to my parents? Back in the 70’s for my 16th they led me all around the house with clues, finally to get to the driveway for my dream car, a yellow Pantera. Fit in my pocket too! I had a water polo game that day, and my family thought it was just hilarious to tell everybody that I had just got a Pantera for my birthday. Come Monday, I was so very very popular with all the cool popular guys at my High School. :)</p>
<p>Then they found out if was a joke. :(</p>
<p>Heck no my D didn’t get a car for college. I have an 11 year old minivan with 210,000 miles on it.</p>
<p>My S totalled his new car with the first snow last year. Bought him a 2000 Chrysler Concorde next. Williams won’t let him have a car freshman year, but even if he had been allowed to take it, I wouldn’t have bought him a new one. Besides, it snows in Williamstown, too, and I wouldn’t want him driving up those steep slopes to Albany.</p>
<p>No car. S is a senior now, and still no car. I guess we didn’t get the memo about rites of passage. 
We bought him a very nice bike he uses to get around campus and surrounding area. For the rest of the city-public transportation.</p>
<p>Yeah, I forgot. I did buy him a new bike :D</p>
<p>Interesting thread. </p>
<p>No new cars in this house…for adults or kids! Mine is 10 years old and we walk and bike almost everywhere. Easily affordable for us, so nothing to do with wealth. We’re just closer to a homemade granola eating, read a lot of books, discuss foreign films, volunteer in the third world kinda family, and not a shopping mall, McMansion living, collecting shoes and designer purses kinda family. We live way below our means.</p>
<p>Bought D an 09 Maybach for CC (which is 3 miles away). She threw a fit about the color, and away it went forever. Took her bike away too and bought her a $30 monthly bus pass. Told her to make friends there who drive.</p>
<p>No cars for my kids. They worked and bought their own laptops, too. We do pay for their transportation to come home for Christmas and summer break, though.</p>
<p>Last weekend, D, at boarding school, went home with a female classmate. At home her friend has her own brand new Range Rover even though she’s a boarding student who can’t have a car at school. D came home this weekend and saw the new family car we just bought. It’s a 2003 with 102k on the clock. That’s what I will be driving to work every day. </p>
<p>D’s laptop finally died. Her roommate has two brand new Apples, one for her desk and one a laptop to take with her wherever she goes. The desktop has a monitor bigger than our television. This weekend we’ll be going to Wal-Mart to see if the $300 Acers are still in stock. </p>
<p>We try to impart to D (and S) that their friends (and her parents) are not “wrong” and we are not “right.”</p>
<p>A freshman showed up at D1’s school with a Segway this fall. I wonder if that counts.</p>
<p>Hmm, a couple of you better be careful you don’t fall off your high horses. Or is that a donkey…</p>
<p>Of course, I can easily see why it would be assumed that anyone who provides a car for a teenager also does not read books or volunteer, and lives in a McMansion. (!)</p>
<p>You know, I like to walk and bike, also. So do my kids. On the other hand, my daughter’s numerous activities include driving out to remote streams where her team helps the Conservation Dept. clean up polluted waterways, and driving out a rural road to get to a therapeutic riding center where she helps disabled kids ride horses. No buses out to those places, and biking is neither safe nor practical. I could drive her myself, but then her activities wouldn’t really be hers, would they?</p>
<p>We all live different kinds of lives. More than one kind is commendable–even if it involves teenagers independently getting themselves around in automobiles.</p>