<p>Ok, so here's the story. My cousin received scholarship money totaling roughly $120,000, which is more than enough to pay for tuition and housing for all four years. He even got a laptop stipend and early registration and all that. Before that, he worked all throughout high school and has a good chunk of money saved up for a college kid. He's essentially going to school at no cost to his parents whatsoever. </p>
<p>To reward him, his dad's buying him a brand new BMW 335i. Would you say that he deserves it or his dad is just spoiling him?</p>
<p>I consider him a hard worker and a bit lucky.</p>
<p>1) He’s obviously deserving of a full scholarship, which rewards his hard work during HS.</p>
<p>2) He’s lucky to have a dad that is in the financial position to reward him for his hard work.</p>
<p>Spoiled is the kid that sits at home on the couch playing X-box, with the BMW, not going to college, living off his parents’ wealth. He doesn’t seem to fit in that category.</p>
<p>if a parent wants to spend that amount on their kid they have every right to. I see lots of kids on campus who drive price-y cars and it’s none of my business if the kid deserved it or not or if the parent bought it or if s/he bought it w/ their own money.</p>
<p>Considering that the parents probably had saved up money for his college and with all the money he is getting to pay for college decided to use the money they saved up to get him a nice car. Thats not spoiled, the money was going somewhere eventually and he got a car for all his hard work.</p>
<p>I’d say he’s spoiled, but not a spoiled brat if that makes sense. Why not save that money though for a house or grad school? Just seems a bit more practical.</p>
<p>Spoiled? Yeah. Out of line? I don’t think so.</p>
<p>In Georgia, because of the HOPE Scholarship, I know a lot of parents who use cars, extra spending money, etc. if their kid takes the free tuition over a pricey private school or OOS option.</p>
<p>I did a similar thing and my parents bought me a 12K certified used Cobalt. (I put in the thousand I got from selling my first car, which I bought with my own money)
So I can’t say he’s spoiled, especially if the money was set aside for college in the first place, but it is a bit excessive. You can buy knew cars for a third of that and save the rest. So maybe not spoiled, but certainly not smart either.</p>
<p>It seems like he’s put in a good amount of work. I would say that a good, dependable car is a great gift, as they can take you far (/pun). But like papertiger mentioned the sticker price isn’t the amount you actually pay- yes, they take premium which can be 20 cents higher than regular gas, there’s maintenance- BMWs can be a little picky, a lot of mechanics (my dad included) don’t like to work on them because they’re so different from other cars- and then there’s insurance. A young male has higher insurance rates than anyone else. And for a car that nice, expensive and difficult to work on, insurance isn’t gonna be cheap. Overall I’d say that’s one hell of a price tag.</p>
<p>To blow $50000 on a car in this economy is irresponsible to say the least.That’s money that could be <em>invested</em> to ensure that should that kid/the family encounter some financial constraints in the future there would be a financial cushion.So,yes,he is very much spoilt rotten.</p>
<p>He worked very hard during high school, if the parents can afford it, then he deserves it. I see kids at my school who drive 50k cars and their parents pay 40k a year for school. They could care less about making straight A’s. So at least he has his head on straight. You can be jealous, happens to the best of us.</p>
<p>I agree with the statement that it’s not spoiled brat, but it’s spoiled. Why would you spend that money on a car, when you could have gotten a cheaper car and saved it/invested it for the future. I think it’s alright, since the college fund was most likely used, but there are so many better options than that price tag.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s spoiled at all. His parents obviously had been saving in advance to pay his tuition for college and since he got a scholarship the parents didn’t mind spending the money on him that wouldve been spent on college anyway.</p>
<p>I have a similar “deal” with my parents where for every amount xyz I got in scholarship $ I could have that amount of money in cash from my college fund. Though I didn’t get a 120,000 scholarship like this kid, it falls under the same concept.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about this for a while. If the dad has half of the intelligence that his child appears to have, he would buy him a nice (not extravagant) fuel-efficient and easily repairable car that will not break his bank with gas and repair costs. He would take that extra money and set it aside for a future residence or graduate school. Unless he is very wealthy and is going to pay for the student’s house and grad school as well. </p>
<p>While I’m sure the dad means well, it seems like he’s setting his child up for more of a financial burden in the long run.</p>