Cars for your learner driving teens

[Noeuf]

I’m just curious. We have a decent income and I have a car. Kids are learning to drive and I know a lot of their friends were given cars as 17th birthday presents. We definitely messed up not planning ahead to pay for lessons etc but we’ve had a lot going on health wise and it just crept up.
How much / how did you fund cars, if you did? New/contract/old etc?
Really prefer not to hear too much about brand new top of the range models bought outright if possible - has to be achievable!

Ds1 who is now 24 got a 1litre fiesta for his 17th. Partly funded by grandparents and the rest by us.
Ds2 now 19 has a 1litre corsa. Again partly funded by grandparents and the rest by us.
Both has deals for free insurance on them so worked out well. We paid the monthly instalment which was less than the insurance would have been on a 2/3k car.

Mine worked through 6th form to fund lessons..I think we paid for 10 and they had to earn the rest.
Then bought little old cars for them (£1k). They were very grateful..My D2 is 27 and has literally scrapped hers this week. Most of their friends were similar. We are not wealthy and were helping them through University!
There are plenty of reliable little cars out there that don't cost lots. If they aren't grateful.. they can save for their own! (I'm not driving anything fancy either tbf!)

My DD bought her first car (a 3yr old Toyota Aygo) at 17yrs for around 4k used her childhood savings and we gave her about 1k towards it. We paid for her lessons and she used her birthday money towards some. We had been used to paying childcare fees so felt we could manage monthly lessons.
Car is still going strong 5yrs later and has seen her through uni and her part time job. She's hoping to replace it next year when she graduates and gets a graduate job.

We bought our three their first cars, Fiesta, corsa types - all about £2k each out of our savings. We then pay for insurance until they were working but they paid for tax and maintenance.

Parents helped me out with lessons, about 50/50. I bought a 2nd hand VW Polo for £590 when I passed and drove it for five years I paid for it with my wages as I passed after uni.

I have been clear with my DC that I would not be funding driving lessons or cars since they were about 13

We live on very good transport routes so although lots of their friends have been given cars there really is no actual need

If we lived rurally then I would have funded cars but nope

I have said if they need a car eg dc2 is considering doing nursing at uni and will be on placement doing shift work -then I'm happy to discuss, but they won't be given a car

I think they should get a job and fund their own cars personally. It’s a good learning curve about how much things cost. We live very rurally and gave dd some money towards lessons as part of her birthday / Christmas present but she knew she’d have to save up and buy a car and fund it herself - you can get a reasonable second hand car for about £2k ish.

My relations have bought their child a car 3 or 4k and they are paying for driving lessons and insurance, tax etc.
I'm not sure if they are going to continue to pay for everything inc petrol once they pass.
Doesn't anyone get a job these days?!

This so so helpful thank you. The teens seem to have made friends with a lot of the local wealthy kids (garden pools/ massive houses) so we’ve had a lot of criticism when they were younger and less kind about the house we have etc. They have grown out of that thank god but I’m a bit stuck on what’s fair/normal when it comes to driving? I think my mum and I paid for lessons and then she bought a cheap car for me and my sister but this is going back 30 years.

Really good point about maintenance etc. They can’t learn in mine as it’s an automatic. Really fab to hear of cheaper cars lasting a long time.

I really understand the comparison with peers - some of my DD's friends drive around in brand new golfs and minis etc and I often wonder how they're funded. We explained to DD it could be down to inheritance / PCP deals or better paying jobs but thankfully she understands that everyone's circumstances are different and was just grateful she had 4 wheels to get her to uni and her job.
We don't take money off DD whilst she lives at home in full time education but do expect her to save and budget for all her car costs. She values the freedom and time saving having a car gives her.

I didn't get my first car until I was 38. 10 years later I still have it and if it's still working next year ds will drive it!

My dd (16) has just got a part time job (also goes to college) she earns about £300 a month and knows to save 30% for long term saving (house and car) 20% for medium term (festivals etc) and 10% for short term (clothes shopping) I have drummed that into her as I was never taught to save and got myself into a whole heap of financial difficulty and I never want her to go through that. She knows I will pay for 10 driving lessons when she is 17 but what she doesn’t know is that her grandad has saved £3k for her and will give it to her when she passes her test which should go a long way to buying and insuring a car. I am a single working mum of 4 and my budget is tight - my way seems to be working because she is the queen of finding good deals and happy to still take a packed lunch to college whilst her friends buy a McDonald’s everyday! I keep encouraging her and she has more savings than me. Even if I won £1million tomorrow I would still instill this in her. She has a good work ethic and this will hold her in good stead for the future. Whilst it must be nice to be able to pay for lessons and a car and the insurance, maintenance etc they have to learn the value of money and the satisfaction they get from spending their own money.

I never bought my DD a car, much to her displeasure! I did however pay for driving lessons and took her out to practise a lot in my car which I insured for her before her test. She went to private school so all of her friends received a car.

Not having what she wanted propelled her to work hard for it. She worked in her placement year from university saving all of her money to buy a brand new Seat Ibiza, which she still has today.

I'll never forget her telling me as we drove back in her new motor 'I never thought I'd say this, but thank you for not buying me a car'.

My parents paid for my lessons and test. My dad gave me his car when I passed and he bought a new one. They then bought me a bigger car when I fell pregnant with dc2. I only pay for fuel, they have paid insurance, mot, and everything else since I passed 7 years ago.

We've bought an automatic for DD to learn in, but it is DH's name not hers. (And yes, before anyone asks, we are ensuring DH is the main driver).

I paid for 10 driving lessons, their licences and tests for their 17th birthday, subsequent lessons they funded themselves and my parents bought them their first car.

We suffered from the wealthy friends too, it is dificult.

We saved £10 a month (all we had spare) for several years for DS's driving lessons.

Then when things were easier, I ringfenced some money £2,500 to buy him a ten year old golf, I then realised that I wasn't doing him any favours so we gave him £1,000 and lent him a thousand which he is paying back monthly at £100 a month.

Both DC were given cars for there 17 th , older models under £2000. Both had to pay for lessons and insurance. Son was a little underwhelmed by his car at first , not his first choice , but ultimately grateful for it . He's very impressed with it now as he's discovered it's very economical , cheap to tax and a low insurance compared to his friends.

Adding from the child's perspective! I'm now 22 but thought I would share what happened with me! For reference, friends with some people in comfortable situations, some "average" income friends (parents) and me having grown up in a less than fortunate position.

Lessons were DDad paid for 2 Step Mum at the time paid for 2, DM paid for 2 (plus provisional) and my Nana paid for 2. I ended up having weekly lessons for almost 2 years (some missed lessons due to working hours). Lessons were £26 an hour. I was an apprentice earning £3.30 an hour, then it raised to about £5.50 an hour when I finished the apprenticeship and went to college full time too. I paid the remaining lessons (although, for transparency, my driving instructor was amazing and gifted me 15 sessions over the time I was with her).
Tests, DM paid for the first one (I took over 10 due to anxiety and being stalked on tests which meant we had to stop for my safety and examiners safety) and my driving instructor paid for my final one. I am aware this is not the norm and I was very fortunate!

Cars - my DSis sold my mum her 97 Ford Fiesta for about £80, it sat in the garage for over a year (had no MOT) when I passed my test, it was scrapped as no chance of passing MOT without being very expensive and my Nana referred to it as a death trap. Made £20 profit on scrapping too!
My Nan then kindly offered to pay for my first car, on the agreement that I paid it back monthly. It was a Fiat 500 (from a garage but was 2012 model, not new £6000) and an amazing first car! Condition of buying from garage was set by Nana, she would not have loaned the money if the car was not from a garage. I then paid £180/£200 a month to her. When I got to the remaining £2000 - I was moving over 100 miles away so she kindly said the repayments were finished so I could focus on starting fresh in my new area.

Insurance- my insurance was £80 a month on Fiat 500 when I first passed, I paid this myself.

Sorry so long winded! Hope this might help with how things worked for me!

Driving is a life skill, without it you are limited to living and working in towns or cities on transport routes. Lots of people choose not to to drive at various points in their lives but to me it's important to actually be able to drive, regardless.
We saved to make sure we could afford driving lessons for our DC. As learners we've paid to add them to our car insurance so they can practise, and encouraged them to do so, reducing the number of lessons they've needed.
We have not bought any of them a car, that's up to them. For DD1 study invokes placements which would be very difficult without the little car she bought herself with money she earned from part time jobs.

I come from a family of non-drivers so I was never going to follow the same route of many of my friends of learn in your parents car then they buy you a small runaround. I started lessons at 22 once I was confident I could afford the lessons / car / insurance.
We now live in London so it'll be interesting to see what happens when my DC's reach 17. I know quite a few families who don't have a car at all, our public transport is really good so really the DC's have no reason to drive at 17.

If I didn’t have an automatic I would add them to mine - two instructors have told us not to which is promoting me to revisit what options are available re: buying cars.
Interesting to hear from ‘child’ and parents - sounds like a lot of people have compromised and paid part. I’ve done two so far and am thinking I should do a block of ten hours, and then maybe every other lesson?
Complication is dh offered to pay for a car if first teen didn’t go to uni (no idea why, it was all very stressful and I think he was anti uni at the time or maybe it was to help get a job?). They did and now next one isn’t so assumes a car will be given. Whereas my thinking is a shared car.

We already have 2 cars and nowhere to park. It's not just the cost of the car but where you're going to put it!

We paid for lessons and test, plus insured dd on my Kia Rio. It's now 10 yo and done nearly 100k so we passed it down when she passed her test. She has a job now and pays for all fuel tho we paid to insure her. I've bought another 7yo Kia with the intention of doing the same for dd2 when she turns 17 next year.

It's a huge expense but worthwhile for us - we live fairly rurally and don't want them getting in cars with mates who may be drunk or reckless.

My dad paid for driving lessons. My divorced parents each contributed £1000 to my first (and still current car). But this was my final year of uni (test was the week after finals) so it was an early graduation present.
I was stingy with my student loan and was able to put another £2000 to it which got me an 8 year old mini convertible.
I've always paid insurance and running costs.