To ask if DS’ car plan is realistic

[Dsdriving]

So DS is 17 (18 next month) and desperately wants a car. To be honest I’m not sure he wants it for the right reasons, he’s very insecure and think he likes that it will make him look cool. Me and his dad cannot afford to contribute and he knows this so he will buy one himself from his job he says. He earns £9.81 an hour and has been working practically all summer plus some savings from before that so he now has £1,500 in the bank. When he goes back to college he plans on working 15 hours per week so that would be £147.15 for petrol, insurance, etc. So I have to ask is this all realistic will he actually be able to afford this and what kind (if any) car will be able able to get for £1,500. I would really prefer he didn’t do this but as it’s his money and he’s almost an adult I don’t feel I can say no. I absolutely can’t afford to be bailing him out or giving him petrol money or anything like that and also he’s quite naive at times and I don’t want him scammed. Any advice?

I don't know anything about cars except insurance for 18yos is likely to be well over 100 a month even third party. He'll spend all his money on the car, have none for actual socialising and what if he loses his job or he's ill or something?

Insurance will be the killer here, get him to do a dummy quote for an imaginary cheapish car on money supermarket or similar. Prices are unfortunately eye-watering for the young.

He can’t afford a car yet.

I fear he'll be able to insure it but not actually put any fuel in.

He can’t afford one really. His insurance alone will be well over a grand and he can only afford a banger, which will be more expensive to maintain and run unless he’s a budding mechanic. Fuel is shockingly expensive and I’m guessing he wants it to cruise around in rather than get somewhere which is a waste of money.

Lay it all out and if he goes ahead with it it’s on his shoulders - he could end up having spent all his money and have nothing to show for it; as long as he’s aware of that.

What else does he have to pay for from his earnings - clothes? Phone? Going out?

Its not just whether you can run a car on £147 a month because presumably he also needs money for other things. I’d say it’s unaffordable though given cost of insurance plus petrol plus maintenance plus tax - he could easily end up with an expensive driveway decoration he can’t afford to fix, £1500 is not going to buy him anything terribly new. But maybe he can work more hours.

Do you have a car OP? Adding his car to your policy May bring the premium down. (That helped for us. We use Admiral.) But it’s still a fortune. I think just being a tad older helps — 18 is cheaper than 17 and so on.

While some PPs have got the maths wrong (it's £147.15 a week, not month), I do agree with the majority that insurance will be a killer at his age and petrol is really expensive. But having said that, I owned a car when I was his age and I paid for it on a minimum wage job (a massive £3.41 at the time) 😂
It probably is doable, but he wouldn't be able to afford to do much else.

It's not going to make him look 'cool' if it's a falling apart rust bucket that breaks down every 2 minutes which is probably what he can afford. Does he see that?
However, he's 17 and can make his own mistakes. He also probably needs to know that he won't get his money back if he sells it on and it'll probably just go for scrap value.

Not sure where you'd find a car for £1500 and as PP have said insurance likely to be very expensive. Mine was £1200 a year at 18 and I'm in my 30s.

I doubt he'd get anything for that money that would even border on 'cool'. He could get something functional if he looks in the right places (im going to be selling my car for less than a grand because I never drive it so it's just a waste of money sat on the drive - there'll be other people doing the same, he just has to drop on. But like mine, they could well look like he's borrowed granny's car 😄).

My little brother got 'reasonable' car insurance as an 18yr old by having a black box fitted but it was still extortionate. He couldn't afford to do much more than own the car though.

Is he not interested in saving up for a deposit for a house or flat? I would have thought that is more cool (hate that word) to have the opportunity of your independence a lot earlier than his friends.

Used cars are now extremely expensive due to shortage of new cars being made.

My small and very basic 13 year old automatic car would cost about £5000 to replace when I looked on Autotrader website.

Sadly he'll get a rust bucket for £1500.

He needs to read up on insurance groups and get some quotes using the number plates of cars that take his fancy in for sale adverts. (Note that insurance gets more expensive once he's passed his test compared to being a learner)

He'll soon find that insurance for a 'cool' car for an inexperienced 17 YO driver is a lot of money.

Even if he gets something low risk and uncool like a Nissan Micra, it's likely to be expensive but probably a lot less money.

He's done well to save the money, and it won't last long if he tries to run a car unfortunately.

Then what if it breaks down and he has to get it repaired?

Car markets mental at the moment as others have said.
there’s a bit of a move for more enthusiast vehicles for young drivers (old micras, civics, starlet, mk1 Yaris etc) and clubs are evolving around that. The low mileage granny car that’s been languishing in a garage.

it’s quite nice seeing what was a dying thing (car enthusiast) coming back round due to a love of the older quirky car.
so he may be better of getting quotes and researching that. Some of the clubs are great at advice and support for new drivers.

Great car for £1500 but insurance will cost more than that! Ds pays 167 a month..

He can't afford it but I think it's a shame you're a bit down on the idea - teenagers through the ages have always wanted their own cars, it's part of feeling more independent (and about feeling cool, and let's face it we all wanted that), and I think it's really impressive that your son has worked hard and saved up all summer towards a goal. You should be lauding him!

My last car was a vw polo that cost a grand. It lasted 15 months with very little needing doing to it. Then died, got 360 in scrap value for it. Cheap cars aren’t necessarily money pits. That said he could probably have a fairly nice time at college if he has 100 quid a week disposable income (knocking a bit off for phone/ savings). I’d gently try and dissuade for a year.

when he’s 19 he could join the local car club who tend to have nice, new cars if you have one where you live.

MOT tests are getting tougher, repairs costing more.
If he just wants transport to be independent then get a scooter. I still remember the feeling I had at 17 when I could go anywhere I damn well wanted. No waiting for busses or cadging lifts.

Meeting up other people with scooters we were all broke and could only afford a coffee. Those were happy days.

It's true that the used car market is crazy at the moment. But there are 1400 cars on Autotrader under £1500 with an engine small enough to allow him to get insurance.

Get him to draw up a shortlist of 5 cars on there that look suitable and then he can get insurance quotes for them. Then he can see if his figures add up. It would probably be better if he saves a chunk of money for potential repairs before he buys one though.

Also, is 15 hours a week of paid work realistically compatible with his studies?

A few PP have it muddled up - it's )147 per week, not month so that's just under £600 per month wages.

What other expenses does he have to cover from his wages?

I think it's sad how negative you're being and putting a downer on it for him when he has worked so hard to save up and has ambition and a goal. You need to help him work out HOW he can afford it and buy it instead of just saying he shouldn't.

Look at cars online with him so he can work out how much one will cost to buy that he'd like.

Do lots of dummy quotes for insurance for cars of different engine sizes so he can see how much the insurance is. And also the tax.

Help him work out all his current expenses and then project with insurance and car running costs.

If he can't afford it now with £1500 saved and £600 pm then help him work out whether he could save for a few more months to have enough to put towards buying the car and also some of the insurance so that his monthly outgoings are less.

You should be very proud of how he has worked and saved and should be encouraging him and helping him achieve his goal not putting a dampener on it.

I agree with all of this. My parents couldn't afford to help me out either but I wish they'd been more helpful in actually working how out I could afford it after I'd worked hard saving up, doing lessons and passing the test.

Best way is to have a look at used cars, use the reg to get some dummy insurance quotes and help him work out if he would be able to afford or not.

This ^ . I honestly wonder if any real people live here on Mumsnet or if is all bots. How do you think the people on the very lowest income/minimum wage run cars? We don't have £600 a month spare ! And often we don't even have £1500 for a car either yet we still have cars and insurance and manage to drive.

Op, driving is a brilliant life skill, you should be encouraging him. Something like this I would be more than happy with my 18 yo driving.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115516387089?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Fsv1IybLSci&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=oDQuptZKS7q&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

But I agree that insurance is going to be the killer. You could suggest he keeps saving until he's 18 (while he takes lessons and keeps on saving) and then look at getting a black box insurance policy?

Someone I know was given a quote of over £5000 for the year on a car. I was gobsmacked

You can find a car on AutoTrader for under £1000, (currently over one thousands cars at that price or less) then put that reg into a insurance quote to see what he would have to pay. Then work out the now extortionate petrol costs, plus MOT and service.

The main thing to consider is how safe the car is. Our first port of call ever for buying a car is the Euro NCAP crash test results. Anything less than 5 stars and it is out. But then I watch car crash investigations and 24 hours in A&E so see the aftermath.