Car for 17th birthday. Is this the norm?

[folly115]

It seems to be the norm around here to have a car for your 17th birthday. A couple of my friends have done this for their DC's and all except one of my DD's friends have a car ready and waiting for when they pass their test. It isn't just the car it is the insurance and costs that go with it.

A few of her friends seem to get the car bought by their dad (mum and dad are divorced) a couple by their grandparents as their parents can't afford it and they don't want them to be the only one without a car and a few the parents buy.

We can't afford this. She is going to have to save and maybe we can help her out. AIBU to put our foot down and say this isn't happening??

Not normal amongst any of my 3 young adults or their friendship groups.
They have met others at University who have been gifted cars, so are aware it happens for a few.
I am aware of a couple who got a 'good price' when buying an old car from a relative who was replacing theirs.

Thanks for all your responses. Seems to be a totally mixed bag. We have told her it won't happen because we can't afford it. We will pay for lessons for her 17th birthday and when she passes her test we will discuss further and we may be able to help her out but she will not wake up on the morning of her 17th birthday to a car on the driveway. We don't live in a particularly affluent area but as I mentioned before it is the people who you would think can't afford it that seem to have them at 17. It is also the the horrendous insurance premiums for young drivers.

Does she have a part-time job?

I’m not sure if it’s the norm as I don’t pay any attention but we have bought a car for our son’s 17th birthday. We will pay for lessons but will also teach him in his own car. Hoping it will relieve us of driving duties as we have one bus per day and the bus to and from sixth form requires a ten minute drive first. Our son doesn’t assume we will give him the car or assume we will pay for lessons/insurance/fuel so I don’t think he’s in any way entitled. We can afford it so why wouldn’t we help him out?

Not the norm where I am. However, it's the norm at my friends location. I live in the city. She lives rural.

Honestly I think a lot of people must bullshit or be borrowing money a lot of the time. Even a really crap second hand car costs a grand or more plus insurance mot & tax bringing that to more like 2k. There is nowhere in the UK where it is "the norm" for ordinary families to buy cars for teenagers, given the number of families who are currently struggling to pay electricity bills
Bills have only recently gone up so much. It is a coie if years ago since I paid for the driving lessons, car and insurance for both lads. There three years between them do it's not like I paid for both in the same year.
Also not everyone is skint.
I easily afforded to do what I did for the boys ( and more since)
I'm not loaded, just live in a small northern town with an average job but have been careful with my money.

Having a car is bloody expensive for a teenager, especially now second hand values have increased so much.

But if you live rurally the bus pass to college can cost an arm and a leg, and having a car may enable them to earn a couple of grand on Saturdays and over the summer holiday. So it may well be a good use of funds, even if you need to borrow.

We live semi rurally and my kids biked (16 miles a day) or got buses when available to get to work and then saved their earnings to pay for lessons and their own car

"We will pay her insurance, but it’ll only be the same as we pay now for her to get the bus to college so no big deal."

It's things like that which makes the difference. In our postcode my DD's insurance quotes were £4k a year. Wanting a car at first spurred her to work more hours and not go in for the hair/lashes/nails and excess spending etc, but after building up her savings she decided to not get one. There's teens whose parents can't help them with bus fares. It was only a couple of months ago that a teenager was taken to hospital after collapsing through hunger at a food bank. I'm amazed that anyone who can't afford to do this has to ask if this is the norm, of course it isn't.

25 years ago we paid for lessons for both children to get them through the test in the summer holidays after their 17th birthdays. We bought them each an old runaround (thinking they'd scratch them) when they passed and paid for first year's tax and insurance. They both had Saturday jobs and paid for everything after that (don't think they had them serviced as their Dad taught them stuff). We weren't wealthy but we'd budgeted for this and it helped them get some driving experience before they left for uni. Everything is much more expensive now, even the lessons.

My grandparents bought my first car. It was £225 though. We lived rurally so cars were a must.

Think it depends where you live. I didn't buy them car but did help mine with lessons and then with insurance costs at 17 because we live rurally with an expensive and infrequent bus service. They needed a car to get jobs and to college without me having to take them all the time. I'll do the same with my younger ones too.

If we lived in London I probably wouldn't have considered it a priority.

Nope

Not here.

I'd raise the minimum age to 18 if it was me, given the higher school leaving age.

£4k is crazy. We couldn’t afford to help her out if it was that much. She’s been quoted £900, which is a very similar amount to the college bus. I also don’t have to pay for lessons which makes it all much more affordable. Once she can drive to college it’ll make so much difference to her as the journey on the bus is so long as she doesn’t really travel that well.

I would say where I live, more families help their kids out with cars than don’t. Ordinary families who make savings in other areas to be able to do it, because it makes so much difference to their lives.

It's not the norm for 17th birthdays here but definitely is once they've passed test or for 18th birthday.
My son has just got a car for his 18th birthday and this is the case for most of his friends.
We are very lucky that a relative paid half of car and a year's insurance. We would still have got him one otherwise as he'll need for uni but it wouldn't have been so new/expensive.
Like a lot of his friends, my son will stay at home and drive to uni, around 45 mins each way.
Running a car, even with current crazy second hand car prices, is much cheaper than living on campus for us.

We have 3 children so eldest got to 17 we paid for driving lessons and provided a suitable small car for him once he passed which he had for 2 years until his younger brother passed we then passed that car down to his brother and as he had now built up 2 years NCD we then bought him a newer better car. This was repeated once our daughter passed with the "starter" car being passed on. Once they got to 21 they each then got a new car of their choosing (within reason).

When I lived in America you learnt to drive in school at 14 1/2 and at 15 could drive on the roads. We were amazed that all my friends got brand new Jeeps, Mustangs and BMWs for their 15th birthdays!