Transportation to college

[bellinisurge]

How many Yr 13 drive their own car to college. Dd (Y12) is firmly of the view that EVERYONE who turns 17 gets their own car. We live in a modest house with an average income in a town outside East Manchester- so not fancy.
Tell me that I'm not being evil and small minded by saying that very very few students (sixth form or uni) run their own car.

Everyone as in one person has done it? 🤔

Thing is, your DD has had 17yrs to save up so why isn't she buying / part-buying the car herself (and you could help out with the insurance)?
At 16 I had saved enough from pocket money, PT job etc to get myself the moped I needed to get to my first FT job.
By 17 I had enough to buy my first car (probably not enough street cred for a modern youngster but it had 4-wheels and got me from A-B).

Even if she hasn't saved the full amount, can she make a contribution?

Where on earth would they park it?!

@Unabletomitigate "well, just on the street OBVIOUSLY" was the response I got when I raised that. Along with harrumphing when I talked about petrol costs, insurance costs, maintenance costs, rescue policy costs. We are now down to "well I'll use your car driving to [regular location] and I don't need to give you any petrol money because I'm saving you the job of driving me.

OMG the entitlement lol!

Tell her to get a bus pass (like every other student my DD knows) They're not all driving to college, no way! Maybe one or 2 and thats it.

Frankly it's irrelevant if they do or don't.
My y13 child does drive to school and takes her y11 sibling (saving me 3k (yes really) in bus fare)

@Dacadactyl , it was kind of funny- she went from "everyone drives" to "I want to get the bus with my friends OBVIOUSLY ". There's been a lot of OBVIOUSLY as she scales back her plans from fantasy to reality.

@Kendodd , makes perfect sense. Actually bus fares in Manchester are pretty cheap with or without a bus pass (which she has) - no bus journey more than £2.

DD was at an agricultural college, and quite a lot of the students drove, because the bus took ages as people came from far afield. Very big student car park. (Presumably also a lot of the Agriculture students were used to driving tractors etc on parents farms even before they turned 17).

Hmmm….I used to work in a 6th form
college in a Greater Manchester borough. Not all the students drove, but enough did that they paved over what I think were tennis courts or football pitches to make an additional (huge) car park. It was semi rural though and a long walk from the nearest public bus stops.

There were college buses, I think the cost had to be paid upfront for the whole year and was around £500.

YOu need to remember that teens are basically toddlers but you can no longer pick them up.... Her "EVERYONE has their own car" is the same as a a 4 year old telling you that EVERYONE else in their class has a chocolate bar for morning snack - despite the school's healthy eating policy.......

Great age to do her bike test and buy a 50cc scooter. That's what mine did

To be fair to her, I just got an "I'm sorry" WhatsApp- she's out and about.

Most of my son's friends started lessons as soon as they were 17 and many were driving themselves to his sixth form when they passed, typically in upper sixth (year 13). My son passed in the Summer between years 12 and 13 and drove to school sixth form throughout year 13.

So, yes, I think it's very common, particularly in areas with crap public transport. Kids know they'll need to learn to drive to have any kind of social life when buses are poor, so they tend to want to be ready to start learning as soon as they hit 17. Probably very different in big cities with good public transport.

Absolutely going to have her learning to drive asap.

Well I didn't turn 17 until the august do it would have been going some to pass my test by even the feb

Based on the number of sixth form students I see on the train the answer is no! Kids commute in from the next county to go to the sixth form college in my north of Manchester town. The roads are so awful in the morning through the valley that the train is quicker.

If you live in Greater Manchester and she is between 16 and 18 she is eligible for an our pass which means free bus travel
https://ourpass.co.uk

@HobnobsChoice , thanks. Yes, she already has that bus pass and uses it daily. I'dbeen giving her lifts when she had a cold and it'd been (still is, obviously ) cold and rainy.

Yes, quite common at DD's school.

DD and her friendship circle all had their own cars when learning to drive. Once they had passed their test then many of them drove their own cars to school.

Many teens now get a car for their 17th birthday around here.

Most children at my children's school (including mine) continued to commute to school by train even after they had passed their tests. There would not have been room for many students in the school car park, there is no free on-street parking nearby and car parks would have been expensive for the whole school day.

We didn't buy them cars either, though we did buy a small second car and insured it for them to drive. A couple of their friends were given cars for their 17th or 18th birthdays, but by no means most.

As Ds2's sixth form not many as no car parking allowed on site and nowhere without double yellows near by. Same with another, they park on the road but not many have a car.

Has she sat down and worked out the cost? For Ds it was £70 per 2 hour lesson and the DVSA recommends 45 hours of paid lessons plus 22 hours of private practise. You can insure them on a temporary car insurance so that if they do have an accident in your car then it doesn't affect your insurance.

The insurance will be cheaper than you think because they are a learner and under instruction. Once they are in the car by themselves the cost rockets. Ds is away at uni so the insurance for him is a bit cheaper but is still £1k on my car as a named driver. Not on his own car. As he was going to uni there is also nowhere to park there either on campus or outside any of his accommodation. So the car would just be sitting around for 30 weeks.

For fun and as a learning curve for your DD get her to choose a car on Autotrader and run the plate through an insurance comparison site, you can use the reg of the car. We used CompareTheMarket, then have a look to see what they quote. Then show her the cost of petrol, MOT and service and how much a tyre costs.

@bellinisurge my son took the bus as did the majority. My DD takes the tube - but that's London. The only people I knew who had a car were very lucky and as parking ££ didn't often use it to get to college. Ones that did were often fully loaded with friends asking for lifts which was often a pain.