Buying a car?

[ItWillBeDone]

Do many people really buy their 17 yr olds a car? My DC insists that most of their friends are being bought one. We can't afford to so it isn't an option.

absolutely not!!! does he have a job? i worked from when i was 16 to buy driving lessons / a car / car insurance / road tax etc when i was 17/18

Nope. My DS bought his own car while he was 16 but then he got a well paying apprenticeship. His friends at college are busy saving up from their part time jobs.

From experience with DD (now 19) the only friends with parents who bought their cars for them at 17 were either a) rich or b) lived rurally so had no other option. The rest either shared with their parents (I changed my car to a smaller one so that DD could do this) or waited, worked and saved up for one

It’s not the cost of buying a car that I’d be worried about at the minute to be honest, it’s insuring it!!

Nope. He needs to buy his own
Or pray you have a car and will kindly let him use it when your not and he's pays the insurance for himself

I don’t know any kids who haven’t been bought a car. Some have one each, some share with siblings but I genuinely don’t know any kids who don’t have a car paid for and run by the parents. However I do also appreciate that this is an affluent area with very privileged children

Some. They used their own earned money, their CTF or bank of Ma and Pa. But these were second/third hand cars for £3-4k, nothing new. My son will use his CTF.

My in-laws bought my teen a car. We couldn't afford one. It was only £1500 but still too much for us!

She also got money from them to pay insurance which is the real big cost!

DS was bought a small second hand car, driving lessons provided between us and grandparents, but we drew the line there. Running costs and insurance he now pays for.

We bought a small brand new car but we do use it sometimes too and it will be shared between 4 siblings (currently 2 drive and 2 will hopefully in the new 3 years).

We also love rurally so 2 cars between 6 of us is reasonable. If we loved in a city wouldn't have bought it.

About half of DD's friends' parents have bought them a car (several share with siblings). The other half are sharing parents' cars or not learning to drive at the moment.

We have two cars between the three drivers in the family (DD only insured on the cheaper one). That feels ample at the moment. Over the next few years, two more kids will learn, and two cars between five might feel more difficult. We could afford to buy the three kids a runaround car to share (assuming we'd be insuring them anyway, the cost of the car feels like a relatively small part of it), but parking is a nightmare where we live and adding another car to it doesn't feel like a good thing to do!

Both ds saved from their jobs from age 15 to buy a car. We do pay the insurance though which is a massive cost and they are lucky we can. We live rurally so having dc have a car makes a huge difference to us so worth it.

We did but I use it as well so 2 cars between 3 of us. It's pretty much the norm here. Not rural as such but village and you do need a car.

I've not heard of any of DD's friends being bought a car. Our insurer wouldn't add her to our policy, but Marmalade do an add on policy for young drivers which covers her in our car and earns NCD for her.

We bought DC one to share, well actually I traded my car in and got two small ones, one for me and one for them. They are only a year apart though and it saved me having to drive them to school. There was no bus and not walkable or cycleable.

DS2 passed his test 9 months after DS1 so they did get equal share. They still have the same car 6 years later.

Dd's bought their own cars from savings. Their first big purchases. We do pay for insurance and servicing though, which over time is more than the cars were worth!

Both my DC have purchased their own cars. Saved up long before they turned 17 through part time jobs and had them sitting on the driveway ready for their first lessons on their birthday. Insurance whilst learning is relatively cheap (£250-300 fully comp) which we paid, along with 10 lessons (£55 each for 1.5hrs).

We have quotes of £2500 for the insurance when the current 17 yr old passes which will be paid 50/50.

They have friends who have been bought expensive cars but both of mine tell me they are proud of being able to purchase their own cars.

I bought mine from savings but my dad contributed a bit and helped me to buy the actual car. I saved from about 10 years old as I really wanted a car. I had 2k. 1k on the car, £500 on wheels and £500 saved for the maintenance. That went quickly because it was a fiat.

A lot of my friends did the same and a lot of my friends had use of their mums car which was stereotypically a small run around and others their parents purchased. There is no one way of doing it and all ways are really exciting for a 17 year old. However, all that was centuries ago when insurance was affordable.

I feel for the young'uns now but it's not unfair to make him get a job and maybe get a loan out that he pays back? If that's affordable.

@BarbarasRhabarberBar

a lot of my friends had use of their mums car which was stereotypically a small run around and others their parents purchased.

We did the same for our son. We deliberately kept an older car for far longer than we would normally have done. It was a 2008 car, and son started learning to drive in 2019, so it was 11 years old! A small Citroen C3. It only cost a couple of hundred to add him to our insurance as a learner, and then when he passed his test a few months later, it was about £500 a year more, totalling about £750 per year for all 3 drivers (us as parents and him as a named driver) as we had full no claims discount (30 years!!) and neither of us had any accidents or offences. Once he passed, we let him use it as his own and we bought a new one for ourselves - changed him on the insurance to be the main driver. Now he's building up his own no claims discount, and history of no accidents nor offences, so when he's ready to buy his own, the insurance should be affordable (expected to do so when he's 23/24/25 or so, by which time the 2008 car will probably be fit for the scrap heap approaching 20 years old! We planned it that way from the time we'd normally have changed it when it would have been around 5-7 years old.

I work in a college (16-19 year olds), based on the quality of the cars the students drive, I'd assume they at least had some help buying it and insuring it!

We'll be buying our DS a car, although he will need to put something towards the insurance.

We did. Buses are poor to non-existent around here. Nearest town is 3.5 miles across field/ unlit roads with poor, narrow pavements.

It’s not posh or fashionable. It’s big enough for a 6’3” bloke to drive decent distances. His uni is rural and a long way from home. His girlfriend lives 200 miles away (when they aren’t at uni) so he drives to see her.

He put it (and full, clean license) on his application for an internship. I thought it was worth mentioning!

Check out the cost of insurance before you buy a car! 😉😳

My parents bought my car at 17 (now 29) and it cost £695. I paid the insurance at £1,700 and all other fees. I anticipate I'll do similar with DD but that's a good 13 years away!

I did. We have 2 Uni fees to pay and the third will never go, so we brought her a car for her college and then apprenticeship.

Seems fair when Uni is £30,000 each (no loans or grants available) and the car was £7K

They all have cars and pay their own insurance, repairs and petrol.

Our eldest got given a car by my sister and she got herself a new one , otherwise he’d have been sharing one of ours . Fortunately we are a family who generally pass a car on rather than trading in .