In private school, yes. Parents need to get to work. Kids need to get to school and practices. Doesn’t mean it has to be a bmw or Jeep Wrangler though.

Anonymous wrote:Whatever happened to getting a summer job so they can buy a car? That is what my kids will be doing, just like I did.

Cars used to be a lot cheaper. Isn’t a modern (read: safest) new car now avg $35K?

Yes, but we have been very open with the fact that she would have a car. She got her license on time and has been driving herself to school for months.

It is 100% normal in our public high school. What is unusual is a kid without a car and those are the kids whose parents struggle with money. The kids who live in apartments.

We live in a house, have a decent income, and have one car. We also live walking distance to a metro station and have always used public transportation to get to work. DS (17) is the primary user of the car (he has rehearsals or practices every day) and it is rarely any inconvenience to us. We will probably get a new car while he's in college and give him this one after freshman or sophomore year.

I am not high HHI. My salary is good (~200K), but my wife is a preschool teacher.

I could afford to give my DD, 17, a car. Not a luxury car, but we could give her our 2011 Subaru.

But, to do that would impact our ability to pay college tuition. I just asked her -- she would rather graduate college debt free than have a car now. I should mention we are walking distance to school/town.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, isn’t this normal? A rite of passage? I’m not talking about a new BMW (which happened often in my HS), but an old beater, a pick up, a used car w/ some miles on it...High school lots are filled w/ student cars so obviously it’s the norm.

It is 100% normal in our public high school. What is unusual is a kid without a car and those are the kids whose parents struggle with money. The kids who live in apartments.

That's a pretty broad statement and probably not true at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents are stupid to give their teens a car.

+1

They really aren't doing them any favors but they are too stupid to see that.

I don't know, I grew up in a pretty blue collar to middle class region. Lots of kids got cars when they got their licence. Just not new ones. Very uncool ones generally. They could still be taken away, etc. So parents treated it as a 3rd car they controlled. Or 2nd, for single parents. For a lot of families I know it was a big relief for them to not have to juggle work and the schlep of kids

Anonymous wrote:My kid will get to drive my car. And I’m getting a new one. I grew up lower income but my parents started making money when I hit my teens. We we were never high income. But they did the same thing. Their logic was they trusted me to drive, but not necessarily my friends. It also relieved my mom from all the chauffeuring for school activities.

What we did. DD got our old car, we got a new one.

I teach in a private in MD, and many of our juniors and seniors drive. The parking lots are full. I do think it's because parents are eager not to have to carpool any longer, although we're quite public transportation accessible.

The thing that concerns me is the number of kids I see on freshman/sophomore field trips who don't have a clue how to navigate public transportation, who are driving 6 months later. I feel very strongly that kids should have their first experiences with getting lost, following GPS, etc . . . when they aren't also operating a vehicle that can kill them. I understand that some people live where public transportation isn't accessible, but school is, so kids could still figure out fun things to do after school where they ride the bus to a volunteer opportunity or something.

I also have a kid at BCC, where the kids are as wealthy as the students at my school. Many of those kids have cars, but not quite as high a %age, perhaps because many more of them can walk to school. However, perhaps because of location, the kids there are definitely more proficient at getting places on foot or on public transportation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the suburbs, almost every teen I know got a car when they turned 16.

Clearly you and my son traveled in different circles.

I am out here in Vienna and of the 10 or so 16+ teens I know, only 2 of them have DLs

Odd.

My kids are at Oakton. Not a single one of my sons friends do not have a car. Not one. They are seniors. He's off at UVA next fall and his car will temporarily go to his younger brother until he's allowed his at school.

I for one was thrilled when my son was old enough to drive legally (we started teaching him at age 12, as we have a 2nd home on a lot of rural property). Got him a nice safe car. He has never so much as put a dent in the car and does all the oil changes, break pads, and other basic maintenance himself in the garage. Now I don't have to cart him around. I'd be pissed it my kid were 16 still expecting me to be his personal uber. No thanks. Grow up.

Anonymous wrote:Wait, isn’t this normal? A rite of passage? I’m not talking about a new BMW (which happened often in my HS), but an old beater, a pick up, a used car w/ some miles on it...High school lots are filled w/ student cars so obviously it’s the norm.

It is 100% normal in our public high school. What is unusual is a kid without a car and those are the kids whose parents struggle with money. The kids who live in apartments.

Anonymous wrote:I’m flabbergasted how many teens assume they’ll get a car that is theirs when the get their licenses. Is this as common as my kids say it is? Private school FWIW.

Upper income, meaning doe us 589k tax return.

Ever since my kids were old enough to communicate, we've required that they save in their savings account 1/3 of every single dollar that comes in. This is Christmas, birthdays, allowance, babysitting, lawnmowing....everything. we match all savings dollar for dollar, so if they get $200 for their birthday and want to put away all of it, instead of $33, I match that as well.

My oldest is 14 and this summer will be his 3rd year mowing lawns. He has saved 9k over his lifetime of his own money. I've matched 9k. Probably by 16 he will at least have 25k to spend on his car.


So the answer is yes, he expects it, but he also earned much of it on his own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my kid were in private, and getting him a car meant I could stop driving him to school, I’d get him a car.

Can’t they just borrow one of the family’s to drive to school? Why would you get them their own car?

Semantics. I don't know anyone who actually titles the car in the kid's name. A family will get an extra car, designated as "[Teenager's] car."

Anonymous wrote:If my kid were in private, and getting him a car meant I could stop driving him to school, I’d get him a car.

I was in public school, and this was exactly what my Mom said. The car was for HER (so she didn't have to drive me around).

My kids shared a car in HS that the older one later took to college - it was a CarMax Honda and very helpful that they could drive themselves places.. Most of their friends had cars as well.