What kind of car should you buy your college-age kid? What's the best ride for a twentysomething who wants to get to and from class and a part-time job? Should you stick with name brands, such as Toyota and Mazda? What kind of car should you buy your son or daughter?
Do you see anything wrong with these questions? Take a moment and look closely. Now choose the most appropriate answer:
a) They fail to provide detailed automobile specs.
b) They don't mention the best kind of financing.
c) They don't mention buying your kid a Ford.
d) They feature the use of the words "buy," "car" and "kid" in the same sentence.
If you chose "d", you're right. Of all the bad moves you can make as a parent today, and there are millions of them, one of the worst – just after, "Here son, they call it meth, give it a try" – is buying your kid a car.
Yet, a casual look around shows this may be a minority view. Newspapers are full of how-to-buy-your-kid-a-car articles and, in parking lots at colleges and universities, there are scant spots to be had. That's because over-protective parents, the same ones who want to talk to their kids' professors about their grades, are shelling out money to make sure junior doesn't have to ride the bus.
To those who love cars, who see them as a gift to be cherished and used responsibly, the "Here honey, have a car" phenomenon is disturbing. It's wrong. It's marry-your-cousin wrong. It's jump-off-a-bridge-because-your-friend-did-it wrong. It's this-year-the-Leafs-are-going-to-win-the-Stanley-Cup wrong.
We're not talking about bequeathing the old family ride to a child. If your kid is willing to ensure it's safe and roadworthy, this is an acceptable practice. You're recycling a car and ideally, the kid has already been driving it and has an attachment. We're talking about parents who are footing a $20,000 bill for a used car or, heaven forbid, financing a brand new vehicle. Even if you are loaded and can afford to buy them their own private fleet, buying your kid a new car is a mistake. Is there any creature more loathsome than a 20-year-old punk rolling around in the shiny new SUV daddy bought him?
When you buy your kid a new car you send a dangerous message. You're telling them driving is a right, and it's not. No one has the right to own a car. Most bad driving is a result of this conviction; that we have a right to drive, a right to text and drive, to drink and drive, a right to disregard speed limits. Car accidents are a leading cause of death for young adults, no need to exacerbate these statistics with a sense of entitlement.
Driving is a privilege. It's a privilege you should earn. You earn your license and you should earn your first car, not have it lavished upon you by indulgent parents. You know the old adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
This works more or less same way for cars. "Give a kid a car – and you turn him into the most spoiled, dangerous, lazy creep on the planet."
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Andrew Clark