First Car

[BuckeyeBama]

In 1983 - age 16 - my father, brother and I bought a used pinto with a bad engine & transmission for $100. We bought 2 other pinto engine/transmissions for $100 each. We then stripped them all down and rebuilt a working engine and transmission from the parts. After we had the car running, I spent another $75 on some basic reupholstering. The project took us all summer, and for about $500 total with other minor spends I had a car that ran well for many years. So, in many ways my father bought my first car, but I also had to earn it with my sweat.

We did the same thing for my brother the next summer. My sisters just got handed the keys to used cars that ran.

 

[DVC-Don]

I bought my first car with money saved from a paper route and a part time after school job. Cost me $400 back in 1968. Just looked it up, it would be $2,953.72 in 2020 . I recall it failed a state inspection a year later for a bald tire. My dad said "guess you have to park it until you can buy a new tire".

 

[Kellykins1218]

My parents bought me a Chevette lol. I gave my son my minivan when my ex-husband gave me his car.

 

[unrequited23]

My family passes down cars. My first car was a Ford escort originally purchased by my Nana. She gifted it to my mom after driving it for 5 or 6 years. My mom drove it for about the same amount of time, then handed it down to me.

My DH got a fusion hybrid last year and we joke that it might be the 'kids' car since our oldest is 8 right now.

 

[AnnaS]

My first car was a 1980 Chevy Citation - Demo/dealer's car. Do they still sell dealer cars anymore?

I paid for most of it. I was the only driver in my parent's home. I was second oldest.

1st son at 17 - we bought him a used car from the dealer (not a demo)
2nd son also at 17 - he took over my FIL's car
My daughter 17 took over our SUV - quiet a few years old.

Quiet a few years later when my sons started working full time, they purchased new cars. We helped & they had a small payment
My daughter, also years down the road, we ended up buying her new small SUV

 

[mrodgers]

Dad had a company car. His old car sat there a few years waiting for me to turn 16. It was still his car, I just had near exclusive access to it.

It was gifted to me for graduation. I traded it for $300 and bought my actual first car with a 4 speed. I've only driven an auto my first 2 years of driving and a year when I got caught with the Tacoma frame rot prior to the recall/buy-back and took over my wife's car getting her a newer car.

 

[china mom]

You are probably referring to my post where I was trying to figure out the best model for a tiny driver.

We did not buy a car for our son - We bought a car to add to our personal fleet so that we will have enough cars to use. When he leaves home, he has the option of buying it from us or buying his own. Same will happen for my daughter and that is how it was handled for me.

We are in a very rural area with no public transportation so cars are a necessity for after school activities, jobs etc.

 

[BrianL]

I got a hand-me-down Toyota Corolla that was my mom's. She got the new car and I got that. It already had almost 100,000 miles on it, but it was a solid, reliable car.

 

[barkley]

my parents bought my first car as a combo 18th bday/high school graduation gift. it was in 1979 and the car was a 1965 mustang. they had friends who were the original owners and had always had it dealership serviced, selling price was $900.

with our kiddo we had gifted her money to get a used car for her high school graduation gift, she liked one of ours so we found out how much we could have gotten for it as a trade in if we bought a new car, sold it to her for that figure and bought ourselves a new one.

 

[lecach]

I bought my first car myself when I was 16 since my parents couldn't afford to buy me one. It was a 1980 V8 mustang and it was $158.93 a month. In the mid 80's that was a lot for a 16 year old but I never missed a payment. My parents did pay for my insurance and maintenance/repairs. I drove that car for 2 years of highschool and 5 years of college. It was a great car. My son turns 16 in December. His dad has been out of work for a year (starts a new job on Monday though) so we can't buy him a car. But my grandpa is 94 and needs to stop driving so he's going to give my son his Corolla. Its in good shape with low miles and even though my son is DYING to get a Jeep he's thankful he's getting a car for free.

 

[tazdev3225]

I wasn't even allowed to drive my parents car when i got my license. I was lucky they let me drive it to learn how to drive. My mom donated blood and passed out and she still wouldn't let me drive the 5 blocks to go home, she would rather risk her crashing. So no my parents did not get me my first car.

I had just started working and bought a 1968 Chevy Malibu for $100 when I started working from my neighbor. She failed to tell me that it needed a ton of work and had been in an accident but did say it had new brakes. The car might have had new brakes but the brake lines were shot and I wound up hitting another car and that was the end of my first car. My husbands friend had the 2 door model and he needed to do some work on his car so he took my wreck apart to figure out how to fix his dashboard

 

[Praying Colonel]

I bought my own first car, because my parents couldn't afford to buy me one. (I didn't mind.) It was a lovely 1978 Chevy Vega* with no air conditioning and vinyl seats, but a very cool 8 track stereo system.

We bought first vehicles for our kids. DS's (an 07) is still running fine.



*--In Spaceship Earth, the car outside the garage where they're building the first Apple is a Chevy Vega. I have a combination of nostalgia and PTSD flashbacks whenever I see that car in the attraction.

 

[sam_gordon]

My parents bought me a Chevy Chevette after I turned 16. I totaled that and they bought be another car, can't remember the model, but it was so bad, it literally had a hole in the drivers' floorboard. My dad found a plate of sheet metal to cover the hole.

We bought my daughter a car when she got her license (an 8 year old Prius).
Just before DS got his license (it was delayed because of Covid shutdowns), I got a 2015 Camry and he inherited my 06 Sontata.

 

[Carol_]

I’ve never bought my own car with 100% my own money. Combination of lucky, spoiled, and poor.

 

[okeydokey]

My parents did not buy me my first car, but we did buy both our kids their first cars just before their Senior years in HS, both older Toyotas.


I am in a very different financial place than my parent's were at that time. Also I lived in an area growing up where we could walk to school and other places we needed to go. My kids were raised in a much more rural area.

 

[KPeterso]

My parents bought me a car for my 17th birthday. After a year of sharing cars and my crazy schedule (was a figure skater and was on the ice before school or after school most days of the week + school with a schedule worked out to get me out early), it just did not work. Too bad I could not get a parking place until my senior year a few months later! Plus, they figured I would be going out of the area for college and would want to keep skating and not all schools would have an ice rink on campus, so I would need a car to go back and forth to the rink. I traded that car in a few years out of college and bought my first car that i was paying for. I am forever grateful for that gift when I was 17 that made life easier for all of us.

 

[sam_gordon]

that made life easier for all of us.

That's one thing I feel some people don't think about. You know those people "you shouldn't buy your kids a car (phone, computer, whatever)! If they need one, they can earn money and buy it themselves!" What they don't realize is many times, these items actually help the parents also. Whether it's taking/picking up younger siblings, going on errands, or just not having to transport them, it can help immensly.

 

[Darcy03231]

My first car was my dad's hand-me-down AMC Gremlin.

We bought all of our children's first cars.

 

[maxaroni]

Back when DH & I were growing up, if parents bought their kids cars, they were low priced fixer uppers, especially the boys. Guys spent saturdays going from driveway to driveway to help fix someone else’s cars. As far as myself, my dad had his own business, owning a front end/brake shop and believed that a car approaching 70,000 miles, it was time to get a new car. So, their car was at 65,000 miles and they gave me that car (‘69 olds cutlass) and they bought a new car. The car got me through to when I was working and able to buy my own car..

These days, in our area most kids get a car bought by their parents. Parents buy them a late model used car, some brand new cars. My DS was given his grandmothers car as she could no longer drive and wouldn’t get much in a trade in, as my parents were unloading my moms car, my dads truck and buying 1 vehicle. DS received a ‘00 Mercury grand marquis. Not a teen car but he was grateful to have a set of wheels.

 

[Kae]

1986 Chevy Sprint. My Grandfather gave me the downpayment so I could start my credit history. .09% interest rate. I had a choice of a/c or stereo system...