Bought my son his first car

It could be worse...take my kid (I say that lightly because he is 30). Wife said last night he took his 03 Accord to the dealer, paid $75, because the front wheels made a noise usually when he applied the brakes. I told her I would have diagnosed it for $50...a fu@king bargain. He would rather pay someone than to ask me to look at something because I give him shit about not paying attention to anything that's not an effing video game. My Dad told me when I was young - "a fool and their money will soon part." [Special note: the tech said there was a dead mouse smashed between caliper/pad/rotor...so SMH.]

And, I raised my three about the same...I bought their first used car. They were responsible for PMs (oil changes) and helping to pay their insurance, so yeah, I told them to get a part time job which they all did because I believe kids have to start early in learning the value of money and the work it takes to own something.

 

I bought my youngest son a 1994 Honda Accord from a school teacher that was the original owner and she had put 77,000 miles on it. It was a 5-speed iirc.
That poor car then went through another 125,000 miles of Hell . Amazing that the only trouble I had with it was a clutch slave cylinder and a cam sensor.
There's no greater power over a teenager than car keys...

 

Funny how almost every older car you see on the road is a Toyota or a Honda.

 

My daughter’s first car was a Fit. Really great little car that had a ton of cargo room. It got totaled in an accident unfortunately. She drives a HRV now, and it’s a great car also.

 

I have an 06 matrix xr (red also) as my commuter pig. Been a great car. Its got about 175k on it.

If I remember, the 5spd is kinda a weak link, and the 6spd from the xrs I believe is a direct bolt on and is much stronger.

 

Lots of Subarus up here in that category too

 

What the hell is a manual? Like an extra book or something?? Jk jk

 

Isn't an HRV just a more expensive Fit with worse fuel economy and less interior space?

 

My dad's 03 Matrix developed a leak in the clutch master cylinder from lots of driving in stop and go traffic but it was a pretty minor issue.

 

It’s 4.0 overall.
A = 4.0
B = 3.0
C = 2.0
D = 1.0

But there are classes offered in many schools geared toward preparing students to get into college that are ‘above college prep’, more difficult material and require more time in study and homework outside of class and are weighted to reflect this. When I was in school these were called “honors” level. There were also Advanced Placement (AP) classes which, if students achieve a specific score on a test at the end, allows them to receive college credit, so they can skip taking it again in college = money savings. These courses are tough, so kids have to commit a lot to do well. For these, the grade-weighting is:
A = 5.0
B = 4.0
C = 3.0 except students not doing well in these classes would likely be moved to less-strenuous courses if they can’t keep up.

When kids have a GPA that’s above 4.0, it should means they took one or more of these weighted courses, earned at least one A grade, and the composite gpa reflects the weighted scale for those classes.

The idea is that kids respond to challenges so there should be a “difficult” option for those that are up to it. But the classes are significantly more difficult, so the increased grade-weight is meant to offset the temptation kids would otherwise feel to just stick to regular weighted easier courses and “coast” through school.

I took your question seriously, so here’s the answer. I don’t know if your question was rhetorical.

 

Haha! Rosy, you’re a bit querulous today.

 

You ok there buddy?

 

Thank you. That's the information I was looking for.

 

Just sharing the wisdom.

 

See post 44.

 

Thanks. I learned something. I went to school in a small town with a small school. College prep/AP classes weren’t something available or offered. A 4.0 was as good as you could get, and was damn hard to accomplish because our teachers knew every kid and pushed everyone to do well but didn’t believe in making it easy. Looking back, they were doing what they could to make us all successful and really cared that we got it.

 

That’s nice of you, if you’ve got it to spare.

 

Good for you OP and your son! I bought my 16 YOA son a red Honda Civic coupe, manual tranny, close to 20 years ago...so I can relate

 

Nice first vehicle. For the record, I will be the same with my two girls. Excel at school and be working on a goal and I’ll help as much as I can to help them succeed in life.

 

Worked for me so far. My oldest one is asking what her phone, insurance, and car payments are so she can start paying us for them.

 

Good for you OP to be able to help your kid out like that (I’m sure he appreciates it and will take care of the car). And good for him for making good grades. Impressive! Not sure what profession you are but if you’re not an engineer I might suggest having your son do a few weeks of entry level engineering job shadowing. My dad is a PE and heads up a team (makes decisions all day). Logically, as a kid I thought I also wanted to be an engineer to do what he does. Well, did a few days of job shadowing only to find out at the lower levels you intensely stare at a computer screen all. day. long. Non-stop. Just make sure your kid is cool with that before he gets too far down the road.

 

I graduated high school in '07 and I have no idea what my GPA was or what it was out of. LOL. All I know is I went to school for 12 years and got a piece of paper at the end that said I had memorized and regurgitated facts to an acceptable level. That was enough to get into trade school. That was the point at which my education began.

OP, congrats to your kid. Sounds like he'll do well in life. Good car to start him on too!!

 

Every single engineer does something different so I wouldn't rule out an entire profession just because you don't like what one does. My dad and I are both engineers. I love my work. What he does would bore me silly.

 

These go to 11.

 

Yup, I think that adds to my point. What I was trying to get as is that not every job is as glorious as they’re often portrayed to be. So take it out for a test drive to see if that’s what you really want to do. Hard for a 16 y/o to know exactly what they want to do in life, but it’s easier to show them what they might not want to do through experiencing it. I see people graduate and say “now what”

sorry OP, didn’t mean to derail your thread

 

My parents made me save 1/2 the money for my first car, a '72 Bronco.

It was $2,000, and they LOANED me the other half.
'
I also had to get my own insurance and obviously pay for it myself.

It was the same policy for other stuff when I was younger...want a stereo system at 13 years old? Come top with 1/2, we'll loan you the other half.

They also instilled in me the idea of only buying quality stuff, so while my friends got a "all built in" type stereo, I bought a Technics receiver and turntable.

Had a newspaper route back then.

All that said, they really weren't in a position to do more, my mother especially was very careful with money.


I learned to take care of my shit.


SPP

 

Just wanna clarify...I have no problem with folks providing their kids with a car.

I actually wish my parents had done that lol.

SPP

 

Great reliable and safe car, well done