Gifting cars to your kids.

[Birchwood]

Ever since my daughter learned to drive in high school, she has been getting hand me down cars thru the years, and it stopped when I ER.
The following were given to her thru the years.
Subaru Legacy Wagon 7 years old when given
Toyota Corolla Brand new, in college. Got it back to trade to a new car for us.
Toyota Camry 8 years old when sold at a lost to my son in law.
Subaru Forester XT 5 years old when given.
Nissan Altima, 7 years old when given.

I'm done with that, and said, they should pay for their own. They have very good jobs, and I'm tired of subsidizing their vehicles. Looking back, it was amazing how much we have given her.
How about you??

 

[heeyy_joe]

Each of my kids got a hand me down car to wreck. And they did.

 

[aaronc879]

I don't think i've ever received any gift that was even in the 4-figures. Of course your means are likely far greater than anyone in my family so if you can afford it then it's a nice thing to do. Personally, I would not gift anything that expensive to my kids until I was already FI then I would give what I could afford whether that's a couple hundred bucks for a birthday or a brand new house.

 

[Walt34]

Shortly before I turned 16 my father bought me a car. He paid $50 at the junkyard for it and I had to put the transmission in before I could drive it. Occasionally it needed a little TLC:

 

[athena53]

Each of my kids got a hand me down car to wreck. And they did.

We gave DS a very used but still serviceable Subaru when he finished college. Three years later I was in Bangalore on business and my phone rang at 5:30 AM. He'd been driving west in the evening and hadn't seen the SUV in front of him and he plowed into it. Thank God, he was just fine. Since he was working as a claims adjuster for people who totaled their cars, he needed very little hand-holding from us. He paid cash for a well-used Nissan and still has it 6 years later. Lesson learned, I guess.

He married a wonderful young woman who owned a new Nissan SUV and they use that to transport our granddaughter.

 

[pb4uski]

....I'm done with that, and said, they should pay for their own. They have very good jobs, and I'm tired of subsidizing their vehicles. Looking back, it was amazing how much we have given her.
How about you??

How old are they? I agree, if they are financially independent they should be able to buy their own ride.

We subsidized DD through college. bought her a car when she got her license and then traded that car when it was dying for a new car for me and gave her the car I was then driving. So net, we really only bought her one car.

Ditto for DS... we bought him a car and when it was dying I traded it for a new car for me and gave him the car I was driving. Now he is on his own.

So net, bought one car for each and then later "upgraded" it.

 

[Sarah in SC]

My dad gave my brother and me both cars when we turned 15, and we both wrecked them.

My very best financial lesson came from that, though, because when the Blazer I wrecked (and still drive afterward) blew an engine, he took me to pick out a brand new Jimmy, with only 22 miles on the odo.

Oh it was marvelous, until graduation day from high school and him handing me the payment book (remember those?). The payment was $314 and my rent on first apartment was $200, and he was paying me $5 an hour to work on the farm.

That particular math equation cured me of ever having a car payment again! So thanks for the lesson and the car (kinda), Dad!

 

[Texas Proud]

Kids are not yet old enough... but son will get grandmas car when he goes off to college... he is driving it now, but it is not yet 'his'.... he got the car with 2K miles on it and it is only up to 12K and is 5 year old...

Daughter is still young... but will get my car when it comes time.... by then it will be over 10 years (heck, probably 13) and over 100K....


Nothing else will come from me to them...

 

[candrew]

DW & I grew up just fine without our parents gifting us vehicles and we set the same expectations early on with both of our sons. Owning, operating & caring for automobiles is for responsible adults and are expensive propositions as well. Our kids took care of buying their own cars, own gas, own repairs & insurance. For a while, they resented the fact that their friends' parents seemed content to supply a vehicle for their children's use while we would not. OTH, both of our boys quickly became responsible, self-supporting adults and have thanked us for expecting them to be accountable at an early age.

 

[harley]

We gave DD a Honda Civic when she got pregnant because they couldn't afford any car that we considered safe. She drove that for 8 years and 150K miles, and took excellent care of it (except for the stains babies cause in the backseat). She saved for years so that when the time came for a new car she'd be able to pay cash for it. Then when my Mom died last year she had a 2009 Forester with 8K miles on it. We didn't need it or the money from it, and DD is now a Girl Scout leader and gymnastics coach hauling girls around, so we gave it to her. She was thrilled. It felt like a nice thing to do.

 

[Mulligan]

Each of my kids got a hand me down car to wreck. And they did.

My daughter was able to reach those high expectations also.


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[Hermit]

We didn't give the kids a car their first year in college. DD drove our old Geo Prizm for a year in college and then it went to DS for his second year of college. He is still driving it. I think it has about 200k miles now, six years later. DD drives a Prius inherited from DW. It has about 120k miles and she is very happy to have it.

 

[Rustic23]

Both of our kids are going to get what I would consider a substantial sum of money when we are gone. We have given our daughter our last hand me down car. It seems to me we have a choice, give them the car, or trade it and give them the cash say ten or twenty years from now. Just seems like the car now makes more since.

 

[Ginny]

DS was given a new car at 16. When he graduated from college, he's working so we put it in his name. He loves it!

 

[Bestwifeever]

We gave each of our kids a new car to keep and paid the gas and insurance until they graduated from college. They were and are most appreciative of the gesture.

 

[ohyes]

Our oldest two saved money from jobs until they could each buy a used car. Both of them were desperate to buy a car.

They were happy; we were happy.

Our third child--could not have cared less. He did not get his DL until age 19. DH and I were a bit worried and gifted him our 1998 Acura, which he still drives. He is now 26. We wonder if it will ever hit his radar he needs a newer car (creative writing major). Thinking, it may not.

As a side note, and i am not making this up. DH's sister (now 67) had never purchased a car. Their dad has gifted her every car she has ever owned. He is 92yo, so that may not go on that much longer. Strange, but I am in the family and know it to be a true story.

 

[EastWest Gal]

My dad bought a used '65 Mustang with a bad paint job that we all drove. I drove it in med school and my first year of residency. It had all sorts of problems (including being stolen, bad radiator, broken into, broken horn, no radio) and I gladly returned it to dad when I could afford a new/newer car.

MIL gave us a 4 door sedan when FIL passed away. It was a help as we had our DS by then. then.

Our DS has had two cars-a hand me down Volvo when I bought my Prius, which nearly caught on fire(!) and we replaced it with a nearly new Camry. He'll get the title and the costs when he's done with college and on his own.


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[Senator]

When I was in HS, I bought my own vehicle. My mother would borrow it once in a while, as she did not even have a car.

She would actually drive it to her RN work at the hospital, which was across the street. The gate was on the other side of the block, but the door was only ~100 yards away from out house door.

 

[hnzw_rui]

She would actually drive it to her RN work at the hospital, which was across the street. The gate was on the other side of the block, but the door was only ~100 yards away from out house door.

For goodness' sake, why? I'd love to be within walking distance of work. Granted, maybe not so much at my current worksite. I've seen the bullet holes in the lunchroom window.

 

[Sue J]

In 2005 we gave our 1990 Camry to our 18 year old son. It was still in our name. He got hit a few years later and the other driver's insurance company called it "totaled", although it was still driveable and we wanted to keep it.

I kept the insurance settlement in a bank account and when he needed a newer car in 2009 the money was his to use toward his next car.

 

[donheff]

I bought all of my cars as a kid/young adult. But my parents covered tuition and I was happy they could afford it. DW and I were in the generation that did better than our parents so we paid for the kids' education and helped them out a bit with transportation. I gave my son a 7 year old Chevy when he was a senior in college. At the time we were still frantically stashing away $ for ER and couldn't see buying him a new one. When his 12 years younger sister graduated (and we were FI) we bought her a new Toyota Corolla. I paid the five year note on it (excellent rate) and this thread reminded me that the last payment was October 1st. Woohoo, I can splurge on something or another.

 

[MichaelB]

My folks gave us an old Chevy POS station wagon as a wedding gift. Most expensive car we ever owned, we couldn't afford to maintain it.

Since moving back to the US we've given our two old cars to nieces and nephews. Our children each got a new car as a college graduation gift, although DS has not yet collected on his (he moved to Japan). We have a 12 year old car that will soon reach the end of its useful life and need to figure out what to do.

 

[RE2Boys]

This is a timely and interesting thread for me as I have a HS senior and junior and have been pondering the car situation. I've been putting it off to see if a college car is needed and when. Some schools don't allow freshman to have cars, and the location of the schools may factor in if a car is needed or desirable. He is leaning to attending a relatively local college but we feel he would benefit from being on his own and living on campus which we would cover. If he stayed home, some of what we'd save in housing may go toward getting him a good commuting vehicle (factoring in our 100-200 inches of snow each year). Will have a better idea next spring. Or maybe I'd transfer the old minivan to him and let him make his own decisions from there.

The joys and challenges to transitioning a kid to responsible adulthood!!!

The older one drives our third vehicle, a 10 year old but very reliable minivan most of the time.

 

[Moemg]

I bought used cars for my daughter & son when they were seniors in high school . When my daughter was in college I gifted her my two year old GEO prism which she drove to almost 300000 miles when it died .

 

[H2ODude]

DD and DS are only 14 months apart, bought well used Mazda hatchback for the both of them when they started driving. Can't recall exactly when but as they approached college graduation each got a well used Nissan as the Mazda had pretty much died at 160,000 miles. We were fairly generous with them as both had scholarships for all their tuition; we'd been saving for that so it was a big boost for us. Recently we bought a new car and as DD was repatriating with her family they asked for the 13 yo Acura we were trading in, we sold it to them for what the dealer would have given us. We could have just said, here, take it but it just didn't seem right since her husband makes multiples of what I did preretirement. We were shocked they'd be interested in beater given their past autos.