Gifting cars to your kids.

[jerome len]

We have great kids....as an incentive we bought them each a new car when they graduated college. They were appreciative, took good care of them, had all the safety features and have replaced them on a timely basis. All have good jobs, not a lot of time going back to the dealerships for repair jobs as they get miles on the. On the other hand, my dw father has 245,000 on an old Chevy pickup he keeps for the family when hauling is needed......just got it polished, runs great and has original motor and trans...unbelievable

 

[Bestwifeever]

I'm thinking about the new cars we gave our kids and how they came about. DH and I had one car for the family until the oldest kid got a drivers license. We bought a second family car, which she drove (she had a ten-mile commute to high school). She went to college carless. Second child gets his license, we traded in the newer family car for Civic that he drove. He went to college carless. When older child was a junior she had to live off campus (and also had a college job since freshman year that earned her (us) sizeable tuition credits but no $$ for her), so we bought a new Corolla for her. When second child was a junior he also lived off campus a little too far for walking to classes, so we sent him back with the Civic which he kept thereafter. Like I said, they have always been most appreciative.

Funny how things are different for people. My family only ever had a single car. DH grew up with multiple family cars and parents gave him a new one when he graduated from college which he sold shortly after we married and lived without a car (great public transportation) for a few years. I was 25 before we bought our first car--if someone had given me a car I would have fainted.

 

[samclem]

New drivers get into car accidents, it just happens. All of my "castoff" cars were sufficiently reliable to give to DD, but lacked the size and/or safety features we wanted her to have. That's still the case today--she's a better driver now, but also has a tot. Neither of the cars I'm about to retire is something I think they should be driving around in. Good enough for me, though.
We'll probably help her buy a car, another large-ish depreciated one with the new-ish airbags and good crash test results. She's not good about taking care of them, so there's not much point in spending a lot, but I feel better if she's in something relatively safe. Maybe another Taurus or a Malibu.

 

[Car-Guy]

When our DD turned 16 we gave her our daily driver. At the time the car was only about 4 years old and probably had about 25k miles on it. When she graduated HS about 18 months later, I offered to either buy her a new car or she could take the equivalent in the cash. She took the cash and kept the older car for another 5 or 6 years.

 

[AllDone]

I'm 56 and two years ago my mom gave me her 2001 BMW 330 ci convertible because she couldn't bear to sell it. I have yet to wreck it.

 

[Midpack]

My sister's last two cars were outright gifts from my Dad. My sister is 5 yrs older than I am...

 

[mpeirce]

It's fascinating to see how different family's deal with this.

We gave our kids college educations, but made them buy our old cars from us.

 

[Rick_Head]

When our kids were starting to drive, they bought their own 1st cars. After all, a parent's help, financial or otherwise, suggests a perpetual warranty. Now that they are launched, we gave our discarded cars to them (1 each so far). Told them to do with it as they felt best. Didn't want to trade them and give the dealer a gift and didn't feel like going thru the hassle of selling them.

DD immediately sold hers and kept driving her 10 yo ride. DS still has his after several years. They'll get a bunch when we croak, so why not a bit now?

 

[rodi]

I'm not a big fan of gifting cars to kids at a young age. (See comments about about wrecks). I've let my boys know that we will match them dollar to dollar if they save for a car (so they have to save half before they can get a car.) I've observed that kids that have sweated to get a car tend to take better care.

We'll let them have use of my husband's truck - when it's convenient for us. In other words - it's not 100% theirs to use, and we have higher priority over using it. But we'll insist they help pay for their insurance, as well. And definitely they have to pay for their own gas.

I am a very mean mom.

Upon graduation from college I can see gifting a nice used car.

 

[OnTheBeach]

Daughter gets her license in June at 17 - planning on buying a 2/3 year old Toyota Rav4 or something similar. We want her driving something reliable, safe and with all wheel drive. She is very responsible and a hard working student. Goal is to have them (3 kids) graduate college with no debt and get them a new car - a good start in life.

 

[Birchwood]

Giving a vehicle or vehicles to kids can also depend of personal needs and geographical demands. We have handed down many vehicles thru the years, partly due to the fact that we can afford to change cars, stupidly every 5 years, but more importantly to where we live(upper Midwest), and long distances where the kids went to college, and no public transportation to bring them back and forth to our home. Winter driving is also treacherous, and nobody wants an unreliable car in a winter storm.

 

[Danmar]

Each family is different. We have gifted 2 new cars to my daughter. Paid for her education, expensive wedding, recently gifted a substantial amount of stock to her which will be used for a down payment for their first house. She is our only child and this is not a material amount for us. She is a wonderful, well adjusted, hard working young woman, despite our generosity. I would rather give it to her now while we are alive and she could really use it, than when we pass away and she is much older and may not need it.

 

[Car-Guy]

partly due to the fact that we can afford to change cars, stupidly every 5 years,

Some folks might not think it's stupid to buy something you like and can afford as often as you want. I certainly have had (and have) cars that are older than 5 years old but it's been well over 20 years since I have kept a daily driver for more than about 3 years from the day it was bought new.

 

[Birchwood]

Each family is different. We have gifted 2 new cars to my daughter. Paid for her education, expensive wedding, recently gifted a substantial amount of stock to her which will be used for a down payment for their first house. She is our only child and this is not a material amount for us. She is a wonderful, well adjusted, hard working young woman, despite our generosity. I would rather give it to her now while we are alive and she could really use it, than when we pass away and she is much older and may not need it.

We're probably in the same predicament. Since we were blessed with assets and ability to help, we rather give help now at the most critical part of their young adult life, see how it work out, rather than wait until we're gone. Obviously, there are limits, and she knows it.

 

[Birchwood]

Some folks might not think it's stupid to buy something you like and can afford as often as you want. I certainly have had (and have) cars that are older than 5 years old but it's been well over 20 years since I have kept a daily driver for more than about 3 years from the day it was bought new.

It was just easier to dispose of something, when I knew, I could just easily withdraw money to pay for a new car, without batting an eyeball. The need was there so we just decided to give and get a new one. Now that I'm ER, things have change.

 

[Walt34]

I've observed that kids that have sweated to get a car tend to take better care.

I'm sure that's what my father had in mind when he bought the junkyard car for me. In addition to the initial transmission replacement I had to do all the maintenance/repairs on it, which was possible with a VOM and decent set of tools on a 1956 Plymouth with no "black boxes". We'd rebuilt two car engines so I knew how to do it by age 15.

It worked, too. I did not abuse that car because I knew I'd be the one fixing anything that broke.

 

[kcowan]

We helped our kids with college and gave the a used car upon graduation.

One took a newer Nissan 240SX on lease from GL Capital Leasing and we paid for the lease for 4 years. The other took my old Mazda RX7 and the balance in cash. Since then they have received no financial help.

I am contributing to their kids college. And they received an inheritance from their uncle.

 

[Whisper66]

A key goal for my wife and I was to help our kids develop financial sense and personal independence. With that in mind, our kids all earned money to buy their own cars and paid fully to buy the cars themselves.

Each bought older cars in high school / college days. They learned to find reasonable buys, do basic maintenance and repairs on them. I would help them in the learning process and assist in work they didn't know how to do but let them do the majority of actual work involved. Daughter even changed out a camshaft on one engine on a car she particularly wanted to keep.

We (parents) recognized the kids couldn't manage all the costs of owning a car so we chose to pay all insurance costs associated with "good driving". If their insurance went up due to tickets / wrecks (only one of three children had this), they paid the additional amount over the base amount we paid.

Occasionally we also found other ways to help financially without interfering with our goal. For example, buying tires as a birthday present when we weren't happy with the condition of tires on one kids car but recognized they couldn't afford new ones. Or when one child wanted to buy an older car from us that we felt would need a new transmission soon, we agreed on the blue book purchase price....then after the deal was done, we gave back $1000 with the agreement the kid would bank that money for future transmission if needed. When the time came, the kid found a rebuilt transmission for a couple hundred and got to pocket the rest (yea!).

The above worked out very well for us and our kids and was a fun learning process.

 

[grasshopper]

Not exactly the same but I gave my brother 2 cars, because he was always having bad luck with cars. First one a '62 VW split window bus, a real classic, hit a deer and endoed the bus. Second a '67 VW Squareback, another classic, center punched a light pole.

 

[Cobra9777]

Interesting thread.

DW drove one of her parents old cars during high school and college. But bought her own as soon as she graduated and had a job. I bought my own used car when I turned 16 and never had any hand-me-downs.

We have 2 kids. When DS first started driving in high school, we bought him a used SUV. It had 85K miles and we paid a little over $5K. The car was titled in our name and we paid insurance, but he paid for all gas and maintenance from working part time.

He went off to college and lived on campus with no car for the first 2 years. The SUV went to DD who had started driving in high school around the same time. Same arrangement, we paid insurance, but she worked PT for gas money and any maintenance. She also went off to college and had no car while living on campus.

By that time DS had moved off campus and needed a car. We didn't want him driving long distances in the old SUV. So we bought him a new car but with lots of conditions attached, like maintaining a certain GPA and graduating on time with a job. The new car was also registered in our name, and again, we paid insurance, while he paid for gas and maintenance. He graduated 5 years ago, but still drives the same car. It's still in our name and under our insurance, but he reimburses us for the insurance cost. Much cheaper for him that way.

DD continued driving the old SUV for a while after she moved off campus. We eventually sold it and bought her a new car on same conditions... good GPA and graduate on time with a job. She graduated 3 years ago, still drives the new car, and same insurance arrangement as DS.

Eventually, we will transfer the titles to them and kick them off the insurance. But for now, this is much cheaper for them and both cars are still in great shape.

So basically, each kid got a new car as an incentive for doing well in college and graduating on time with a job. And they shared an old SUV during high school. We also paid their tuition throughout college, and housing as long as they were on campus. Otherwise, they paid all their living expenses from PT jobs. I think this was a good balance that taught them financial responsibility, while also allowing them to get in and out of college quickly and off to a great start after graduation.

 

[samclem]

Not exactly the same but I gave my brother 2 cars, because he was always having bad luck with cars. First one a '62 VW split window bus, a real classic, hit a deer and endoed the bus. Second a '67 VW Squareback, another classic, center punched a light pole.

He had bad "luck"-- one car hit a deer, one car hit a light pole.
Were these self-driving cars?
Sounds like when I was a kid and told my mom "the lamp broke."
I'm just joshing you, and I certainly hope your brother wasn't hurt. But this kind of sentence construction is something that tends to stand out to me when I hear it.

 

[kcowan]

But this kind of sentence construction is something that tends to stand out to me when I hear it.

In Spanish use in Mexico, all the constructs are impersonal. The lamp broke. The car got damaged. Drives me nuts.