Depends on your son's income (archive)

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The number one question is: Can your son fully afford the maintaince, insurance, and gasoline for the car ON HIS OWN without any financial assistance from his parents (or others)?

If the answer is yes, then you need to stick to it by not paying for any of the car's needs. (Also, if he CAN afford that, why isn't he chipping in on the purchase price?) If you son can manage this, then he can hold his head high as it's HIS car, and HE the man who is making it happen.

*WARNING* A 10-year old E34 will have a lot of needs, some ^h^h^h^h many of which are not cheap.

What I've seen happen in this situation is that if the parents won't supply the funds to maintain the car and the kid doesn't really have the income then it will likely get neglected and suffer a drastically shortened life span. At the point, you send it to junkyard and get another one... REINFORCING the idea in your son's head that cars will be handed to him. This often goes hand in hand with his returning to live at home in his early 20s. :-)

Also, if your son's income will just barely cover the costs, you may want to reconisder as a teenage boy usually does not have the long-term dedication to devote most/all of his income to a car. Usually, the dedication slips as the newness wears off and he finds other, more pressing, needs for his money.

I know this from my own teenage years. I downgraded (don't think for a moment it was volunetary) from an '81 DeLorean DMC-12 (!) to a '80 VW Rabbit Diesel. A great amount of social status was lost in the transaction, but in restorspect it was a lesson I needed. (I did buy the DMC-12 myself with winfall proceeds, but I lacked the income to sustain it)

Right now, luxury cars such as Mercedes & BMW's are at the top of the teenage social heirarchy, and teens do usually suffer from a form of status anxiety. i.e. of course he loves it!

Really, the bottom line is what kind of parent do you wish to be (as determined by your actions) and to what degree has your son demonstrated responsible earning and spending behavior.

Personally, I anticipate my kids will hate me greatly in their teen years for not giving them what they desire. It's very likely I'll have a Ferrari in the garage while I'll inform them that a 7-year old economy car is the best they can get. I'm steeling myself for my daughter's screams of "I hate you!" already.... but I know from my own life that if you have things handed to you then you develop a preoccupation with making sure the flow of economic support doesn't get cut off to the detrament of developing themselves as independant economic agents. -- Something they will need to be once I am no longer here, I must add. :-)

I went car shopping with my 16 year old son today. Of course he was drawn to all the rice rockets but then we came to a 1990 525i and he loved it. It's a red 5-speed with a straight body for $6990. What do you all think about these cars for as a "first car?" I know how safe they are and even though the 525i isn't going to win any drag races it does have good mid-range powwer.

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