wow kids got 4 rides and he wants another sheesh , i had a bicycle and a junk honda 350 go figure i was deprived
yep you did your duty as a dad you got him a car and if he wants something else let him sell it and get something he want but you started him off with a cool car from the get go one day he will regret selling the model a I wish I had one in H.S. want to adopt me......
Wow, thanks everyone for all your opinions, suggestions and offers to become my son! To be honest he did kick in all of his savings for the Blazer ($800) and I picked up the rest. He needed a car to get back and forth to school & sports and the Blazer fit the bill. it was my choice due to type (able to hold his stuff) . He does love the Blazer and takes great pride and care of it. When I gave him the Model A for his 17th b'day I had all intentions of it being a joint project. He thinks he's mechanical but now I think the A was to much of a challenge-so I made the mistake. The Merc was a good buy at the time and he did think it was a cool ride. He knew it would be a limited driver when bought. He gets a lot of looks and comments and enjoys the attention it gets. He got into a great intern program with a gov't agency as a senior still in H.S. and is making good money for an 18 year old. He will graduate in June and hopefully will be hired on full time at the job. He will also go to comm. college part time while working. The job may pay for tuition if the grades are good. He's really got it made; still living at home with mom and I footing the bills. We are fortunate that we can afford to do so. He does save some money mostly for things he wants and I've told him to save a big chunk for a down payment on a newer car with more safety features. I'll sell the Merc & the A, recoup my outlay and give him what I initially paid for the A body as a start for the downpayment. Problem is the tuner he wants gets about 22 mpg and with the cost of gas going thru the roof (it's over 3.50 a gallon for high test around here) he will be spending all of his earnings on car payment, car insurance & gas with very little left over. I've tried to tell him to think of a more economical car but he's a teenager with thoughts of drifting and speeding down the highway. He's also on my insurance and if he gets a speeding ticket and he will be dropped. Insurance on his own could be as much as 5K a year. So I'll ask him to read all the comments and hopefully come up with a solution. Thanks
Tell him to get a job and pay you back then he can sell what ever he wants to buy whatever he wants or listen to my Dad (below)
You should adopt me and become a second father. I love your car! I've seen it often at Jalopy Showdown, Burtonsville, Glen Burnie etc.. Anyways, sounds like he likes to bounce around with different projects like my friends used to do in HS. If it's his car, tell him he can sell it. He might regret it but, lesson learned. Sounds like he just goes in an out of phases. I went from tuner, to a lowered S-10, to classics. Don't think I'll stray away again. This is my home.
My kid did the same but we finished the car. 66 Bel air then he wanted a truck got him a truck.Then he wanted a car so I had a car for sale then a truck. But he is a good kid and if he keeps getting good grades I don't care if here wants some car or not. He drives a Olds wagon now and loves the hell out of it. He is 17 also
I would have killed to have ANY project car with my dad. When I was just a tiny boy (<1 year old) my dad sold his 36 chevy and his motorcycles to pay for my mom to go back to school. He has not had the chance to get an old project again. That being said, he was the coach of my hockey team for years, and we definately did have good father/son bonding time like that, but now I live 2400 miles away from him and my mom and it looks as though we will have to wait until he retires to have that chance at an old project again. Tell your boy to count ALL his blessings.
I'm close enough to drive down in a few hours. Give me a good deal on the model A and solve all your problems......
Let him earn it. I got a junk car ($500) when I was sixteen, it was a gift but it wasnt much. Worked my butt off. I was proud of what I got done but it still looked like crap lol.
Your son is very fortunate to have you for a father. Remind him that being on your insurance policy is both a blessing and a HUGE responsibility.
Tuner car my ass. My Dad would have kept or sold the merc and the A and told my ass to walk or drive the blazer.
If he has the Blazer, he has a daily driver, what does he need a tuner for? The Blazer should be capable of decent milage too. What it sounds like is the kid can't make up his mind what he wants. So what if the A is a big challenge? Thats how you learn.
speeding down the highway and drifting??? why the hell couldnt he do that in the A or the merc. it would be a hell of a lot cooler than some purple and green splashed plastic piece of shit with neon lights all over and a whales tale hangin off the trunk! my kids ever bring home a tuner the tow truck will be on its way!
I'll be in the same situation soon. I think it will be more practical for my daughter to have a newer (+/- 10 years) car, but the cool factor is definately up on the older stuff. When I look at how I treated my first car(s) and the funds I had to work with, I'm glad I had POSs! She will be at least partially fundering hers, and I want her to learn about debt, expenses, driving, without making either of us crazy. At that age, there was no way I could afford/ maintain 2 cars, so my driver was it. It had to be the most practical, reliable, etc. It sounds like he has that with the blazer, let him learn with that and save the other car and or $ for a better time.
tell him to sac up and drive the merc. something he can drive every day? is the merc not a daily driver? i say help him figure out how to make that car reliable and let him drive that. then punch him in the throat for thinking about getting a tuner car, like my dad would have done for me.
You must have a big tree with alot of $$$ growing on it. I would make him drive the blazer being alot safer than a tin can ricer , and there wont be any room in the civic for his gear AND that stupid a$$ exhaust note! anyway....If you do HAVE get him a tuner go German not Jap
Adopt a 55 year old, my wife wants to know how cute Mr. historynw is!!! She's listening to all these comments as I read them aloud to her. (she's not deaf just sitting across the room)
I spent over 3 1/2 decades of my life teaching automotive classes in 4 different high schools, each with different socio/economic demographics. I saw loads of kids who's parents bought them the car they (the kid) wanted that week. Kids always change, it's their right-they are kids. I also witnessed loads of kids who had to earn all the $$ to buy their cars, as well as kids who built their own cars with their own sweat. My experience, consistent over those three plus decades, is that kids who wrecked cars were invariably the kids who did not pay for their own cars. Over 30 years, I have witnessed numerous tragic and terrible stories of kids who died within a month of their parents buying them a car. The saddest was the son of an auto shop teacher I taught along side of who gave his kid a car that the father built; the son subsequently died trying to slalom it through an angled railroad underpass. Sadder stories were when the kid took out another life besides their own. Kids who have their own sweat equity in a car, either through earning the dough to buy it outright or through building it, always drive it differently. To borrow from a popular media campaign, here's something else to consider: The lessons learned along the way while earning the car? Priceless.....
If he wants to get a 'tuner' so he can go 'drifting' down public roads, you should have a few of the highway patrol cops and local paramedics stop by and show the two of you some pictures of what was left of some other kids after they had the same genius idea....
Let him drive the Blazer and buy the Tuner himself. I beat the crap out of my 64' Falcon even though I paid for it myself. Its part of the learning experiance to see how fast you can send a car around a corner, do burn outs, push it past the redline once too often, etc. I say let him get that out of his system before he screws up rare cars that are hard to find. Trust me, I wish someone had done that to me.
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