Difficult situations when buying a car for a family member

I got my first car when I was 17, in 1986. My dad was not at all mechanically inclined, but I was a car nut from an early age. I was a typical high school student with some before and after school activities and a part-time job, so I needed a car to get to school and work. Public transportation in LA was a joke back then.

My mother didn’t want me using her car because my friends and I sneaking cigarettes made the car smell. My dad said I couldn’t use his car anymore after it came back with footprints on the inside of the windshield. So they made me a deal–whatever I saved up for a car they would match, but once I got the car it was all my responsibility. It was registered in my name only, I was responsible for all the maintenance and insurance. So I saved my money and the guy who ran the Texaco at the end of the street got me hooked up with a 77 Cutlass with 75,000 miles. $1500 for the car and it lasted me 3 years, when I sold it to buy a 69 Olds 98. And so it began, I’ve probably had 40 cars since then.

While we had a certain of number of students driving new cars the majority drove whatever mom and dad handed down to them. There was one family who gave the oldest son a new Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo (this was the 1990-91 school year) and the younger brother got dropped off in front in Dad’s Acura NSX. I didn’t start driving until senior year in 1994.

Our neighbor’s gave both their boys new cars but one as a new Ford Escort and the other a Ford Ranger in the late 80’s. My brother complained about the 1970 Datsun 510 wagon in split-pea green but i would have taken the car without hesitation. Sadly it was totaled before I got a chance.

A family friend bought a new Subaru Forester some years ago mostly to have something better for his teenage daughter to learn to drive in and she ended up driving it so much that he just gave it to her and bought an Impreza for himself.

Ooooh, comfy land yacht with a long wheelbase. That would be a very nice car to drive. :slightly_smiling_face:

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It has been 5 years since I watched that episode, it seems to have involved a trip to Davey Deals used car lot, joking around about the other cars on the lot, then taking delivery of a car that was likely searched for upon request and purchased from an auction.

The first time that I saw David from Davey Deals on the show he was pawning a motorcycle and Cory acted like he David was a stranger, that’s television.

When I was in high school there were over 4000 kids in the school. When I was a freshman, my class had over 1200. Very few of the 4000 had cars to drive, I would say fewer than 20. There was one family who owned a bar that bought both of their boys a car. The older son got a new 55Dodge Royal Hemi V8. The younger son got a new 56, 6 cylinder Plymouth Plaza. All the boys in the school were talking about the blatant unfairness shown to the younger son even though almost none of us had cars or even licenses bemuse if you only had a learners permits your parents insurance did not go up’. None of us saw the irony in our outrage.

I didn’t get a car until I was married with 2 children. I spent $20 for a 52 Plymouth that I saved from the junkyard. I don’t know just how many cars I have owned because in our family we offer each other cars at whatever true trade in value we are offered on the next one, so we have sold a lot of cars back and forth. I know I owned one Duster twice.

In high school in 1965 a friend’s dad owned the Ford/Merc/Lincoln dealership. He had an older brother and younger sister so there were three of them and we’d hook a ride from school downtown. The car they were given to use was a 54 Ford. So over ten years old. Nothing wrong with it except the heater didn’t work in Minnesota. They complained a little but said that was the best car they could get from their dad and hoped they could get the heater fixed sometime. No freebies. I guess it was a different time but not many kids had new cars.

Luckily, it worked in Michigan, and in Wisconsin, and in…
:smirk:

Well who knows? It never left the city let alone the state.

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So nobody here has experienced a car-dealership sales-staff incident where they attempt to play one family member against the other, implying that the one who’s interested in the lower priced model is being mean to the other family member who wants the higher price model?

No but like I mentioned before, our school superintendent went to the GM dealer and after discussing a possible sale, the guy told her to come back with her husband. Ha ha ha. She told the guy in no uncertain terms that she was buying the car not her husband. You really gotta give these folks a pass though-a lot of them are just not the brightest stars in the sky, otherwise they’d be doing something else.

If I am shopping for a car, I am there to look at a specific car, with a specific price in mind. I am not there to shop for something different/fancier/more expensive.

Sure you are, but then maybe you see something better you didn’t consider before. Many times I’ve gone in with a specific product in mind but after discussing it, end up with something else that is a better fit. That’s one purpose of having a sales person on hand.

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That happened to my parents. We went shopping for a new 1966 Cutlass Supreme. The salesman suggested we consider a 1964 Series 62 Cadillac hardtop. We drove it, and all of us loved it. My parents said they could never afford a Cadillac, then the salesman said is was several hundred less than the Olds. We bought it.