New Cars for Graduating Seniors?

Editor-in-Chief

Road & Track just published their list of 10 Cool Cars For Graduating Seniors. Ok, so maybe I’m jealous cause my parents never bought me a car, but the idea of some parent buying their kid a brand new GTI as a graduation present just seems absurd. My advice to parents getting ready to buy their kid a $15k to $30k ride is this: give them the cash and let them figure out what to do with it. Or better yet, celebrate your new found empty nester freedom and put that money toward a ZR1 for yourself.

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Posted at 7:52 pm in Rants, Road & Track

Comments

blackraven
May 4, 2008 at 4:33 am

Parents buying cars as graduation gifts? Wow, that must be nice… However, all it teaches your kids is that you don’t love them enough to let them fend for themselves, and in turn, build character. I worked for my first car, a used Ford Crown Victoria. When that car died, I bought, with my own money, another used Ford Crown Victoria. I paid my way through college & have been working at a very decent job for a few years now. When the Crown Vic was getting close to death, I bought an ‘07 Mustang GT. Out of all those I know who were “given” their lives by their parents, I’m doing a heck of alot better then they are as I’ve learned how to work, and work hard sometimes, to get where I want to be.

If you’re thinking of buying a car for your graduating senior, it would be much wiser to get a used Toyota or VW and invest the rest of the money in a “slosh” fund for when they move back home after dropping out of whatever party school they end up getting into.

A Bengals Fan
May 3, 2008 at 6:41 pm

I’m not really sure what to say about this. I already know for a fact that I’m getting the Voyager for my first car. But I’m not complaining. I am a reckless teenager, and I wouldn’t even trust myself behind the wheel of a Mercedes, let alone a ‘78 Trans Am, as Jeff said. And also, who knows how beneficial a minivan could be for driving friends around in? And as a plus, it probably won’t be broken into when I go off to college.
-
Of course, I would love it if my parents were to buy me even the most beat up Corvette (I can dream) or Camaro. Of course, I try hard in school, and would have to earn it. But I would still take the van as a daily driver, especially during these salty Wisconsin winters.

retroman
May 3, 2008 at 5:34 pm

You have more pride in your ride when you earned it with no help involved. I’m just a college kid, and I own three cars now and not a one of them was given to me. I’m especially proud of my Spirit R/T, which I only paid $2000 for and in many ways is alot nicer than some of the cars my parents owned and paid more for. Maybe someday when I have kids of my own, I’ll buy ‘em a Shelby Mustang or something like that, but that would be if they keep a clean record and after they got a job and scraped together enough to buy $700 piece of junk and then make it they’re own.

Jeff
May 3, 2008 at 4:14 am

Ya, you would think thats crazy, BUT… as a fresh graduate of our country’s finest public school systems, and a fresh enrollee at NTI, you’d be surprised. There are people in my graduating class getting BMW 330i’s and Mercedes Benz’s. One kid even got a 1978 Pontiac Trans Am, Fully Restored. Those kids get hated on A LOT though, no-one seems to like them, and as a kid that has a truck with over 300k on the clock, when your old truck draws more attention at open shop day than a brand new 2008 Mustang, I have no respect for those kids. They have never had to earn anything…unlike some of us. Just my little piece of knowledge from this part of the world
-Jeff