|
|
 |
KARS FOR KIDS [Be Sure To Read Kars For Kids II Click Here]by David Thornhill Thompson[This is a reprint of a newspaper column in which the author was asked the question, "What kind of a car would you recommend for someone going off to college for the first time?" Since this is the worst no-win question ever asked, we might as well smile though our tears.] Recommended Back-To-School Cars If you are a parent faced with the daunting emotional, physical and economic tasks of sending one or more of your kids off to school, far away from home for the first time, one of the things high on the list of issues you're facing may well be - what kind of car to buy them. This, of course, is not an easy question. There are good reasons for and good reasons against every possible choice. So let's start with the easy decisions first and then move on to the tough stuff. First Pass: Ask the Kid What He Thinks Now here is an example of the basics of child rearing. You want to make them happy. A happy child makes for a happy home (even though they won't be there most of the time anymore.) So why not ask for their first, second and third choices? I mean, one can't always have his first choice and that's an important life lesson for them to learn as they enter the real world. Then, after you've all gone off to look at the prices of new Corvettes, BMWs and Mitsubishi 3000 GTs, they can enjoy the additional learning experience of a "No way. Not a chance. Forget about it!" Second Pass: No Car Try to talk them out of a car for the first year. Some (sensible) schools don't allow freshpersons to have cars on campus, realizing that the first year demands a lot of adjustments to a new way of life and the distractions of car ownership (read escape) may be counterproductive. You could offer the incentive of a car in the second year in exchange for good grades in the first. Oh well, what the heck - never up, never out. Third Pass: Get Real Okay, so they're going to have a car. What should it be? There are three primary issues: initial cost, safety, and reliability. (This of course, totally ignores the teenager's parallel list of primary considerations - Is it sexy? Is it cool? Is it awesome?). Initial Cost Obviously, we're talking used car here. It makes no sense to send a brand new car to college so that it can sit in a crowded campus parking lot and depreciate while serving no daily transportation purpose. Get them a no-depreciation, no-worries used car. Safety Three words: Bigger Is Safer. You've read the insurance industry statistics. Here's the index of deaths by size (100 is average).
That's it. Get them something big. You also get a bonus with a big car. They are often slower - more safety. Reliability You don't want to be diagnosing your daughter's fussy-mobile problems by long distance phone and listening to what the local mechanic says it will cost to put her on the road again. That guy knows that she doesn't have a clue. He also knows if you can afford to send her to college in the first place, you must have money. Buy something with a good reliability record. And, The Envelope, Please If I were shopping for a back-to-school car for a college-bound freshperson I'd be looking for an eight to ten-year-old Volvo 740 station wagon. Four-cylinder tractor motor. Legendary reliability. Built like a truck. Costs $6-9000. Cheap to run. Cheap to insure. Comes in a great shade of yellow so it can be seen like a fire engine. Looks terrific in psychedelic paint jobs. Holds a dismantled single bed, a dresser, a desk, a computer and a lifetime collection of tapes, CDs and a player. That and some prayer are the best you can do. Get Real II That was the end of the original column. But speaking of getting real, elsewhere on this web site you will find the ugly truth about new driver crash statistics (they do it early and often) insurance rates for new drivers (big bucks) and repair costs (all interrelated). Seriously, does it make sense (no matter how much disposable income you have) to buy a teenager a brand new, expensive automobile to practice crashing with? Wouldn't it be a more effective parenting strategy to start with something simpler where neither one of you has as much money and ego at risk? Where you are reinforcing the principle of earning advancement by behavioral accomplishments and at the same time reducing the inherent risks (physical, emotional and financial) in the early driving years? Make that new dream car dependent on a pattern of responsible behavior in the "training wheels". | ||||||||||||||||