My 18 year old drives a brand new Prius. How wrong is that?

Uhhh what's the big deal here? It's not like she bought him a Porsche, this is a Prius. The III is a great car and everything but I'm sure his friends are driving Range Rovers or their parents' Mercedes or other far more expensive cars.

And even if she had bought the kid a Maserati, are you so emotionally stunted that you play out your aggression on a faceless Toyota messageboard? Deal with it, man...

 

Spoiled bum, lucky bum, or jealous X?

 

This.

Maybe you have issues with your ex-wife, but don't take them out on your son. Kids have a remarkable ability to live up to expectation even when that expectation is negative.


I don't think I would buy a brand new car for a teen, but that doesn't seem to be the issue here.

 

Ah fond memories...

Driving test car -- a 60 Rambler Station Wagon. I later discovered that shifting the automatic into reverse while driving forward will actually drop the driveshaft onto the road.

First car (a graduation present) -- an Austin America. Wonderful design for 1969 -- front wheel drive, transverse engine, hatchback; primary construction material -- cardboard.

First purchase -- a Chevrolet Vega outfitted with Firestone 500 radials. Bought after much reading in the car magazines. A fine car except for oil consumption due to rapid wear on the aluminum engine, body rust problems, and tire ply separation.

18 year olds vary a lot in maturity. Borrowing cleaning supplies is a good sign!

 

I think it was great she bought him the PRIUS, She is at least starting him on the right path of conservation and he hopefully won't be "Drag Racing" with it!

 

Yes, it was. Mine was silver with a black top, and except for that looked exactly like the one in the picture.

 

"At least he brought it over today to show off. And then wash it. With all my supplies. And then eat dinner here."

Geez-First you are happy your son shows up but then begrudge feeding him dinner and the use of your cleaning supplies??? Sounds awfully petty...........

 

don't project your anger for your ex-wife onto your son.



if he turned out to a good human being then why not help him out?


if he goes to college he will have on less burden.

he will be in a safer car.

and he can't street race

 

I found leadfoots comments tongue in cheek. Kind of like how mom's complain about their college kids bringing their laundry home.

 

Come on, he was obviously kidding about him eating dinner at his house and using his supplies and he never called his son a bum in the way you are accusing him of doing.

And yeah. He would buy himself a $30,000 car and not his son. His son is a grown-up now and he needs to work himself to buy HIMSELF a $30,000 car. That is the very definintion of being a father IMHO. You don't get handed things in life, and if it were my son and he understood that I wouldn't really have a problem buying him a nice car, but to say someone is a bad father because they would buy something for themselves they would not buy for their adult child is preposterous. My dad bought himself a $70,000 car when I was 18...should he have bought me a $70,000 car? I guess he was a bad father.

 

Doesn't matter. A caring father doesn't go on a public forum and make such statements where his son can easily see them especially now that he has a Prius.

The car is really irrelevant here. It's how he said it. To say he'd give him a "really old one" indicates disregard for his safety.

 

Seems to be a bit much. At least making him pay for the insurance would have helped teach concepts of cash flow to make monthly payments.

A car is a big part of a person's life and arguably forms part of their identity. The fact that he was so easily given one right at the beginning of adulthood is worrisome.

 

When I was around 19 or 20, I had a friend who was whining about how her other friend's dad bought her some fancy red sports car and how unfair it was that her dad bought her a Beretta. I was like spare, me, my parents didn't even buy me a car. I turned out just fine.

 

i'm old. my first car was a used 1974 datsun b210 hatchback. an aunt left us a little money so i decided to buy a used car an pay for the first years insurance with some of the leftover.


i beat the s**t out of that car. i repainted it, minor rebuild on the engine, destroyed a tranny and differential which my brother helped me get replaced (install). i "took out" a olds Delta 88 when a guy rear-ended me. only a strip of bumper rubber had to be ripped off on my car, his, major damage. it finally got "taken out" buy a amc hornet.

thank GOD i didn't get a new car.

thats' all

 

Baloney. I was given a brand new 1990 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 convertible at 16 years old and I assure you parenting plays a much bigger role than what is simply given. In fact, it's more worrisome if a person allows a car to take part of their identity to the extend that it influences all other factors in life (which is something that good parenting would prevent).

 

i wonder if helpsavemotherearth is his son in disguise??


both from CALI...hhhmmmmmm

 

I think it is great that this kid has a good, safe, fuel efficient car. Hopefully this is not an overindulgent mother buying the son's affections. Hopefully he appreciates it, excels in school and drives responsibly.
I think that kids who have everything handed to them generally do not fully appreciate the struggle that most people go through to make it in everyday life. We don't know from this post if this young man gets everything this easily or if the car is a big one time thing.
Let's hope it is a positive Prius experience!

 

It wouldn't be a PriusChat thread without having a few misinterpretations of the OP. :madgrin:

 

Now I have to question your parents' parenting .