My Daughter's First Car - Chevy Cavalier Z24
Daughter Has First Fender Bender
My daughter has had her car for less than a month. Today I came out of work to find her in the parking lot waiting for me. She came with a family friend.
She admitted later that she worried about my temper, my possible reaction to telling me the bad news about her first accident.
She backed into a small metal pole. No damage done to the pole, just her bumper. She misjudged the distance while looking out her mirror. Quite literally a fender bender.
She's driving a white Cavalier. It's a pretty little coup - the sports version - a Z24. The Camero's little brother.
I was happy to give it to her for her sixteenth birthday.
Now her little white sports car is just a little less pretty, a little less perfect. She could fix up the damage for around five hundred dollars.
In fact if you squint your eyes you really won't see the damage. Still I know it's there.
Not enough to report on any insurance claim since it would cost me a bundle in increased premiums.
Meanwhile - My Vehicle Is Literally Falling Apart
As I continue to make payments on My daughter's car I wonder when I'll ever get the chance to buy a newer car for myself.
I'm driving an old rust bucket that is quite literally falling apart. I wouldn't want to make a list of the broken, and not working items on my car - as I'm worried someone would probably tow my car off for scrap.
I gave my daughter the newer car to drive since I didn't want to risk her life having her drive the junk which I drive everyday to and from work.
I wanted my daughter to have the thrill of driving a nice looking sporty little car at an age when that's about the most important thing in life - other than premarital sex.
I Dedicate Myself To The Purchase Of A Newer Car - For Myself!
This little experience has decided for me that I will buy myself a newer car.
I was going to pay off a few bills first, but that's always been the reason I never bought a car for myself in more than a decade.
In a few months I'll have my daughter's car paid off, and when I do I'm going to buy myself a car!
Yes, that's what I'll do, or at least that's what I'm telling myself tonight.
5 comments:
Ha - my daughter totaled my car only 8 days after she got her license. Then she got a speeding ticket. Then my insurance reached stratospheric heights. Brats.
I showed my daughter this blog post. She was a bit concerned. I edited it extensively based upon those concerns.
I am at heart a wimp I guess.
She didn't like your use of the word "Brats", but secretly I'd say you hit the nail right on the head.
Kind of funny when you think about how within two years at age eighteen a person is supposed to actually be an adult.
Which is a real good reason for college - as it gives a person four to seven more years to learn, and grow.
I'll digress, I saw a news story which showed some seventeen years olds that were in Iraq. Their parents let them join the Army, and they're in Iraq, but they're not allowed to serve in Combat until they turn eighteen. So they spend their days on base doing duty, and play a lot of video games.
Just waiting to turn eighteen so they can join their buddies in search of the terrorist.
I just can't see my daughter in that place, or any place like it in a year.
JP
You deserve a newer car, JP. I last bought a new car in the 80s and that was only at the insistance of a wife that I've since "Traded in" on an older but better model.
Our "new" car is a 97 with 150K miles and the "old" car is a 93 with actually fewer miles. Sure, we pay a reliable mechanic a few bucks now and then, but it's WAAAY less than a car payment. Obviously neither car has a payment associated with it. Oh, and both are Mercedes.
If you are shopping check out the Mercedes repair shop on S. 6th. He's got some good deals on used ones sometimes.
Now, about the kids and cars. I've got 5 grown kids. Never bought a car for any of them and only co-signed twice. We usually had an "extra" old car or truck around so there was one for them to use if they needed it, though.
I didn't get my own car until I was 20 and paid for it myself. I survived somehow, although I'll admit that it was a different time back in the 60s.
My first car was the exact same as your daughters'. It is a 96 z24. I bought it myself when I was eighteen. I graduated early just so I can get a job and buy a car before summer began because I knew that was my last summer before college where I would be stuck at home for the next four years stressed about homework. What I think is that everyone should do is buy their own first car. That way they really value and take care of it because they know how hard they worked for it. My car is very troublesome it acts very weird at times.I dont know if it is because it is stick shift. At times when it is going fast it accelerates with out me pushing the gas pedal or it starts choking and doesnt want to accelerate when I shift gears and other times it just drives perfectly.Does anybody else have these sort of problems because I've a lot of people have told me that chevy cavaliers are very troublesome cars.
ochoi01:
I like the Z24 despite what my daughter has done to it. She's damaged it much more since this post was written. It makes me angry how she has treated the car, but it made me understand that I won't be buying her a second car. She can do that herself.
JP
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