Do you make your teens pay for their car insurance? Their car? Their gas?
What do you make them pay for?

My sons are grown now, but when they got their license, they started paying for their insurance and their gas. They had part-time jobs and they loved the freedom of having their own money. They even bought their first cars.

Would I do it again? Yes, I would. I see kids driving around where mom & dad pay insurance, gas, spending money and they don't appreciate anything. I have friends whose children are out of school, not working and they STILL pay their car insurance! I don't see why parents feel they have to pay this for their children.

Yep my son is grown now but he paid for everything.

My DS is 19. We bought his first car for him. He pays for his own gas and any upkeep such as tires, oil changes, etc. We pay his insurance since it only went up 25.00 a month when we added him onto ours.

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Mom to Jake, Zach & Meghan
SJCC STREAKS FOOTBALL!!
CLEVELAND BROWNS FOOTBALL!

When our elder 2 first got their license we purchased the the cars, nothing brand new, but something reliable and safe, since they were needing the car to drive back and forth to their colleges and jobs. On the gas they paid with their money and the insurance in the beginning we paid. At this point my eldest is 23 now she makes her own car payments since she got a new car and she pays for everything. Ds 20 pays for his gas and gives money towards the insurance. Youngest dd will go have her road test on 6/25. We will do the same thing for her, buy the car and she will pay for gas and we will pay for insurance for sometime.. Peace. Catherine

Oldest pays his gas and his insurance (differential). We bought the (much used) car; its title is in my name. He did not pay insurance while he was away at college, because he didn't have the car.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Wow. I must be old. My folks would have laughed at me if I asked them to buy me a car as a teen. I didn't get my first car until I graduated from college. My parents bought it, but I had to pay them back. In essence, they kept me from having to pay for interest on a loan. I paid for the insurance, gas, and upkeep, of course. (Only I didn't know you had to change the oil regularly. I drove that car 105,000 miles and I think I only had the oil changed about 5 times, lol!)

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If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

I tell my friends that they can't afford not to buy their child a car. When my now 22 year old started driving he wanted us to buy him a used car. There was no way we could afford to do that so he drove the family car (mine). My car was a 1994 Thunderbird with everything on it. I don't drive very far so in 2004 it was still in great condition and only had around 50,000 miles on it. I loved that car. A week after my son turned 17 he was in a small fender bender on the freeway. It was stop and go traffic and everyone was going very slow. He turned to read a cross with a name on the side of the road when the car in front of him came to a stop. He hit it hard enough for the air bags to deploy. From the outside you could see very little damage. The inside was a different matter. The air bags alone awere almost $2,000 each. The car was totaled. Oh how I wish we had bought him a cheap used car.

Adding him to our insurance was an extra $100 a month. After the accident it went up another $50. We paid it. I have two other children 13, and 12 that will be driving and they will both have to pay for part of their insurance. I will also tie in grades to drive. They think it is unfair because their brother didn't have these rules, but I don't care.

My kids aren't old enough (thank goodness) BUT DH and I have discussed what we will do. We will let them use one of the family cars (our current family car most likely since in 3 years I'll most likely get a new one). We will pay insurance IF they maintain a good driving record. We will give a gas allowance to get to school or work. They will have to pay for the rest. If they get a ticket or accident to raise insurance, they have to pay for it after that point. I'm not paying inflated insurance. Unless we win the lotto, we aren't planning on buying them a car. They can get a job and buy one. Once they are out of school and with a job, it's all on them. I know people who still pay for insurance on their 25 year old who bums around at home AND gives him gas money. They live by a bus stop so you know what I would say "here's the bus schedule...good luck".

Of coarse everything might change in the 6 years when we actually have to make a decision about it

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

When my daughter got her license, we offered some money to help her get a car. She opted for a more expensive car than we could afford to help her purchase. We informed her that she would have to get a job and buy it herself. She went out and found a job that week (which she ended up working for about five years). She made her payments and paid all the fees, with the exception of her car insurance. As long as she stayed on the honor roll, we paid for her insurance. I think it was the smartest decision that her dad and I made in regards to her realizing she had to work for the things that she wanted. She was able to maintain her job, be captain of the cheerleading squad and stay on the honor roll. I know that there were many times when it was hard on her to see some of her friends driving around in nearly new vehicles and not having to work. Now that she is an adults, she realized the reasons we did what we did.

DD, 17, paid for 1/2 her car (1999 VW Bug) with savings bonds, we paid the other half. It is titled and registered to her. We pay for her insurance (over $2200 for the first year) She pays for about 2/3 of her gas. We pay maintenance and repairs. (her power window just broke to the tune of $300) She is just finishing her junior year. She has varsity sports, three clubs, an internship, CCD (now over). So she has not had a job, could not find one flexible enough for her to maintain all her other activities. She does babysit whenever she can, but all her regular kids are too old for sitters now. Do I wish she could paid more? Yes, but this is the way it is working out right now. Great news- she found a good summer job. She will definitely be saving some of her earnings towards next year's insurance. We haven't ironed out all the details yet.

We only have one of our sons driving right now (the other gets his temps in November). Oldest DS purchased both his S-10 truck and his Mustang. Since said child just got a speeding ticket, he has to make up the difference in the insurance for it. He pays for all his gas. (he has 2 jobs)