The above was from 7 years ago, lol. Horse keeps coming back to life apparently.

 

Generalizations are rarely any good..

 

Stereotypes. This thread uses all of them.

 

Even at 4% interest, it doesn't keep up with the average inflation of the last 50 years. That 250k you accumulate in 50 years will be worth the equivalent of 33k now. It'll be barely enough to buy a car.

 

I'm 21 years old. I said it was a good general statement to say that people under 25 shouldn't own one. This opinion is based solely on finances. Most people that age aren't fiscally sound enough to own an "impractical" car. I was extremely lucky to land a job that pays me more than well enough to dump my '97 Honda Accord which was costing me more to keep it running for a 350z. Could I have saved the money? Sure. Did I need to? No.

 

I think the biggest argument is that young drivers are stupid and drive recklessly to impress their friends, not that they/their parents can't afford it.

 

I definitely agree with that as well. I did some incredibly stupid things with my Honda. When you're 16/17 you don't value your life or your property. Now some 5 years later I have been forced to do some real maturing and luckily I don't find the need to show off or impress anyone. If I ever choose to do some "spirited" driving, my passenger seat is always empty and I'm in a safe place with nobody around.

 

Absolutely.

I was only kidding, by the way. If anything really needs to be changed, it is the driver education system. Kids need to learn more than just how to operate a car. They need to learn how to control a car at its limit.

Just knowing how to drive doesn't prepare you for losing control of your car at 65 mph or having traction fail taking a corner in the rain.

 

That's silly to blame "kids" for not knowing how to operate a vehicle at it's limit.

I assure you that 95% of all drivers on the road will have no idea what to do if they start oversteering or understeering into a railing or tree respectively.

It's easy to call everyone else a n00b once you've have a few seasons of autox/hpde under your belt.

 

Did you even read his post? Where did he blame kids for not knowing how to operate a vehicle at it's limit?
He said drive education needs to change. Not kids. Then you basically rephrase his last sentence, then you act like he is calling everyone a n00b.

 

Pretty much this.

I don't think we adequately educate our kids on how to operate a vehicle. I received no training on how to drive in the rain, how to control a slide, or the general physics of driving. How many kids know what happens when you hit the gas before exiting a slick corner? Or what happens when your car's weight shifts if you let off the gas partially during a curve?

I learned which pedal was which and that I shouldn't speed. That's pretty much it.

 

But I think the people who know how to do that are a minority and that the people who do know how either have lots of experience on the road or learnt it by attending advanced "training" like HPDE. People don't normally learn that stuff in their life time.

I'm willing to bet most of my friends have no idea how to do what you described above except how to drive in rain/snow because we have that here year round.

 

My point is that they should.

Would you sell someone a handgun and just show them where the trigger is?

 

My list has been quite a random one. i've been alternating between new and used since i started driving

94' Toyota Celica (used)
2006 BMW 330i (new)
2003 Infiniti G35 (used)
2009 Acura RL (new)
now looking for a 370z (used)

 

It depends. 95% of 17 year olds are immature and that percentage drops every year they get older. Financially the Z isn't a huge burden. Just depends on the maturity of the driver. Everyone speeds in the Z, it's simply what it was designe for, but how smart is the driver when speeding?

 

I got my Z for a graduation present when I was only 18, before I ever even had a job. I never did anything terrible with it. I did have a small suv before that though, so it wasn't my first. Having said that, I was still immature at the time, and looking back at my mindset back then, I'd say that it comes down to the parents that buy the car for the kid more than any other factor that decides how safe a decision giving a kid a Z will be. Due to my parents, I was pretty reserved individual when it came to being irresponsible.

Unfortunately most parents that would just up and buy a sports car for a kid's first major responsibility have not prepared their kid to drive it with some responsibility.

 

When I was 16 my parents bought me an 01 Lexus ES300, really really nice car for someone at 16, spacious and relatively safe.

Drove that until I was 18, worked and saved up money and bought myself an 03 Z about halfway through my 18th year.


Halfway through 19, and I love my car. Paying for it myself and going to college, its all in how responsible you are.

Most kids at 16-21 don't need a car they don't know how to take care of. Unless you buy it yourself, you shouldn't own one.

 

I am 27 and have been though 5 cars, I tore up my first car at 16 and completely destroyed just about everything on it and I blew up an engine on my second one although the that one was a complete accident, but point is Im glad I didnt have a fast sports car at 16/17, I would probably be buried under dirt right now, or floating around as ashes if my parents felt cheap.

 

Hmm i think iv worked my way down then back up?

1985 Corvette (first car 16, sold for skyline parts)
1994 R33 Skyline (18 years old, wrecked at the track after 3years)
1996 R33 Skyline
1986 Toyota Corolla (still have as track car)
2004 Ford ranger (ick never again, just sold for the z)
2005 350z

 

ddd