My dad taught me to drive when I was 12 because my mom was pregnant with my sister and he was in the Army, and he worried she'd need to be rushed to the hospital while he was off doing military stuff... thankfully it never happened, but I learned to drive in a big '85 Oldsmobile Delta 88, rear-wheel drive with a 350 V8 on gravel roads... what a blast! He taught me how to properly apply gas, how to correct from a spin, etc.

At 14 I took rally driving lessons at a school in New Hampshire.

I got my first car at 17; it was a 1986 Saab 900 SPG, turbocharged and all that wonderful stuff... my dad and I rebuilt it and modded it (as much as you could mod an '86 Saab that is) - Koni suspension, bigger turbo (iirc it was a GT35) and intercooler, valve job, etc. It was a fun thing to have for a first car, and it was at least as fast in a straight line as my S2000, if not faster, and not bad in the turns either considering it was FWD, though the torque steer was pretty bad. My parents' contribution to me getting the car was dropping me off at the guy's house in Rhode Island and that was it. Paid for entirely by me.

I never put a dent on that car. Not once. Other people did in parking lots, but I babied it. However, if I had been a dumbass - and I was more than once - and had been unlucky, I could have killed or maimed myself just as easily as I could have if I was in an S2000 at the time.

One time I was standing in line to get into a club in LA, and some middle-aged guy pulled up in a brand new Maserati convertible. Everyone was gawking; he was in the opposite lane of traffic and stopped in the center lane with his signal to get over... rather than do a U turn, he laid on the gas and did a burnout to try to look all cool, like he was going to powerslide into the valet stand... instead, he powerslid literally INTO the valet stand, sent everyone running, and completely obliterated the passenger's side of his nice new Maserati.

Although people tend to mature with age, IMHO, maturity is just as much a personality trait as it is something aquired with time.

 

You summed up my thoughts exactly.

 

when i was 18, i was on my second car.

my first car had been a 1990 lude that i bought for $800. when my friend got a 93 lude with vtec, it made my car look so sh*ty, so i sold it for $1500, and bought a 94 lude vtec, sorta one upped him, for $2200. both paid for by me. since i have been driving, i have paid all my expenses: gas, brakes (that i instaled) tires, insurance, etc. the only money i ever got was for gas when i would go pick people up from places or drop them off, and they would give me a couple bucks as a thanks.

meanwhile, i saw other kids driving their new bmw's and merc's that their parents had bought them. not i'm not saying that i never broke the law, or had a bit too much fun, but it was always done where i could see what was happening, what would happen and that there were no pedestrians. through my driving i never got one ticket, even to this day, no accidents, and i have never even gotten pulled over now that i think about it...

i think that buying your own car, especially your first car is a must for all people, especially men... it makes you care about the car that much more, and respect how expensive everything is.

some kids will be responsible and some won't, you'll know when you get next to a riced out little civic, and he revs over to you trying to get you going through the middle of rush hour traffic and you'll either choose to have fun, or you'll do the responible thing, only time will tell.

the only bit of it that i care about is that if you are going to have " too much fun" that you do it where no one but you can get hurt, and if you do crash, don't tell us about it, cause we will just say, i told you so...

 

:hugs:

 

The fact that you can say this shows you have no clue. You think you're smart, good for you, and let's hope you really are. But tell me, has crime rate by kids gone down? Has car accidents caused by kids gone down? Fck no. In fact it's dumbass kids out there that make the insurance policy and driving rule more and more strict.

 

i agree and say
as time has changed kids have actually gotten stupider


but i think, in a way, that by us even being on this board.
showing this much interest into a purchase we want to make, shows some responsibility.
buying a car without knowing what your getting, thinking your cool in it, and then later wrecking it would make you stupid.

but by coming onto this forum, learning, spending countless days reading about problems, threats and such shows a bit.

 

^ wouldn't say gotten dumber, just more ballsy, cause now a days, you can't beat your child, can't really even punish them without society thinking that you are a monster...

and by beat, i don't mean like with a 2x4, but a good spanking...

the lack of dicipline has caused a generation that doesn't respect their parents teachers and in general all adults. and it they don't respect adults, they never will respect a car, or anything else... this coming from some one being 25, so really age wise i fall into that category, but i was raised right...

and by right i mean, had to do chores, be responsible for things that i did, and not being able to have everything that i wanted. from my experience, if the parents give into all the kids wants, and all the kid has to do to get something is throw a fit, it ruins the kid and makes thm a little brat...

 

[quote name='s2000freak23' date='Jan 9 2009, 12:18 PM'] I am 17 and I worked for this car...I am paying for it myself....I love this car, I drive it with a passion, I take care of it and try learning alot about this car from you guys...This thread was about how special we are of owning this car....The people who said that teenagers who have this car are "stupid", arent being fair because you are thinking of us as immarture and dont know anything...time has changed and kids are smarter and a young age...ever since I owned this car, when I see other S2ks' I saw hi and simile at them....I dont disrespect the car or anybody who owns it, but then people who disrespect us for owning it at a young age are very immature...You should encourage us and help us learn about this car and things we should expect in our path of owning this car

 

Ever play that game Brain Age?
I think that's what matters most.
--No, not the IQ or solving simple equations at a certain speed, but on the boards -- as in the real world -- it's how you hold yourself: how "wise" you are. I've seen a few individuals on this board who post intelligent, thoughtful, or at least amusing comments, only to find out later on some other thread that they're much younger than I had expected.
I've also seen individuals who say they're a certain age, and then crash their cars at the dealer before buying (LOL). Just because someone is 21 or even 30 means that they're any more mature than someone of your age. It just so happens that with age comes experience -- experience that forces one to realize his or her own unimportance.

To tell the truth, it's not the fact that you're seventeen, or that your parents bought your car for you, or anything else that sets me a little uncomfortable with your post to be the first one to reply and say "relax"; it's that you felt the need to defend yourself in the first place. Hmm, that probably sounds a little off... but let me put it this way: three years ago (I'm 20 now), I wouldn't have wanted to disclose my age on a forum, talk about how I paid for my own car, and complain about those who don't.

In fact, I did do both those things (which means that I guess that now that I'm 20, I broke my own rule), but rather than showing us what-can-be-perceived as an insecurity, be humble and proud on the inside. =)


On a side note: roughly 50% of teenagers before the age of 18 will get into a major accident or total a car. It's probably an old statistic, but there's definitely no lack of totaled cars among high schoolers -- no matter what the car. Just because of one's knowledge about handling cars is great doesn't mean their judgment is. No, I don't mean street racing/speeding/etc., you just learn (with experience) how to handle certain situations presented to you.

Yes, btw, I totalled a car before I was 18 -- that I paid for all by myself, and thought I was mature enough to handle. =P

 

Oh yeah, while people will often say "it's the internet not school," proper grammar is always some sort of a "must" among forums. It just makes your posts easier to read, and thus harder to ignore.
Or should I say it's the other way around? I find myself ignoring replies without periods.

(If you don't capitalize, it's okay.)