[Mr. iNCREDIBLE]

it was a joke to a point. . I'm a firm believer that your first car for your first year of driving should be a POS beater.. you need to learn to handle the vehicle and traffic first, you will most likely get into at least one fender bender in that time, the odds are stacked heavily against you.

it's just common sense.. learn to drive on a crappy beater then when you have some experience you get something nicer, because at that point you will have gained some respect for the vehicle, the road, and hopefully other drivers.

My first car from 16-18 was a 1968 Ford T-Bird, grant it did have a 429CI motor, but the car was 5,600 pounds of steal, In my first two years of driving, I was rear ended twice, and t-boned, plus someone took a shot at the car, a .22 cal bullet was stuck in the steel in the drivers side quarter panel, and a nice near perfect circle chip of paint around it.

none of these accidents were my fault, but it did give me some insight as to the vehicular world around me, had this been anything other than a $400 beater I would have been SOL on a car and pissed beyond belief.

When I was 18 my father and finished building a 1978 Trans Am (started when I was 15, bought the car for $1000 at a police auction and put $7,000 into restoring it, body, interior and new 454ci motor).

My Trans Am gave me some great memories in the build process with my dad, thru my USMC tenure, and until I was able to buy myself a brand new vehicle on my own.

just something to think about.

plus if you have $12K and spend $3-$4k on a beater civic or something, then in 2 years you will have a trade in car plus hopefully have replaced the money spent on it, and have even more to get something you want..

Just my take on it.


and BTW my 19 year old niece went thru the same thing, she drove a 1994 for Taurus Wagon for 2.5 years and saved $16K for her first new car, and bought a year end left over 2011 Malibu for cash.. She trashed the hell out of that Taurus, hitting curbs, backing into a tree, forgetting to put water in it and over heating it, driving 10 miles on a near flat tire because she wasn't aware how a flat tire feels, just came home and told me the car is driving funny. I can go on and on with similar stories from other teens in my neighborhood and that she went to school with, the bottom line is @ 16 you have no experience in driving or vehicles and really need to learn before getting something too nice.