Got my 17 year old son a car today for his birthday.....

[Mr Revhead]

At the end of the day kiwi4agze knows hi son. Has an idea of what he can or cannot trust him with.
Shit we don't even know under what conditions he gets to drive the car!
I personally know of one TS member who got to drive his dads race car to school! And yes he took me for skids in it!

[malc]

I feel bad as you all think the car is rubbish and he would be embarrassed to drive it.

don't feel bad, I would be more than happy to be given one of these
I reckon it looks decent, and am sure it goes well too.
I think it's 190ps/140kw the V8 version is 190kw

[Garreth27]

Personally I'm of the opinion that if you earn something, you have greater respect for it as it has value to you. Not to say that everyone is like that, but I often see teenagers with cars given to them (whether it is by parents, or easy loan sharks), and they have very little respect for the vehicle.

Fully agree. My first car was a 85 2dr holden barina. Paid $500 for it from my savings I got from working at Burger King. I loved that little car, paid for the stereo and sounds etc and kept it in tip top shape. Same has been done for every other car I've owned and basically everything else I own cause I got nothing when I was younger as my parents couldn't afford to give me anything while living back in SA so I learnt to cherish any and everything I got.
In saying that, I'm the type of person that if I was given a 12k car when I was 17 I would of still looked after it really well because 1. I wouldn't want to wreck it and 2. I wouldn't want to dissappoint the Olds.
Guess it comes down to the parents on how well they know their kids and whether they trust them. Well thats my 2c anyway

[tiny2009]

I had a Rover once (Tomcat, please don't hate me), it cost me more in parts than the initial cost of the car. Was super fun when it wasn't broke.

Get your son to bring this along to MM? This way you can prove that:
1. It can make the trip from Auckland to NP without breaking.
2. Your son is not a spanner and can handle the car
3. How many KW it puts out at the dyno day
4. It does mean skids

But seriously, did you buy this for your son or to bootleg that brew of yours?

[Alex B]

Its not as powerful as a commodore or a ford falcon which most kids in aussie learn to drive and use.

its only 190kw, not even as much as a stock WRX

Wiki tells me it's 140KW, AKA 190BHP. 10 more KW than my 1800, good job.

[kiwi4agze]

140, is that it!! thats sad..
Really only 190ps.. oh well

[Alex B]

Guess you need to find a V8 front cut....

[cogent]

stock wrxs are slow as balls.

[kiwi4agze]

140kw is ok, thats like a commodore... Plus the cars a decent size inside, has a good body, looks amazing, has a 5 speed manual with lsd diff.

I guess he will have to live with 140kw... Pitty a land rover Defender was 180kw!

Oh BTW, he will drive it to and from school and is allowed out on a saturday from 7am till 11pm. if he breaks these rules the car is gone.

Cogent.. dont you have iphones to molest??

[mr_monkey]

Hahahhahahahahhahahha. Another reason to laugh at cogent.

[DRFTIN]

whats the problem with cogent? stock wrx's are slow as balls

[samlloyd]

Old cars as first cars are key.

I miss mine

[duddley]

Isn't it only 10pm on your restricted?

140kw is ok, thats like a commodore... Plus the cars a decent size inside, has a good body, looks amazing, has a 5 speed manual with lsd diff.

I guess he will have to live with 140kw... Pitty a land rover Defender was 180kw!

Oh BTW, he will drive it to and from school and is allowed out on a saturday from 7am till 11pm. if he breaks these rules the car is gone.

Cogent.. dont you have iphones to molest??

[rollaholic]

dont get me wrong, i would have been thrilled to get something like this as my first car. i had a triumph TC2500, which i thought was the greatest thing ever (mainly cos my dad had owned one and always raved about it) took me what seemed like forever to save up the money for it.

it also made me popular as $&#$%, cos none of my other mates really had shit.

course in those days i didnt know a thing about what it actually costs to own cars, or frankly even what a dollar was worth.

i can understand the desire to give your kids everything you never had. but at the same time hasnt what you have gone through made you the man you are today? two sides to a coin i guess.

i dont have kids so not really qualified to comment (im going to anyway of course, this is the internet!), but IMHO the role of a parent is to equip their kids with the skills to make their own way in the big bad world. then again like revvy said, we dont know the boy.

[Mr Revhead]

dont get me wrong, i would have been thrilled to get something like this as my first car. i had a triumph TC2500, which i thought was the greatest thing ever

Farking coooool car!

[fevil]

Gave all my kids a car (x5), nothing special on the understanding it was one time only and they had to get a job. It was all good.

[kiwi4agze]

yes you are right its 10pm.

[MAGN1T]

My first car, I saved all my money from my first holiday job, ($2.13 per hour) my parents made me put it in the bank as compulsary savings. When I had enough, I bought a 64 Zephyr. I never even crashed it but had lots of near misses and it got modified to death. I fact I've still got the car.
It's probably now worth 10 times more than what I paid for it.

Steve

[d1 mule]

looks absolutely terrible

fixed

[Adoom]

Dad bought me my first car when I got my restricted(in 97-98). A 1275GT mini clubman for $1300. It was great, had WAY better handling than any of my mates cars. I had to get a job to pay for petrol and half the maintenance costs. Once I left school I had to pay for everything. Had that mini for aaaaaages.