Drove By A High School Parking Lot Today

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
I have noticed this as far back as 16-17 years ago. The student parking lots are full of newer cars. Did all parents suddenly get rich or suddenly get stupid? I do not understand the reason for this and I am being serious. Whatever happened to buying your kids a "used" car?
 

Oooh I couldn't agree more, I've been saying this for quite a number of years now... kids with brand new cars..who is paying for this?.. Student loans, bank of mum and dad ? what crazy parents are adding teens with a brand new vehicle to mum and dad insurance.. surely they can't afford their own?
 
Kids with part time jobs making $15.00 bucks an hour have quite a bit more purchasing power than I did when I was that age.

It could also be an optical illusion, all cars look new to me these days.

Or it could be that the cost and complexity of fixing a modern car these days is so high that it is actually cheaper to take on a payment for a slightly used program car than it is to drive an old beater and deal with repairs that can run into the thousands.

More power to 'em, I wish I could have had a new car in high school!
 

Just slightly off topic. A friend of mine lives in a nice Condo not far from a large University that has a very large International Student population (Asian/Chinese).

Not only are these students living in fairly luxurious surroundings, but the parking lot is full of their high end cars, Mercedes, Audi's, BMW's, Range Rover, Lamborghini.

They all wear designer clothing....nothing but the best never mind attending one of Canada's top University's.
 
fmdog44 said:
I have noticed this as far back as 16-17 years ago. The student parking lots are full of newer cars. Did all parents suddenly get rich or suddenly get stupid? I do not understand the reason for this and I am being serious. Whatever happened to buying your kids a "used" car?
Click to expand...

Or better yet, telling them to get a part-time job and save up for a car.
 
My dad bought a used car for $100 for me to drive late in my senior year in 1965, mostly because I had to pick various younger sisters up from their schools and deliver them to activities after school. It was a 1955 Dodge station wagon with a "police interceptor" engine. I couldn't have been happier to have a car to drive than if he had purchased me a Corvette (OK, I lie.......I would have been happier with a Corvette).

Fast forward 20 years later when my next-door neighbor's spoiled brat is shrieking because she's not getting a new Mustang convertible for her 16th birthday, just an "ordinary" new car.
 
I always had a good used car for my girls while they were in school. When my oldest graduated from pharmacy school, she wanted a brand new, red, T Bird, I worked at a dealership then. My boss let her buy one at cost plus 10% when she graduated. Eckerds hired her at $100,000 a year the day she graduated so she could afford it. She loved that car and drove it until it could not be fixed anymore!. She appreciated the fact that I did the best I could as I was a single mom working 3 jobs without child support to help her do better than I did. It helped that I had a boss that let me buy a used car from the dealership and financed it for me so she could go back and forth to college. I should add this child worked 2 jobs every summer to earn money to go back to school in the fall. No loans back then.
 
First the car, then the house, then all the toys, then debt they will never be able to repay, then bankruptcy. The way of today.
 
When I drive by a high school parking lot these days I notice how locked up it is. When I went to high school I could get in my car and drive off campus anytime I wanted to. Not that I did because I was an innocent kid back then (cough) but that option is no longer there for them. So I don't notice the cars in the parking lot but I notice how much innocence has been lost these days and how grateful I am that I was able to live in a time when the parking lot always had an open gate.
 
When I went to high school the parking lot was full of bicycles. Only teachers had cars and not all of them.

You didn't even lock them up. Some were stolen but that was rare.

Bike theft now is an epidemic. You don't dare leave your bike unlocked.
 
I can think all the way back to World War II, when I was in school. We walked or rode our bikes to school, and the distance was such that it would never be done today. Yes, there is a lot of truth to the belief that we were the "can do" generation
 
Growing up I got a quarter a week for the household and garden chores I did.

Kids these days don't do chores, but get all the money they want(on demand) from their parents.

Times have changed.
 
n brown...My daughter's 14 year old does chores around the house...She is in sports but still helps Mom around the house....When we go there to visit, she is the first one to greet us and when we
leave she takes us to our car and she opens the car door and gives us both kisses and hugs....Her brother, doesn't do as much as her, but he has a job now, he will be 17 in April....And he also
is a Baseball player...But he is a respectable kid, greeting us and hugging us when we come to the house and when we leave....I also have 2 grandkids from my son, and they were good with
helping us whenever we needed them, we live 2 blocks from them....They are older now, but are always calling and helping anytime we need them....The both of them had jobs when in High School...
And, they don't get money on demand....Yes, times have changed, but if you bring up your kids to be respectable and close to family, they will grow up to be great in whatever they do...
 

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