CharlesTheHammer
Bluelighter
When I turned 16 in 1984, my Dad sold me his 1978 AMC Pacer on a payment plan, but it had problems, so I gave it back and spent $400 on a 1974 Mustang II hatchback(white), with a 4cyl and fat rear tires on aluminum slots. But the front fender mounts at the bottom were rusted through, so whenever I went over a bump at speed, the fenders would flap up and down like the car was trying to fly! 
Then in mid 1985, I traded the Mustang II in on a nice 1978 Cobra II with a 302 and 4 speed stick, which I got a loan on for about $3500 after the trade in value of the Mustang II, and it had big blue racing stripes going over the hood, roof, and hatchback, and down the sides. I loved the car, but I had to pay for it and insure it myself.
Most of my friends also had to buy their own cars as well, with the exception of my friend Steve, who's father gave him his old tiny Toyota pickup, which was about 10 years old. So nobody had brand new cars, and really nobody had even fairly expensive used cars either. Most of us liked US cars from the 60's, and eventually most of us owned a few of them within a few years of turning 16, although you could get them cheap in the 80's.
There was one girl I went to school with who's parents had died in an unfortunate car crash when she was younger, so she was raised by her grandparents. Then he grandfather died when she was about 20, and he left her a 100 acre horse farm with race horses, and a huge, beautiful old farmhouse. Plus lots of money, so she was suddenly very wealthy at 20, and she bought a new Nissan 300zx.
I also had another friend who's family started out as hard working, lower middle class parents, with one kid(Howie), and then his grandmother died, leaving his parents with LOTS of riverfront acreage along a river on the upper Chesapeake bay, which wasnt worth much money back when they originally purchased it in the 50's, but in the 80's it was worth a fortune! All the sudden, his parents go from being struggling lower-middle class to wealthy overnight...So they then decided to start giving their son Howie all of the things they couldnt afford to give him before....... Like whatever cars he wanted. So at about the same time in 1990, when he was about 20, he found a 1987 Nissan 300Z(the last year of the old 'Z' body style before the new 'ZX' came out), then just about 2 weeks later, they bought him a hot rodded white 1964 Chevy II with a 425 hp 350, auto, and a 6" snorkel scoop.
The Chevy II was supposed to be the garage kept every-once-in-a-blue-moon driver, alongside his parents new 1969 yellow SS396 Camaro with black stripes, and the 1987 300Z was the every day driver car. However, even though the Nissan was only 3 years old, and only had about 28,000 miles, it immediately began having all sorts of mechanical and electrical problems. To the point that it was in the shop being fixed(at parents' expense) most of the time, so he had to drive the '64 Chevy II all the time(and it never broke down!) Eventually he finally got tired of all the breakdowns with the 300z, and git rid of it and drove the Chevy II everywhere.
The other night, I was watching "Pass Time" on the Speed channel, which is a show where the 3 contestants are standing at podiums beside a dragstrip, and they must guess the et's of each car that goes down the track with only a little knowledge about each car. Then they have races where instead of one car, there are 2 running against each other, so they must guess the combined et, plus guess the winner of the race.
Anyway, 2 cars pulled up, and both were new Nissan GT-R's. One was slightly modified and the other had more performance modifications. Thing is, these cars each have a base price of $90,000, and with the modifications, they costed about $100,000 apiece. Crazy thing was, both owners were no older than about 19......
So how does a 19 year old afford a $100,000 sports car? Whats more baffling, is what parents would spend that kind of cash in the first place, but also these cars ran mid - high 10 second quarter mile times! What parent would buy their son a car that fast and expensive, and pay the exorbitantly high insurance cost for it?
Also, in the new Hot Rod, there is an article about the fastest street cars in some racing class where you must drive the car 1000 miles, race it, then drive it home. One guy has won 3 years in a row, running high 6's! Another guy is competing against him, and he has a potential high 6 second car, but he has also built a potential high 6 second street legal Chevy powered Honda Civic for his son! Apparently, he has also built and bought other super fast street racing cars for his son......
Did your parents buy you a new car or a nice used car when you were young, or did you know anyone who's parents bought them expensive cars?
Could YOU justify spending that much money for a car for your kid, let alone a car that fast and potentially dangerous?8)
Then in mid 1985, I traded the Mustang II in on a nice 1978 Cobra II with a 302 and 4 speed stick, which I got a loan on for about $3500 after the trade in value of the Mustang II, and it had big blue racing stripes going over the hood, roof, and hatchback, and down the sides. I loved the car, but I had to pay for it and insure it myself.
Most of my friends also had to buy their own cars as well, with the exception of my friend Steve, who's father gave him his old tiny Toyota pickup, which was about 10 years old. So nobody had brand new cars, and really nobody had even fairly expensive used cars either. Most of us liked US cars from the 60's, and eventually most of us owned a few of them within a few years of turning 16, although you could get them cheap in the 80's.
There was one girl I went to school with who's parents had died in an unfortunate car crash when she was younger, so she was raised by her grandparents. Then he grandfather died when she was about 20, and he left her a 100 acre horse farm with race horses, and a huge, beautiful old farmhouse. Plus lots of money, so she was suddenly very wealthy at 20, and she bought a new Nissan 300zx.
I also had another friend who's family started out as hard working, lower middle class parents, with one kid(Howie), and then his grandmother died, leaving his parents with LOTS of riverfront acreage along a river on the upper Chesapeake bay, which wasnt worth much money back when they originally purchased it in the 50's, but in the 80's it was worth a fortune! All the sudden, his parents go from being struggling lower-middle class to wealthy overnight...So they then decided to start giving their son Howie all of the things they couldnt afford to give him before....... Like whatever cars he wanted. So at about the same time in 1990, when he was about 20, he found a 1987 Nissan 300Z(the last year of the old 'Z' body style before the new 'ZX' came out), then just about 2 weeks later, they bought him a hot rodded white 1964 Chevy II with a 425 hp 350, auto, and a 6" snorkel scoop.
The Chevy II was supposed to be the garage kept every-once-in-a-blue-moon driver, alongside his parents new 1969 yellow SS396 Camaro with black stripes, and the 1987 300Z was the every day driver car. However, even though the Nissan was only 3 years old, and only had about 28,000 miles, it immediately began having all sorts of mechanical and electrical problems. To the point that it was in the shop being fixed(at parents' expense) most of the time, so he had to drive the '64 Chevy II all the time(and it never broke down!) Eventually he finally got tired of all the breakdowns with the 300z, and git rid of it and drove the Chevy II everywhere.
The other night, I was watching "Pass Time" on the Speed channel, which is a show where the 3 contestants are standing at podiums beside a dragstrip, and they must guess the et's of each car that goes down the track with only a little knowledge about each car. Then they have races where instead of one car, there are 2 running against each other, so they must guess the combined et, plus guess the winner of the race.
Anyway, 2 cars pulled up, and both were new Nissan GT-R's. One was slightly modified and the other had more performance modifications. Thing is, these cars each have a base price of $90,000, and with the modifications, they costed about $100,000 apiece. Crazy thing was, both owners were no older than about 19......
So how does a 19 year old afford a $100,000 sports car? Whats more baffling, is what parents would spend that kind of cash in the first place, but also these cars ran mid - high 10 second quarter mile times! What parent would buy their son a car that fast and expensive, and pay the exorbitantly high insurance cost for it?
Also, in the new Hot Rod, there is an article about the fastest street cars in some racing class where you must drive the car 1000 miles, race it, then drive it home. One guy has won 3 years in a row, running high 6's! Another guy is competing against him, and he has a potential high 6 second car, but he has also built a potential high 6 second street legal Chevy powered Honda Civic for his son! Apparently, he has also built and bought other super fast street racing cars for his son......
Did your parents buy you a new car or a nice used car when you were young, or did you know anyone who's parents bought them expensive cars?
Could YOU justify spending that much money for a car for your kid, let alone a car that fast and potentially dangerous?8)
:-( ........................ I wouldn't buy a new car for me or my kids. I've seen some used cars I'd love to have, so that's what I'd get them. But not until they move out - high school kids are too immature to own cars, unless they build it or buy it themselves.![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
