Driver's Ed: When Kids Start Asking For The Keys
Driving is the ultimate mixed blessing.
Cars permit us to zip around most American cities in a way no public transit system ever could. We rely on them to go to work. To do our shopping. To see friends.
But owning a car is also expensive. For most of us, a decent chunk of the money we earn goes to pay for our wheels. Once we start driving, we begin to lock ourselves into a more expensive lifestyle that requires us to earn more money.
These same forces are at play when our kids start driving. It's a big step toward making them into full-fledged adults early -- for better and for worse.
Two of my three children have hit the driving age with very different outcomes. Now, my youngest child is 17, and he's eager to grab the wheel.
My views on driving were shaped growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s in Southern California. Only a handful of kids at my high school had their own cars. The rest of us walked or rode our bikes to school, or maybe we got a lift with someone when we were seniors.
Still, most of my friends got their license when they were 16 years old. Many of them already knew how to drive years before they got a license. Not me.
The first time I got behind the wheel was in driver's education at my high school. I thought I was doing OK, until I forgot to use the turn signal, and my instructor went ballistic. Things pretty much went downhill from there.
My father taught me how to drive a year later, and I got my license at 17. But I've always been somewhat indifferent to driving. I do it, but I don't love it.
Our eldest child, David, didn't start driving until age 17 either. But we gave him the aging family sedan halfway through college, and he bought himself a used car when that one gave up the ghost. He grew up mainly in Texas and loves driving.
Our daughter, Mariana, went to high school in New Jersey, a state that often seems dedicated to making driving difficult. She passed a driving course while a teenager, and has had learning permits over the years. But she's never gotten a license.
So our one family has produced two different young adults. David can drive anywhere he wants to for work or pleasure. But he needs to earn enough to afford the car.
Mariana is more limited, being a nondriver. But not owning a car means she can live very cheaply. After graduating from college last year, she snagged a junior job at a publishing company in New York, the perfect city for life without a car.
She lived with us in New Jersey for several months to save up money. She just rented a place in Brooklyn with some friends. Most people would have trouble living in Dallas on her salary, much less New York.
But Mariana's basic costs are about $750 a month in rent, food and a monthly subway pass. That's pretty much it. I think that by really watching her pennies, she'll be OK.
Now comes Brendon, our 17-year-old. He wants to start driving this summer. We live in a small town where teenagers still tend to walk around, and we're right on a train line into New York City. So Brendon doesn't see himself becoming a regular driver anytime soon.
Even so, it won't be cheap for us. I talked to James Bell, editor of IntelliChoice.com, a Web site that specializes in the cost of car ownership. If you buy your teenager a car, something I've never done, Mr. Bell puts the cost of car ownership at roughly $500 a month, plus insurance. And that's for a used car.
Even if your kid drives only your car, Mr. Bell calculates it will cost about $200 a month in extra maintenance (kids are often hard on cars) and fuel. Insurance, again, is on top of that.
The expense of Brendon's driving will be paid by us in the beginning. But eventually, it will be all on him. So if he wants the benefits of driving, he's going to have to bear the costs.
Call it a mixed blessing. |
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