Boggled at the notion of Kristin being wildly unpopular and mostly ignored or scorned.

Aww. Thanks sweetie. I was just an awkward kid who was a little too smart and a little too outspoken to fit into the twisted world that is pre-teen social life. Besides, it was the 80's. I really never got the 80's, and it felt the same way about me.

Luckily, I was high school during the early 90's. Grunge fit me a heckuva lot better than the "material girl" 80's had. Plus, I discovered theatre! Nothing like finding drama jocks and realizing you've found people as weird as you.

Huh.

Lee, if I had known all of this before you bought yours, I would have tried like hell to talk you out of it. I hope you haven't had the issues that so many of the people I see do.

Nope.

Other than the money to install my ipod, the only money I have spent on my car in the past 2 3/4 years was $5.00 to get the oil topped off, and that was just because it needed doing when I couldn't get to the dealership. Well, and at the car wash, and several of them have been done for free by the dealership.

Yeah, I was sort of prepared it for to be over a hundred, but I didn't want it to be close to two hundred. Plus the parking ticket. It's just...it can't POSSIBLY cost that much.

{{P-C}} Getting towed sucks. I got towed because I was parked in a snow zone. And there was no snow. Chicago tows even if there is no snow.

I got my car the very next day, but between the ticket and the tow fee, it was $250-plus. I believe the "storage" fee was $100/day and I didn't even have to pay that since I retrieved it so fast.

I'm glad, Lee. You seem to be one of the few.

What kills me sometimes, is how much of the work IS warranty stuff. No cost to the customer, except time, effort, missed work, etc. I don't get it. I don't get why so many things go wrong with brand fucking new cars. Sepcially ones that cost $50k.

I test drove the vehicle and it handled nicely, but I still thought that my big old Ford conversion van was better for hauling a half dozen basketball players around. But I figured since the dude game me a nice test drive I would sit down and see what the numbers were. He was such a jerk. Treating me like he was doing me a big damn favor to give me a price on the car. I'd be lucky if they had one available. They are always $$$ over sticker because of supply and demand. I let him know, politely, that his demand was just one less now, not to worry.

No doubt my boys will drive. I managed to get around without a car, but they don't seem to be as adventurous as I was with the bus schedules and bicycles. I surely won't be buying them a car. DH's dad paid a downpayment for him and he then had to make payments and pay his insurance. That seems reasonable. They already know they have to learn on my standard transmission. No shortcuts. I have a couple years yet before I deal with it. I bought my first car, DH bought his. Sorry boys, if you don't pay for it with your own hard earned bucks you won't treat it right.

Huh. My parents just bought a BMW. (They were going back and forth for years about whether or not it was OK to buy a German car -- for some reason, this year they decided it was OK.) So far, everything's been OK, but they've only had it for about a month.

I was amused by the little icon next to the cup holder showing not to put a wine glass there, and the diagram inside the trunk showing how to fit in four golf bags.

My parents bought me my first car. 1977 Pntiac Bonneville. They paid for the PLPD insurance and that was it. Gas was my responsibility and it was the first thing yanked from me if I fucked up. Which, I did.

We plan on making our kids save for their own cars. We'll try to match what they saves, so that they can get a decent car, but a $50k car for a 17 year old? Fuck that. Hilton ain't my last name.

I did not get a car. Had to borrow from the 'rents if I needed (which was not terribly hard in the evenings, usually, but meant I did not get to drive to school or anything--also, luckily, my sister was younger enough that she did not have her license til I left for college...would've been battles, otherwise!). I had friends who got cars (though most had to share with siblings), but it was generally "my parents have a 15 year old beater that they've been hanging on to because they knew we'd be old enough to drive ourselves around soon and then they wouldn't have to", rather than "my dad bought me a car" kinda thing.

That said, given how much cars cost (even cheap ones), I can't imagine requiring my kids to pay for a car payment and insurance, surely that's gotta be like, $500 a month? Dunno. My parents also didn't make me (or let me) work a job in high school, figuring I had schoolwork and shit. Which was good. (Could've/did have jobs in summer)