Is it common for an American high school student to own their own car?
Posted by ApprehensiveDisk8046@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 929 comments
Just as the title says. Is it common for them to own their own car? Also is it common for high school students to drive from and to schools? This culture seems to be very shocking!
Do most of them get a new car? or a used one?
parkz88@reddit
I live in the sticks and my dad gave me his old car then got the truck he really wanted. Cars ment freedom and I think my parents liked the time together.
Mother_Boss_8148@reddit
My kid got a very cheap, junky car at age 16. We live in California in a place where public transit is not convenient. So he has much more freedom to work, be with friends, etc. if he doesn’t have to depend on parents to drive him (when both of us work). We don’t even buy new cars for ourselves; we found someone selling an early 2000s car for $500. I grew up in the Midwest where everyone I knew had access to a car (even if they didn’t own one).
JayRen@reddit
I owned my own car. I had the money to buy one at 16 because I’d been working since I was 14, but a family friend had a project car he was never going to get to so he sold it to me for $1 and I spent my money getting it repaired. 1978 Mustang II. It wasn’t a fancy muscle car, but man I loved that think. Such a great car for a high school kid in the 90s.
Character-Tennis-241@reddit
My parents were wonderful to me and my siblings. They bought reliable 10 -12 + years old vehicles which we were allowed drive to school, part-time jobs, friends homes. We did not own our own vehicles until we were over 18.
Beginning-Bedroom-89@reddit
I would imagine it varies by region. When I was in hs, most of us had a car/truck and we all owned it outright. They weren’t necessarily brand new cars, most of us just had hand me downs or cars we managed to get for cheap off someone.
TheFlannC@reddit
I think it was more common when I was around the age I got my license. I bought a car when I had about 2 months is high school left. Others had begun to drive their junior year. I just turned driving age the summer before senior year because of when my birthday fell
SpecialistBet4656@reddit
Usually the parent owns it, or if the child has significantly contributed to the purchase, co-owns it. Even used Cars have gotten insanely expensive and having the parent on the title is typically required to insure a teenager’s car on the parent/household policy. Individual car insurance for a teenager is extremely expensive.
Plastic_Stable8927@reddit
Most everyone I knew either got a used car, or didn't have a car. More with a used car than without.
Few rich kids got new cars in highschool, but that wasn't the norm in the late 00s/early 2010s, and I can't imagine it's any moreso the norm now with cars costing $40k for a normal family vehicle off the lot.
PrettyBaby000@reddit
yep for sure! i grew up in a super wealthy town and most of my peers were given a car either for their 16th or for getting their license. we all drove to school, and about half had new cars vs used cars. i think in other places more people get used cars
wytewydow@reddit
In 1988, I got a used 1979 mustang for $500, I was 16. 99% of the people I went to school with were in a similar situation
FriendlyConfines23@reddit
I’m in a suburb of a southern city, and many (but not all) teenagers own a used car and drive it to school. This was the case for both of my (now-adult) daughters and for many of their friends.
NunzAndRoses@reddit
My parents bought an old Honda for like $3000 when my older brother got his license, that MFer ended up running for 18 years until it finally died last spring
Ok_Jackfruit2612@reddit
By looking around at my friends, neighbors, and colleagues, I would venture to guess that around 30-40% of high schoolers will be gifted a car from their parents or grandparents. Those cars are almost never new, almost always used, and the kids usually have to have a job so they can pay for their own gas and insurance.
So, no. I don't think most high schoolers have a car, much less a brand new car.
hawthornetree@reddit
I see everything from a new sportscar and nice SUVs to barely-functioning beaters in the HS parking lot where my kids go to school. Logistically it's very common for there to be a car shared between several teenagers in a family that isn't rich - otherwise a parent has to drive them and pick them up. Note that in many areas there's next to no functioning public transit, so maintaining cars is a requirement to get groceries, etc. and for the most part every adult will have access to a car.
A driveable beater car (that's going to be constant work and hassles) costs less than a month's rent.
callatecabezon@reddit
Usually parents bought it but the teen essentially owns it and will be given the title after high-school.
WonderfulProtection9@reddit
Very common. Not every student chooses to or has the means to; but plenty enough do to call it quite common. All four of my kids drove once they were old enough; basically their junior and senior years. They mostly drove old family vehicles.
RedditWidow@reddit
High school students are usually under the age of 18, so they don't own the car. Their parents, the legal adults, own the car and allow the student to drive it.
And not all high school students have a driver's license, it depends on the state. Some states you can start driving as young as 14 or 15, but only under certain conditions, while others you have to be 16 to 18 before you can drive.
Whether they get a new or an old car depends on their family and their finances. New cars are expensive to buy and to insure. Auto insurance is required in most states, and is expensive for teens because they are not experienced drivers.
Why is it shocking?
NickElso579@reddit
Own their own car or just have a car they can use? Because the latter is pretty common once you get into the middle class tax brackets and above but generally speaking, it's Mom or Dad's car on paper. My first car at 16 was just my dad's old car that he kept around for me to use eventually, and then I got my own vehicle that was in my name a few months before graduating but most of my classmates that had cars, it wasn't technically theirs.
Different-Post-5569@reddit
Ditto with u/norasharpe on it depending on location. However, I would be quite surprised to see a highschooler that individually owns a brand new car. I'd wager that most students have a used car that their parents own that they hand down/purchases for them. It's also not super unusual for a student to save up to buy their own used car.
cautioner86@reddit
I live in an area where it is quite common for high schoolers to have brand new cars but their parents can afford it. Of course, I wouldn’t say that’s common nationally, but it does happen in certain areas.
sundancer2788@reddit
Retired teacher, senior parking lot had newer and more expensive cars than the teachers lot. Kids brought in pamphlets picking out their new car for their 17th birthday a few months prior. Mercedes, Audi, Landrover, etc. Wasn't all students but the senior parking lot had 200 spaces and about 70% were brand new cars. Senior class was about 500 graduates and they needed a driving partner. They could only park every other day
randomjeepguy157@reddit
I’m a teacher in one of the wealthiest areas in the country. I had a student this year get a Porsche SUV for her 16th birthday. That level of car pretty uncommon but the amount of Audi, Lexus, Jeep, and Broncos driving around is crazy. Most every student has a nicer car then I’ll ever own. My own children go to a school where the majority of students don’t have a car at all though.
Aggravating_Fig_8585@reddit
You must be a nice area. This is not common.
madogvelkor@reddit
Yeah, it's definitely dependent on the school and area. I lived in a pretty middle class area and only a few kids had brand new cars.
It's similar at colleges too. I had family working at a small private university that had a lot of wealthy students, the student parking was fully of new luxury cars. Though that was just the kids living off campus, on campus students weren't allowed to have cars.
creatyvechaos@reddit
My high school literally shrunk the parking lot in favor of another field because so few students had cars lmfao. And this is in an area I've heard was considered somewhat middle class in Bellevue, Washington. Everybody mostly bussed (public transport or school bus) or walked. I'm sure plenty of kids had a car—I sure as hell did and I was raised in a poor household—but we just didn't take them to school with us
jakeryan970@reddit
Im familiar with that city and a “middle class area” in Bellevue is still very much upper class (not upper middle class) compared to all but a few zip codes in the entire country
Kushali@reddit
Depends on where in Bellevue. The area near cross roads is different from the Cougar Mountain area.
But yeah, overall Bellevue is high income.
ThanosSnapsSlimJims@reddit
Unrelated, but I saw Bellevue, Washington and was reminded that Bu girl just got devalued by 764 million. Last week was a rough week in Bellevue
ForestOranges@reddit
At my university anyone could have a car, but you had to pay and the freshman lot was just further away. A parking pass was like $50 for freshman, but at a bigger university in the city a freshman parking pass was $500, or ten times as much.
Aggravating_Fig_8585@reddit
Yes. We had one rich kid who moved to the school and had a new really nice car, everyone else had used.
One college I visited had luxury cars all over. The university I ended up going to did not. Although there was (again) one kid who had supposedly bought himself a new corvette.
Punisher-3-1@reddit
I have this routine of stopping to get myself an energy drink of Friday mornings as a little reward to myself for almost making it through the week. I stop at the gas station across the street from the high school my kids will go to. It’s fantastic to people watch there because it’s absolutely filled to the brim with a sociological experiment.
Every morning about a third of the patrons are Hispanic men, day laborers, driving 30 year old trucks and towing the lawn equipment. They are there to get ice for their ice chest, filling them up with water and energy drinks, getting a breakfast taco, probably already drove an hour to get there and it’s the last stop before driving into the neighborhoods where they will be proving lawn services, pool cleaning, and or construction repair etc.
Then the bulk of the patrons are high school kids getting loaded with energy drinks before going to school. The most common car for girls Id say are Porsche Macan, new BMW 3 series or C class Mercedes. One girl drives a G wagon in a nice mate silver. Most of the boys have really nice trucks, older Range Rovers (I presume parents hand me downs), occasionally new corvettes, and a few Porsche Caymans. Interesting observation is that most of the kids with the nicer cars are also the athletes.
Then the other chunk are nurses getting off the night shift (the gas station is also next to our towns hospital) who always look miserable in their blue scrubs and commonly drive mid size SUVs.
It’s funny a funny Montey Crew of folks lining up to pay but we are all united by our addition to energy drinks.
ThanosSnapsSlimJims@reddit
My best friend has two Porsche Carrera 911s and doesn't drive either. He refuses to drive anything but his Subaru coupe from 2014-ish
mpls_somno@reddit
Used cars are expensive af right now though aren’t they? I drive an old used car I bought a decade ago so I’m not really up on things. I’ve heard people are buying new though because you can’t find affordable used cars anymore. Me and my friends bought shitty cars for less than a grand at that age but that was thirty years ago.
dgmilo8085@reddit
Pretty common here in southern CA
Aggravating_Fig_8585@reddit
Cool. Things are clearly different on the coasts.
DanMojo@reddit
It's common in my area, and it doesn't do good things for the kid's entitlement! When I was growing up, hand-me-down cars were more common than fantasy sixteenth birthday presents.
Youcants1tw1thus@reddit
Affluent areas are very common actually.
sundancer2788@reddit
Not the most expensive area but definitely HCOL
RandomPaw@reddit
There’s a posh area outside Chicago (I think it was Barrington) where the parents not only bought a new car for their high school kid but they bought a house near the school to give the kid a place to park. Not kidding.
CoolStatus7377@reddit
Buying a house in the school district also let you register your kids at the high school, if you were out of district.
loweexclamationpoint@reddit
The other unusual-for-the-US side of that story is that rich Chicago area parents in districts like Barrington and New Trier send their kids to public high schools. In many cities they'd go private. In Louisville, for example, those kids and their new cars would be at Trinity or, more likely, St. X.
elphaba00@reddit
I was thinking of Barrington after I read it. One of my friends dated a guy from Barrington. He said he’d drive to campus in his Honda, but everyone else was in high-end cars - Audis, Mercedes, BMWs
Another friend of mine went to a dealership in Barrington a long time ago. She had been driving the same car since high school and wanted a new CRV. So she went to the Honda dealership nearest her, which was in Barrington. They sold all the high-end brands and Hondas. She remembers the sneer in the salesman’s voice when he said, “Ohhhh, you want a Hondaaaa.”
2whatextent@reddit
Country boy here. Only 1girl had a new car at our school. Everything else was used, and usually well used.
sundancer2788@reddit
Tbh that's the way it should be. Older vehicles until new drivers have some experience especially in bad weather.
FeelingDelivery8853@reddit
They're just gonna total the first one anyway
sundancer2788@reddit
Lots do for sure. We made a deal with our boys, we'd pay all expenses except fuel as long as there were no chargeable accidents or moving violations until they were finished with university and settled in a career
LouisRitter@reddit
City boy here and it was actually pretty similar for us too. Almost zero new cars, all were used and some were really rough. The big thing at our school were sports cars with subwoofers. Fast and furious 1 came out the summer before our senior year so in pretty sure that influenced car choices, along with a spot in town everyone called "the strip" where they high schoolers would drive around showing off their cars, meet up in parking lots hundreds deep and all that. It was like takeovers but more subdued, not stolen cars and breaking the law.
Icy-Mixture-995@reddit
Sounds like California when we lived there, and seniors had yearbook photos taken with their cars.
Copper-Alchemist@reddit
New York or Los Angeles I would expect.
I'm from a little farm town in Indiana. We had a few kids that were "spoiled" with parents or parent that had more money than they knew what to do with. I can recall 4 or 5 kids driving Cutlass 442, Nova with a tunnel ram, 68 Chevy pickup, small block swapped Camaros... But most had beaters.
xx-rapunzel-xx@reddit
that’s a big class!
i live in a high-income area and i remember a lot of my peers driving expensive cars. not sure if they were brand new but def. in good condition.
According-Couple2744@reddit
That was a running joke at my children’s high school. We could tell the difference between the student parking lots and the teacher/faculty parking by looking at the cars. There was one kid whose father allowed him to drive his dad’s Ferrari to school the day after he was accepted into the college. It is quite a sad commentary on how the teachers are treated and compensated.
sundancer2788@reddit
As a retired teacher I 💯 agree
According-Couple2744@reddit
It’s kind of a middle to upper-middle class new money area. Everything is new. The schools are so nice, no one bothers to send their kids to private schools. My husband bought our daughter a convertible BMW to drive to school. I wasn’t in favor of it, but he still did it.
hshd_shshs_581@reddit
There are areas where teachers should be paid more. It’s a bizarre proclamation that people having nicer cars than them is some kind of “sad commentary”. There’s no real reason teaching should be so lucrative that well off families wouldn’t have better cars.
FlyByPC@reddit
Go Saxons?
sundancer2788@reddit
Nope, Braves, Colonials, Mustangs, Rebels, Patriots and Cougars. 6 high schools, 48% of Monmouth County NJ
otbnmalta@reddit
Wow. Ocean County here. Most of the kids in Toms River had used cars.
ReadyDirector9@reddit
I had a student who came in complaining that Daddy took her car away, and she would have to drive a jeep to school for a week! Meanwhile, I’m driving my second-hand Buick…
Big__If_True@reddit
Having a driving partner is crazy. Since you said senior parking lot I’m guessing underclassmen couldn’t drive at all? That’s even more crazy
sundancer2788@reddit
Big schools, 2k+ students so no, underclassmen can't park on property. Seniors must have a driving partner to get a permit to park on school property. My district has 6 high schools, about 12k students total. It's a high school only district covering over 200 square miles. 8 sending districts that cover PreK to 8th grade.
CockroachNo2540@reddit
That’s insane. I went to a private high school with some of the wealthiest kids in Houston and 95% of the cars were hand-me-down family cars. A lot were top end brands, but almost all were 10+ years old.
Sounds like your community has more money than common sense.
sundancer2788@reddit
No doubt about that.
penni_cent@reddit
This. Even my extremely wealthy, out of touch friend had a used car. He used to always complain that his corvette was gasp five years old.
Pudix20@reddit
I wouldn’t say this is the norm everywhere but it’s also worth noting that for a while it really wasn’t cheaper to buy a used car. I’d say things are slowly starting to return but they’re really not the same. I haven’t looked in a few years but the last time I looked it made absolutely no sense to go used especially when they’re making things less and less repairable now.
That said, it doesn’t mean a 17 year old needs a brand new luxury vehicle. Parents are trying to make their kids happy and kids think they’ll be happy out-flexing each other.
Particular_Bet_5466@reddit
Well that was not the case in my highschool.
tzeentchdusty@reddit
Yeah I went to a high school that had a small quantity of very wealthy people, a moderate quantity of middle and upper middle class people (when the economy was strong enough that there was a middle class) and a very large quantity of people living at or below the poverty line. The kids that owned their own cars were the hyper wealthy that didn't have jobs who socially dictated their own sub-lot of the student parking lot, and the other group who owned their own cars were people who came from genuinely poor families but who had worked in auto shops and were making way above minimum wage doing so.
Most kids who used cars didn't have unfettered access to them and were borrowing from a parent or a relative. So lots of like family cars that fell out of use when the youngest kids were in high school type thing.
Personally, I drove my mom's 2005 Toyota Highlander that i paid her a little less than blue book value for (i had a commission sales job selling running shoes lol) that i drove until this year when I had to make the gut wrenching decision to donate it to be scrapped, finished out with about 386,000 miles that I had put on it myself and man, it was hard to let go haha.
dgmilo8085@reddit
Welcome to Orange County, where the 16 year old gets a brand new Tesla for their bday!
dizzyspellzzz@reddit
Garch
Technical-Tear5841@reddit
In 1968 I went to high school in a mill town, many senior boys worked at one of the local mills. The senior parking lot was full of Mustangs, Roadrunners, and Camaros.
Rock-Wall-999@reddit
I live in one of them and though my kids got hand-me-downs, or used vehicles, many of their friends got brand new!
o93mink@reddit
Rich people: they exist but it’s best not to mention them on Reddit.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
When we see movies with high school kids they’re usually rich kids. At least they were in the 80s!
turdferguson3891@reddit
Or at least upper middle class. All those John Hughes movies had kids living in leafy suburbs of Chicago.
Legitimate_Bat_6711@reddit
Bah! Andie and Ducky were broke as hell. Bender probably was too.
turdferguson3891@reddit
Well yeah there always some poor characters too but usually they live in a place where they are going to school with rich assholes.
ben7337@reddit
Isn't that kind of true of most TV/Movies or most since like the 80's onward or maybe even sooner? I feel like all movies out there have teens in huge and/or luxurious homes and always with new or newer cars.
Ok-Office6837@reddit
Yeah my hometown was split. Some kids had brand new cars, some had used ones. No one really cared what kind of car you drove. We’re a walking district so if someone had a car, you were probably kissing ass to catch rides lol. We also don’t have public transit there in general
WhatABeautifulMess@reddit
Right so that’s not a high schooler independently owning a brand new car. Even if it’s completely in their name if their parents contributed to down payment and/or monthly payments that’s not the kid buying a car. And they would almost certainly be on family’s insurance while living at home, or even off at college.
cautioner86@reddit
I mean sure, but OP didn’t ask how the ownership came to be, just that it happened. My ex got a brand new car as his first car in high school, from a trust fund that was his money alone, not his parents’. So make of that what you will, but OP didn’t ask about the source of the funding, just if it happened.
MechanicalGodzilla@reddit
Yeah, I owned my own car in HS, but it was very much a used car. Bought it in 1996, a 1982 Mustang for $200 from someone in the neighborhood.
Auntie_Venom@reddit
Mine was in 1993, an 82 Escort. $250 with a salvage title. My dad rebuilt the engine… He was an engineer at the local Ford assembly plant. He’d take the bad parts and have his employees fix or make new ones on the side, and paid them with cases of beer. Then he’d bring them home and put them back on. Then I got a 84 Cougar XR7 for $500 from the photographer I used for senior pictures. He said it ran too rough. It literally needed a tune up. I still miss that car. I only drove it about a year. After that my dad bought me a brand new Ranger with his discount right before graduation in 1995, because my mom wanted me to have something reliable to drive to college several hours away. I almost got a yellow Mustang, but decided a truck would make moving easier, since I was going to live off campus.
While I had beaters for first two cars, and did get a brand new one from my parents… The plot twist. I still have my 1995 purple Ranger and she runs great! (I also have a Mustang now that I tricked out).
icyDinosaur@reddit
Follow-up here: what is the cost associated with owning a car like in the US? Because I got a hand-me-down from my grandma as a uni student, and while it was convenient, the costs for insurance, fuel, taxes etc was always a very noticeable expense here in Switzerland.
For reference, this was in the mid to late 2010s and I had a 1999 Honda Accord. As a young and new driver, I paid a bit over 1000 CHF per year (probably about 1:1 to USD back then? Not sure) for the mandatory minimum insurance, about 300 in tax, plus fuel costs and random upkeep. It really was not insignificant for a student, and idk if/how I would have done that in school
mpjjpm@reddit
I was supposed to get the hand-me-down Accord, but an older sibling wrecked it. So I got a used Civic with 100k miles on it. It was conveniently priced the same as the insurance payment on the totaled Accord. And the older sibling had to save up money and buy their own replacement vehicle.
Travelerman310@reddit
This is how god intended it.
artichokely@reddit
Haha, my friend groups cars were (all at least 13 yo and 100k miles when we were 16): Honda accord, Toyota civic, Toyota Camry, Chevy cavalier. Mine (cavalier) was the newest + most expensive and I spent $3000 on it from my part time job at Dominos pizza 🤩. I kept it until I was 25!
norfolkgarden@reddit
Lol, good!
Ithinkibrokethis@reddit
I got "my" first car at 17. It was a car my grandfather had purchased new and it had been his, then my Aunts, then a cousins car before it was mine. I had that car till I was 20 and we sold it for scrap because it was eating an alternator every 6 months.
My second car had been my grandmother's, then my dad's, then I had it till I was 22 and buying a new vehicle because I had a job in my professional area.
I was never the legal owner of either of those 2 cars. My parents owned them, I was the primary driver. I was on their insurance. The cars titles where you n their name. So did I "own" those cars?
This was the situation of everyone I knew. Most of us got a car at 16-18 that was a hand-me-down. These cars were owned by our parents.
CobaltIsobar@reddit
The reason for that was insurance. If it were titled in your name insurance would be double. It was still yours.
tynmi39@reddit
I don't think it's common for high schoolers to save up their own money for a used car anymore
BrazilianButtCheeks@reddit
Most people I know had them financed and they paid some or all of the payments but there were definitely some people who’s parents passed them down or bought them for their kids
Henchforhire@reddit
A few high school kids at work buy out right used pickups for cheap and use lift kits on them. But for most get loans for cars.
Budget-Town-4022@reddit
Even used cars cost too much for someone earning minimum wage.
WellWellWellthennow@reddit
I know a girl who's dad bought her a brand new red Mustang at 17. She totaled it within two months and was lucky to be alive.
DonDee74@reddit
This. Unless they are filthy rich, the vast majority drive their parents's old car or they buy a cheap used car. Auto insurance is very expensive for drivers at that age so most parents will find it unreasonable to get them an expensive shiny new car.
Middle-Wealth-6755@reddit
I had a new car courtesy of my Great grandmother and grandfather. No frills though. Manual roll up windows and a radio with no tape deck.
There were others at my school who had brand new Hummers, by comparison.
Doom_Corp@reddit
Yeah, my first car was a shit 90s purple Toyota Corolla that ended up with transmission issues in about a year (baby lasted me until college where I attended on the east coast and didn't need a car). My area did not have bussing/functional public transit. There was a bus that went by my school that dropped off right in front of my apartment complex but either it never showed up sometimes or you practically had to jump in front of it to get them to stop. After about 5 times waiting an hour for the mystery bus or it driving right past me on days I couldn't bum a ride from my friends parents I just gave up and waited for my mom to pick me up at 5:30-6 like usual.
Ketzer_Jefe@reddit
I bough my first car for $3k when I was 16. I saved for 3 summers working in fast food. it was a junky 2 dooe Chevy cavalier. got it on the side of the road from some guy moving abroad to teach english. it ran and had nothing major wrong with it.
artichokely@reddit
I did the exact same, price and all! Mine lasted me 9 years so I think I got my money’s worth. The biggest repair I ever did was $500 for an alternator and pulley that seized. I don’t think I spent more than $1500 on repairs the entire time I owned it
wiserTyou@reddit
Same here. It took years for me to save up starting at 15. I'm not even sure kids are able to work like that anymore. $25 per week delivering papers for 2 years.
musing_codger@reddit
Where my kids went to school, a majority of kids had cars bought for them by their parents. Our kids got a 1-year old Volvo S60 and a new Hyundai Sonata. Some of their peers got older/cheaper cars and some got nicer cars. But I would estimate that 60% had cars as juniors and 80% had them as seniors.
she-dont-use-jellyyy@reddit
lol I'm 44 and I've never even had a 1-year-old car
Aggressive-Bath-1906@reddit
Im 52, and the first new car was two years ago.
Powersmith@reddit
My dads in his 70s…. Worked long hours for over 50 years, never had a brand new car. Pretty stark contrast to a 16 y o whose never known a day’s work having one handed to them.
I actually like that I had to work for and earn my own first (and every) car. I passed down older car for own kids to drive until they can afford to buy their “own” and understand it’s value. You can be thankful, but you can’t truly appreciate what you have if you don’t understand it’s value. Old fashioned work ethic did not die in my Gen z kids despite their having way more advantages than I did.
Aggressive-Bath-1906@reddit
Yep. Neither of my parents ever owned a new car in their lives.
Working_Elephant5344@reddit
The most common examples I see are parents buying their 16-18 year olds a new Civic or Corolla. They’re affordable, reliable, and slow enough to reduce the risk of the driver getting into trouble.
ForestOranges@reddit
Used cars have gotten so expensive now idk how kids are saving up to buy a car without their parents at least contributing some
Bcatfan08@reddit
I'd say it's more common for a high schooler to have a job and get a used car. Then the parent will co-sign on the car, because the kid won't have the credit to sign by themselves. So the kid won't own it outright, but they'll be making the monthly payments on the car. Parent could pay for the insurance.
ilovjedi@reddit
My parents bought me a new car. We lived in a wealthy Chicago suburb. Most of my friends did have cars but not all new.
We’ll be getting a car for our kids. We live rurally so theres no public transportation. And it will make our lives so much easier if the kids have a car to share. Our older son has his license. Used cars are so much more expensive than they used to be. Like my first car was about $23,000 new. Used the used cars we’ve been looking at are around $15,000 to $10,000 and our son needs a car to drive to work.
Bashira42@reddit
Yeah, it was made clear to me that "my" car was not mine, but actually my parents and they would stop me from using it any time they felt the need, plus it would become my brother's as soon as I left for college.
But yeah, having access to a car is very common/normal here. Doesn't mean all have them, but most in this area. You realize who is younger cause they can't drive yet as everyone hits 16. Wasn't judgement that I saw if you didn't have a car, just feeling bad for them. But not getting your license was a bit weird. We also all knew the one family that all 3 kids got their own brand new cars and definitely judged them for it.
amythist@reddit
Where I grew up, which was small/med sized town but in the Midwest so still decently rural or was common for just about every kid to have a car/drive to school with the exception being younger siblings of people still in school, they tended to be cheaper/easy to repair older cars, then usually around senior year they would upgrade to a newer more reliable car to carry them to/through college
only_because_I_can@reddit
We weren't "rich," but my husband promised each of our kids that they could have a car of their choice if they never made less than an A in school all the way through to the age of 16. You'd think that would be impossible, but not for our oldest. We bought her a brand new car - her dream car - when she was 16. She drove it until she was a sophomore in college (what OP would call uni), when she bought herself a new car and gave us her original car, which I drove for several years. That car was less expensive than four years of college tuition; she got a full scholarship to her 1st choice school because of her grades.
When I was in high school in the 70s, many kids drove to school, including myself, but we drove older cars and had jobs after school every day.
AleroRatking@reddit
Brand new cars aren't super rare here because at this point used cars are so expensive it makes sense to just get new ones. Plus parents are concerned about safety and breaking down.
Boogerchair@reddit
This has also been my experience in the part of the US I’m from
Ok_Arugula7581@reddit
All of my kids bought their own cars when they got jobs around the 14-16 year old range. One of them is now 18 and has had a fully paid off Altima for a year now.
Tasty_Employee_963@reddit
I had one, but I only got it in senior year. It was an absolute rattletrap of a ‘91 Civic, and this was in 2017. I only ever drove it to school the last week of my senior year.
eugenesnewdream@reddit
It really does depend on where you live, and of course finances. I grew up in a city--most high school students didn't own cars, in fact plenty didn't even bother learning to drive once they were old enough to. (I did, because I was into the idea of driving, even though I knew I wouldn't have my own car anytime soon.) The few kids who did own their own cars didn't actually drive them to school.
Now I'm a parent and we live in the suburbs (not of the city I grew up in, another city which itself is smaller and a bit more car-friendly than my home city) and many teenagers here do have cars and drive them to school. My oldest just turned 15 and will be able to get a learner's permit in I think 6 months, and we will probably get her a car when she gets her license. Not a fancy new car, probably a small used car.
Beautiful-Quiet-5871@reddit
It is common for high schoolers to have access to a car and to drive it to and from school.. but they can not 'own' a car before the age of 18, so technically it is most likely their parents who 'own' the car
Wheatcattle@reddit
I had a school permit to drive to school when I was 14 in rural Nebraska
practical_schmatical@reddit
Same in Iowa. I always get shocked responses when I tell people (non-US based coworkers and friends from urban and suburban communities).
DannyBones00@reddit
Yes.
Even in my dirt poor Appalachian high school, most of my class got cars by like junior year. Definitely over half the class. They’re usually the old car of the parents, passed down.
It’s a giant coming of age moment, because you go from being shuttled everywhere by an adult, to doing it yourself. It suddenly creates opportunities to be unsupervised, maybe for the first time in your life.
Kushali@reddit
It really, really depends on where. Also, trends are that fewer teenagers overall are driving.
Most rural or suburban areas in the US are designed assuming that folks drive. The road my high school was on didn't have sidewalks and had a higher speed limit (40 mph). The road I grew up on didn't have sidewalks. My mom moved to be closer to the city and the road the new house was on had sidewalks...that ended at the corner into a high speed (50 mph) road with no sidewalks. The nearest city bus to the house I grew up in was 2 miles away (with 1500+ ft of elevation gain between the stop and our house). The nearest city bus stop to my high school was a mile away. So realistically, your options were school bus or drive. School bus rides in rural areas can be an hour or more each way because of low population density and driving is often half of that or even less. So folks drive as soon as they're able.
In my experience parents usually buy the car, although some students split the cost with their parents or buy their own used car. If the parents buy the car usually the parents are on the title, but sometimes they gift it to their kid.
But it varies a lot based on geography. I live in a proper city now in a very dense neighborhood. The local high school doesn't have any student parking (or hardly any). There are good sidewalks, bike lanes, and good city bus access to the school. So the kids don't drive. E-bikes are becoming more popular since even the ones that are basically electric motorcycles are allowed in bike lanes here.
Random_Reddit99@reddit
I think this is more generational now. 15+ years ago before ridesharing was a thing, yes, absolutely, every kid wanted to get their drivers license and/or permit on the first day they were allowed to, which in many areas, was their 16th birthday...so not every student, but ever 16+ kid wanted a car...even if it was an old VW Bug they got for a couple hundred bucks and fixed up themselves.
Now that parents trust their kids to uber more than allowing them to drive, or are far more over-protective of their kids and willing to drive them everywhere rather than just letting them walk or bike, it's far less common for kids to want to drive as long as their parents are willing to drive them.
As for type of car, that depends on the demographics of the school. The rich private suburban school? Far more likely the kid is getting a new car. The upper middle class rural public school? A hand-me-down from mom/dad/grandparent. The poor urban school where the parents ride public transporation themselves? They're not getting a car.
AnneChovie264@reddit
When I was in hs 40 years ago, there was a student who drove a DeLorean every day. It was a small, rural school.
primerush@reddit
My daughter bought her own first car. She saved up money and bought it for $2,500. It was a 96 Chevy Blazer and had so many problems. She probably put another $1500 into repairs over the following year or two and then sold it for $3000.
redwaorok@reddit
In Washington state, anyone under 18 cannot own their car. The car will be in adults name. However, it can be the teenagers car to use. Once they turn 18, the parents would transfer ownership over to the 18 year old. In theory & if the parents are decent.
CaptMcPlatypus@reddit
I am approaching buying a new (used) car, so my high schooler can drive herself and her younger sibling to school, sports, her job, etc. next fall. I am currently the only driver in my household and it is a lot.
DooficusIdjit@reddit
Used to be. Dunno about now. After provisional licesnses became a thing, lots of the high school kids in my family don’t want to bother.
Catsplain@reddit
Yes, but they typically have older used or family cars. Re new cars: these are likely leased or mortgaged. Americans don’t own many things outright. We are a debt nation.
ObiWanKnieval@reddit
There was a girl at my high school who owned an at the time (88) new mustang and a 65. You would think people would have hated on her for her wealth. But because she was a kind soul with an easy smile who was kind to everyone, I never heard an unkind word said about her.
bmccooley@reddit
I wasn't going to walk ten miles. And don't even talk to me about the bus.
DontEatConcrete@reddit
We bought a kid a new car. Another we gave unlimited access to our cars and they drove it to school daily—saved us the time/effort.
LongInfinite1837@reddit
It really depends on the parents and their views.
For example, My aunt gave me her car. It was 25 years old, and really good condition, and she had upgraded. The only thing new on it was the tires.
My sister had an electric bike because she stole my parents car to joyride and they said that they would never buy her a car until she was in college and could pay for half of it.
I gave my younger brother my aunt's car when I could afford my own, and then he drove it until the car officially passed away and then parted it out for money.
Medium-Ticket-9574@reddit
My grandparents gave me and my older brother their old car when we were in high school. We didn’t have to pay for anything on it as long as we were responsible and agreed to pick up our younger siblings from school/take to activities.
Groundbreaking_War52@reddit
I had an 11-year old painfully slow car with 100k+ miles on it and nothing made me happier as a 17 year old.
Mushrooming247@reddit
It was pretty necessary when I was a teenager because I lived in the middle of nowhere, there was no other way I could work, (it was the 90s before the internet.)
It was a huge relief to my parents, having my sister and I driving, because they didn’t have to ferry us around to our nonstop extracurricular activities.
(We just drove my parents old cars and they got new cars. This is my plan when my son turns 16, to give him my car and get a new one.)
mattcmoore@reddit
Very common. Our cities and suburbs are all built for cars, it's hard to be successful without one, especially if you go to a special magnet school that's further from home.
New cars for teens are incredibly rare. It's so expensive to insure teen drivers, and it's a terrible idea to put a teen in a new car. Most teens are driving 10+ year old economy cars and sharing it with siblings. Maybe the old minivan becomes the high schooler car.
This is a product of how car dependent the U.S. has become especially in areas where families with teenagers live. Most families want to move out of the few walkable areas that exist because the schools are better, and you can buy a larger single family home. That means bedroom communities, suburban sprawl neighborhoods strip malls and multi-lane highways.
yummyjackalmeat@reddit
When I was growing up in the 90s, yes, but not anymore.
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
Depends on if their parents have enough money to buy them a car
tacosandsunscreen@reddit
Nah man. Got my first job at 14 and saved up to buy my first car in cash ($3000 in 2004).
567Anonymous@reddit
It is a lot harder to do that now.
Complete-Yard4338@reddit
It’s honestly not. $3,000 cars are definitely around.
Different-Post-5569@reddit
I've been re-watching old Top Gear recently, and I keep getting shocked at the kind of used cars they can get for only \~£1500.
DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit
No its not. There are still plenty of cheap used cars out there
567Anonymous@reddit
If your kid is planning to go to college, and is doing all the AP classes and all the activities for their college applications, how many hours of $7.25 work are they going to have to apply to buying a car, insurance, gas, maintenance, new tires, repairs for an older vehicle? And what about saving for college? Because folks who think like you expect them to pay for that themselves too, right?
I mean sure, if they are taking basic classes and plan on just working after high school, then they may be able to swing it…
DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit
Who is paying 7.25 /hr? Even McDonalds starts at about twice that. Other than tipped workers, very few people make the fed minimum
SubieGal9@reddit
Which part? A working teen can save money by not spending it.
We_R_the_Penguins@reddit
To elaborate a little, cash for clunkers took a lot of used cars out of the market.
railworx@reddit
The cash for clunkers program ended over 16 years ago. Highly doubt any of the cars turned in under that program would be operational today
We_R_the_Penguins@reddit
Car for car, sure, but it distorted the market.
railworx@reddit
The production issues related to Covid are more relevant to the lack of affordable used cars in 2026
No_Print1433@reddit
My dad and I were just talking about this. That for people who can't afford to buy new, cash for clunkers took a lot of good used cars out of circulation. Once they were traded in under that program, they were no longer eligible to be sold. The church I was attending at the time was next door to a car dealership and they had so many "clunkers" waiting to ship out.
cdsbigsby@reddit
Harder to find a decent cheap car these days.
Fencer308@reddit
Who said anything about decent? The first car I bought was 14 years old when I got it. I did a lot of the maintenance myself, paid for the gas and insurance myself too. It’s amazing how far you can stretch minimum wage when you aren’t paying rent.
Healthy_Blueberry_59@reddit
Even terrible used cars would cost a thousand hours of work. I sold a non running 20 year old car with a fatal problem two years ago and got $1500 for it. Even as scrap, used cars are worth a lot. A decent, safe car runs you about 7-8 thousand right now. And that is for a car that is 100k + miles.
carlos_the_dwarf_@reddit
Maybe. But when I was I high school we earned $6 an hour.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
Used cars are super expensive! Since the pandemic, prices got jacked up. It’s wild.
I spent years paying $1000 to $5000 for used cars of varying ages but now the market is rough.
deathbychips2@reddit
Used cars are very expensive now. Even old ones and even ones with 100k+ miles.
amethystalien6@reddit
Depends on where you live. I’m in a heavy agricultural area and getting a job at 14 is fairly easy. Although a car for 3k is a lot harder so you have to save up a bit more.
SubieGal9@reddit
I see a lot of excuses here (and hear a lot of them at home, too).
For reference, you CAN work, save, and get a road worthy vehicle for under 10k, or even 5k, in the private market. You CAN get affordable insurance, but yes, it may be on your parent's plan.
My step kids are 18 and 21. My nephew is 21. They are night and day. For every excuse they have, he's already done and moved on.
DigTheDunes@reddit
Yes, and the insurance is prohibitive for a teen also unless they are on the parents plan.
MagickNinja@reddit
Not every state allows 14 year olds to have jobs.
gingggg@reddit
You can easily work under the table - I was babysitting since 13. At 15, got a job at a tennis club unofficially and saved 3000$, enough to buy an old car (which I adored!) when I turned 16.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
Great. Let’s break child labor laws! Babysitting aside, there’s a reason those laws exist
gingggg@reddit
Im just saying it’s possible LOL no need to overreact.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
A teenager making $50 babysitting on Saturday night so parents can go out to dinner is one thing. Is it technically an underground economy? Sure. But it’s not the same as a tennis club hiring 13 year olds under the table. That’s a business that is purposefully breaking the law to avoid paying taxes and taking advantage of young workers who don’t know better.
gingggg@reddit
Well as a teenager (2008-2013 were years I babysat) I charged 12-15$/hr so definitely was more than 50$/night.
And yea it is different but I enjoyed it and I wasn’t exploited for my labor hahaha it was a great way to make cash in the summer and I was paid a fair rate there too.
Babysitting and nannying etc it’s a legitimate job. I don’t see why it should matter so much to you the difference between them; if one is exploitative, both are , no? I would argue babysitting was higher stakes as I was responsible for the lives of young children solely, vs at the tennis club many others were around to correct potential mistakes.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
It is. And if you were to nanny professionally there absolutely are laws in place about domestic workers in the home. It is fundamentally different and you know it.
gingggg@reddit
Well you’re acting like I was exploited and im telling you I wasn’t.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
At the tennis club? Honey….
gingggg@reddit
Don’t be condescending and don’t tell me my own experiences. Bye.
MagickNinja@reddit
This is also a situation that is specific to you.
Who did you babysit and how did you meet these families? Consider that not everyone had the same connections as you. Especially if they came from an unstable family themselves, as many of us did.
Likewise, how did you get involved in a tennis club? How did you get a ride there? Or was it conveniently close to your house or school? These are all privileges that not everyone has.
gingggg@reddit
To be honest you just sound a bit salty that you don’t have either a car, the work ethic to earn enough money to get a car, or a stable environment to enable rides to and from the jobs you couldn’t get.
My money’s on no. 2.
MagickNinja@reddit
The point is that your anecdote is not as common as you think. This thread is about most Americans, and you may be more privileged than most.
gingggg@reddit
America is a large country. No experience there is universal.
gingggg@reddit
I never said it applied to all Americans lmao. But it’s not like a super unique situation either. Lots of teenagers babysit.
LadyGreyIcedTea@reddit
I started babysitting at 11 and had a newspaper route around the same age. Then at 14 I got a minimum wage job in the summer that I worked every summer throughout high school.
We_R_the_Penguins@reddit
What with phones and social media, plenty of people feel they need a babysitter for their thirteen year old.
I feel you though. I started working unconventionally at 12 or 13, umpiring Little League, but I’m not sure that pipeline is as open to kids today, unfortunately.
gingggg@reddit
Why wouldn’t it be?
Ok-Reference9022@reddit
Umping ittle league should warrant hazard pay these days.
O12345678@reddit
My parents, the person I was working for, or an older friend who was also working on the same job would give me a ride.
O12345678@reddit
I had no problem getting random manual labor gigs at that age. Sure, it will be for minimum wage, but it's a little more since you're being paid under the table.
Ok-Reference9022@reddit
Mow lawns and shovel drive ways.
MagickNinja@reddit
How did you get a ride to these gigs?
We_R_the_Penguins@reddit
Yes and no? You can work at fourteen everywhere, but how restrictive the rules are—max hours, hours on a school night, etc. vary.
nullpassword@reddit
1100 in 1990. Drove last two years of high school. Worked part time at grocery as well.
Mite-o-Dan@reddit
Someone's example from 2004 was severally outdated. Why would you think one from 1990 would be relevant today?
For reference, $10,000 is the new starting price for an old cheap car that will be somewhat reliable and get someone through age 17-22...barely.
Not many highschoolers and college kids can earn $10,000 now.
nullpassword@reddit
Four thousand is what I give it for the right beater. (And to be honest that is a fourfold increase from the 1200 I paid for my last one.) You will need to be able to perform or get done some work. And it will take some looking. And as a teen you probably won't like driving a minivan.
gingggg@reddit
Im sure one can find a decent, older cheap ish car for under 10,000.
Ok-Reference9022@reddit
I bought a 2014 f150 although supercab 6 mos ago, $5200. It had 155,000 miles on it at purchase. Nothing wrong except 2 rust spots.
gingggg@reddit
Thank you
Mite-o-Dan@reddit
Sure, technically...if you want to take a gamble.
Going off Carmax, where the cars are confirmed to be in good shape and have a warranty...
Nearly 92,000 cars in their inventory.
Due to taxes and other fees, Ill only look up car $9000 or less...
There are 13 cars.
Out of 92,000 cars...Carmax only has 13 cars in the entire country that would cost less than 10k out the door.
gingggg@reddit
Yes it’s a gamble , but it’s possible. Again you can buy a car off Craigslist. It’s not that big of a deal.
Jewish-Mom-123@reddit
No. You can’t. Because new cars are now priced out of reach for about half the population. So half the parents are now looking for those decent used cars for themselves.
gingggg@reddit
Im not living in US anymore but from a quick search looks like there are plenty under 10,000$ from private sellers. I bought my first car from Craigslist (won’t let me access since im out of country) and im sure there are reasonable options there.
Mite-o-Dan@reddit
Do you trust a teenager to buy from a random dude off Craigslist now anyway? You think that "deal" is going to be worth it? An 18 year old car with 180,000 miles for $6500. Sure its out there...but not worth it.
gingggg@reddit
Idk why you’re being such a dick. You know what I was referring to.
Yea my examples from a while back. But yes as a teenager who bought a car from a random dude off Craigslist, it was fine. What’s wrong with going thru private sellers??
Im saying you CAN buy a car under 10,000$. Don’t be ridiculous.
Patrizio_Argento@reddit
Nah fam, plenty of old decent cars in my area for 5-7k.
Mite-o-Dan@reddit
Define "decent." Cars for 5-7k in my area are around 20 years old and 200,000+ miles.
The few outlines that are "only" 15 years old and 150,000 miles are historically bad cars known to have lots of maintenance problems, and not worth it for a young person to buy due to all the potential money theyd be spending in the future.
10,000 is what you need now to have a car that "should" last at least 5 more years with just basic routine maintenance and oils changes.
deathbychips2@reddit
And that ain't happening now unless you are comfortable with a new driver driving a hunk of dangerous metal that is about to fall apart at any second.
Fencer308@reddit
A hunk of dangerous metal that was about to fall apart at any second was exactly what I drove at that age.
Fishyface321@reddit
And it cost a lot less than $10k. That’s the point.
Fencer308@reddit
I feel confident you can find something similar under $10k today. Some people in this thread have found cars with a quick google in their cities in the low thousands
Skipp_To_My_Lou@reddit
There's tons of newer, fairly dependable cars for less money.
By the way, a Honda with 100,000 miles is just about due for its first oil change. Barely even broke in good.
StandardAd7812@reddit
$3000 would cover your auto insurance as a new driver for about 6 months where I am.
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
Or saving yes. That's the other alternative
KillerTofu-187@reddit
I bought mine! I had a job and bought a ‘93 Ford Bronco for 1100$. I still think about my old Bronco.
Bedbouncer@reddit
Or if the parents were already driving an older car and were ready for a new one.
My car as a teen and my son's car were both preowned-by-parent cars.
Starbuck522@reddit
That still costs the parents money rather than selling the car and using the money towards the next car. It's still something the parent has to be able to afford.
Bedbouncer@reddit
True, but the advantage is that the teen is getting a car with a known track record of reliability and already on the insurance policy..
My son needed a used car during COVID, and thank god we didn't have to try and buy one at the time, prices were cray-cray.
Starbuck522@reddit
I agree it's a good way to have a car for a kid to use.
But my point was only that the parent still has to be able to afford to do that and being willing to forgo the money from selling
Pear_tickle@reddit
This is how we did it. We planned ahead many years so there would be a car ready at the right time.
All the high school students drive themselves. We are too rural for anything else to be practical. The parents celebrate when sophomore year starts and all the 15 year olds with their restricted licenses can drive themselves to school.
MamaPajamaMama@reddit
Same. When my oldest got his license I got a new car. When his brother got his license 3 years later the oldest bought himself a used car, and the younger inherited the old one, which he is still driving, and likely will drive it into the ground, at which point he'll need to buy something else. I told him he gets one free car.
Different-Post-5569@reddit
That's how I got my first car haha. My dad had a Pontiac G6 that got clipped by a snowplow in a parking lot. I was 15 at the time so he gifted me the Pontiac while he got a newer car.
justanaveragerunner@reddit
Yep, my oldest is in high school and drives my old 2007 minivan. It's older than he is and even when it was new it was never a cool vehicle to drive, but it's still reliable and he prefers it to riding the bus.
TJLanza@reddit
Driving anything, even a minivan, is better than riding a bus - it was true when I was a teenager, it's true now.
Pudix20@reddit
I agree with this. It makes me feel a little weird seeing the kids have a better car/phone than the parents except in certain situations where it’s warranted. Usually it’s not.
Open-Committee-998@reddit
Yep! Mine was my mom’s old car. Two of my good HS friends both got their parents old vehicles. I feel like that’s probably how it goes for most kids if they don’t work during school/summer.
antler-velvet@reddit
Yeah, I'd say this was the norm for my general social sphere in high school (all pretty solidly middle class). Everyone I knew was generally inheriting a parent's older car or sharing a car other family members still also used. No one was getting a new car for themselves. My dad got a new car and my older brother got his old one. Neither parent was ready for a new car when I turned 16 and they both needed their cars all day, so I didn't even bother getting my license until a few years later when my grandma stopped driving and her car became up for grabs.
castlenutjob@reddit
Lol. My brother got a gutted minivan with only a drivers seat that was missing the rear hatch. A real panty dropper that forest green Voyager.
LadyGreyIcedTea@reddit
I inherited my father's car that had 150K miles on it and would overheat and shut off daily. When I would come home and share that the car broke down, my parents would tell me I should be grateful I have a car. I drove it for 8 months before the fanbelt snapped and it started gushing antifreeze with the engine smoking one day.
Then we bought my mother's cousin's elderly boyfriend's old car for $2K. It was 3 years older than the car I had been driving but it lasted me another few years.
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
I love this. Tbh the few classmates of mine I knew who had a car all had used cars.
bradperry2435@reddit
Or if their grandma have them their car
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
Alright this one made me chuckle lmao 🤣
sfdsquid@reddit
Or if they have worked and saved to buy their own...
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
Yeah some others mentioned that too but thank you for your input!
SubieGal9@reddit
No. Depends on if they worked and saved enough to buy their own car.
Wolfie_Ecstasy@reddit
My parents bought me a cheap car because they were tired of being responsible for giving me rides everywhere. The school bus didn't go to my area.
They were on my ass at 15 years old and 6 months to get my permit immediately.
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
Both my statement and your statement are true. Two sides of one coin
wifespissed@reddit
I saved and bought my own car when I was a freshman.
Starbuck522@reddit
Or, they work and save up. I agree it's more common for the parents to buy it, but it does happen.
Admirable-Apricot137@reddit
I bought my own car at 16 with money I made during the summer picking strawberries. It was an old Ford escort wagon and I think I paid like $500.
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
Wow I love that you found such a great deal!!
Admirable-Apricot137@reddit
Well it was like 20 years ago 😆
firesoups@reddit
My first car was $500 and I bought it myself.
RogueCoon@reddit
Most of us just worked and bought our own cars.
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
I love this for you guys. Very proud.
NemeanMiniLion@reddit
I bought my own? And so did all of my friends. You didn't work?
Competitive_Bake_533@reddit
I just focused on getting good grades and took the bus to school lol I didn't have a need for a car in highschool. I did sell candy instead though during school to save up and buy my laptop for university
CoachOpen1977@reddit
Yes, in suburban and rural settings. Not so much in urban settings where public transit is good and it’s more difficult to own a car.
Intrepid_Table_8593@reddit
Only one kid had a new car and his dad owned a dealership. Everyone else had some level of used.
FluffyFry4000@reddit
depends on location and how rich you are, back in high school, quite a bit of seniors have their own cars already, and one of my best friends, he dated a girl with a car, and she would drive us to school.
But yeah like me and my friends? no, I didn't get a car until college and it was a $1000 beat up 1994 Nissan Sentra.
but yeah like there was a dude with like a mustang, there was a buncha dudes with redneck trucks cuz it was kind of near a rural area.
but most kids take the bus.
Zatzbatz@reddit
Cars are relatively cheap. A lot of parents will buy/gift old cars for their children. Especially if you live someplace where you need a car
fossiliz3d@reddit
Usually the parents actually own the car. It could be a cheap one the parents bought for them, or an old car the parents kept around when they bought a newer one. My parents bought a newer car when I was 14 and kept the old one around until I was old enough to drive it.
InternationalRule138@reddit
The car is generally titled to a parent, but it can be common. It just depends on the economics of the area. We don’t have great public transportation in most areas, so if a teen wants a job or to go anywhere they need a car a lot. And if mom/dad need a car at the same time…well, the kid needs a car.
I would say the majority don’t have a new car, but some do.
jejones487@reddit
Got my first car at 15 years old. Graduated at 18.
natnat1919@reddit
I lived in a very expensive area of the US. However, I am not rich. About half the school was low income. The richest all had new bmw, Mercedes, or mini coopers. We also had Latinos who worked really hard since like age 12 (in their parents business) and bought their own cars at 16 after saving, but of course nothing new or extravagant.
FitHoneydew9286@reddit
I grew up very rural where driving was hands down the only option for getting around. I did classes at both the high school and the community college, after school sports, pre school sports, other extracurriculars, and worked a few hours a week. One of parents would have had to have quit their job to drive me around full time if I didn’t drive and have access to a car. I didn’t “own my own car” but I drove a car that was primarily driven by me and was my mom’s old car.
Astro_Birch_317@reddit
When I was in high school, I paid for my car but it was registered to my dad because the insurance was so much cheaper that way. It was "mine ," but not legally mine.
About half of the students at my school who drove themselves paid for their own car and half either got a car as a gift from their parents or drove a family vehicle they shared with siblings, etc. I would guess that it's less common for students to buy a car by themselves now, just because the costs are a lot higher than when I was that age in the 1990s. As an adult now, many of my friends are planning their own car purchases with an expectation that they will buy a new (or newer) car when their kid is old enough to drive and keep their current car for their kids.
It has always been rare for a student to drive a new car. When I was in college, I had a couple of friends who were from wealthy families and they drove leased cars that were pretty new. I don't think I've ever met a teenager that had a brand new car, and I have met some rich rich people.
bigblackglock17@reddit
These days? No, not at all. A decent used car the average adult struggles to afford. Back around 2009, things were way better. Could get a pretty nice vehicle for right around $3,000. About 1 summer job.
EstablishmentOk5478@reddit
Yes it is.
BatterUp1600@reddit
I didn’t know anyone growing up who owned their own car.
Express-Fennel-3564@reddit
Class of ‘98 here. I drove a ‘67 mustang to high school. I paid $2300, hard earned cash for that thing.
imissher4ever@reddit
I owned 3 by the time a graduated HS.
muphasta@reddit
My son bought his (used) dream car (cash) during his senior year.
He is a youtuber and has been pretty successful.
The funny thing is, all of his teachers have told us that he is their "oldest" student, like he is an old sole. He is very much an individual and really doesn't care if what he likes is unpopular.
He bought a 2015 Toyota Sienna. He's wanted one since he was 6 years old when he rode in his uncles. He told my wife, "mom! you need to get one of these! This is so luxurious and spacious!" Or something very close to that.
He doesn't want a sporty car, he wants room for his friends.
Just_curious4567@reddit
I got a used, but only a few years old car when I was in high school. We will probably do the same for my kids. We don’t want them driving cars that have maintenance issues.
Mikethemechanic00@reddit
Gen X here. We had 500 dollar cars in HS in the early 90s. I take my 14 year old to HS. All newer or nicer cars in the parking lot. Told my kids they get the 2013 Acura MDX and have to share it. So many kids wreck their cars in HS being stupid or lack of skills.
PNM_enterprise_1881@reddit
No one owns a car outright anymore. That’s rare
skadi_shev@reddit
A teenager with a brand new car is a sign that their family is rich. Several of my friends’ parents upgraded to a different car and let their kids use the old car to get to and from school, though.
Prechrchet@reddit
It is common for High School students to drive a car that their parents are the legal owners of. Yes, it is common for them to drive to and from school.
Ok-Inspection-8647@reddit
My 18 year old has a car, it was my wife’s car. He usually drives to school, but sometimes he rides his bike and/or takes public transit. His school is 10 miles (16 km) away.
blipsman@reddit
Depends on location, wealth of parents, etc.
I grew up in an upper middle class area (parents were mostly doctors, lawyers, finance) and the vast majority of kids had their own cars. But these ranged from 10-year old hand-me-down Buicks from grandparents, to used economy cars, to to brand new sports cars. Lots of kids did get brand new cars, and at the time (mid-90's) the popular ones were things like Toyota Celicas, Ford Probes, Chevy Blazers.
I was one of like 4-5 kids in my grade of 360 who didn't have my own car because my parents didn't think I should have my own. However, I did have access to my dad's car most days.
Once I got my license, I did usually drive to school. Sophomore year, I had to park on a side street a couple blocks from school because I did not have a parking lot permit. Junior and senior years I did.
phonesmahones@reddit
I’m from the city. A handful of kids had cars but the high school didn’t have a parking lot and there wasn’t really much (if any) legal parking nearby, so kids would usually walk or take the bus (public transportation, we didn’t have school buses).
ForestOranges@reddit
Yeah where I grew up suburban kids were more likely to have money and space to have a car. At the urban schools there was less parking and a higher share of families struggled financially so they weren’t worried about buying their kid a car. And since they had busses in the city it was easier to get around without one.
Potential-Drawing745@reddit
I grew up in suburban Texas. The high school had a large parking lot, and most of us drove. I did pick up a couple of friends every morning on the way because they didn't have cars, and they chipped in a few bucks every now and then for gas.
lauvan26@reddit
Yup. I don’t think I knew any high schooler that own their own car in New York City.
BrushYourFeet@reddit
This highlights that location matters. It's more common in rural areas, less common in suburban areas, and close to rare in urban areas for kids to drive themselves to school. And significantly more rares in all the above for them to own the vehicle outright.
MarkRick25@reddit
I'd say it's fairly common for highschool students to be given a hand-me-down or cheap used car to use while in highschool. Some kids might get a new car, and many kids won't have a car until they're out of highschool, but having a used car in highschool is not uncommon.
Potential-Drawing745@reddit
There are always edge cases of course. There were two girls a grade ahead of me who had a daddy who was a televangelist. They had a new sports car every year. They were twins and each got one. He has a small compound near where my brother and sister live, and it's a little gross. Before he got into preaching, my mom used to deliver his mail to the shack he lived in. (Obvs she was a mail carrier)
Potential-Drawing745@reddit
My parents bought me a beater. It was mechanically reliable, but old and really ugly.
Opening-Bandicoot859@reddit
Sometimes. I got my first car the summer after I graduated.
Nofanta@reddit
It’s common, usually used cars.
Jolly_Ad_2363@reddit
I’m a high school student. Most of the kids in my school “own” a car in the sense that it’s ours and only we use it, but it’s still under our parents’s names. I live in a rural area, so if you can drive, you pretty much always drive to school.
Most kids have used cars. But I’ve seen a lot of my peers put thousands into a pickup truck because they’re rednecks and don’t see an issue with going into debt before they even turn 18.
MamaMidgePidge@reddit
That's how it was/is in rural Wisconsin too.
sasspancakes@reddit
Yup. A lot of kids got their parents old farm truck. Ive seen a lot drive tractors or snowmobiles to school too.
TallWalmartCovington@reddit
I was originally going down the truck route, but as of around a year or so ago, I just wanted wheels and preferred a sedan or SUV since it's somewhat fuel efficient compared to a pickup truck. Now that I've been offered an explorer if I get a job and have my dad take me until I get a license, it's solidified that I'm not getting a pickup until I pay for one myself out of high school.
Could be worse though. I wanted a van freshman year. An explorer will do.
Eastern_Sky@reddit
Yup the insurance is a lot cheaper if the owner is in their 40/50/60s than a teenager
underground_cloud@reddit
They can't get into debt before they turn 18. Minors can't enter contracts (on their own).
I'm assuming they are having a parent cosign that would be stuck with the debt though. Although what parent would do that.
Jolly_Ad_2363@reddit
A lot of parents around here actually.
amethystalien6@reddit
Great point on the ownership. We’re planning to do a 50% match on my son’s car but it’ll likely be in our names based on insurance rates.
michaelincognito@reddit
Yeah, that was my situation when I was a high school kid. When I turned 16, my parents gave me a hand-me-down car and got themselves a new one. When I left for college, I kept the car till it died.
BubbetteGA@reddit
I’m in Georgia and it’s the same here. Any money our teen received as gifts growing up went into an account we kept for him and invested so he’d have money toward his first car. We bought the car used and kept it in our names, but it gave him the flexibility to choose something slightly newer and that he really wanted for himself.
Gymnastkatieg@reddit
It used to be, but more and more teens are waiting till their older to drive because it’s too expensive and parents are less annoyed by taking them places now
ATLDeepCreeker@reddit
Common but but overwhelmingly so.
When I went to school, only "seniors" or year 12 students could drive to school. They were generally 17 ir 18 years if age.
However, younger students did drive. You could drive in my state at 16. So students drove around town and to high school sports, etc.
Some schools gave students coming from so far away that there isnt a school bus to pick them up.
I had a friend who drove his dad's pickup truck to school. He went to the only high school in the county. He happened to live as far away from the school as you could get, on a farm. They didnt send a bus about 20 miles, just for him him. Most other students lived in or near the town where the school was.
There was a school closer, but it was actually in another state, over a river. It was a paperwork nightmare for him to go there. It was easy for him to drive (not a busy city or anything) and being a farm, they had a few vehicles.
In my case, I lived in a suburban of a beach town in the 1980s. All us kids wanted to get old enough to drive. It was possible to get an after-school job and make enough money to get a used, barely usable car....so lots of us did.
Also, for me, I went to a learning center that had tge computer lab, automotive technology, the student tv and radio station, etc. It was affiliated with the local college, so we got high school credit and college credit. It served all the high schools in our area. We would leave our high schools and go to the last half if the day at this center.
Anyway, basically ALL the 2nd and 3rd year students drove there because it was in a fairly remote area. There were school buses, but nobody wanted to get on them. Because it was pre-internet, and actually pre-computer of any type (PCs had only come out about 3 years before), so we could show up at our high schools, then skip class at the center with no consequences.
So we would just go to the beach or the movies. Our teachers didnt care if you showed up, only about your grades. They were all actually college professors.
And because I found a backdoor to the school system's grades, I was able to change grades basically at will. I only changed grade numbers slightly. For instance, if you needed to go from a 74 to a 75 to get an "A", then I would just add 1 or 2 points to random tests earlier in the semester.
Who would check? Remember this was before teachers had access to pcs. This was when teachers would give their grades to a "computer operator" who entered grades for the entire school into a dumb terminal that went to the school district's mainframe....
That happened to be at the technical center I went to class at. That I learned to program on. That "A" students were tasked wuth maintaining as part of our extra credit.
This paid for my car.....
ThanosSnapsSlimJims@reddit
I switched schools in high school. Both were upper middle class. I didn't realize that it was the kids who had super nice cars at both schools until I graduated. I didn't need a car until after 30, but now have a new hybrid that ran me around $43,000
Thick_Garlic_4790@reddit
It wasn’t FOREVER and of course when I had 5 kids (aged 18-26) everyone had to have one. It literally bankrupt me.
MPord@reddit
My son was not interested in driving at all. He did not get his driver's license until he turned 28 which was two years after his hs graduation. He is turning 37 this summer. He still does not own a car.
Crownhilldigger1@reddit
Yes, many high school aged kids have a car, for their parents convenience as well as their own growth to independence.
Transportation varies by income levels of the family. Most kids get a used or hand me down car. Some families are positioned to provide a new car.
Loud_Ad_1403@reddit
Common enough. The cars are usually parent-owned but used entirely by the student. There's also a lot of extra-curricular activities where returning home via bus isn't an option (either the student drives or the parents shuttle).
StructEngineer91@reddit
Where I grew up it was more common that we were allowed to use our parents cars when driving somewhere. For some that did mean driving ourselves to school, but I would not say that was the majority. Also at my school only seniors were allowed to have cars on campus.
xx-rapunzel-xx@reddit
no, yes, usually used or their parents’ spare car (lol)
1996Tomb_Raider@reddit
Many older high school kids have jobs. Many suburbs don’t have public transportation. So a car is needed.
Takeabreath_andgo@reddit
They drive Teslas and BMWs where I live, new. Usually a 16th birthday present.
In my hometown we drove used cars we bought ourselves in high school.
baddspellar@reddit
In wealthy towns, it's quite common for high school kids to be given a car by their parents to drive to and from school. Whether or not the kids "own" the car is questionable.
GrowHappyPlants@reddit
I didn't grow up in an affluent area, but IME the cars that were considered the kids car are actually owned 100% by the adults.
AliMcGraw@reddit
We're making cost calculations now for car + insurance + gas for my oldest who is going to need to drive to community college classes next year for his high school co-credit classes. It feels like there's no good choices; it's all too expensive.
billwoodcock@reddit
Perhaps a third of my friends in high school had cars. Probably more than half by the end of the final year. All used. I was not aware of any students with new cars at the time (late 1980s). But not necessarily terribly old. My car, for instance, was ten years old, with 2,000 miles on it when I bought it.
SpiroEstelo@reddit
It's common for American high school students to have their own car, but ownership is often technically under their parents' name. It isn't uncommon for students to contribute towards payments, insurance, and fuel, but the parents' name is usually tied to the vehicle at least as a cosigner.
69swamper@reddit
None of my kids had New cars in high school . All 3 did drive to school
Anxietybackmonkey@reddit
It’s common but not every kid has one. They have student parking at my former high school.
1boog1@reddit
Being a parent of teenagers, I picked up a couple beaters that we have been working on. They are old, and in my name. I will transfer them to my kids when the time comes.
Teens should not have a new car. It should always be a "beater" and that can vary by family wealth. And for us being middle class, mechanically inclined, and not wanting a loan, it means something that we have to repair, and over 20 years old.
Bright_Ices@reddit
In my experience a lot of kids get a used (sometimes very used) car when they turn 16 and get their license. When I was 16, I was given our old family car that was significantly older than I was. When it finally broke down for good, I bought myself another used car that was still older than I was. It cost $300, which was a steal even back then.
So yes, I had a car, but I also had to drive my sister to school every day, and she was never ready to leave on time.
geri73@reddit
My brother and SIL bought my niece a new used car when she became a junior. They still drive her everywhere, though.
one_fun_couple@reddit
We didn’t buy our son a car when he turned 16, although we could have. We wanted him to buy his own and build his credit. A lot of his friends had cars that were hand me downs or their parents bought for them. But our son saved diligently from 2 jobs and a side gig to put $7,000 down on a car he purchased the day he turned 18. You can’t get a car loan until you’re 18. My son took out a 3 year loan and paid off his car 9 months later because he was tired of paying the interest. He’s also paying his way through college. It’s not that we can’t afford to help him, but we believe this is the best way to teach him fiscal responsibility as he launches into adulthood.
Sea_Analysis_8033@reddit
What is shocking about it? Everyone gives us crap for being car centric and then can’t believe we use cars?
perplexedtv@reddit
I wouldn't say 'shocking' but normally you have to be 17 or 18 before you can even begin to take lessons in a lot of (most?) countries, it takes a lot of time and costs a shit load of money. Then the price of a car, tax and insurance. Teenagers generally don't have time to have a job (and nobody hires them anyway) so this would be pretty much an impossible scenario for a teenager in most of Europe
Eastern_Sky@reddit
I think some Europeans especially have a hard time grasping just how big and spread out the US really is with poor public transportation in between towns. Like even living in the suburbs there was no public transit available to us. If you didn’t have a car, you couldn’t go anywhere for fun or even go to the grocery store for your parents or whatever errands.
detrusormuscle@reddit
Bicycle
Sea_Analysis_8033@reddit
I’m in the suburbs and have extensive public transit I just think mostly people aren’t asking these questions to learn
Mystery13x@reddit
I'm in the suburbs, and there is no public transit here. They got rid of our metro buses. You drive your vehicle, or you're not getting anywhere fast. The only other option is a bicycle on roads going +35 mph or calling an Uber.
Sea_Analysis_8033@reddit
Vote liberal
WildRicochet@reddit
I didn't own my car in highschool.
My grandparents were no longer able to drive to age and medical issues when I had my permit. My parents kept their car and when I got my license I was basically using that car by myself.
I know many students who had similar situations. Parents/family memebers buying new cars and letting kids the old ones was common. I also know some kids who bought old cars very cheap and did the repairs on them to get them running agaian by themselves and they owned the vehicles.
atlieninberlin@reddit
I had a car at 16 but it was used and I saved the money to buy it. My highschool had parking but you didnt have a spot everyday so you had to rideshare with friends. Most people had a car by senior year some new but a lot used.
shakebakelizard@reddit
Most commonly, a student's parents or other older family members will give them a second or third-hand car. I had gotten my aunt's used car which at that point was 10 years old and we rebuilt the engine over the summer. I drove it for high school and into college.
Some people who can afford it will get their kids new cars. I knew people whose parents did this, but they were generally spoiled brats. This is less common now with the price of cars going up.
Also, some kids do work part-time or in college and will use that money to buy a (generally used) car. That happens as well.
Relevant-Emu5782@reddit
Yes it is quite common. It frees the parents up so they don't have to take them everywhere anymore. Remember, with our car culture the students often don't have any other way to get places; public transportation isn't an option usually. New or used depends on family income, but I think used is most common, even in high income areas. Where I have lived it is common for a parent to pass down a car to their child, and get a new car for themselves. Which is why I see high school students driving BMW or Jeep or Lexus. Cut Honda civics are also very common.
salty_new_england@reddit
I wouldn’t say ‘own’, they are normally a family car. Some kids will buy an old car with summer job money. But yes, quite common in rural and suburban areas. Where I live it’s the norm.
ForestOranges@reddit
The car was in my dad’s name but the concept of a “family car” doesn’t exist in my family. Even my parents won’t share cars or drive each other’s car. It was so odd to me to see how in other families they had a “family car” that anyone was allowed to drive.
forever-salty22@reddit
My parents each had their own cars when I was growing up too, and its strange to me when people share multiple cars. I like having at least one thing thats all mine
ForestOranges@reddit
You get it!
salty_new_england@reddit
Yeah, I’m actually the dad now. I bought a ‘kids car’ (used) as a sacrificial car that the kids could share and I didn’t have to worry about it getting beat up.
ForestOranges@reddit
How close are your kids in age? I can’t imagine having to share with my sister but I also can’t imagine my dad buying two used cars if we were only like a year or two apart. Most kids I knew sharing in high school usually only had a 2-3 year age difference.
ThumpMyHead@reddit
My brother and I were only 2 yrs apart but we went to different high schools, there would have been no way for us to share a car LOL 😆
His school didn't have transportation/busses so he had to drive as soon as he was able, mine has busses but Iwas so excited to get to start driving & since my brother got a car right away it was only fair for me to get one too.
We both had jobs and helped to pay for them but they were definitely cheap cars in our parent's names
ForestOranges@reddit
My sister was in college when I started driving, so it wouldn’t have worked. My parents also learned when we were young that we couldn’t share well. They bought me my own TV for my room when I was only 5 so we wouldn’t have to fight.
salty_new_england@reddit
Two years between each. It all worked out.
Glum-Welder1704@reddit
Generally, no. The lucky ones drive a car their parents own. The rest walk or ride bicycles.
Salish_R@reddit
It was common for the seniors (17 to 18 years old) to have a car and drive to school. I owned my car at 17. I refereed soccer games a couple days a week and worked part-time at Starbucks to pay for it. All three of my siblings also had cars and drove to high school. My parents bought them all cars at about 16 and 1/2 to 17 years old.
Schitzengiglz@reddit
I would say this is very dependent on region and size of municipality a high school student lives. It's also very dependent on family income in regards to new, used, or no car.
KillerTofu-187@reddit
I did! I had just turned 17 and I very proudly bought myself a used ‘93 Ford Bronco and it was the coolest car ever. Wish I still had it.
eksoh-eksoh@reddit
Depends on the parent’s bank accounts. Some kids got new cars, but most were used or passed down cars if they got one.
I drove the extra car when available.
Footnotegirl1@reddit
As for why American kids are more likely to have cars...
I live in a good size city. Next year, my kiddo starts high school, and the school she will be going to is a 15 minute drive from my house. If she were to take public transit, it would take over an hour and 15 minutes, and 30 of those minutes would be spent walking. Considering that about 4 months of the year we don't get above -6ºC and during parts of that both her morning AND evening commute would be dark, that's simply untenable. Kiddo will need a car as soon as she can safely drive.
Footnotegirl1@reddit
Very dependent on location and economic class.
If you're in say, New York City, you are unlikely to have a car or drive to school yourself even if your parents are billionaires. You'd take public transit or a car service.
If you're in an exurb of a major city or any sort of smaller town, all but the poorest kids are likely to have a car of some sort because it can be a 30+ minute commute to and from school by car.
My kid goes to a private school where most of the families are very well off. The school does not have a bus service for the high school students. Students come from up to an hour away to get to this school. I believe last I saw the numbers, about 75% of the senior class had their own car. That's an unusually high number.
It would be very very unusual for a kid to have a new car. Only the most insanely rich and indulgent of parents would do that. It does happen, but it's rare. More common is getting one of the parents older cars when a parent gets a newer one. Or helping a kid buy and fix up a used car with their summer job money.
quilting-anonymously@reddit
Well, depends on the family. My brother and I got shitty cars and we had to have a part time job before we could get our license, because we had to help pay for the extra car insurance and our own gas for the car. Mine was $1100. I paid for a small portion, my parents paid the rest and I paid them back.
Prince705@reddit
It's common and even unfeasible for them to not have a car in a lot of places. Public transportation is atrocious in a lot of the country.
PorterQs@reddit
I don’t think minors can own cars and insure them in the US, can they?
Parking_Champion_740@reddit
It really depends on location. At my kid’s high school only seniors (last year) can get parking permits and they have to live outside a certain perimeter and there is no parking in the neighborhood. Otherwise they bike or get dropped off (we don’t have school buses where I am) . There are certainly some kids who are given brand new cars but it will vary a lot by location
toodleroo@reddit
I got a car for my 16th birthday. It was 16 years old itself, an old beater Volvo 240. My parents paid $500 for it at a used car lot. I miss that car.
CrankyCrabbyCrunchy@reddit
"Own" isn't typically correct as their parents likely bought it and pay insurance and have their name on the title.
Common? Depends on how wealthy the area is that they live. I've mostly lived in higher income areas and many of the kids I went to school with (no me) got $$ cars at age 16 when they got their license.
A woman I worked with recently bought her 16 year old daughter a Tesla for getting her license!!! She has two other kids, does that mean two other Teslas? WOW.
I bought my own car when I was a junior in college at a very high % rate since no credit history. Before that, I bought a motorcycle since I couldn't afford a car. Loved that!!!
Astrazigniferi@reddit
It is fairly common for American highschoolers to have access to a vehicle on a regular basis. What kind of vehicle and who it belongs to depends a lot on location and socioeconomic status.
In most places, high schoolers can take a school bus to school, but it will likely not be available if they are in clubs, sports, or activities. In urban areas, there is usually public transportation students can take. In suburban or rural areas, that is not available, plus they are more likely to live quite far away from school, so they need to get a ride. By the time kids can get their license at 16, parents are SO TIRED of chauffeuring their kids everywhere. It’s worth it to most of us to find a way for the kid to have a vehicle so they can manage their own schedule.
Many families will buy an old beater car for the kid to drive. Sometimes they will get a newer car for a parent and let the teen drive their old one. More comfortable families might buy a nicer used car for the sake of the safety features. Only very affluent families would buy a kid a new car. The insurance is expensive and new drivers are fairly likely to damage the vehicle at some point.
forever-salty22@reddit
When I was in high school in the 90s, almost everyone saved up and bought their own scrappy little cars. My mom died when I was 16, so I got her car, but that's obviously not normal. I cant speak for kids now
LetterheadClassic306@reddit
yeah it's pretty common in suburbs especially. most teens get a used car around 16 if they have a job or parents help out. new cars are rare unless the family is wealthy. used hondas and toyotas are the go-to because they just don't die. i've seen so many kids driving used Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla that hit 200k miles easy. USAA auto insurance is another thing parents add them to. the independence matters more than the car itself honestly.
Powerful_Leg8519@reddit
My high school was 30 miles away. An hour to an hour and half commute one way. My parents got me a used beater the second I could drive myself to school.
prometheus_winced@reddit
Yes. Yes. Many of both.
RoweTheGreat@reddit
It’s not unheard of but certainly not common. I knew people in high school who worked and saved everything they could to buy a car, I knew some who were able to finance with a parent co-signer and I knew people whose parents bought/handed them down a car.
Traditional_Air6177@reddit
I’m from a rural area. It is common for teens of driving age to drive their car to school everyday. It may or may not be owned by the parents vs owned by the teen. That depends on how generous the parents are. For insurance reasons “ownership” might be officially transferred when they are 18 or graduate college. I had a friend whose older boyfriend had a successful lawn business. He gifted her a brand new large extended cab truck her senior year. I drove a 1993 Acura Legend in 2002. I was able to take myself and siblings to sports practices (some being right after school). It was a convenience to my parents. I lived 10 miles out of town and we didn’t have public transportation.
Comprehensive_Lie109@reddit
I got my first job at 14. I saved up enough to buy a 1989 Dodge Dakota with a little help from my parents by the time I was 16. If I ever have the extra money I’m going to find another 89 Dakota and restore it.
Ms-Metal@reddit
I don't see what's shocking about it. You know where carcentric culture, you know we need cars to get around, of course we have cars and yes most high school students do have cars. Now do they own them? Are they new cars? Probably no to both of those things. In some cases parents do buy kids cars, but my parents never did, most people's parents I know don't, I saved money and bought my own car. My sister though did buy her kids cars because I kind of had to, she had a very high profile very busy profession and so does her husband and they couldn't continue to take the time to drive the kids to school. Even though they live in a good size city, there is no bus service in the schools in their area and of course there's no public transportation. So some people are buying their kids cars out of necessity these days. Now she bought a beater car for each of them, not like some brand new car.
MuseoRidiculoso@reddit
Depends on where they live. City kids, no. Suburban kids, probably. Rural kids almost always.
Suspicious-Cat8623@reddit
We lived in places with no public transportation options and no easily accessible stores from where we lived.
We bought our kids new cars around age 16. They are good and solid basic vehicles with excellent safety ratings. We wanted them to have reliable transportation and wanted the latest safety features. We knew that teens are frequently in wrecks. We had already buried some of our children and wanted our living children to have the safest transportation that we could afford.
The other rationale was that their car needed to last through high school, undergrad and graduate school. We expected their car to probably get them through their early years of marriage and perhaps first baby. By buying a good car when they were 16, we expected that car to last 10-15 years without any major repairs or issues.
keithrc@reddit
My first car (in HS) was a '76 Buick LeSabre I bought with $450 I made bagging groceries, and I was damned happy to have it. 😀
MerryWannaRedux@reddit
It wont' say it's common, but I will say it's not uncommon. A good part of it has to do with location and one's school activities.
I got my first car when I was 17...a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle. I would often take the bus to school. But I was involved in several after-school activities, so on those days, I would drive.
Slight_Mood9168@reddit
yes and at my school, kids drive/own new bmws, mercedes, and even ferraris
otbnmalta@reddit
In my area some own their own cars, some have a car but it's in their parent's name. Many drive to school. Many schools currently have a fundraiser for seniors. They rent them a space for the year and they get to paint their space as long as it isn't vulgar. The money goes to their prom fund.
Maleficent_Button_58@reddit
My grandparents let me use their second car. I didn't own it, but I had it.
Tinkerfan57912@reddit
Depends. Mu high school, yes. My son’s high school not really.
cecil021@reddit
Somewhat. I think about 1/4 of my HS drove to school. I guess half of you consider freshman and most sophomores can’t drive yet.
Realistic-Regret-171@reddit
It was in the late 60s, but they’d be $500 ‘57 Chevies.
BrazilianButtCheeks@reddit
Depends on where you are ! For example in Oklahoma there is almost no public transportation at all especially in rural areas.. where I live we don’t even have uber available.. so yes most people get a car at 16 to go to and from school and after school jobs.. most of the time it’s an older car but some get new ones.. most seem to have to pay for some of it themselves while others parents pay in full! Definitely a case by case situation
LonesomeBulldog@reddit
My kid got a new car at 16 only because at the tail end of the pandemic there was a huge shortage of new cars and used car prices were insane. I bought her a new Crosstrek for $27K and the best used Crosstrek I could find had 50K miles and was $33K.
Mountain-Bath-6515@reddit
In my area it is common for high schoolers to have a used car that the parents legally own and yes, they drive it to school.
Lusiric9983@reddit
I found someone selling a Nissan Sentra for $1100. I needed a car for both school and work, so I haggled with them. I was 17 at the time. They were so impressed with my work ethic and holding a job while also going to school, that they sold me the car for $100, which was about two paychecks at the time. I miss it everyday.
LargeMarge-sentme@reddit
This is but one of the many ways kids feel bad about themselves in high school. But it’s a big one.
zerotime2sleep@reddit
I lived in suburban Maryland, and about 60% of us had used cars in high school. And some of the used cars were REALLY ugly and in terrible condition.
Only a couple of people had new or close-to-new cars.
In the suburbs or more rural areas, you must have a car to hold a job. Yes, a car is an incredible gift, but it helps our parents a ton. For those of us that also participated in clubs and sports, it saved our parents literally hours of driving us around.
Vern1138@reddit
I bought my first car when I was a sophomore in high-school for $800. It was twelve years old, only had a casette deck, and it was something of a beater. But it was mine. And quite a few other kids had their own cars in high-school as well.
Once you got your drivers license, which everyone wanted to get back in the early 2000's, you wanted to get your own car. But I went the the poor high-school, so most of the cars were used, and most students had to either pay for them, or if they were lukcy, their parents agreed to go half in if they got a part-time job so they could get a slightly nicer used car. I can't remember a single student who had a brand new car.
No idea what it's like now though.
Tristawn@reddit
It's more common that they have their own car to drive everyday. Sometimes they'll buy their own car, sometimes it's a gift from parents. In our area (suburban area) it's probably expected that a teen would have regular access to a car.
EyeIll7026@reddit
I grew up in a town that was fairly rural. Grafuated 2013. Most kids had cars, and most of those cars were older than probably 10 years. I drove a '95 Suburban that had been my mom's for a long time, then after a couple months of working evenings and weekends during the school year, I bought a 1998 Toyota Camry myself. Pretty average car at my school but there were a few kids that had some brand new cars (though mostly like Civics, Accords, Camry type cars).
There was one spoiled rich kid who went through like 4 different brand new cars during high school, he started with a Chevy Sonic then got a couple BMWs and then a two-door Mercedes was his graduation gift.
The nicest car in my friend group was a 2003 Mazda 6. Another friend had a 2001 Subaru Legacy GT. Couple mid-90s Toyota and Chevy pickups, a Geo Metro, couple Pontiacs, things like that.
lexicon951@reddit
In my experience, own their own car? No. It’s common for parents to buy or hand down a beater car to a teen, worth usually less than a motorcycle ($5k or so). That being said, obviously rich kids get handed nice cars- a kid in my class was given a Lamborghini before their 16th birthday by their movie director father so they would have it immediately to drive upon turning 16 (legal driving age here).
AdministrativeTip479@reddit
A lot of kids start working as teenagers and buy a cheap used car for their senior year, and others have their parents buy them one.
burlingk@reddit
Depending on where they live it's not uncommon to have an old used car. Maybe one they helped rebuild themselves.
Any_Assumption_2023@reddit
In the 1960s I, a 17 year old girl, had a second hand car I purchased myself with money I earned selling my handmade Paper Mache jewelry and some of my paintings. I had a part time job to pay for the increase in insurance , my mother put me on hers. And yes, I drove myself to high school.
Tsu_na_mi@reddit
It was uncommon but not rare when I was in High School (1986-1990). There were probably between 50-100 student cars in the lot out of maybe 800-1000 students in grades 9-12. Not everyone with a car drove, of course.
But anywhere between 15-30% of the kids in my class in 11th or 12th grade had a car. Not a new or fancy one in most cases, of course.
Unlucky_Meringue_631@reddit
Yes.
TheBimpo@reddit
Yes, it's pretty common, especially in non-urban areas.
Is it 100%? No, of course not.
No, most of them don't get a new car. Most of them get a used car. Maybe it's the car mom or dad drove for 7 years first, maybe it's an inexpensive one from a dealer.
This generation of teens is different than the preceding ones. When I was a teen it was a rite of passage and a hallmark of earned independence to have a car, to have a job, to be able to go places and do things. My friends and relatives have teens who can't be bothered to go to driver's ed classes or get a job, they're satisfied with their mobile device and laptop. They spend way, way WAY more time at home than we ever did.
GreenBeanTM@reddit
A large part of it is having no where to go.
TheBimpo@reddit
We didn’t have many places to go either. We went for drives, parks, walked around, sat at Denny’s or a coffee shop. There weren’t more places for teens back then.
GreenBeanTM@reddit
1) gas costs too much for teens to just go for drives
3) in a lot of areas you’ll get kicked out for loitering doing anything else you listed.
viccityguy2k@reddit
This is so true. When I was a teen - you HAD to leave the house to socialize with other teens (beyond a phone call). We were out every night we could. Same with the typical ten part time jobs in restaurants or whatever. Lots of socializing there too.
therewillbetime@reddit
People forget this. In previous generations the only way to socialize was to call someone. Even better if you had your own phone line instead of sharing the family one. In the last 20+ years though, kids can socialize over a thousand different ways. They can game together, video conference, text etc. We had nothing like that, so hanging out was really our only way. I think covid was just a catalyst.
lefactorybebe@reddit
While I agree that there's a greater amount of kids who are content to stay home and online, there's plenty of kids who get licenses/cars still. I teach high school juniors and I have tons of my kids who come up to me to excitedly tell me they got their license the day before. The senior lot at my school is full, junior lot is almost full and kids are getting in trouble cause they're parking in staff and visitor spots. So still plenty of kids who want and get that freedom!
UncomfortableBike975@reddit
20 years ago. Yes. These days many do not even get their license.
Skete_5959@reddit
Fairly! My experience was typical of most students at my high school - I received my license at 16, and my parents allowed me to buy a car for my 17th birthday. Many kids buy older “clunkers” off of grandparents or parents.
Calm_Independence796@reddit
I think it depends on the city, because a lot of people I knew had licenses but not cars because a lot of them weren’t well off and so they would have to buy the car, insurance, registration etc.
I say city bc if it’s Beverly Hills yeah all the teens will have a car but if it’s east la then no lol.
I lived in the SGV in California growing up and mostly well off teens had cars. I didn’t get a car till college
MaleficentExtent1777@reddit
My niece and nephew both had used cars. My sister bought her son a cheap used car. My niece got her aunt's old car.
NecessaryLight2815@reddit
Everybody has a car. Depending on your families financial situation will determine how nice/new it is. I had a 1983 Plymouth Reliant. I hated it at first but changed my mind when I realized it was freedom. It also would not die no matter how badly I treated it. Still have very fond memories of that car. My son who is 11 will probably inherit my Volvo S60 on the day he turns 16.
pleasesayitaintsooo@reddit
Yeah very common depending on where you are
MomRaccoon@reddit
A teenager with driver's license is a wonderful thing if you have kids in sports or other after school activities! Definitely worth a used car to not have to take time off work to transport when you live 10 miles from town!
Living_Fig_6386@reddit
It’s less common today as it once was. One can typically get a driver’s license towards the end of high school. It wouldn’t be uncommon for high school kids to get part-time jobs, and it used to be relatively easy to afford a used car.
The cost of buying and owning a car relative to the wages a high schooler could earn has gone up quite a bit, and enthusiasm for owning a car and driving has decreased. But some still get cars (and parents may help them get a car; in wealthy areas the parents might even buy them new cars).
Schools don’t have big parking lots, so they give permits to a limited number of students.
Up2nogud13@reddit
Pretty common when I was in high school (deep south, rural and suburban middle and working class area in the 80s) and when my kids were in school (similar demo during the 00s). Can't speak for now, though. Most kids drove used cars; some of the ones whose family had money got new ones.
I had 3 cars during high school. The newest one was an 8 year old Camaro. I bought them all myself.
One kid in my class got a restored '55 Chevy for his 16th birthday, and a new IROC Z-28 for graduation.
Good kid though. He now runs the family business.
DartDaimler@reddit
As always with “is it common in America?”, it depends where and who. I would say, with the exception of wealthy families, it’s most common in rural & suburban areas without good public transportation. Generally the car is an older family vehicle, or a used one bought by the teenager or the teenager plus parents.
Many teenagers have jobs and need safe transportation, and get an older family vehicle as a trade-off. In my case, both parents worked and my mother’s job kept her driving around a lot, so I got use of the old family car. I was responsible for driving my youngest sibling to day care in the morning, picking them up in the afternoon, fetching sibs from various after-school activities, and grocery shopping. When I went to college the next sub down got the car + the task list.
LopsidedFrosting4860@reddit
At 15 my dad bought me a 05 gmc sierra as my first truck by 17 I had a 94 Z28 Camaro and a 1979 F150 and my friends made fun of me because they had more cars than me.
Turdle_Vic@reddit
It isn’t uncommon. My school has a parking litter system for students to get assigned parking and paint their concrete stoppers with school colors (blue, white, and gold). I didn’t have a car but my sister did and she got a good spot in the lottery
SteampunkRobin@reddit
Lots of kids in my high school had their own cars, some new, some used. One even had a DeLorean.
ColoradoWeasel@reddit
We had an older third car in the family. Each of three kids used that car their junior and senior years of high school. The youngest continued to use it throughout college and will now have it in grad school. It was nothing fancy (Chevy Cobalt). But it got them back and forth. It is now 16 years old.
My kids were very lucky.
lifeisfascinatingly_@reddit
I was gifted a new car at 16, all my friends too. We also grew up in a small town in California so maybe that made a difference? Everyone got a car on their 16th.
shirlxyz@reddit
My brother & I did. We saved up for them. My 3 sons got our hand me downs
Manual-shift6@reddit
I was the exception rather than rule in my high school waaay back. Every vehicle I drove to school I owned. Most other students drove parent owned/provided vehicles. This was the case with our daughters up into college. They drove vehicles we provided. I worked very hard to have
My own, simply because I did not want my parents (especially my father) to have the ability to restrict my vehicle use. Just the way it was…
Defiant_Finger4011@reddit
In 2005 I bought my own car in cash with 2500. But I was a minor so my brother technically bought it with my money. So the title was in his name. Day after I turned 18 he took me to the dmv and we switched it over to my name.
TripleDoubleFart@reddit
I'd say driving to/from school is somewhat common.
Actually owning the car is more rare.
justsomeguynbd@reddit
Agree with this. Like I drove a hand me down vehicle (dad’s old truck) to school but it wasn’t titled in my name or anything.
anchordwn@reddit
I don’t even think you can legally own a car till 18
HudsDad@reddit
Yes, my son bought his truck with cash at 16. Title is in his name, but I had to provide the insurance.
anchordwn@reddit
Interesting! In the state I lived at 16 the car I had at 17 couldn’t be titled in my name at all, couldn’t have a title in my name till 18 no matter who’s money it was paid with.
send2steph@reddit
Of course there's a lot of variation in who pays for what. My husband bought his own vehicle when he was a kid. My parents bought mine but I had to pay for everything else including the insurance, new tires, gas, oil changes, etc. For our kids, we bought and paid for everything. My kids are now 23 and 21 and will be expected to buy their next cars on their own.
ParryLimeade@reddit
When I was in HS in 2011 ish it was 50/50 if kids had a car. I had one worth $1000 (97 Pontiac) lol but a lot of my peers had new ones or young hand me downs from parents. Of course some didn’t have cars
sideshow--@reddit
Yes. We had a car that I used in high school. I didn’t own it. My parents did.
EryktheDead@reddit
I would say it’s more common for the parent to own the car, but yes, lots of high school kids have cars.
EffieBoohoo@reddit
Very common to have a car after age 16. Most people that were at my school had used or older cars or a "family car"...so in most cases their parents owned the car...although not always. Honestly it really depends on exactly where you are living city vs suburb vs country...in big cities you are less likely to need a car, but also what the economy is doing and what your family can afford.
Ok_Buy_9703@reddit
My daughter drives to high school in an used car with 230K miles on it. School is about 15 miles away from house. No bus service available as we are from a different school district but it's allowed if we cover transportation.
Federal-Membership-1@reddit
My siblings and I all had cars when we reached driving age. My first car cost around $700 in 1986. My dad bought it. Both of my kids were gifted high-mileage vehicles by grand parents.
Federal-Membership-1@reddit
I would say "have" not "own". It's pretty common in any car-dependent area of the US for a driving age teen to have use of a car. Commonly, it's a car passed down from a parent, or purchased by a parent.
N661US@reddit
Depends on location really. Some parents may buy their kid their first car.
My best friend’s dad went half with him on his first car.
Me personally I had to work and save up money for a car.
ElephantCares@reddit
I got my dad’s car for my 16th birthday, he got a new one. I suspect that a lot of kids get it that way, or a used car to start (unless they have really rich parents who want to make sure their kids are entitled assholes.)
Yes, we drove to school. I have to qualify, I live in California where we don’t really have public transit. The experience in New York might be completely different for kids.
LilacOn_Green57934@reddit
Parents often let their kid drive one of the family’s older cars. I wouldn’t call it theirs; the title would still be in the parents’ name.
Mystery13x@reddit
EXTREMELY common. You had to ride the yellow bus worth the little kids if you didn't.
Divinityemotions@reddit
Yes, it is common. A lot of cities an towns don’t have good public transportation so having a car is important. Most of them get their driver license at 16. But there’s also this new generation that cares less about driving…
EnderBookwyrm@reddit
Fairly common in upper-middle class or wealthy areas. Very few teenagers have a brand new car; usually they get a secondhand one or their parents hand down an old one. College students are more likely to have their own car, though not always.
PartyCat78@reddit
Yes. I purchased my own (used, 7 year old) car when I was in high school.
tila1993@reddit
My parents gave me a pickup with no heat when gas was like $4.50/ga. Drive it through winter as a sophomore and bought a Saturn for $2k. And the second part, as soon as I got my license I stopped walking.
life_experienced@reddit
My older daughter got a beater (old dilapidated car) when she got her license. She drove herself to school (only the seniors could park in the school lot) and to her job and to see her friends.
It helped us a great deal because we were driving the kids everywhere. After a period of practice, she was able to take her sister places, and when she left for college, her sister got the car. We sold it a few years afterward when sister went to college.
No-Effect-4973@reddit
I grew up in Northern California and as soon as I turned 16 I got a job so I could buy my own car. My dad was not the type to buy his kids a car, but he did pay for insurance. I went to high school with a lot of kids whose parents bought them a brand new car as soon as they got their drivers license.
These-Ad5332@reddit
As with most answers in the U.S. "It depends'. Some kids get cars as gifts, some buy their own, some get to use a spare car, and some can't afford a car at all. It just depends on the family and their financial situation.
When I was in High School there were definitely kids who got new cars as sweet 16 presents. One kid had a fire bird, one had a hummer, another a jaguar. But my friends and I had our parents old cars. Mine was a Chevy Lumina I bought off my mom for $500.
My nieces have newer used cars that their parents own but they're for the girls. They pay the insurance and that's it.
HKGPhooey@reddit
Common for rich kids to have cars in high school. I grew up middle class. We had 1 car for the whole family. My mom had it for most days because she had to run errands. Every morning she drove dad to the bus stop. Then some days she took me to school. Then picked us both up. On the rare occasion, dad would take the car into the city.
Duncan-Edwards@reddit
In 1981 when I graduated high. School I had a 1977 Chevy Monte Carlo. It was not my first car, but I bought it myself. In that time and place if you were a guy, you might as well not have a phallus as to not have a car if you wanted to make it with girls.
CartographerSea5923@reddit
High school latter 80s. My first car was a 75 Ford LTD calf shit yellow. $400.
Gilamunsta@reddit
I would say yes to both questions I personally didn't did not have to have a car in high school But a lot of my classmates did
Longjumping_Low1310@reddit
Common? Yes and no it depends on a couple factors.
Namely if they live in a more rural area or a city where public transport might be more common. And 2 their age. The closer you get to graduating the sooner your gonna probably need to drive. So seniors in a rural area probably super likely to have a car generally used.
Change that to sophomores or juniors in a city with alot of public transport much less likely.
CyanCitrine@reddit
Idk, depends on where you live, what income your family has, etc. When I went to school I think most kids in my class had their own car or at least drove a family car that was designated for their use. I had a cheap used car given to me at 17. Cost about $3k at the time.
Technical-Tear5841@reddit
Well, many have use of a car but few own it. My dad was not rich but as a farmer he did have some money. I am old so I started driving in 1968, my first car was a 56 Ford Coupe. My dad soon gave it away to a needed family and brought a used 1968 Chevrolet Impala for me. My brother was one year younger and got his own car the year after I graduated high school. I got each of my children a car when they started driving.
A few years back a family in our church sponsored an exchange student from Demark, one of her surprises was that both teens in the family had their own cars. Only one person in her village had their own car. She also really loved the beach and Disney World (we are in Florida), her dream was to immigrate here when she became an adult.
nikkinj@reddit
It is here.
nomadschomad@reddit
In middle class (because they can afford it), suburban (because they need to drive) neighborhoods, yes, this is common. Usually the parents own the car, not the kids, but it is theirs in the sense of being primary user. I went to a very diverse downtown high school in a midsize city. We had kids with BMWs and kids who took city buses. I had a 15-year-old muscle car. Lots of my buddies had trucks.
FlyByPC@reddit
At my high school, probably more than half of the juniors and seniors either had their own car or had the use of a family car. I drove myself and my sister to school once I turned 16 and got my license. It beat taking the bus, which did a meandering tour of the area to pick everybody else up, on the way in.
Some juniors and seniors rode the bus, but we always preferred to drive or at least bum a ride with a friend.
Middle-Wealth-6755@reddit
Depends on the high school. For the two high schools I went to in Texas, yes.
kppsmom@reddit
I got my first car at 15.
Legaldrugloard@reddit
When I was a teen we all had used cars handed down by our parents. Now it seems they all have new vehicles, very expensive vehicles. Everyone drives to school.
Constant-Prog15@reddit
We gave my daughter my old (8 years old) car when she was in her final year of high school. Due to her schedule, she could no longer take the bus. She still drives that car, and it will be passed to her brother when she goes away to university next year.
I owned a car in high school, one that was as old as me and didn’t cost a lot. I was involved in a lot of activities that took place sometimes 30+ miles away after school and my parents couldn’t always drive me.
Wyklar2@reddit
When my son got his license, my husband bought a new vehicle for himself and we gave my son my husband’s 20 year old vehicle.
rnoyfb@reddit
In my school, student parking passes were given out by priority and seniors got them before any other students. Juniors probably got about a fourth of the parking spots they wanted. That all got ignored one day a year when farm kids drove their tractors to school. The parking lot would run out of room faster but they didn’t care. They just parked on the grass
WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs@reddit
All of my nieces and nephews that have cars at all, have used cars that their parents passed down to them, old vans, 20-year old Toyotas, Ford Fiestas, stuff like that.
SheShelley@reddit
When I was growing up it was a blend of new and used cars. Not everyone had one, but it was pretty common to have one, yeah. At my kid’s school it was also common but not as many new cars.
Hey-Just-Saying@reddit
It's common in upper middle and upper class neighbourhoods.
MNMystery@reddit
Not as common as it used to be. Cars are way more expensive, even accounting for inflation, than they were 40-50 years ago. Obama's "cash for cars" program took most of the cheap used ones out of circulation. Urban and suburban areas are more transit conscious nowadays too.
Baseball3Weston12@reddit
My parents definitely had the money to buy a new car, but they bought me a used vehicle, I did have a choice in the vehicle but a price limit of $4k. I'm glad they did it this way.
JunoCalliope@reddit
As people have said, it depends on the area. I live in a rural area, and it is common for high schoolers who have their license to drive themselves and their siblings to and from school. Some younger kids who live close enough but aren’t old enough to have their license will drive a side by side, 4 wheeler, or if it’s winter, a snowmobile. The kids don’t own these things though, their parents own the car or other vehicle and just let the kids drive it. Also most kids do not have a new car. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who let their kid drive a new or very nice car more than occasionally. Their daily driver would be an older car that was safe but not super valuable, because kids tend to have worse judgement and be harder on their vehicles lol.
Perfect_Storm_425@reddit
I bought both my daughters used cars and they bear the shit out of them. So yeah, no new cars for sure
Graycy@reddit
Oh yes. If they’re not given one they’ll figure it how to get it. In my day we drive cheap old clunkers. That’s how, 70s, kids learned to work on their old clunker ccars. Some still do, but I notice a lot seem to have newer vehicles. I think parents are wanting them in newer vehicles in good running order for safety sake. Can’t imagine. I mean most of us survived. Note: before you jump me that was tongue in cheek, mostly anyway
TallWalmartCovington@reddit
A lot of them just get lucky by being given cars or being given the opportunity to work for something. I was lucky enough to be given the chance to get a ride to work until I get my license and I'm currently deciding on the job. My dad said he'd help fix up the old family car for me to drive since I had the work ethic to get my own but it wasn't going to work out.
Before I knew about this less than a week ago, I was stressing myself out for the longest time. I wanted a car and some money so I could go have fun with that. However, when I asked for advice, I was told by people to just walk, which isn't a problem in some places, but this is rural America we're talking about. You can't just walk wherever you want. You need a ride, which luckily I can get. However, not everyone is fortunate enough for that, and a lot of people don't conveniently have an old car to hand to their kids or money to buy their kid a lemon to learn in. I was unlucky until recently. If you're in an urban area, getting your own car is doable if you put in the effort and your city actually has something that's walkable. If you're in the fields like me, just pray you can get some help because you're not walking to a job.
Prize_Consequence568@reddit
Depends on the particular family.
maestra612@reddit
When I was in highschool 35 years ago almost every senior had a car. Usually a hand-me-down from a parent or older sibling. It seems much less common now for kids to even bother getting a driver's license. My 16 year old intends to get a license next year, but no way he would be able to afford a car and insurance.
Orion-Key3996@reddit
Used cars were more common, almost as old as the driver lol.
Mazy_keen@reddit
My high school 25 years ago yes, most kids drove a car to school. Same with my kids 60 miles away and 20 years later... down to the old pickup trucks with a hunting rifle in the back window.
oneislandgirl@reddit
Depends on the area. More affluent schools, many kids have their own cars and are responsible for driving younger siblings. Might be an old family car handed down to them, a used car purchased for them or a new car. Each family financial situation is different.
CaptNat3600@reddit
Pretty much all seniors and some juniors at my HS had cars. Most were used but a handful of kids had bring new cars. Our parking lots took up more space than our varsity and JV football fields combined.
_handlemewithcare_@reddit
Yes. In my era, it was an old model something either handed down from siblings or parents or just a good deal. Way different now for a lot of kids.
wifeage18@reddit
Many will have a car to drive, but the car will be in a parent's name. Registering a car under a teenager's name will increase the already high auto insurance coverage rate.
snuffleupagus7@reddit
I'm surprised at most of the top comments saying most high schoolers don't own cars. I guess times have changed and I'm out of touch since I don't have kids. When I was in high school (late 90s) 90+% of kids i knew who were driving age owned cars. Not just using their parents car. How they got it varied, a few wealthier kids parents bought them new cars, some parents gave their kids old hand me down cars, but most common and what I did was buy your own (used, inexpensive car) with money you had saved up from gifts, doing any odd jobs and part time work, etc, over the years. Of course at that time you could get a decent (not nice but would run) car for a few thousand dollars.
KittyCubed@reddit
It’s common where I am. Usually if they have a car, they are working and need transportation to and from work and/or are involved in school activities that parents may not be able to get them to and from. There’s no public transportation where I am, it’s pretty sprawled out, and school buses only pick up and take home from school (so if you can’t get rides from parents/older siblings or friends’ parents for after school sports or activities, then likely you won’t be able to do those activities).
That said, when I was in school, most of us drove used cars that our parents let us borrow or that we worked for and bought ourselves for a couple grand. There were a few kids who had brand new cars, but they were typically the more affluent kids and were gifted to them when they turned 16.
fsmom@reddit
Depends on whether their school has student parking, and whether their parents or the students themselves can afford to buy one. I had one in high school for my exclusive use, but legally my parents owned it since I couldn't enter a contract as a minor. My daughter will not have one because her school doesn't have parking.
travelinmatt76@reddit
In 1993 I bought a 1985 F-150 with my own money when I turned 16 and I drove it to school every day
FruityLegume@reddit
At my high school I'd guess that 1 in 20 kids had a car. They were rarely new, usually hand-me-downs from parents or other family. Sometimes the "rich kids" might have a new car.
Flimsy-Surprise-4914@reddit
In Socal. Yes very common
JadeHarley0@reddit
No, but it is common for parents to buy a car for the student to use. If the kid can drive that actually is a huge benefit to the family because the kid doesn't need to be driven around and can also run errands.
Similar_Corner8081@reddit
If their family is wealthy then yes high schoolers will have nice new cars.
tommybuttsecks@reddit
I owned my own car when I was 17. I had been working since I was 14 and saving 85% of it. Bought my first car for 5700 dollars.
101010_1@reddit
lol what's so shocking about the fact that many highschool kids drive their parents old cars? sure some parents with $$ buy their kids a car, whatever, not many, unless you're in a rich neighborhood. lol everywhere else has such a higher population density and not as much land, so yeah. US is nothing like the EU or elsewhere, lol probably more similar to Russia than any country due to them also having so much land...
yeah drop this question in ask Russians...be interesting, although Russians make considerably less so it might not compare
Waltz_whitman@reddit
It’s common for them to have a car that they can use that belongs to their parents.
Suspicious-Chip-341@reddit
My parents got my sisters and I all used cars as they didn’t want to spend too much on a car that we could wreck. They had to get us cars because my oldest sister was the back up if me or middle sister needed to go to the doctor or sports. She also needed it to go to work in high school. Same with middle sister. We didn’t have a bus to take us so she had to drive to school that was in the country. I also needed a car after she graduated.
I will say one of my friends a grade under me said after I graduated another in his grade (a girl) got a brand new, current year red mustang. She bragged all about it. Then one rainy day she turned out of our neighborhood too fast, hydro planed and totaled it. She had it like 6 months. Her parents just got her a brand new one. I was like I wish my parents did that for me! If I did it they would get me a car that was worth $1000 not $20000
soggysocks6123@reddit
Yes, you’ll see a mix of situations. Some kids actually go out and get a small loan for a basic used vehicle that they then make payments on, or they buy outright, or family helps then purchase the vehicle.
I’m told it’s getting less common tho.
PuzzleheadedLemon353@reddit
Yes...that's how we get to school, our jobs and go on week-end dates.
Hey-Bud-Lets-Party@reddit
Yes. High Schools have large student parking lots for a reason.
teriKatty@reddit
A lot of them drive cars their parents own but they claim as theirs.
san_souci@reddit
I owned a used car at 16 that I bought with money I saved. I learned to do a lot of my own maintenance. At my school only seniors had parking privileges but there was an exception for junior who worked after school and needed to drive.
It’s less common these days.
What is shocking about it ?
itsatrapp71@reddit
Mostly seniors with a few older juniors driving. Suburban rural mix so a lot of jacked up trucks, jeeps and SUVs with a good mix of middle of the road sedans like Corollas and focus's.
BackgroundLion6545@reddit
At some schools it is so commonplace seniors paint a parking spot in the lot in any way they want. Just google high school painted parking spot you will see lots of examples.
I was an 80’s teen and was lucky enough to have a parent who worked in the auto industry and got crazy good deals when leases were sort of new. I got a new vehicle and the lease was like $97 a month. For our child they got a reliable hand me down used in high school and taken off to college.
Fggmnk@reddit
I had a used car. I leased my kids cars but we got exceptional deals so yes, they did have new cars but also some used.
It’s very hard to get around without a car here.
BoBoBearDev@reddit
I did. My high school is far because my mom put my name under her friend to get a better school district. And they don't have time to drive me to school.
UnicornWig@reddit
Some have new. Some have beaters.
goldentalus70@reddit
I don't know about now, but in the 1970s a lot of us had our own used or handed down older cars in high school as soon as we got our DLs. We drove all over the place, school, parties, camping, surfing whatever. No restrictions. No one I knew had a new car, though, but I'm sure that was probably common in wealthier areas.
But at least in my state now the DLs are conditional and have restrictions for minors. You cannot drive:
There are a few exceptions for work or extenuating circumstances.
purplemuskrats@reddit
I did. I was in a carpool group with friends where we’d take turns driving to school
Eastern_Sky@reddit
It’s common for high school students to have access to a car. A lot of times it’s a family car that’s technically owned by a parent and was maybe their car before they got a new one. Maybe multiple siblings of driving age share it. Some parents do buy a 16 year old a new or used car, or kids work and save up for a car, but that’s more in wealthier families.
1911Earthling@reddit
I did. A family hand me down. But I was unusual. Not many kids had cars. 🚗
304libco@reddit
I think it used to be more common. But cars are so expensive now that a teenager can’t really save up that much money.
1Negative_Person@reddit
It is fairly common for high school students to have access to a car of their own. Sometimes the teenager owns the car outright, sometimes the parents buy it for the teen,m but keep the title in their own name, and sometimes there is just an extra family vehicle that the teen gets to use.
Aside from very wealthy families, it is uncommon for teens to have a new car. It’s almost always a used car, regardless if the teen buys it or the parents buy it.
I purchased my first car from my father. When I turned 16 he bought a new car and sold me his old one.
I purchased a used car for my daughter when she turned 16. She pays for her own insurance, registration, and fuel.
Amazing-Tadpole4558@reddit
I think this varies vastly on where in the US people live. I live in Central Florida and it is less common to see HS students with their own cars than 10-15 years ago. My husband and I both had our own by the 11th grade. He had a car payment and a new car, I went the other route and bought an older car off a family friend. None of our friends were gifted one by their parents.
msbshow@reddit
Depends. I lived in a city and can probably count on one hand the amount of kids out of my 360 person class that had their own car. But in the suburbs where there was no other option? 100% typical.
NyanPikachu744@reddit
Usually yes, but Also depending on the school, there was limited amount of parking(and costed money). And not saying the ones that took the bus didn't/don't have a car.
GenZ2002@reddit
Depends. It’s divided amongst income, living environment (city vs rural), etc
TALieutenant@reddit
I graduated in 2001, so its been a few years since I've been in high school. But I remember a lot of people having their own car...we even had a student parking area where you could pay and reserve a space all year.
It was also common for juniors and seniors to leave and go somewhere else for lunch...even if you didn't have a car, you could go with a friend who did as long as you had a former signed by your parents. My mom refused to sign it and we got in a big argument about it once (now that I'm an adult, I get where she was coming from.)
Just for reference, we lived in the suburbs.
robertwadehall@reddit
I can’t speak for today, but when I went to high school in the 80s at an affluent Florida beach town, a large percentage of juniors and seniors drove, and many had new cars bought by wealthy parents. Lots had 5 yr old hand me down cars from parents, and some had older cars they bought themselves.
KillBologna@reddit
When I was in high school in the late 90s/ early 2000s, yes
damebyron@reddit
Yes in areas where you can’t get anywhere by walking or public transit. Which is most of the United States outside of big cities. I didn’t but only because my parents’ work schedules allowed them to ferry me around everywhere. If they both worked 9-5s I probably would have needed to, if I ever wanted to go anywhere after school.
Whether the car is used or new probably depends on how wealthy the family is. Your average middle class family is going to buy a beater as a first car.
damebyron@reddit
(Also adding - I am not sure where you are from but I think the most shocking feature of the United States to non-Americans, particularly Europeans, is how vast it is. There are a lot of areas where everything - including grocery store, etc., is a 30 minute drive away.)
OO_Ben@reddit
Where I live it is. It's mostly an older hand me down car from a grandparent or parent. My car was as old as I was when I got it at 15 lol
Low_Plastic363@reddit
Where I grew up, about half of the kids had a car. Mostly used or the cheapest new car possible (Hyundai Accent, Pontiac Sunfire, Dodge Neon, etc )
Where I live now, it is not unusual for parents to buy their kids a brand new car, including luxury brands and Tesla.
ChiSchatze@reddit
It’s much less common now than 10-15 years ago because insurance & gas are so expensive now.
frank342@reddit
Yeah it was common for parents to get a car for their kids or help them get one. Junior and senior year if you had a car you would drive to school or get a ride with a friend.
NYOB4321@reddit
Often parents or grandparents will give an older car rather than trading it in when they are replacing their vehicles.
queenchubkins@reddit
I grew up in a rural area and quite a few of my class had cars. I had a hand me down from my parents because I worked right after school.
There are a lot of kids with cars where I live now but my kids didn’t have their own cars in high school. My oldest was gifted a used car to go back and forth to university in another state.
UpbeatPhilosophySJ@reddit
Absolutely not.
Renny4400@reddit
My parents bought me and my sister a car. It was used and didn’t cost more than $2000 at the most. But it served its purpose to get us to and from school and work. And we traded who got to have it on the weekends.
HR_King@reddit
It depends
Hairy_Debate6448@reddit
I can only sort of speak for where I grew up (in the northeast) but I’d say about 70% of people had their own car with everyone else either borrowing a parents or getting rides from other people. Of those people who had cars id say maybe 25% of them or so had a new car but most of them leased (or their parents) leased the new car for them. We get our licenses in my state at 17 (many other states are 16 or 16.5) so the vast majority of juniors and seniors were all driving themselves to school.
normiepitbullmom@reddit
My grandmother passed when I was 15, so at 16 I got her car that had barely been driven. It was definitely an old lady car, but I didn’t care. Not sure what my parents would have done if we hadn’t had that opportunity, we didn’t have much money.
ShesGotaChicken2Ride@reddit
Yeah, it’s pretty common where I’m from. Not usually a new car, though. First car is usually a used vehicle that is cheap to maintain (cheap to buy tires for, cheap oil changes, good gas mileage) because if you’re old enough to drive you’re old enough to work. If a student has a car, their parents typically expect them to have a part-time job while going to school and are expected to pay for their own gas and car insurance. The student is also expected to drive responsibly and not speed, get tickets, or get into accidents. If they do, the parents will usually take their car keys away and make them earn them back.
txlady100@reddit
Yes.
shesshellsbells@reddit
My daughter is an 18 y/o high school student that owns her own car in the US. It was a gift from myself and her step father. He’s a mechanic so we found a 2008 fixer upper for less than 2 thousand. Her school is 40 minutes away so her having her own source of transportation helps us more than her lol. She also works, so lots of driving!
onlyreason4u@reddit
Yes it's common, but it depends on the wealth of the area you grow up in. I had a new car at 16 that I drove to school. I was an exception though. There were limited parking spots so there was lotto for the seniors ( last year students). I got one as a sophomore/junior/senior because I was in an after school extra class and my teacher got me one. I did not live within walking distance and I went to work after I finished school for the day.
DankBlunderwood@reddit
Drivership is in decline among gen zers, possibly because families are not as well off as they used to be. But traditionally, a kid would get an inexpensive used car for their 16th birthday. Rich kids might have gotten a new one. I remember one of my rich classmates was offered his choice of a new BMW 3 series or a fully restored MGB. He took the MGB.
Narrow-Psychology909@reddit
I didn’t know any students who purchased their own car, but many kids used a car their parents either already had or purchased for them/their siblings. When my grandparents moved, my family inherited their ‘94 Mazda Protegé that became the “kids” car. We were driving it in the late 2000’s, early 2010’s lol
GrookeyFan_16@reddit
I grew up in a rural community. Everyone got a car as soon as they could drive. Our school was literally surrounded by cornfields so you had to have a car or ride the school bus. So if you were involved in any activities like athletics with early am and late afternoon practices, marching band which practiced before school, early am college classes, after school clubs, cheerleading, etc you needed your own transportation.
Where I live now is a larger town but still doesn’t really have public transportation. So most high schoolers do drive themselves. It’s about a 40 minute walk for my oldest to get from school to home. No one wants to make that walk when it is -20F outside for days on end.
kbivs@reddit
When I was in high school I didn't know a single person my age who owned their own car. We borrowed our parents' if we needed one.
I lived in a large metropolitan area. No one drove to school, everyone took public transit. I didn't own my own car until I moved out of my parents house when I got married.
SheepherderAware4766@reddit
Own, No, but parents commonly get a 3ed car and let the kids share. Either they get an old beater to give to the kids or a new car for themselves and hand down the oldest car.
gato-afortunado@reddit
It really does depend on where. We had no bus service to our high school. My parents bought us four kids a crappy beater when my oldest brother got his license. When he graduated, the car was passed down to the next brother and so on. I finally got it and kept it for another few years.
bigkapex@reddit
I had a very cheap car when I was 15 in highschool
Whatisthisnonsense22@reddit
Where my kids went to school, maybe 50 percent of the kids drove. Technically, no kid owned their car. In my state no one under 18 can own a car on their own. Probably 25% of the kids had a car for their own use.
Only one of my kids even wanted to drive and we bought a car for her use. But it belonged to us and we used it when we needed it.
Wetald@reddit
As others have said, this is very location dependent. Where I grew up in rural Texas, it was common for many of us to drive our own vehicles to school. There were plenty of ranch or farm kids who lived 30-45 minutes from the school. Yes, bus routes would be available to them, but that does you no good if you stay after school often for extracurricular activities past when the buses would have left. New cars are generally for two groups: the affluent and those who want to appear affluent. Most middle class kids would have a decently reliable used car.
TxNvNs95@reddit
I graduated in the 2000s and most of us either bought cash cars/trucks or parents helped their kids. I bought my first truck for 2,000 and drove it for senior year and my first year of college while saving up for a nicer truck that I paid for.
itsjusttimeokay@reddit
When I was in high school (early aughts) many students had handmedown cars or cheap cars. I bought my first car for $1,000 my junior year. Some classmates’ parents were loaded and they’d have nice new cars. Most of my friends didn’t drive or borrowed their parents’ cars. My parents bought my aunt’s car for my sisters when they were teens.
As an adult now, several of the teens in my neighborhood have their own used beater cars, or borrow their parents’ car. There’s a carpool rotation or something. One of the neighbor kids’ friends had a newer mustang he used to sit outside and blast music and rev the engine, but he got caught trying to give my 10 year old neighbor boy weed, so he’s not allowed around anymore 🙃
Kbbbbbut@reddit
Do you mean literally own? Like their name is on the title rather than their parents names?
I would say the vast majority of driving aged highschool students (maybe 75-80%) have a car that they can use to drive themselves to and from school. The percentage that paid for the car fully themselves is very low.
thosmarvin@reddit
I had a car during my senior year (1977). The car was $500. It was seven years old back when that was an ancient vehicle and if you got 120,000 miles outta your rusting Ford you were doing pretty good. Totally different scene Im afraid.
ian9921@reddit
The deal is, in a lot of areas there's not much of a good alternative. Either you walk, take an exceptionally shitty bus, get a parent to drive you, or drive yourself. Sometimes the bus isn't even an option either.
As for the quality of the car, mine was 10 years old, and it was definitely among the better cars in that parking lot.
wwbbqq@reddit
"Own" is probably kind of rare unless a bit of a clunker and the kid really worked hard summer jobs to buy it or parents are quite rich to actually "give" kids a car. But to have a car they can use (usually provided by parents but probably not title transferred) is quite common, even 30y ago.
Additional-Tank4629@reddit
I lived in a dense area with decent transit outside of a major city and there was no parking lot for high school students. Street parking was only 2 hours at a time, so basically no high school students could drive to school. I think as a result, almost nobody owned a car until after high school.
bertmom@reddit
I grew up in a rural area and in 2005 I was given a pickup truck that was 20 years old. It was mine in the sense that I got to keep it, drive it, etc but it was in my parent’s name and they bought it. It was 40 minute drive to school and my parents were tired of making the trek.
Cow_Man32@reddit
If they get a new car either their parents bought it or the don't own it(bank does cause financing) lots of kids own older cars though.
I bought a 97 Ford ranger sophomore year and a 98 Ford ranger junior year.
jvc1011@reddit
It is common for American high school students aged 16 and over to have a car that they can use at least some of the time. American high school students (in their Junior and Senior years) often drive to school, and there is nothing shocking about it. High schools are likelier to be far from their homes than elementary or middle schools.
It is tough for working parents to drop their kids off at high schools and pick them up again, and that’s before you account for sports and other activities. Many places do not have school buses or good public transportation options.
Often older students will drive younger students until the younger ones are old enough to drive themselves.
mobiuscycle@reddit
My oldest kid got a car right after he turned 16 and got his license. We own it and pay for it, but it’s “his” to use. It was a pretty cheap, but in good condition, used car. He’ll take it with him when he goes to college. Will be doing same for my youngest kid soon.
It’s just so much easier. We live in an area fully dependent on driving vehicles. We cannot walk anywhere from our house — drive only. Their schedules (school, work, extra curriculurs, friends) are wild and I hate driving them around all the time. It takes up too much of my time. It’s just as much a benefit to me as to them to provide them with a vehicle they can use whenever they need.
spaypets@reddit
Common but not every kid has their own car.
SmoovCatto@reddit
yes, especially outside of large cities with decent public transport, where you're lost without a car
Big Auto, Big Oil, Big Banking, Big Concrete buy elected officials to neglect public transport, to force everyday people into private vehicles profiting oligarchy
Gloomy-Ask-9437@reddit
In rural areas it's a little more common.
DeeDeeW1313@reddit
I mean. My parents owned my car. I had my own car though.
TracyVegas@reddit
We live out in the country, so my parents bought me a brand new car. They didn’t want a junker breaking down because I lived so far out from anything.
cthulhu944@reddit
I was in high-school in the mid 80s. There was no public transportation in the town and the school was a few miles from my house. I drove an old beater car my parents had. I had a job when I was 14 (had to get a work permit) and I got my driving license when I was 15. Had to get a hardship permit for that because you normally had to be 16.
KatGen@reddit
It's common where I live for students to own cars and drive to school. At my kids high school the senior students can sign up for a reserved parking space and then paint that space however they want and its theirs use all school year.
Saskita@reddit
My parents gave me their old, fairly new car and got themselves a new one. It depends, usually high schoolers will drive crappy used cars but I’ve seen kids with nicer ones. I teach at a high school btw.
tarikByrne@reddit
Yes. As an American, I was myself surprised to find this out.
redcolumbine@reddit
Sometimes their parents give them their old car, or buy them a junker to get to school. Only extremely wealthy parents give a high school student a new car.
ParkerLurks@reddit
When I was in high school, my dad was very clear. I did not own sh$t. He owned a third car that I was allowed to use as long as my behavior and grades warranted it.
I think that's pretty common.
So no, most high school students do not own a car. But many have access to a family vehicle.
FifiiMensah@reddit
Fairly common, especially for upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) as most of them have their licenses
EnlightenedCorncob@reddit
Yes
Content-Elk-2037@reddit
Very common in my area. Usually owned by the parents, not in the kid’s name. Used cars are most common but nicer used cars that’ll last them through university. We gave our kids choices between something like Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla.
YoshiandAims@reddit
Yes, and no. It depends on the family, and geographical location.
In my area, yes, almost all kids needed their own car, most got used cars, or a hand me down when someone they knew bought or leased a new one.
In my oldest cousins area, it wasn't a necessity. They have many forms of transport, schools are close by.
219_Infinity@reddit
Usually the cars being driven by upper middle class high school students are owned by their parents
justaredneckboy@reddit
A lot of my friends had cars in highschool, but we all had jobs to pay for them too. We usually bought them off of our parents. i never knew anyone with a brand new car
hk1026@reddit
I was given my mom’s old car and she got a new one when I got my license. That was pretty standard for my group of friends, which was very middle class in a rural city. If there were multiple siblings in one family that could drive they often shared a car. And yeah we all drove to school.
gmanose@reddit
Not unusual to have a car at their disposal. Most commonly the parents own it
hoverton@reddit
I grew up on a rural community and it wasn’t unusual for high school kids to drive to school. Usually a parent would upgrade or change vehicles and the kid would get the older used one. Or drive a farm truck if there was one available. I got my first vehicle when I graduated high school. I had part of a small inheritance from my grandfather ($8000) and that was enough to get a decent used vehicle and pay for the first year of college.
Willing_Calendar_373@reddit
I had a bicycle. I paid for it myself with lawn mowing money.
esaule@reddit
It is typically a case that the parents bought the car. Now there could be cases where the parent gifted a car to the teenager, so that would be the teen's car.
Cases of the teen buying themselves a car would be pretty rare. I have known some, but that is rare.
Diffidentlyspeaking@reddit
My sister and I both did; we'd had funds set up for us since we were infants from our Grandmom specifically for that purpose. My first car was a 1988 Chevrolet Baretta I got for like $3k. That car got me through high school and college until the transmission went.
tyoung89@reddit
Many high schoolers get a cheap used car. Often times their parents buy it for them when they turn 16. This is starting to become less common, it seems like the current generation doesn’t prioritize getting their license as much, and with car insurance rates so so high, fewer families can afford it.
ElmoZ71SS@reddit
My son is driving a hand me down 2002 chevy silverado 1500 and he is not the norm at his High school. They have a whole german car section and a lifted new truck section. and a few random things in between, but the old red truck is one of the older vehicles in student parking....and it makes me wonder where the hell these folks are getting the money for this.
DMGlowen@reddit
In 1986 I was in my third year of high school, not only did I own my own car but I drove it to school.
We had over 25,00 students in our high school building.
Every year they had to hold the lottery to see who got parking passes to park on grounds. The rest of us just parked in a field next to the school.
Jcamp9000@reddit
Most kids, yes. New car? Rarely unless you are in expensive suburbs. Then yes, new cars were common birthday gifts
Bogside_Bibliophile@reddit
It’s common to have access to a vehicle, but for a student to “own” it themselves, it is much less common.
Due_Ad_6085@reddit
This was 20 years ago, but at my high school, about 70% of the kids rode the bus or walked, 30% had cars. 80% of the cars were shared with a parent, 20% were owned by the student. Maybe a total of 5 students had nice, new cars.
Successful_Mall476@reddit
Yes, we drove cars to our high school. Hardly anyone rode the bus at my school. Our parents bought our cars. Some were new some were used. Depends on the family.
Hudson100@reddit
My son drove my old minivan and then bought a Subaru. My daughter got an old Lexus from her grandma.
Many kids had newer but not new cars.
MarkTheDuckHunter@reddit
It is very common for a United States high school student to have a car available to them to drive at most times. It would be highly unusual for them to own or have the car titled in their name.
iggymcfly@reddit
I guess it depends on where you get the car from. If it was your parents, maybe you just leave it in their name. I got an old truck from my uncle for my 15th birthday when I got my drivers license so I registered it myself.
ExcellentMaize4141@reddit
I might be mistaken, but some states might not technically allow a minor to take ownership of a vehicle.
Wolfie_Ecstasy@reddit
The real best answer.
Ponchyan@reddit
When I was in high school, a long time ago, one girl I knew received a brand new Pontiac Firebird for her 15th birthday. Other friends bought their own cars using money from summer jobs. Others, like me, drove older cars that their family owned.
Keep in mind, that outside of cities that date back to before the 1920’s, with walkable city centers, and which incorporated effective public transit, life in America requires an automobile.
HudsDad@reddit
Rural area here. Most of the parking at the high school is for students. The teachers have a small, separate parking lot. The vast majority of students drive themselves to school in car they own or one of their family's cars.
tasukiko@reddit
Most the people I know who have kids that age don't even want to drive. Which seems like a departure from kids in the past who were excited to drive.
Feeling-Pay-3269@reddit
All three of my kids had used cars but I got a little more generous for each one. First VW Golf ,gave him $3100 towards $6200 price. Second one gave her all $4500 for Accord. Third kid lucked out because I was tired of car repairs and he got newer Ford Focus with only 6k miles. Think it was 18-19k.
Jubilies@reddit
My son doesn't technically own his car, but it is his car. He has driven himself to school since he has had one.
Wyoungv01@reddit
Totally depends on location; in a major city probably not, but I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere Minnesota and you needed a car to get anywhere. A lot of kids just use their dad‘s old farm trucks.
Architorture_66@reddit
For me, 25 years ago, when I was in high school, it was such a poorer neighborhood that most, including myself, still rode the bus or walked to school up through the final grade.
Today, living in a more affluent area and better financial stability myself, our kids each got handed down the oldest car when they got their license as my wife or I bought a newer vehicle. This year our youngest at 16 drives a 2006 minivan.
We live about 5 miles or approximately 8 kilometers from the school. He'd either have to be at the bus stop an hour before school, getting back almost an hour after school, or can drive over within 15 minutes of school starting. It's a time saver option for us here.
trexalou@reddit
My kids drive cars registered in my name.
Normie316@reddit
50% depending on your area and family income. Most are hand me down clunkers from their parents.
throwaway1975764@reddit
This is VERY regional.
In NYC you can't even get a driver's license until 17, which is typically the end of junior year through senior year. And even then parking and insurance costs are so insane it would be rare for a kid to even be allowed to drive their parents' car let alone own their own. (And NO all of NYC is not serviced by subways. Its still rare.)
Horse_Renoir77@reddit
I had a brand new pick up, paid for it my self. Of course pick up’s in the early 90’s were cheaper than cars.
WolfmanLegoshi@reddit
I went to high school (2009-2013) on Staten Island, New York, in a upper-middle class area and many kids had their own cars and drive to school. My parents blessed me with a new 2013 Ford Mustang GT my senior year.
Open-Committee-998@reddit
It’s pretty common, most kids work in highschool, or their parents help them buy a car. For most people they’re used, older cars that are cheap and reliable. My first car was our family car, a 91 Honda I got for my 18th birthday. My friends cars were a 97 Plymouth, an 05 Chrysler, and an 07 Volvo. Other than the Volvo, they were family cars given to them by their parents. I’m sure newer cars are common for those who are middle class and above, but for everyone else, spending over 5k is on a car is a lot of money for your first vehicle.
WhoWouldCareToAsk@reddit
No, it’s not given. I got my own car at 22 years old because my parents could not purchase one for me. Too poor.
My oldest was using my car for almost two years (between his ages 19 and 21) until he was able to purchase his own car. I guess I am also too poor.
But I do see high schoolers ride cars to/from school. I guess it’s good to be not poor.
This-Reindeer6063@reddit
I went to a private school, so not as a whole. But most kids that had licenses had new cars. But some of them were just driving their parent's extra car.
I got my license after high school and just used my ma's car.
Shadow_Lass38@reddit
Depends on location. In real urban settings like NYC or Boston, no. Heck, in NYC there are adults who don't have cars, some don't even drive.
In sprawling urban centers like Atlanta or LA, yeah, since so many of them will commute to college and need a car, so dad breaks down and gets them a car at sixteen. When I was a kid, boys would get an old car to fix up (something you can't really do now with all the computerized innards), but girls would generally get a new car if Dad had the money or a good used car, because he didn't want to worry about her breaking down on the road.
Remember, the TEEN isn't the one who OWNS the car. Parents OWN it, pay to repair it, and pay the horribly upcharged insurance fees because the insurance companies know most teen boys and a lot of teen girls are reckless drivers, showing off for their friends.
hairball45@reddit
While I was in high school in the early 1960s my dad bought a 1959 Ford Anglia. It wasn't mine but I learned to drive in it. Ford because he was a lifetime fan, the Anglia because it had a zero to sixty time resembling that of a bicycle and he figured it would be safer for me. When I was in college he bought me a Pontiac sedan. The college was about eight miles from any sort of town and he wanted me to be able to get there. Thirty five years later I was the dad and watched in amazement as my daughter worked a real job for actual money and bought herself a car. She was too young to drive it (legally) until six months later. She paid cash for the thing and yes, drove it to school. We lived in the country and the school bus ride for high school was over an hour. The drive, more like ten minutes.
Some_Girl_2073@reddit
Depends on the location
Some places don’t have the option of walking, biking, busses, or other forms of transportation. Most cars are used- but if you get in the right/wrong demographic they do indeed drive fancy new cars bought for them by parents
seecarlytrip@reddit
I live in a super crowded metropolitan area. There’s a big mix. Some kids and/or their families can’t afford a car. Some kids save up and buy themselves what we’d call a “cash car,” some parents buy the kid a cash car or hand down a family car, and some parents finance a new or used car in their name that they give to the kid. It’s not at all uncommon for teens to have a car or drive to school.
Personally, my parents financed a used car for me, which was solely mine to use.
Traditional_Trust418@reddit
I was given my parents ugly ass 1997 Rav 4. And I was very grateful to have it for that year or two that I did before it gave out
Temporary_Fuel_7257@reddit
I mowed lawns when I was fifteen and saved up for my first car, a 1953 Ford Victoria and after I drove for a year or so with several breakdowns, I would walk to my girlfriend's house to walk her to school and back home after school.
Her dad was a individual used car dealer from his house and one day he got a nice to me, a 1955 Chevy two door 210 sedan , six cylinder 3 on the tree with black roll and pleat interior!! My dream car.
My GF was a year behind me and hated the frequent walks to school as her dad used to take and pick her up until I entered her life. Ha!
We married when she was a Senior and stayed in school while I worked. That old Chevy was our dating car, our honeymoon car and my daily driver until it was stolen then recovered and it sat for many many years until 2018 and I rebuilt a 350 sbc with a 700r4, headers, with 2-1/2" exhaust a compleat paint job, disc brakes the whole 9 yards. With the exception of the final wheel choice because my old mags wouldn't fit with the disc brakes. I'm trying to decide which wheels to get before May 30 as we plan to drive it in the Tulsa Guinness book of World Records for the 100th anniversary of Route 66 Parade with over 3000 antique and classic cars, the record is currently held by , I think, Taiwan. Wish us well, fellow old car buffs
NotenStein@reddit
I did in the 1970s. But prices for used cars were reasonable then. I bought a 1960 Thunderbird for $400, them after getting a job ($1.65 an hour) bought a new Toyota Corolla wagon in 1973. It cost $3200 or something.
It's much harder today. I think teens would need help to buy a used car much less a new one.
knoxcos@reddit
When I passed my driver test in ‘86 and got my license, I was given a 1976 Honda Civic, completely in my name and my responsibility from insurance to gas and registration. I drove to school my Jr and Sr years, and all over the place when not in school.
New cars were uncommon, but most that drove, drove their own car. I have no idea if that still holds now.
Mayor__Defacto@reddit
Not particularly common. More common is their parents buying a beater for them to use and keeping it in their own name.
shammy_dammy@reddit
Where I lived...absolutely. I had my own car. Didn't have my own license, though. (My doing, not my parents'. They were trying hard, I just wasn't that invested in driving)
Thefutureisbrightino@reddit
No! It may be 30% that have access to a car and drive to school but more than 90% of those cars are owned by their parents.
FITF2891@reddit
I grew up in the dc suburbs in a very wealthy county, with a higher concentration of wealth closer to the immediate north west of the city. I was a little further out so there was money there but not like closer to the city. In my high school, class of 2006, it was probably fairly equally distributed between walkers, students with their own cars, bus riders, and kids who got picked up. Closer to the city most kids drove and had really nice cars compared to the staff parking lot. Now, it feels like the current teens aren’t as motivated to get their licenses or have cars with the invention of Uber.
Awkward_Macaron6222@reddit
Some kids own cars, especially in the suburbs. When I attended a suburban high school, I drove one of the family cars to and from school.
When my kid was in high school, she walked or took a city bus to school. She didn’t get a drivers license until she was out of high school. City kid. There wasn’t a parking lot for students anyway. She would have had to find a space on city streets near the school. Almost no one drove.
So I think it really depends on where you live and how wealthy your family is.
SenseAndSaruman@reddit
That they own- no. We bought a certified used (it had 1,000 miles on it) Honda for my son. It had 1% interest rate and lots of collision mitigation features. His car is newer than mine; and I’m happy with that. I want him to be as safe as he can be.
BareTheBear66@reddit
No kid owns a car, but they could have a cosigner parent if they have a job and "buy it". Is it normal? Pretty much. I grew up in a middle class(ish) area, there was always the small handful of kids that got gifted a car to drive to school to by their parents (or practice for drivers ed). I also knew some kids who worked for their car and got a beater that they found off marketplace or what have you.
I didnt have a car in my teen years, I walked. But american culture is "once you turn 16, you get your first vehicle and independence" it was popular way back when and just stayed that way. Especially in the south where kids go to work and need trucks or anything that can be used to work.
Electronic-Gas3354@reddit
I shared my grandmas car for the first couple of years after I got my drivers license, and I would bring her to work then I would go to school. After I would pick her back up from work.
BeepCheeper@reddit
Definitely more common in rural areas than urban, for practical reason. I think it was also more common 15+ years ago. The cost of buying and maintaining even an older used car has gone up astronomically in the last decade, especially since Covid.
I think this newer generation are also more reluctant to get their license as soon as they can, either due to anxiety, cost, or just lack of motivation. Kids can hang out online now, unlike in generations past.
Jadey-R-@reddit
The “haves” do the “have nots” don’t
RizoTheGreat@reddit
I work around/in schools as a regional manager for my company. In more upper middle class areas you are starting to see a shift from hand me down used cars to cheep lease electric cars are slowly starting to take over the high school parking lots.
For example the Kia Niro can currently be leased for under $250 per month and $4,000 due at signing. While it initially sounds like a lot for a kids first car, the math works out to be less than $10,000 for 2 years of ownership (junior and senior year of high school) and your child is driving a car with modern safety tech vs your child driving a 10 year old civic with 100,000 miles that you are having to repair/maintain that has less advanced safety features and higher fuel costs.
SinistrEdge@reddit
All my friends in high school had cars that were either hand me downs or bought used. My family was poor. I didn’t have a car until I was 19
Sweetington@reddit
Yes but it’s usually a hand me down car, nothing flashy unless you are rich lol
Solid_Parsley_@reddit
I would say probably 25% of my graduating class had a car. I don't think a single person had a new one. I got a 1998 Pontiac Bonneville given to me when my grandparents got a new car, and she served me well for many years.
Lefty9000@reddit
I owned 3, bought and paid for by me. Made good money with my lawn care business in the summer.
SirSkot72@reddit
Yes. Many will have their own cars. It's the culture. They usually have a hand-me-down from their parents when the parents get a new car. Some have jobs and buy their own to get to school, jobs and activities (sports are a big one). it's almost a necessity outside the cities where public transit is lacking. Some have a NEW car, but many do have slightly used, but most will have an old car barely holding together.
Glasses_Tea@reddit
i live an area where yes, almost every junior and senior have a car, whether they own it or its a parent's extra or in my areas case, parent's own a car lot. You need a car to get around were i live. I (31) have never owner a car but have had access to one since the day 1 turned 16. My parents own multiple.
MagnumForce24@reddit
Not own, so much. But incredibly common for the kids to have their own car.
Clean-Fisherman-4601@reddit
It wasn't common when I was a teenager. I lived in a low income area and the only high school kids with cars had a job. They paid for their used cars themselves.
-VizualEyez@reddit
I went to a county auction and bought an old 1976 Ford F100 that the county road crew used. Drove it for 4 years. I learned how to work on vehicles and kept it going. Even gave it a (terrible) paint job so it wasn’t maintenance orange anymore.
TeamTurnus@reddit
Used, though wealthy (signficantly compared to the average not nesscsrily just the 1 percent) might buy one of their kids a new car. For refernce I drove a car that was about a year older than I was.
Better-Credit6701@reddit
It was much more common before cash for clunkers removed cheap cars for Americans.
lfxlPassionz@reddit
Only in high income areas. In lower income areas only a few teens might if any.
In the last couple years of High school students are almost full adults. They are old enough to drive and work, and some of them turn18 (legal age of an adult) during their last high school year. Sometimes if they are held back a year you might even have a 19 year old in a graduating class.
After that age they usually ask the student to switch to some form of adult education classes.
Odd-Condition-4773@reddit
I wouldn't say that they legally "own" the car, but typically parents will either give them one of their older cars or get their kid a used car. The parents keep the ownership title under their names and add the kid to their insurance. When I was a junior in high school, my dad got me a used Honda Accord with lots of miles, manual windows, and barely functioning A/C. I went to a prep school with rich kids who would drive to school in mommy or daddy's Lexus, Mercedes, or Jaguar. 🙄.
Ok_Remote_1036@reddit
Most age 16+ high schoolers where I live have a car that is called “theirs” because they’re the ones driving it, but it is actually owned by their parents.
Depending on where they go to college, they may take the car with them or it goes back to their parents to use or sell.
United_Gift3028@reddit
I had my own since I was 17. Before that, I drove my mom's, but she didn't like sharing. I drove to school the last two years of high school, since I had a job in the afternoons that I left early for.
swampy138@reddit
My friends all bought used trucks or cars (or new ones if their parents were rich and paid for it for them) but my parents wouldn’t let me spend the money that I worked for on anything so I had to take the bus my entire senior year.
I was the only senior on my bus and the last person to get off the bus and I’m (clearly) still mad about it. Especially because the truck they finally did let me buy for $250 was half rusted away (I’m not kidding it’s missing whole chunks of the bed) and I constantly had to fix it even though the reason they wouldn’t let me buy anything else I wanted was because it was “too rusty” or “needs too much work”. My actual first truck started on fire the first time i was able to drive it for gods sake.
Ok-Equivalent8260@reddit
I was gifted a new car when I was 16 and gifted my son a new car when he turned 16. Yes, we both drove to high school.
HermioneMarch@reddit
Common to have a hand me down car from a relative and common for juniors and seniors to drive to school.
Allaiya@reddit
My parents bought me a used car. After freshman year, we could drive to school.
Infamous_Mind_7426@reddit
When my son was in high school in the early 90’s, we lived in a school district that had lots of very wealthy people. He was devastated when the other kids were getting new Corvettes, Mercedes, Porsche, etc. cars for their 16th birthday and he wasn’t. It was normal for them and it was also normal for them to wreck them within the first six months.
WhichWitch9402@reddit
More often where I live there might be an extra vehicle that kids can use. My husband’s job changed things up and gave him a company car. It left us with his vehicle so daughter drove herself and brother to school.
Lots of older cars and trucks. Not a lot of really nice or new cars.
sahkoo@reddit
Common for high schoolers to have a car here. I was never allowed to have one though, and a friend of my mine had to drive me to school until she got her license suspended and my dad had to drive us lol.
Most people have used cars though.
Butterbean-queen@reddit
In my area most of the kids get a car when they get their drivers license and drive them to school. Some new. Some used. Lexus, Volvo, BMW’s are pretty common. There are Honda’s too. My child got a one year old BMW X3.
TechieGottaSoundByte@reddit
My foster parents bought a used car solely for my use because I was working part-time and going to college full time (age 17). I could use the bus most of the time, but one of my college classes was on the naval base in the evenings, and the bus didn't go there. My parents got sick of giving me rides in the evenings to someplace for thirty minutes away from our house, but it was literally the only place within an hour offering calculus classes (fairly rural). A cheap but sturdy used car was their solution.
My kids aren't getting their own cars, but have use of our family cars with permission. We live right next to the high school and have buses to the local college, so there's not much need for driving.
Urban high schoolers often don't have their own cars - there just isn't enough space to park them all. Though some do. Rural high schoolers may not have good public transit options, families may be larger, they may have more opportunities to help the family out by driving, and there's more space for vehicles.
thatG_evanP@reddit
The answer pretty much comes down to what their parents can afford and are willing to buy for them.
gonzagylot00@reddit
I grew up in Bucks County PA. I had a car to drive, the old Chevy Celebrity beater mobile. I didn’t own a car until after college though.
Rizzle_Razzle@reddit
95% + of the kids at my school old enough to have a license had a car. I wouldn't say "owned" a car. most were purchased by parents.
Real_Lunch_4351@reddit
Bought a 2001 Camry for 3k when I was 16 in 2017. Most of my friends, their parents bought them a used car or they didn’t have one.
Robot_Dracula@reddit
When I was young most high schoolers would work summer jobs and save up for a used car. But that’s when used cars were affordable and a summer job made a good amount of money.
A few “rich” kids had newer cars but most of us drove used cars
AtrumAequitas@reddit
In suburban and rural areas yes. City much less so. New cars are fully dependent on parents income, where I grew up maybe 10 cars were brand new out of hundreds.
QuinceDaPence@reddit
The only kids that had new or near-new vehicles were those that worked for a certain farmer. He paid well but would work you like a sugarmill jackass.
Most of us had 10-20 year old vehicles but the financial/ownership situation differs from family to family and most do not discuss their finances with each other so it's hard to really say what the most common arrangement was.
For me, my dad said he'd pay for half of my first car. At 14 I got a 13 year old BMW for $4000. It had issues but I was mechanically inclined enough to fix it. I kept that one for 7 years.
msflagship@reddit
In my hometown we drove old used cars, usually costing less than $5000. We all worked part time job(s) to save up for the cars or pay the car off. I had 3 jobs for a couple of summers.
Appropriate-Food1757@reddit
Mostly used cars, parents buy them
Better_Pea248@reddit
I was given a used car when I got my license and became responsible for getting myself to/from school and activities, plus errands for the family like going to the grocery store and picking up my brother sometimes. Marching band and other extra-curriculars meant that for most of the year I couldn’t ride the school bus, and my brother was in a special program that had him going to a different school mid-day several days a week. Me being able to get myself places was a big help to my mom.
TempAcct724@reddit
Unless you live in a place like NYC, SF, Chicago or another big city with decent public transit then yeah most high schoolers have a car they “own”. Rich kids get a fancy new car from mom and day. Middle/upper middle class may get a relatively recent used car or parents will give them their car and buy a new one.
Less well off kids will save for a cheap used car that’s 10-15 years old or just share a car with the family. But yeah any of the suburban or rural areas really require your own vehicle to get around.
Silocin20@reddit
It used to be, not sure about now days. When I was in high school nearly 30 years ago it was pretty common for teenagers to have cars, I doubt they bought the car themselves though.
Derwin0@reddit
Own, no
Be given one by their parents to drive, yes.
SnooChipmunks2079@reddit
It’s common for a high school student to have a car that is theirs alone to drive. Much less common for them to be the legal owner.
IvanMarkowKane@reddit
As always, America is a big place. Same population as Europe and twice as much land.
Driving age is usually 16 so some suburbs will have driver’s education at the high school starting around 15.
Kids from urban areas are far less likely to own cars because of the inconvenience. But it depends upon the city.
Rural and farm communities have kids who learned to drive tractors around the time they hit puberty if not earlier. Totally legal as ling as they don’t leave the farm, I think.
Most of what you see portrayed on TV is suburban kids from upper middle class families
spandexcatsuit@reddit
Depends if urban or rural. I was in a small town, like really small under 10K, but it had sidewalks and a "downtown area" (think New England coastal). It was considered a wealthy town. All my friends by senior year had cars except the exchange students. Also went to a boarding school for a while and there was no need for cars there.
ArkansasTravelier@reddit
Yes it’s common, I’d say possibly the majority or at least half of all highschool seniors have a vehicle. new cars are very rare and most people would think you’re very spoiled if your parents get something nice a new for their teenager. even a car made in the last 5 years is pretty rare.
Most 16-18 year olds that have a car they drive to school have vehicles that are 10-20 years old. a few have way older and an even less few have way newer.
I graduated high school in 2015 and most kids had cars an trucks from the early 2000s and late 90s. A lot also had class trucks from the 70s and 80s and a few rich girls had brand new or under 5 years old cars which felt strange and like a waste for a kid who is bound to ding them up or get in an accident.
Able_Conflict_1721@reddit
I bought my neighbor's old car for ~ 25 lawns mowed, or maybe 60 hours of the after school job. That was probably less than it was worth at the time.
mostlygray@reddit
High school kids either buy a complete piece of crap that barely runs, or they inherit one of their parents pieces of crap. Almost no-one gets something new. I inherited an OK car from my folks that I drove all through college. I parked it at about 250,000 miles. It had a wiring harness problem that I couldn't afford to fix.
My brother inherited a janky ass minivan that managed to break a camshaft after about a year. That was weird.
GrowlingAtTheWorld@reddit
Seniors are more likely to own a car but I’m gonna say may 40% or 12th graders owns a car but more drive an extra car that their mom and dad own.
1235813213455_1@reddit
It would be very unusual not to get a car at 16 where I live. The parents own the car, not the kid and the car itself ranges from brand new luxury vehicle to barley drivable farm truck hand down generations worth essentially nothing.
TrueGritsRat@reddit
I owned a car in high school. Was an old beater that my stepmoms father didn’t drive, got it for free effectively. Lots of people in my area did but I lived in a richer area. But also, since there’s so many more cars there’s a lot more hand me downs
BridgeToBobzerienia@reddit
I was given my moms car when I got my license. I drove to and from school and wherever else. I don’t live in one of the few walkable cities in the US, so there is no way to get around other than by car- I went to school 45 minutes away from my house by car while growing up.
Pancancake@reddit
Yes, it’s very common for American high schoolers to have their own car, and drive themselves to and from school. High schools will usually have assigned student parking lots. It can be a new car if it’s a wealthier family, but imo it’s usually a used car. My first car was 4 years old. A 1999 in 2003. Was my mom’s old car.
AmishAngst@reddit
I would say it's fairly common. Or at the very least it's common for the "family" to get an "extra" car because they have another driver in the family, but the teen is the default user of the oldest car. While it may be common in some more affluent families that the teen gets a brand new car, I think the more common approach with middle class is one of these two approaches:
*Parents buy themselves a new car (and this doesn't necessarily mean brand new from the dealership - it could be a newer used car) and then they pass down their old car to the teen, or
*Parents buy an older used car specifically for the teen
I have friends who actually just did the former this week. Gave their car to their teen and then bought themselves a new to them used car that's newer and with fewer miles on it than the car they gave to their teen.
Getting your teen a car though is probably more common if your teen has a job and/or is involved in a lot of extracurricular activities (music, sports, clubs, dance, etc.) that require a lot of driving around because them being able to drive themselves to these activities frees up a lot of time for the parents.
You also have to remember that in a lot of the U.S. it's a driving culture where a lot of things aren't walkable just due to our infrastructure. I know people who live just across "the street" from their nearest store and if you just go point to point it's about .25 miles, but can't walk to it because that "street" is actually a six or eight-lane highway without a reasonably safe walkable crossing point nearby. Or if you're in a rural area, your school or your nearest store could be a 15-45 minute drive minimum.
millenz@reddit
In my community yes. In general America is more car dependent. In cities, no.
Dizzy_Description812@reddit
Many get their parent's old cars. Some buy a used car. A few, are given a new car which often gets wrecked.
bradmajors69@reddit
Very few high school students own their own car but it's not uncommon for teenagers to have access to a car owned by their parents.
My parents got themselves a newer car when I got my driver's license at 16 and gave me the keys to their older car. We lived in a rural area and they were grateful to no longer have to drive me 20+ minutes to school and whenever else I wanted to go. They'd also send me on errands.
I'm guessing maybe half of my classmates had the same arrangement.
There were also a handful of wealthy or financially reckless families where the teenager got a fancy new car on their 16th birthday. And lots of families for whom the expense was too much and their teenagers relied on rides from the rest of us.
PracticalBreak8637@reddit
We had assigned spaces in Senior Lot, which we would decorate with sidewalk chalk when the weather was nice. It was really uncool to be a Senior on the bus.
AR_lover@reddit
I didn't do a study or anything, but here is my take.
Outside of urban cities, many, if not most have a car. And most drive themselves to school once they get their licenses. But it's usually with friends. So they don't all drive everyday.
Most start by using there parents car. Then either their parents give them one of their cars, and the parents but a new one, or they buy a used one.
The movie stereotype of walking out to a brand new car on their 16th birthday is extremely rare. Think .. top 5% income rare. They may get a car, but it's not a new one sitting in the driveway with a bow. It's more of a progression. "Use this car to learn. Ok you can have it now."
People outside the US don't understand how much we drive. Our child's school was a 30 min drive away, each way. And after a learning period they drove it everyday. We did a 3 hour round trip yesterday like it was driving to work.
RequireMoMinerals@reddit
It depends on the school district. I work in a district where students drive $80,000 brand new cars and there’s also 25 year old Toyotas in the parking lot.
Embarrassed-Lead6471@reddit
Yes
Bandag5150@reddit
I bought my first car when I was in middle school. I didn’t drive it until I turned 16. This was 40 years ago so things are different now.
Katsaj@reddit
When teens have cars, it’s usually a family car for the teen to drive, and often they have to pay part of the cost. For parents who have bought a car, or planned ahead to hand down an older car, it’s usually a decision to simplify the parents’ lives. If the teen has sports or other school activities and/or a job, parents have to do a ton of driving for drop off and pickup, and it’s a huge relief when the kid is able to start driving themself. This is probably a bigger factor in the US because outside of big cities (and sometimes in them) public transportation is virtually nonexistent so driving is required.
Carbon-Based216@reddit
I got an old used piece of shit what I turned 16. Barely ran. Big hole of rust in the door. Couldn't go very far in the winter time without freezing to death. I think back when used cars were cheap it was common to give your kid a junker so they could get themselves to school and to their jobs. Now I'm sure it is harder to do that.
WildMartin429@reddit
I bought my high school car used for my grandfather for like a dollar. I'm not sure I ever got the title for it though.
IndexCardLife@reddit
I would say no but I’m sure in rich towns this is a thing
SinnerClair@reddit
Often they won’t “own” their own car, if a teen has a car, it’s likely the parents bought it and it’s under their insurance, they’re just letting the kid be the primary driver.
PanicAtTheGaslight@reddit
Where I grew up (pretty rural, school busses but no other public transportation except commuter rail that went to the big city) it was very common and we were NOT a HCOL area. There’d be like 1 or 2 people whose parents were clearly more well off and they got new cars. Everyone else had old beaters, that were often shared amongst family members.
And yes, once we had licenses and access to a car, we’d definitely drive to HS.
I still live relatively in the area and this is still true, but I’d guess to a lower percentage (of students diving themselves to school - a lot of families cannot afford an extra car to allow a student to drive to school). I’d also say the percentage of newer cars (amongst those who can afford cars at all) may be higher, mostly because there are less used cars available and they cost more percentage wise than they used to.
No_Discipline5218@reddit
Some kids get (usually used) cars for their 16th birthdays. Some families have "beater" cars for the kids to use. Some kids walk, ride busses, have carpools, or their parents drive them. All of these scenarios can be common in the same town. Often though it depends on the area, geography, finances, accessibility, etc...
Stn1217@reddit
Yes, it is. I WFH and watch my across the street teen neighbor driving herself to school M-F.
ToastedOctopus@reddit
It's common for them to own a 10-20 year old used car during the last two years of high school. Kids from rich families might get a new car during that same time.
BoomerSooner-SEC@reddit
Very common for them to have access to a car but far less common that it was bought new for them. Happens but mostly these are used cars bought for them to use or hand me downs from mom or dad.
Legitimate_Catch_626@reddit
My oldest didn’t even have a license until after her first year of college. My youngest got hers as soon as she could and then inherited her grandfather’s old truck her senior year of high school. It is the same age as her, so very used.
PitchSavings2060@reddit
Most of the time these kids have access to their parents’ old cars.
Mr_Pockets-@reddit
A lot of kids at my school owned a car, but as I was in a lower income family, my older brother got a car, and he was my ride to school until I could save up enough of my own money to buy a car for myself
supern8ural@reddit
It used to be when I was in HS.
I don't know how they'd afford it today.
Hwy_Witch@reddit
A lot of us had cars in high school, and we mostly didn't come from money. What we were, were redneck kids that all had some kind of part time job or side hustle, and knew how to turn a wrench, so we saved our pennies, bought shitboxes, and got them running/kept them running with spit, tape, jb weld, and prayers to the shitbox gods.
LadyGreyIcedTea@reddit
In the suburbs yes. In the city where I live now, high schoolers take public transportation to/from school. Not yellow school buses- they are given student passes to the local public transportation system and it's up to them if they want to commute by bus, subway or train. I've known high schoolers who do all of the above or any combination of the 3.
Starbuck522@reddit
It's common for a high school student to have a used car that they use. It's most likely owned by their parents. But, also possible the high school student has been saving up money from part time jobs/full time over the summer, and maybe their parents added something to that. Maybe in that case the child actually owns the car.
Anyway, that's a technical distinction! The teenager would say "my car", even though it's actually owned by their parent.
Yes, it's common for a high school student to have a dedicated car they use and drive it to and from school.
There are school buses to take kids to and from school, but many kids have an activity at the school after school or before school. There's often no school bus for that. Or there might be a "late bus", but the kid would have to wait for the time it leaves and it might be a long ride because kids live in all different directions.
I don't know what it's like wjere you are, but I am talking about a high school which is not in a city. These schools are often very big. 2000 students. And the housing is more spread out than in a city. It's not that each family has a lot of land, though more than if living in city style housing. But there's also farms and empty fields and shopping centers and businesses, etc etc in between.
So, there's simply no public bus that goes to many of the houses. The school does provide a bus, but often kids prefer to be able to stay after school for an activity (sports practice, rehearsal for the school musical, etc) or they drive from work to their part time job.
And, yes, they still drive themselves even on days when they don't have an activity and are not going to work.
Of course, some kids do take the school bus and some kids do walk. But for a non city school, not that many people live close enough to walk.
Euphoric_Ease4554@reddit
Yes very common. How new it is depends on the parents finances.
hideandsee@reddit
Depends how rich their parents are. I got my grandma’s old car that I shared with my sister, when she went to college it was mine
Slight_Manufacturer6@reddit
It is common for high schoolers to get their license and drive to school.
But it is rarely a brand new car. They either drive a family car or they have their own used car.
Current_Coconut_5778@reddit
Depends on the area. Generally speaking it’s pretty normal for a high schooler to drive to school. If you’re in an affluent area then you’ll see brand new luxury cars vs used.
Odd-End-1405@reddit
In certain areas definitely.
Much of the US is rather suburbanized which requires vehicles to get around. For many families it is not just a right of passage but a ticket to freedom for the parents. No more taxi service.
As for the type of vehicle, that is mostly related to income demographics. I went to a HS who was kind of split, half from high income households, half from working class, so the cars in the parking lot were about half daddy bought new and half saved and worked on used.
Sheila_Monarch@reddit
It used to be common, before GenZ became too scared to do anything, including drive. But only the most spoiled shits got brand new cars. Convention was high school parking lots full of hand me down cars with a lot of age and wear on them and whatever barely operable pieces of shit that could still be driven a couple years before it went to the scrap yard.
Jaci_D@reddit
We got nicer used cars as our 16th birthday gift. I will do the same for my kids. New enough to have all the latest safety features but not brand new so I’m not made when it ultimately gets banged up
WorldlyAd4407@reddit
Idk at my school (in a smallish town in PA) basically everyone had a car when they were driving age. I know some people just had their parents buy them a used car. I started working at 15 so I saved up enough money to get a shitty used car but at least it ran lol.
Particular_Bet_5466@reddit
When I went to highschool in the 2000s yes. Used cars and hand me downs were cheap. Nobody had new cars, it was mainly 90s Honda civics. We all lived kind of far from school and there were no public transportation options then. It was a crucial part of our social life.
I was in sports and my parents were sick of picking me up every single day of the year (like 40 minutes of driving there and back) so I got my grandmas old Pontiac aztek. I was embarrassed about it at first until breaking bad came out and it was then cool.
RemotePossibility399@reddit
Many teenagers do purchase their own cars or have them purchased for them. In most states you can get your driver's license at 16, although there may be restrictions like the number of other teenagers allowed in the car or nighttime driving until 17 or 18. When our daughter got her license, it freed up so much taxi time from my wife and me.
If the students buys the car themselves, they're nearly invariably used cars as the student typically works part time to pay for it, and that kind of money won't buy a new or late-model used car. If mom & dad buy it, it might be new if it's an upscale area, but it's more likely a used one. Probably not as old as a self-bought car, though.
Driving to school is commonplace, frequently with students carpooling or picking up their significant others. I would occasionally drive one of my parent's cars to high school, but I didn't have my own until I was in college. It was a 12 year old Dodge with a bad case of Midwest Car Cancer in the rear wheel well.
MamaG34@reddit
I paid my parents $2000 for them to buy me my first car which was an early 90s Grand AM (this was in 2005). Most of my friends had early-mid 90s vehicles, very few had new cars that their parents purchased solely for them.
JanaKaySTL@reddit
Our son inherited my old 5 speed manual wagon in HS, drove it through most of college, then bought his own new manual car with his own money. Having those manuals ensured nobody asked to borrow them. There were a few new cars in his HS lot, but most were a few years old.
Vyckerz@reddit
I don’t know that it’s common across the whole country as there are a lot of variations in family income etc, but it’s not unusual for middle class families to buy their child a first car when they graduate.
There are also teens that get jobs early so they can buy a cheap car when they get their license. Though these days not sure that’s even still possible with the price of used cars these days.
Any-Gap1670@reddit
No, generally under 18s don’t/can’t legally own their own car.
But, yes, it’s not uncommon for high school students to “own” their own car (have parents got them a vehicle for exclusive use, while o. Parents insurance) or for students to work and buy themselves a vehicles, through their parents).
Minute-Actuator-9638@reddit
I live in the Western US and we are very car dependent. Public transportation is not widely available. I grew up middle class. When I turned driving age I was given a 30yr old car from my parents. I drove that for a year to school and work and saved up and bought a used 5yr old car. My sister was similar. She was given a 25yr old car from our uncle when she became driving age.
My niece will be 16 in 2 years. I currently drive a 16yr old Toyota. I plan to give her my car when she turns 16.
NaturGirl@reddit
Their parents usually OWN the car, but the student may be a or the primary driver. It is also USUALLY an older used "beater" car and is kind of a "rite of passage" thing in a lot of places. Lots of schools don't even offer bussing (or very limited offerings) by high school. Mine didn't, and we'd carpool and help pay the older students for gas money.
My 16 year old drives an 18 year old car that belonged to my husband's coworker and was used by his daughters before we bought it for cheap for our son and then daughter to learn to drive with and use for high school.
I drove a 9 year old car that my stepmom owned when I was learning to drive. I learned how to work on it in auto shop and took it to college with me for the first two years of college. It belonged to my father and stepmother though. I then got my own first car in my 3rd year of college (a 10 year old but slightly nicer car.)
Only very rich families ever bought their kids new or even nicer used cars.
ZootOfCastleAnthrax@reddit
I live in a small, rural town in western Oregon, next to a baseball coach. Last week, our block was lined with shiny pickup trucks on both sides of the street. I assumed there was a family reunion. Later, teenaged boys poured out of the coach's house and into the trucks. Every kid came alone, no one carpooled, no one was dropped off.
When i was in high school my parent gave me their used car because they both worked long hours and couldn't drive me to practice, events, lessons. Same with my sister.
I gave my stepdaughter my very old used car when we had to move to a different town in her senior year, because we couldn't drop her off and pick her up every day, and we wanted two be able to stay with her friends and teachers.
PlaysWithSquirrels7@reddit
It's common where I grew up, which was pretty rural and 30 minutes country driving to get to the high school. So once we were driving age most people ended up with a car. For me, I could ride the bus to school but I had band practice after and my parents got tired of coming to get me. Easier to buy a $400 car (1988 beater in the early 2000s), have me pay the insurance, and save them 5 hours a week in driving! It was a win win really at that point
bugga2024@reddit
Location is the biggest factor. In my town, there's no public transportation, literally we have a single public bus that goes through about 3 times a day, so most kids get a car. If the parents have money and buy it for their kid, it might be a new or newer used car. Though, some parents will want their kid to buy it so they have to work for it themselves and see the value in it more. For me, I got a 1996 Nissan Altima in 2014. My parents bought it, but I paid them back for it until my parents wrote off the last few months of payment as a Christmas gift. I drove that car for 3 years before it broke down and wasn't reliable enough to get me to and from college 2 hours away during breaks or holidays. Then I financed my own vehicle. I'm about to be 29 and have only owned 3 vehicles. I know other people a year or two older than me who had 3+ vehicles just during highschool due to accidents. I also knew people in college who had lived in the city their whole life and never even got a permit. Most of them went back to the city and few of them drive to this day.
So basically, location, socioeconomic status, and general family values and rules are all factors in this.
daveyconcrete@reddit
My kids drive used cars.
lonestar659@reddit
I had my own car In high school, I was one of like… 3 people who had one Junior year, then a lot of people got them by senior year.
FreeStateOfPortland@reddit
I’m not sure I would use the word “common“ but it’s not uncommon either. Usually they don’t own the car, it’s a used car their parents own and let them drive
ParkerGroove@reddit
Most kids at my HS had a dedicated car for them to drive. I think most of the time it was their parents who actually owned it. The school had buses but most extracurricular activities started or ended at times that were inconsistent with using the bus, and municipal bus routes didn’t exist on necessary routes. I lived 5 miles from campus, about average for that school.
Same with my kids HS 30 years later 1800 miles away (but a VERY wealthy suburb). My kid shared a car, but my husband and I owned it. Most of their friends had a dedicated very nice car they considered their own though again their parents name was probably on the title.
TipsyBaker_@reddit
My local high school had a maybe 2 dozen old beaters and a couple of tractors in the student lot. Most rode the bus. The only new car I ever saw there was the one kid a level above me he had a year old Mercedes, and even that was technically a hand me down. His step mother got a new car every year.
I've been in that area again recently, not much has changed on the student driver front. People there run the family car in to the ground most often so there isn't one for a teenager.
chaosilike@reddit
Dependa. When I was in high school, If they have a car its probably "shared" between the family or buy used. I got a beater car when I was in highschool
Shot_Construction455@reddit
We bought our high schooler a used car and she hated it. Husband and I both drove it and also hated it so we sold it. She told us she actually wanted my old car because she's comfortable in it and knows where everything is, etc. So, I got a new car and she has my old one. She's in 10th grade and we live rurally so the school has plenty of room for student parking. From casual observations, most of the kids are driving a car one of their parents had for a few years first.
Affectionate-Crow605@reddit
In places without public transportation (which would be much of the US), yes, it's common for high school kids to have their own car. Usually their parents own the car but it's purchased for the kid's use only.
My local high school, which has no bus service at all, has a parking lot full of pickup trucks. Semi-rural area in the south.
AcesAnd08s@reddit
It depends on the location. Most high school kids in the US get a used car that belonged to one of the parents and they go buy themselves a new family car. We are actually doing this right now with our son who turns 16 next week. He is getting my current vehicle that is 10 years old. However, he goes to a very affluent school in Southern California, where it is not uncommon for some kids to be gifted brand new luxury cars by their parents.
mothwhimsy@reddit
Depends greatly on if the family can afford another car
LMrningStar@reddit
No. It's extremely rare. In the vast majority of cases their parents bought and own the car and pay for everything including gas, maintenance, insurance and registration.
Changeling53@reddit
Speaking from rural Indiana it is common for the kids to drive to school. Depending on how well off their parents are it could be anything from brand new off the show room, rare, to a 10-20 year old or more POS that might break down any minute. To the kid as long as it gets from point A to B they are happy. Myself, more years ago than I want to admit, I drove a 10yo AMC thatmy parents bought for my sister and I. It was an ugly box of a car but I kept it running and clean to drive to school and more importantly to be able to drive Friday and Saturday to see friends and date.
Total-Improvement535@reddit
It’s more common that the parents get them a used car, pay for it, register it under their name, and let the student drive it. However, it is not unheard of that a high schooler buys their own beater for the few thousand dollars themselves.
RepresentativeAir149@reddit
It’s not uncommon.
GozyNYR@reddit
When my teen got her license (Colorado) I got a new truck and she now drives my old car. It's “hers” and when she's established in a few years (assuming it's still alive and well) I will gift her the title.
We live rural, it's a 20 mile drive to most of her activities. 60 miles to a few.Obviously not walkable/bikeable. And puplic transport doesn't exist in our area. So yes, most kids have their “own” vehicle here.
supapumped@reddit
I got a job when I was 16 my dad drove me to and from work long enough for me to save up money and buy my first cheap car. I drove it for a couple years.
Ozone220@reddit
yeah most get a used car. I'm in high school and I got my dads old car, which is 18 years old. The people who get new cars are rich, but they exist. Most people do end up getting a car in high school though
Manatee369@reddit
Minors can’t sign contracts to purchase a car (even for cash), or buy insurance. Parents or legal guardians must do the legal things, though the minor has full use of the car.
ocean_art@reddit
I would say it's less common nowadays because everything is so expensive and kids have the option to uber. When I was in school a lot of seniors (grade 12) would either borrow their parents car or buy a used car. Some of the rich kids would get a new car from their parents.
TheLadyClarabelle@reddit
My son is in high school. We live out of district so busses are not an option. Right now, my sister takes him and I pick him up but he will have his license this fall and will be getting a used vehicle for his birthday. He will have to drive himself to and from school, and work once he gets a job. While the car is a gift and the insurance will be paid, he will be expected to cover some of the gas costs. We do most maintenance ourselves. (By "ourselves" I mean my dad will help him. I can do most of it myself (and have many times) because of all the times my dad and I have done it together. My son loves the male bonding time he gets with my dad, so I leave them to it. If something were to happen I could absolutely teach my son.)
Efficient_Wheel_6333@reddit
It honestly depends on the family, TBH. I didn't drive in high school (had my permit, but wasn't getting my hours in because my stepdad worked first shift and my mom was a horrible passenger if I was driving; think it was some form of anxiety issue), but I had a lot of classmates who did. Usually, their parents would let them use a 'spare' vehicle, if applicable (that was at least one friend; after her dad died when we were in high school and the eldest of her brothers who was in school with us graduated, she got to drive the 'spare' van to and from school while her mom drove the other to and from work) or they'd buy a decent used vehicle for their kids to use.
Now, I can't speak for all families, but, once I started driving, my mom had just bought a car from our now neighbor and I used her car for just over 5 years. The idea was that they'd pay for the insurance, registration, and license plate tags and I'd pay for everything else: gas, upkeep, etc. The idea was so I'd learn how to do the upkeep on the vehicle so that when I finally bought my own, I'd know how to take care of it already and that included figuring out where the line of 'this is something I can take care of myself' and 'this is when I need to ask/pay for help' is for each issue. Take, say, filling up tires with air. I can do that; it's relatively easy. Same tire needing filled up more often than is common or the fill tire light keeps turning on? I go to a tire place. 9/10, it's some form of leak. Very rarely is it the device that lets my car know that the tire's low that's actually conked out.
Good_Ad8057@reddit
Usually a used car that’s not in the best of shape unless they have rich parents. But yes, many do. My first car was a 73 Volkswagen Beetle. Technically had it since I was 10. My dad worked at a car dealership and someone traded it in and he snatched it up. Obviously I couldn’t drive it until older lol
blepbloopbeep@reddit
i dont know if its been mentioned to help clarify how common it is but every high school ive seen had a student parking lot.
littleyellowbike@reddit
When I was a teenager (30 years ago) it was more common for teenagers to have a car that was theirs to drive, but they didn't own it themselves (often hand-me-down cars from parents/grandparents or a really cheap used car bought by their parents for them). There were plenty of teenagers who did use their own money to buy their own car, though. In any case, they were almost never new cars.
I grew up in a rural area where everything was spread out and many people lived out in the country. Parents heavily encouraged their teens to learn to drive as soon as they were old enough, just to ease the burden of driving them and their siblings to sports, music, social events, etc.
ForestOranges@reddit
Used car prices have shot up since COVID. Up through 2020, I used to be able to buy used cars that ran and drove for $1000-$2000. Sometimes they needed minor work or they showed their age but they were reliable, running, transportation. Nowadays unless you get an amazing deal most cars for $1000-$2000 are gonna need a significant amount of work.
Psyko_sissy23@reddit
It's definitely location dependent. Itxs less common now than it was back in the 90's, as less teens under 18 are driving. Most teens that drive to school usually use an extra car that their parents own, or their parents gave them due to cars and insurance being more expensive these days.
Mendokusai137@reddit
I owned my own car as a Senior in HS. It was a used, old beater but I baught it myself with money I earn from mowing lawns. Parents paid for insurance, of course.
One-Hand-Rending@reddit
Most states you can’t legally drive alone unless you’re 17 which doesn’t leave much high school left. Usually only kids in their final year drive.
Urban schools…nobody drives.
Rich suburban schools…a lot of the older kids drive either a used car or a new car their parents bought them.
Personally, I started working young and save enough to buy my own used car.
ForestOranges@reddit
That’s mainly a Northeast thing, I’ve moved around to other parts of the country and having a full license by 16 isn’t uncommon.
In the state I grew up in it was 16.5 so the kids with early birthdays were driving by the end of sophomore year, the ones with birthdays in the middle drove during junior year like me, and the kids with late birthdays couldn’t drive until second semester of junior year. My school had 3 different student lots and could accommodate all 3 grades.
DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit
It was fairly common when I was in school. I drove an old used car that wasnt worth much money.
FireGodNYC@reddit
Northshore of LI checking in - Yes, yes it is and many are indeed new cars that are theirs
machagogo@reddit
It's very common for them to have use of their own car, likely a hand me down or used car.
I bought myself my first car when I was 17 for I think it was $1,200, A 1979 Chevy Malibu. (Circa 1991)
My son got a hand me down from my mother when he turned 17, it was my late father's 13 year old Ford fusion hybrid.
My 15 year-old will likely get my car when he turns 17 so he has modern safety tech, and I will buy myself an old classic as I won't need a "reliable" car any longer.
FallenStorm7694@reddit
I bought an 03 vehicle from my brother-in-law because he was upgrading. He took it to the dealership, asked what they would pay, and told me to pay the same they would've. I could afford 1/3 of it, so my parents covered the rest on the condition I pay it back. They technically owned it until I paid it off, then the title was transferred to me. I was the only person that ever drove it, and it's still my daily driver... it's seen better days
the_zac_is_back@reddit
It depends on where you live and your social status. Generally, we will get a junk car to start that we “own” and can drive to and from school. However, a lot of students also take the bus, get picked up by parents, etc.
If you live in a rich area, you are more likely to have a car you drive and own
BusyBeinBorn@reddit
For insurance purposes, it’s much more common for a car to be registered to the parents and they be listed as primary drivers while three student gets use of it. I saved up and bought my first car, but realized insurance cost would be 3x higher if it were registered to me as a primary driver.
DrNinjaPandaManEsq@reddit
At least near me, a lot of people drive a used one. I drove a 15 year old beat to shit minivan (parents bought it new, then handed it down to sister, who then handed it down to me) through all of high school and most of college.
IneptFortitude@reddit
Cars are very expensive, so it depends on how well people are doing in your area. Most people at my high school growing up didn’t have cars, and I’m pretty sure even fewer actually owned them. It took me a long, long time to finally save up for my first one.
ExitingBear@reddit
When I was in HS, the usual options were:
* kids start driving their parents' older car, parents get a new car (usually shared with siblings if more than one could drive)
* kids save up and buy a very used, very old, nearly falling apart car (what they could afford)
* kids drove one of their parents' cars when the parent didn't need it (again, shared with siblings.)
A very, very, very few kids got a brand new car.
But yes, there was a student parking lot for students to drive to-and-from school.
Electrical_Risk_1646@reddit
Yes. It’s common. Used cars are most common but a new car isn’t uncommon.
I’m a mom of 4 in the south. All my kids and their friends got cars at 16 & drove themselves to/from school and basically everywhere starting at 16.
We also have hardship drivers licenses that are for 14/15 y/os to drive, my oldest got a hardship at 15 & drove himself and his brother to school everyday.
Hardships are a bit more restrictive, you have to say specifically where they’re going (to from school, extra curricular, work, church). We live about 8 miles from the HS, we never used the school buses. My own experiences on school buses in the 90s sealed that deal.
Automatic-Arm-532@reddit
Only rich kids, and they don't own it, their parents do.
captainstormy@reddit
Seems like kids these days don't have license as often. Of all of my friends and family members kids in their 20s only 2 out of the 9 of them have a license.
When I was a teen (graduated highschool in 2002) everyone got their license and had a car. If someone didn't that was the weird thing.
Technically the parents owned the car legally speaking but it was usually the kids car to drive. Usually used, sometimes new. Depends on the families financial situation.
My first car was a 15 year old chevy monte carlo when I was in highschool.
More-Sock-67@reddit
New cars are generally uncommon unless you’re in a wealthy school district.
Used cars are most common with varying degrees of age. Some students finance and some own, whether they paid for it or their parents did.
I can’t speak for all districts in the U.S. but in my area you’re generally allowed to park your own car at school in your junior year.
Lumpy_Branch_552@reddit
It’s a mix. My parents matched me dollar for dollar to get a used 8 year old car with 100,000 miles. I owned it. My boyfriend did not own his car. It was purchased for all the kids in his family to use once they got their license.
splorp_evilbastard@reddit
HAVE a car that is theirs, but owned by their parent(s), sure. Actually have their name on the title? Not as common.
cholaw@reddit
I had a pos car in highschool. it was all 8 could afford. My parents weren't going to buy me a new vehicle
Illustrious-Jump-398@reddit
Depends on the area, cities are going to be different than suburbs or rural areas.
Intelligent_Put_3594@reddit
Of course! The school can be miles away and when you're in high school, you don't want to ride the bus. You get a job at 15, work after school and the weekends and get an old cheap car. High school also lets you out early if you work. I drove to school starting sophomore year, moved out on my own junior year and finished school on my own. Even got out early 7th semester because I worked hard and earned all my credits early.
LegitimateStar7034@reddit
It was when I was in HS, back in 1988 but they definitely weren’t new.
Beaters. Hand me downs.
My parents bought my first car. It was a 78 VW Rabbit and they paid $300 for it. I had to get a job for gas and insurance.
tn00bz@reddit
Not very common. You used to be able to buy a car working a part time job. Thats not even kind of possible now. Students may drive to school, but they're probably using a family car.
MamaMidgePidge@reddit
It's going to vary as the US is a very large country with some areas having wealthier families than others, and some areas more rural, both of which would lead to higher levels of high school students having their own cars.
My own kids needed one to drive themselves to and from school. They don't own the car themselves, but they have full use of it. We consider it a "family car" Other than school and work, they need to ask before using, for purposes for ensuring nobody else needs it at that time.
Always_Reading_1990@reddit
Lots of high schoolers have a car their parent bought them, but I doubt they are frequently the legal owners as minors. My parents transferred my (nice, but old and used) car into my name when I was 18.
explodingbunny@reddit
My first car was my mom's old minivan whish she still owned
GuitaristExplorer@reddit
It’s not uncommon for a high schooler to have a car, but in many cases it’s probably the parents’ name on the title.
Original-Area6961@reddit
I had to buy my own cars and trucks when I was in high school, but I also had a job at 13. Were my vehicles nice, no, but they got me to and from work and school. I also had to pay for all my own gas and insurance.
MedusaGotMeStoned007@reddit
I had a used truck that my dad bought for a couple of grand that I worked weekends on at his business to pay off. We then moved within a half mile to my high school a few months later and I used to just walk to school to save on gas money.
RedRockCandy@reddit
I owned and drove a 93 Dodge Shadow to school my senior year back in 2001.
Routine-Rule9607@reddit
I would say probably not. Most people drive their parents car. Some drive used cars. I went to a high school that also had students from a pretty rich town and a lot of them drove new cars that were pretty nice but I wouldn’t say that’s typical
Piggybear87@reddit
A lot of high school students drive to school, especially the ones that are in sports because they're at school after the busses stop running.
For me though, I bought my first car at 13 years old. By the time I actually hit high school, I was on my 4th or 5th car (well, vehicle, 1 of them was a moped and 1 was a scooter). They were all street legal I was just listed as not a driver until I got my learner license.
However, keep in mind I'm nearly 40, so this was some time ago.
Outrageous-Pin-4664@reddit
It's less common now than it was when I was young. According to data I found online, about 39% of teens owned cars in 1980, but only 14% own them now.
I started driving in 1979, and had already bought my first car before I was able to drive it. My dad had a '65 Dodge van that he had purchased for $750. When he was thinking about buying a used Dodge truck that was going to be $1600, I offered to make half his payment if I could have the van.
We made that deal when I was 14. I was working with my dad after school and during the summers. By the time I was 16, I was making around $5 per hour at a time when minimum wage was $3.35. I never had any trouble making my half of the payment, and there were some months that I made the entire truck payment, because Dad was short the cash.
mst3k_42@reddit
I saved up money working and bought my own car: a 1985 Buick Riviera. I paid for my own insurance too. That thing was a piece of shit, but it mostly worked.
mentalcasket@reddit
There were 4000 students at my high school and the school was so small, we had to do a lottery for parking spots. Plenty of kids rode the bus, I'd say more kids rode the bus than drove, but I'm sure 99% of the cars were in our parents' names. I had a 96 Jeep Cherokee Sport and it was the shit. I loved it. I called it the Purple People Eater. 😁
Express-Studio-8302@reddit
In 1995 I was 16.5 and bought my first car. It was a 1986 model, $2200. My parents gifted me $200. I paid $1000 from my 4.50/hr part time while in high school job. And my dad took a loan (I was a minor) for the remaining $1000 that I paid using the same job.
I lived in the suburbs of a large sprawling metro area. We have so much space in America it creates a feedbak loop. public transportation is complicated therefore not prioritized. So we rely on cars. And since we all have cars, public transport isnt prioritized.
Rail1971@reddit
It is common for them to have use of a car belonging to their parents. It is usually a used one if purchased for their teenagers use. Rich parents may buy a used one. Often it is a hand-me-down with the parents buying a new(er) car for their own use and keeping the old one for their kids use rather than trading it in.
It is common for high school students to drive to school.
karmapolice63@reddit
In most cases, anyone under 18 usually needs to have a parent or guardian co-sign any sort of legal contract or document with their name on it because they’re minors still. Any high schooler under the age of 18 would “own” their car but not own it outright without parents involved.
Suburban and rural high school students may have cars more frequently than those who go to city schools just because there’s a lack of public transportation and most places are less walkable. Most will have a used car that their parents either bought them or already owned and allowed them to drive because it was the “old” car. High schoolers getting new cars as a gift is typically reserved for the wealthy and always a bad idea because of the potential for it to be in a wreck.
Serious-Mongoose-387@reddit
there was a wide range at my school. some kids from rich families had brand new cars. most kids had older cars, which they either brought themselves after saving up or with help from their parents. other kids didn’t have cars at all.
i lived in a rural area without public transit, and i also had sports after school and jazz band before school, so i couldn’t ride the school bus either direction. i worked all summer when i was 15, and brought a crappy old car. my parents paid for the insurance and gas.
Realistic-Passion437@reddit
In an average middle class area I’d say probably a little more than half of the juniors and seniors have cars, majority are used cars unless their from the wealthier side of town
Outrageous_Invite945@reddit
Not as much as the 80's. Lot's of Seniors had their own cars
Outsideforever3388@reddit
Again, the USA is huge. For many students, getting their own car typically happens at 16 or 17. My parents helped to purchase a car, but it was ten years old and definitely not new. Many students will work part time jobs to save for a “cheap” car on their own. (Is there such a thing anymore??!) Wealthy kids will get them as birthday gifts. Because we have a car-centric society, driving is expected and a rite of passage into adulthood.
The only exception would be if you live in NYC, then you either ride the metro or for the wealthy a private driver.
North_Artichoke_6721@reddit
It depends on the family’s financial status and individual circumstances.
In our area, most high schoolers drive a shared family car or a hand-me-down car. Some families purchase a used car for their child, sometimes with financial input from the child themselves. (Maybe the kid pays half or contributes to the insurance or something.)
My car is currently 15 years old and paid off. My goal is to keep it running until my son learns to drive in 2 more years and then I will get a new car for myself and he will have this one.
That-one_dude-trying@reddit
Not until they are 18 or emancipated
seanx50@reddit
We all drove in the 80s. We all drove shitty 70s cars. Til those cars dropped. Then we spent $200 on another one. New cars were extremely rare. I only recall 2. One girl whose dad was a mafia guy in prison, and the mob boss bought her a new Dodge Daytona for her 16th birthday. Another girl whose dad was an engineer at GM, who bought her a Cavalier for her 16th birthday
Dismal-Web-4312@reddit
Yes but usually paid for by their parents
Other-Squirrel-8705@reddit
Where I live, we call a brand new jeep the freshman starter package. It’s pretty insane. My kids got used cars and they’re the minority.
Think-like-Bert@reddit
I bought a car before I was legal to drive it. Back in 1976, I bought a 4-door Chevy Nova. Not a babe magnet but it ran! It was a rusty green color with no frills. No seatbelts, radio, power steering or power brakes. But it ran! I fixed it up and took my driving exam in it with a large state police officer in the passenger seat and my dad in the back seat. I passed the first time and off I went!
jeon2595@reddit
It’s normal for their parents to own a car provided for the teenagers use.
tcrhs@reddit
My mom bought me a used car for my 16th birthday.
seajayacas@reddit
One friend, a single Mom got her 16 year old son a used car right after he got his license.
We used to live on a block up north with parking generaly for only two cars. When we moved in parking was not an issue. Two decades later just about every house with kids had 3 or 4 cars in the family and parking became an issue.
So my take is that it is common enough for American high school students to have their own car.
VolcanicTree@reddit
It’s usually a used car. My first car was a 2003 Chevy tracker that my parents got for ~3k
gravely_serious@reddit
I went to a private high school that didn't have bus service. You either drove, got driven, or took the (terrible) public bus service that didn't go into the suburbs and turned a 15 minute drive into an hour long adventure.
The rich kids had their own new cars, and it was the topic of conversation at the beginning of every school year. ("Did you see Joel's 69 Camaro?" "Yeah, man. I wonder if he restored it himself!" He didn't, btw.)The poor kids on scholarship had shitty hoopties.
I drove my dad's car and dropped him at work. The deal was that I could use the car whenever I wanted as long as I drove everyone to/from work/school (my sister went to a different school) and paid for my insurance. Dad paid for gas.
JimBeam823@reddit
This very much depends on location. In cities, rarely. In more rural areas, it’s much more common.
It’s almost always a used car, unless the family is wealthy.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Literally everyone in my had a truck or car of some sort, you need one in America.
CheeseMongoNJ@reddit
My first car was 3 years younger than I am. Definitely not new. All of my friends got used cars as their first as well.
HotSauceSwagBag@reddit
It was years ago, when you could get a halfway decent old car for a couple grand. Now not so much. When I was in high school, I was driving an 80s van in the 2000s. A handful of kids had new cars but not many.
Bluestarkittycat@reddit
My grandparents bought me my first car but I couldnt actually own it till I was 18 (on paper). If course we forgot about it and the registration was never changed so my own car had to go through probate when my granddad passed.
EMPI2817@reddit
My dad bought me a car when I was 15, but it was all in his name so I technically didn't own it. The only people I knew who owned their own cars were the kids who'd done corn shucking every summer since they were kids to buy their own used car when they turned sixteen.
cbig86@reddit
What about the school bus? Is it something only for grade school students?
New-Job1761@reddit
I graduated in 1957. Many had their own cars including me. I had a 47 Dodge in my Junior year then a BSA motorcycle for my Senior year. You could buy a decent running older car for $100. Paid $125 for mine. A friend sold his drivable Model A roadster for $25. Part time job in a service station usually paid 50-75 cents an hour. Gas was 23-25 cents. Candy bar was 5 cents. Wages were low but everything was cheap. Easier times than now.
CantaloupeInside1303@reddit
My oldest, who was 2 weeks shy of 16, received his grandfather’s almost 20 year old Toyota Camry which was in almost brand new shape. Its bluebook value was 500. We had him give my sister 250 and I gave him my half. I was so happy (not for my dad to die, but for the car). My 3 sons are a year apart and all were on the high school swim team. They had to be on deck ready for the pool at 5:45 in the morning. That meant I had to drive them at 5:15 in the morning. Yes, I was pretty happy. He had that car too for maybe 8 years. I think he still misses it.
BoukenGreen@reddit
Class of 07 here in a graduating class of just under 200 and every one had a car as they passed their drivers test and it was a mixed bag of used and new. I knew people who had brand new cars and I knew people who drove used cars.
formerprincess@reddit
We live in an area with no public transportation. Most kids have a car for their exclusive use. We bought a newer car for our kids but they had to pay insurance gas and maintenance.
AchtungCloud@reddit
I live in a city of about 150,000, but it’s over 300 miles to any major metro area from here. My neighborhood isn’t super nice or anything. Fairly basic 3/2 or 4/2 houses, no HOA, built in 80s and 90s.
I happen to take my dog for a morning walk when high schoolers are leaving for school. Just in my block, I know of 6 high schoolers with new or newish cars that seem to be theirs. All Fords, coincidentally. 3 Bronco Sports, 2 Mustangs, and 1 F-150.
Smooth_Beginning_540@reddit
I think it’s fairly common for high school students to drive a car to school or work. Outright owning the car (let alone a new car) is probably less common.
When I was in high school, my parents bought a new car for themselves, and I was allowed to drive the older car. They kept ownership, and I was added to their auto insurance as a secondary driver.
Emergency-Whereas978@reddit
In the past , yes, not sure about now. I had my own car shortly after turning 16. Most of my kids had cars as teenagers also.
cbizzle85@reddit
Bought my own first car at 14, in 2001. It was a 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix with 8000 miles. I think I paid $4000.
hassddfg@reddit
It is very common in non Urban/City areas for kids to get some type of car at 16. In my suburban area, there is no public transportation other than the yellow school bus, so if you want your child to learn to be independent, you get them a car. The type and price of car depends on the income of the area or family. Both of my kids got used cars when they turned 16. My son's was my mother's Jeep Liberty that was about 12 years old. My daughter's was a sedan that was 10 years old and we bought it for $11,000. My kids definitely have friends who got new cars, but others also got used cars. My husband and I are teachers and there are definitely some cars in the student lot that are nicer than our adult cars!
fredinNH@reddit
I bought a new car when my kid was 5 and I told them that when they turn 16 it’ll be theirs and that’s exactly what happened. They drove it for 7 years and just got rid of it last summer because it was 18 years old and they started to feel it wasn’t safe. Saab, in case anyone was wondering.
FineUnderachievment@reddit
Yeah, I definitely had my first car at 16. It definitely wasn’t new, but I had several friends who got a brand new car. I was dating a foreign exchange student at the time. She thought it was wild that 16 year olds could drive.
catkedibilliegorbe@reddit
I bought a car in 2003 when I was 16 for $2000 ($3500 in today’s money). I drove it for 11 years, and I barely ever did any work on it. Today, finding a working car for $3500 feels impossible. Everything is much more expensive, and the quality of available cars is much lower.
CloudedLeopardDaemon@reddit
Used to be. I don't know how any would afford it today. Used cars cost 10x as much as when I was in high school, and the federal minimum wage is literally unchanged.
Legitimate-March9792@reddit
I didn’t have a car and I didn’t get my driver’s license until age 21 in 1986. My family was poor and I had no desire to drive. I took the school bus. My senior year of high school, my friend who was an only child got a used car of her own and would drive me home from school every day. She also drove us all to the movies every Friday. My other friend borrowed her mom’s car a lot to drive us to the movies if to the mall. I had no need of a car because I got shuttled around by friends, parents or older siblings. I still hate driving and I’m 61 now.
Keeeva@reddit
I would say that most of them don’t own the car in a legal sense. It belongs to the parents while the student drives is and is (partially) responsible for gas and insurance.
GonnaGetBumpy@reddit
For insurance purposes, it makes more sense for the parents to own the car and insure the teenage driver. Just about everyone middle class or up that I knew growing up in a fairly rural area “owned” a used car or truck that they took to school, but of course their parents really owned the vehicles.
MH_75@reddit
Depending on what part of the US you're from, driving to school is a necessity. When I was in school, we all had cars that matched our personalities. I had a classic 1986 Pontiac Trans Am. We all worked as well after school.
No-Fee1742@reddit
I got my car when I was 16, a junior in high school. My Daddy bought it for me. It was a very used, very inexpensive little car, all we could afford. Bless it, joggers passed me. Bicycles passed me going uphill. It would overheat if I had more than two friends with me. The radio didn't work so I had to take my cassette player with me everywhere and pray my batteries would last. She was nothing fancy, but I loved her. She got me where I wanted to go.
zoppaTheDim@reddit
No Most use a parent’s car. It is common for households to have multiple cars. I’d say less than four dozen kids drive to my high school, less than ten owned the car they drive, because gearheads are gearheads.
I knew one kid in high school with a new car. He totaled it before he was 18, his parents bought him a new one.
cinnamongirl73@reddit
I’m in a semi-rural area. When my daughter was in high school-she had to wait to get her license due to health reasons and it not being a good idea for her to be behind a wheel until they figured it out. Anyway, her boyfriend (now husband) was a gear head, and he and his twin had both worked, saved up-their Dad matched the money and they both had their own cars. In their Dads name. They’d both drive to school separately. My son in law would leave a few minutes early, and pick her up. But they drove separately before she met him. They were also the only two kids in the school who had manuals. 😂😂😂
No_Print1433@reddit
In most cases, the parents own the car, but driving to and from school is pretty normal.
getElephantById@reddit
In my day, it was not uncommon for teenagers to have reliable access to a car. Sometimes it was a "I can use it after 6pm and on weekends" type thing. Sometimes the car was even set aside for their dedicated use. But teenagers were rarely the legal owners of the car, it was usually in their parents' names.
Ghee-Starr@reddit
I bought my first car when I was 16. And, yes I drove to school. My high school had separate parking lots for staff/teachers, students who were seniors and an area for non-seniors to park.
ThoughtCharming8917@reddit
We provided cars to each of our three to use. Eldest had an old Dodge Neon, middle a Volvo (during COVID, so rarely used) and youngest a Honda Accord. We held titles and covered insurance while in school. No vehicles went to college (as they went to residential schools).
Fun-Yellow-6576@reddit
Own yes, have one they drive that there parents pay all the costs pretty normal.
yellowrose04@reddit
Yep. A lot of kids get them for their 16th birthday and they drive to school.
10leej@reddit
Usually it's not really that they own the car, but it's the car their parents own that they allocate to the child to make use of.
KitchenSwillForPigs@reddit
I had a car in high school. It was as old as I was but it was mine. My parents managed to get it for me for next to nothing. One other person in my friend group had his own car but it was just the two of us out of eight or nine.
Heraghty07@reddit
Yes. My parents provided me with a car. I provided the same for my daughter.
ramblinjd@reddit
When I was 15 I used my life savings to put the down payment on a cheap car that my parents bought the rest with cash and then I paid them back over about 3 years doing odd jobs and part time work so I didn't outright own it till I was 18.
It was primarily my car to go to and from school and work but my parents used it sometimes if they needed to.
chtmarc@reddit
Ex teacher here. Taught at a large inner city high school. Student parking lot only had about 100 spots and 2/3 of them were empty on any given day. Very few of the students in my neighborhood could afford cars. The ones who did drive were the ones who came from further away for either academics or athletics. The majority of the kids who were “neighborhood“ kids walked or got dropped off. The Citi actually changed the street behind the school to one way so that the parents could have a lane to drop off kids in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. 5500 kids attended and maybe maybe 40 of them had cars
Ok-Energy-9785@reddit
No
paypermon@reddit
Me and my sister shared a car until she graduated 2 years before me and I got myself own
Cthulwutang@reddit
i passed my cars down to my son and he drove himself and then with his sister to school.
so he had a:
honda fit (“jazz” in some countries)
volvo s60 sedan
saab 9-3 convertible
kids both loved driving the droptop around!
50ShadesOfKrillin@reddit
Fairly common. mostly hand-me-downs, cheap econo-boxes, and 90s/2000s Facebook Marketplace shitboxes back when I was in high school
Ratatoskr_The_Wise@reddit
In the Catholic private schools that we sent our kids to, about half get a hand me down family car when they turn 16.
RobotShlomo@reddit
That's mostly in the movies.
SignificantApricot69@reddit
When I was 16 I bought a used car after working summers and weekends for 2 years. That was fairly common for me and my peers- usually cheap used cars (different times, this was the ‘90s and you could get a running used car for $1500 or so, mine was $3000) or a hand me down or cheap used car from parents.
My son bought a car when he was 16- it was a used car off marketplace the guy had sitting a barn for a long time. My daughter is 18 and she had enough money in her bank account to buy a car last year but decided to keep saving, and she is taking a year off from school with the plan to buy a car next year and also contribute towards her schooling.
No one in my household has ever worked anything other than low wage hourly jobs, fwiw.
aquatic_hamster16@reddit
Extremely common, but as others have said, parents usually plan to replace their own vehicle around the time their kid needs one, and then the kid gets the hand me down.
But, in many cases the kid having a car makes the parents’ lives much easier because they don’t need to arrange their work schedule around shuttling their kids to/from practice, after-school club meetings, etc.
TurduckenEverest@reddit
It’s not unusual, at least not in Texas. However their parents actually own the car typically, and depending on how affluent the neighborhood is, the car could be new or used.
Budget-Town-4022@reddit
In my senior year of high school, my father gave me a used car. That was 1981, and the car was a used 1976 Datsun F10. I was responsible for insurance, gasoline, and maintenance. Maybe a quarter of my classmates had cars, all used cars.
anchordwn@reddit
Where I lived, and I believe this is everywhere you cannot legally OWN a car until you’re 18.
My first car ever was at 16. My dad bought a brand new one for himself, his old one had little to no trade in value (or not enough to make a meaningful difference). Old one became “mine”. It was still his car. It was his car until I was about 22 and took it out of the state and we did the legal transfer. I got very lucky and he didn’t make me buy it off of him but the resale value of that car was next to nothing at that point.
discordia_enjoyer@reddit
Most seniors in my high school either had rich parents buy them a car or they saved up for a junker (that was me) working maximum hours when not in class. Anything to avoid the bus, or the stigma of being dropped off by your mother
tuberlord@reddit
When I was in high school most of my friends and I had cars, but they weren't exactly nice. I graduated in 1999 and most of us had worn out cars from the '70s or '80s.
My dad sold me an old Datsun for $400 that I earned working various shitty high school jobs. I had to pay for my own gas, insurance, and maintenance.
New-Sheepherder2239@reddit
Own it? No. It’s usually a 3rd family car or some parents or grandparents purchase for them.
Less-Load-8856@reddit
Yes, even in the 80s, except inner city schools or some private schools.
TsundereLoliDragon@reddit
I feel like maybe less so now, but when I was in school in the early 90s, yes, almost everybody I knew had a car and the high school senior lot was filled with cars.
wooq@reddit
My first car was a '83 Chevy Malibu, with a poop brown exterior and a baby poop brown interior. My dad picked it up at an auction for $300 and we fixed it up.
Title and insurance was in his name but it was "my car." I drove it to school and school activities every day
Ill-Veterinarian4208@reddit
Yes.
Some of us weren't so fortunate/rich/whatever. I rode the schoolbus until my very last day as a senior, I didn't have my own car and only got to drive it to school once, that was quite the treat.
A lot of teens are given a car for their 16th birthday, some of them new cars. My husband works at an autoparts store and one of his co-workers is 16, in high school, driving what looks like a $90,000 pickup. Whereas I will never be able to afford a new car again.
Impulse2915@reddit
Pretty common for a high schooler to have a car, but it is almost always used and pretty cheap relatively.
WorkerAmbitious2072@reddit
Most get a used car from their parents
Some pay themselves.
Most be the car and pay for gas and maybe put in towards insurance
Ornery_Eye_3101@reddit
When people at my school (South Carolina) turned 16 they always got a car and stopped riding the bus. Very few people didn’t have a car. A lot of kids got brand new BMWs and Mercedes. They also had family boats too 😭I rode the bus.
BurnsinTX@reddit
The high school I went to (very rural) most people had their own cars. We also had guns in the car during some hunting seasons. Wake up early, do a quick hunt on the way to school, then leave the guns in the car when we went to school. I think they stopped allowing guns in cars after I left, so people just started parking in the empty field across the road lol.
Cyber_Punk_87@reddit
I was given my dad's old truck when I turned 16, but it was never officially put in my name. He'd bought the truck the year after I was born. I lived in a rural area, so having your own car was pretty typical in the later teen years. Most people got used cars, a few got new ones (or barely used ones). A lot of people saved up and bought their own cars, some had family who helped them on top of that savings, and some kids had cars given to them by their parents (mix of hand-me-downs and cars purchased specifically for them, whether new or used).
Pudenda726@reddit
That’s really going to depend on location. I grew up in a very car-centered suburb that wasn’t walkable& had sparse public transportation. I was gifted a (used) car for my 16th birthday. I currently live in an area with robust public transportation so my son has always used that bc he doesn’t need a car to get around.
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
This depends on where you live and how wealthy you are. My husband works for a high school in a wealthy town and all those kids get brand new fancy cars when they turn 17 (driving age here). But in less wealthy towns, they’ll need to get a part time job and save money to buy a used car. However if you live in a place where there is good public transit you won’t get a car at all.
I didn’t get a car as a teen. I could borrow my parents’ cars if they didn’t need them only. Then I went to college in NYC so I didn’t need a car. I was 24 before I had a car at all, then got rid of the car I had at 32 and didn’t have on of my own until I was nearly 40. But I used public transit mostly so I didn’t need one.
TorrEEG@reddit
It was very common when I was a teen. We all had old cars. Mine needed me to push the brake and gas at a stop sign or it would stop working.
However, I live in a rural area. It's 10 miles+ to the nearest town for most of us. Having an extra driver in the family is worth the cost of an old car.
It is less common now. A lot of teens don't want to drive. Also, we cannot afford an extra family car now.
Drive your tractor to school day still exists, though.
Time-Defiance@reddit
I didn’t buy my brother did. So he drove me to school and then skip classes. 🤣
Strong_Landscape_333@reddit
Maybe kids with parents that have money or got a job. I was 16 when I graduated and no one would hire me where I lived.
wismke83@reddit
Where I grew up in rural Michigan in the late 90s/ early 2000s it was extremely common for students to have some type of car. Whether they owned the car or the car was owned by their parents varied and usually depended on a lot of factors based on the family. Teens who had a car gifted to them were usually used cars that were already owned by their parents or other family members (like grandparents) or purchased by their parents for them. Other students would actually purchase a car (usually used) either because their parents couldn’t afford another car or their parents told them they had to work to buy their own car if they wanted one at all. In some cases a teen might have been gifted a car, but they wanted a nicer car or a make and model they could choose on their own, so they ended up working to save enough money to buy their own. I worked with two guys who had been given old cars by their parents but they wanted different cars. They ended up working a ton to save up enough to buy used cars of their own.
AntOnADogLog@reddit
Rural-ish texas. Niece bought hers with summer earnings and is taking shop in school to learn and do reapairs and maintainance. Has her mom or stepdad roll with her to school for in-class repairs since shes still on a learners permit.
Emergency-Economy654@reddit
It’s decently common for parents to buy their kids a car depending on where they live. My school didn’t have a bus system so we either drove or walked. Both my parents worked and I lived a few miles from school so they bought me a used car.
kbell58@reddit
It is common for high school students to drive their ‘own’ family cars. In most states, minors can’t register cars. So while the student may be the primary driver of the car, the car is registered to their parents.
Revolutionary-Tiger@reddit
Owning their own car as in they bought and paid for it themselves is a stretch and ultimately depends on the circumstances as many others said. I'd wager that for the vast majority, the parents bought, signed for, and pay insurance on the car and specifically designate it for the kid to drive
Paranoid-Android88@reddit
I owned two junkyard cars that I bought out right in HS (2003-07) but yeah my mom obv had to sign stuff of course and yes she paid my insurance but I legit had to pay that insurance to her monthly as well as gas lol. Granted things were much different 20 years ago 🤣 specifically gas 😭 her rule in the house as a single parent was if we wanted to drive and get our license, we HAD to get a job to pay for all of the above. My dad suddenly died right before I started hs and my mom was a felon soooo things were rough let’s just say 😬
rks1743@reddit
Yes, when my son turned 16, we got him a new Civic Si. We had no school bus service and it was a 30 minute drive. He used the car for 2 years and then my younger son turned 16 and used it for 2 years.
secrerofficeninja@reddit
Most do not have their own car. In rural areas and suburbs, some may have a car when they’re 16-18 but likely they drive their parents car.
I grew up in rural area and I had a part time job and bought a car at 17 that I drove to school. I mean, it’s fairly common but not most kids. Also, the car was old and cheap.
Some rich families will buy their kids new cars. Most drive older used.
Remarkable_Inchworm@reddit
Common in wealthy areas.
Where I live it’s common for high school students to drive, but many of them would be driving a family car and not one they “own” personally.
msackeygh@reddit
I think not necessarily to own a car but they may have one. It’s usually the parents who own the car and the kids aren’t named on the title of the car.
WillShakeSpear1@reddit
The US has a very strong car dependent culture - our public transit is not like Europe. So yes, it is common for HS seniors to use cars (usually owned by the parents) for their transportation to school, jobs, friends and athletic events
vamartha@reddit
My parents had three cars. Mom's, Dad's and a less desirable spare. I drove the spare just like my younger sister and brother did. Handed down just like most families hand down other items. It was never in my name and I never expected it to be. But it was my daily driver until I went to college.
Fencer308@reddit
I bought my first car when I was a high school junior (11th grade). This was in 1999 or 2000, and it was a 1986 Mistsubishi Cordia-L. I paid $900 for it.
madcowbcs@reddit
I had a used car handed down for m my parents. I lived ina rural area. About half of us at the regional highschool road the bus.
sjogerst@reddit
Students usually get their licence in their sophomore or junior year. In our culture, a car represents freedom. They want to drive because they want freedom from riding the bus, freedom to get to and from a job, freedom to social when and where they want. A first car is usually used and parents that can afford it will sometimes help with expenses but it's different for every family.
So yes. Later stage high school students usually own cars. It's usually their first car and it's a component of American car culture.
punkwalrus@reddit
I grew up in upper middle class suburbia near Washington DC, and in the 1980s at least, it was more common than not for a kid to be gifted a car for their 16th birthday. USUALLY used, but not always. I have no idea if the car was in the kids name or the parent just included their kid on their insurance. I was not one of those kids. Very few of my nerd core friends were given cars, either, which made our social lives very difficult pre-internet. We all depended on the few friends that did have cars.
A friend I made as an adult grew up poor near a military base in Virginia Beach. He told me as a teen that he got a beat up car that barely ran, was uninsured, did not pass inspection, and he peeled off stickers and stole a license plate off other cars to fake passed inspection and tax. He drove the car without a license until he was 16, then eventually got a proper vehicle in college. I asked him why he risked all that.
"To get pussy. You don't have a car, you don't get laid, dude."
ltsmash1200@reddit
I’m guessing it may not be as common today because used cars spiked so much during Covid and there are fewer cheap new cars on the market than there used to be (like Ford stopped manufacturing cars entirely except for the Mustang), but when I was in high school, yes, many kids had their own car. Usually a cheap used beater or a hand me down like the parents had an old car and bought a new one and the old one became the kid’s.
ActuaLogic@reddit
Own their own car? Not necessarily. Use a car to drive to school? Yes.
rawbface@reddit
I did not own a car. I drove my dad's 1982 Monte Carlo. In 2003.
Wild-Sky-4807@reddit
Depends on an factors, mostly including how wealthy the area is. If it is a wealthy area, yeah that absolutely happens. I would say this is the exception though. In middle class areas some students will get used cars from family members. (For example, my cousin's kids inherited their grandma's car when she passed. This is super common.) When cars were cheaper they would work to buy them.
Teenagers driving is scary, and a lot of them do die in car accidents. I think though a lot of parents really feel like their hands are tied because there is no public transit in the bulk of the United States and teenagers have lots of different places to be that do not always coordinate with their parents work schedules.
FlyGreenhead@reddit
My kid got my old Toyota Corolla when he got his drivers license when turned age 16. He drove himself to school with it.
Vanilla_thundr@reddit
I was given the family clunker to drive but my parents still owned it. But, yes, I drove everywhere after I turned 16. That was the norm in 2002 in rural Tennessee.
Paranoid-Android88@reddit
This! I got my license in 2004 and the first weekend I had it I drove to Chicago from Indy lol. It was a blast and I felt if I could handle Chicago traffic I’d be good almost anywhere here in the Midwest at least
Cak3Wa1k@reddit
It was common enough in my area that school yearbooks had a "coolest car" category. That I won with my hotrod that my daddy built me.
Front_Effort_3584@reddit
I bought my own used car at 15 and drove to school and work. Lots of students in rural areas in particular have their own vehicles and drive to school.
bizwig@reddit
My parents got me a Chevy Chevette to drive to school. 60 gross HP through a 3-speed automatic transmission. A true speed demon.
Popular_Ordinary_152@reddit
Highly depends. I bought a well used but good condition for my high schooler. Our life is not possible without three drivers since both parents work. I’ll keep it in my name until she’s in college though.
Less_Campaign_6956@reddit
no.
ChampionshipBetter91@reddit
Most kids in my town got cars when they were 16, and it was an even split between new and used. But most kids who are given cars don't own them, i.e., their names aren't on the title. It's usually the parents own them, so they pay the taxes & insurance. Kids who buy their own cars or pay a portion towards the purchase may have their names on the title, but I wouldn't say it's common.
I went to high school in a small town that was pretty rural: there was no public transportation, so if you wanted to get around, you absolutely needed a car.
I didn't get a new car. My brother joined the army when I was 16, and I drove his car while he was in basic training and for months afterwards. After he returned, my mother bought a gently used car that we shared during my senior year of high school. I didn't take the car to college, but I didn't want to: I went very far away to school, in a big city that had excellent public transportation.
AleroRatking@reddit
Depends what you mean by common.
Here id say between 25-50% have their own car. So while I'd say it's likelier they don't have a car it's still fairly common.
Duck_Diddler@reddit
No, most of they time they have help
Extra_Shirt5843@reddit
I mean, I had a car of my own in high school, but I didn't own it. My parents did.
SpookyBeck@reddit
My sons are 17 and 18. About 2 years ago i bought the a $500 car for them to share but it quit working aroind 6 months ago. My adult daughter gave them her old 2008 cafter that.
DOMSdeluise@reddit
I would say very uncommon to own a car outright as cars are expensive and most high schoolers don't have that kind of money. It is pretty common though for high schoolers to have a car for their use, owned by their parents, however.
Ear_Enthusiast@reddit
There's always a couple of kids that bust their asses and save up to buy a car or are working to pay an auto loan. Most kids' parents buy their cars.
xSparkShark@reddit
In a wealthy suburb, yes. Everywhere else, no.
msabeln@reddit
I grew up in a middle and working class neighborhood and a lot of kids had cars. Also it is very common in rural areas.
Paranoid-Android88@reddit
Most (if their parents are smart) get used ones for sureeee. I bought two used cars in HS from a junkyard tho lol. First one was $600 (died about a year in) and the second for $2k. The second one lasted me 10 years! I miss that ole 2000 Honda civic 🤣
Brondoma@reddit
I had a car in high school that I paid for. It was used. My daughter has a car that I gave to her but she paid for repairs to make it roadworthy. About half of her friends have cars. Mostly used cars.
damutecebu@reddit
No most are just driving a car that their parents own.
brokenman82@reddit
I had a beat up old pickup truck my parents paid $1000 for. My brother drove it for 3 years. He moved out. It became mine. Lasted me 2 years before it finally caught on fire and burned up in the driveway.
0le_Hickory@reddit
Very
adultdaycare81@reddit
Not only own one, but half of them are nicer than mine
Patrizio_Argento@reddit
I had a POS car at 16 that my parents got me. My daughter just turned 16 and she has a 14 year old car that still runs very well. It is quite common for juniors and seniors in HS to drive to school or ride with a friend.
NunnyaDBusiness@reddit
Not the norm but definitely common, particularly in affluent suburbs
Legitimate_Top_1425@reddit
Not own but have a designated vehicle that belongs to their parents, yes
Friendly-Gur-6736@reddit
I owned my car when I was in HS.
But it was also $700. My dad bought it and I paid him back for it with my after school job. He ended up forgiving the remainder of the payments after I'd paid him back for about half of it after a year or so. I was also responsible for basic maintenance and buying my own gas...which wasn't hard when gas was seldom more than 90 cents a gallon.
Admirable-Apricot137@reddit
I grew up in a rural area and yes it was very common to get your own car in high school. It was usually a junky hand-me-down from family or less than $1,000 that you either bought with your own money from summer jobs or your parents helped you buy it.
Adjective-Noun123456@reddit
Yeah, it's pretty common.
My high school had a sectioned off portion of the parking lot that was exclusively for student parking. About 5 or 6 years ago they redesigned the whole west side of the campus and now kids actually got their own dedicated lot.
I only knew a small handful of people who got a new car in the sense that it was a current model year. Most folks ended up inheriting a family vehicle, or bought their own used vehicle. I was in the former group. My dad wanted to get a new truck, so he gave me his old one.
littlecloudyskye@reddit
Yes, it is very common overall for American high schoolers to own their own car.
deathbychips2@reddit
Own it themselves? Not common. To have a car that is "theirs" because their parents let them use it used to be pretty common but is getting less common. The majority of American teenagers now are getting their license less and less. It's not even about the barrier of money to get a license or a car. The current group of teenagers and young 20 something's have an anxiety crisis. More of them are not driving because they are too anxious to and their parents have done them a disservice of not forcing them to learn and practice to drive more.
I work with teenagers and when I tell them I got my license at 16 and 3 months and started driving myself everywhere they are shocked. A lot of them are still getting rides at 17, 18, 19 even though they have the money and time to learn, they are just too nervous to learn.
Capable_Suit_7335@reddit
We live in rural America so kids either take the buss, parents get them a car, they have other “toys” to drive, or ride with friends.
We also have a bring your tractor to school day and they will drive those. We have seen side by sides, four wheelers, golf carts the list goes on. Country living is very interesting lol
I_Owe_Suzanner@reddit
Didn't have a car in high school. I don't remember being upset about it. BUT my best friend had a car. It was a great time. Chip in on gas, Sit shotgun, keep the Discman on my lap and ride
CyroSwitchBlade@reddit
I bought my first car in 2003 when I was 16 years old for $600.. It was a 1991 Buick Skylark.. It was actually fun to cruise around in.. We used to call it the Highlark because we were mostly just going out to some back roads to smoke..
raeraemcrae@reddit
We gave my daughter her own used car to drive at 16 or 17 years old because she worked a secular job part time, and also was committed to her part time volunteer work while finishing her remote high school degree. So it was a practicality thing. Car title was still in our name, however.
MortimerDongle@reddit
It's common to drive to high school. Actual ownership of the car varies, often it's owned by a parent but it isn't rare for a kid to own a car (particularly cheaper used cars).
DropEdge@reddit
My school district (rural school in the Ozarks) encompasses 184 square miles and serves 1000 students. About 30% drive themselves (and siblings or friends), 30% ride the school bus, 35% are driven by their parents, and 5% walk.
I've taught only in rural districts, and these numbers seem pretty similar across the board. Most kids learn how to drive long before they're 14, which is when you can get a learner's permit. (I've known kids who were driving on the farm when they were six years old.) The legal driving age is 16, but I do know some students who were granted hardship licenses; these allow you to drive without a licensed driver even if you're under 16 and is primarily issued to kids who have after-school jobs. I have a lot of students who work from 4-10 every day after school, and they and their families need that money to survive.)
NateInEC@reddit
Used car...
Amazing-Artichoke330@reddit
My dad gave me a used car on my 14th birthday. As I recall, not many of my classmates had one, so they rode with me.
PurpleLilyEsq@reddit
Most high schools where I’m from have parking lots specifically for students who drive themselves. I’d think that’d probably school of most high schools around the country outside of a handful of major cities.
Traditional-Let9530@reddit
Yeah it’s pretty common, especially in suburbs where everything is 45 minutes away for absolutely no reason. Most kids drive used cars passed down from parents though, not brand new ones. The movies just conveniently ignore the 2007 Honda Civic with one missing hubcap.
FlippingPossum@reddit
Own their own car? Not to common. Drive a car that their parental unit owns? Common in some areas and not common in others. My kids (born in 2003 and 2006) drove our 2002 Chevy Prizm to high school. My oldest preferred to take the bus unless she had early release (seniors can take a work study at the end of the day) or was staying late.
My husband and I let them drive if they were involved in sports, marching band, etc. The activity bus route was long.
doinkest@reddit
It definitely varies on regional culture and economy but I would say it’s pretty common in the general sense.
I grew up upper middle class in Middle Tennessee. I was given a lightly used, relatively new car by my father that he bought specifically for me. It was in my dad’s name but it was my car. I drove it for several years until I totaled it as an adult.
It was the same for all of my siblings that learned to drive as teenagers. Our own car was our birthday gift for the year we turned 16. One of our siblings chose to not learn how to drive and therefore did not get a car.
Most everyone at our high school also had cars that were bought for them by their parents or were their parents’ hand-me-down vehicles. If you could drive and had your own car, you would drive yourself (and your younger siblings) to school. There were also kids who had to buy their own cars, or kids that just had to ride the bus or find other modes of transportation bc they/they’re parents couldn’t afford to purchase a vehicle.
ShiningStar179@reddit
I had a car when I was in high school. We got my daughter one when she turned 16. They were used but I think buying new cars is a bad decision (even if you can afford it), especially for a new driver.
Jernbek35@reddit
Yes it very common. The high school I went to a very large portion of juniors and seniors all had their own cars. Same with me
wieldymouse@reddit
My younger sister and I had cars gifted to us by our parents. I got mine in the second semester of my senior year. She got hers at the beginning of her junior year, if u remember correctly. Our older sister was gifted a car from our parents but it was after she graduated from high school. All cars were used.
readbackcorrect@reddit
It is common in rural communities for kids to have their own cars. There is usually a way available to buy them for themselves. The parents want them to have one because then they don’t have to drive them everywhere. Since we do not have mass transportation, opportunities, outside cities, cars is necessary if you’re going to do anything other than school.
When my grandfather was a teenager, there were still trains and street cars, so he did not own his own car. By the time my father was a teenager, trains still existed, but within his small town, the street cars had gone away. So he had a motorcycle to get around town with. When I was in high school, there were no more trains, but I did not have a car because my boyfriend did and so we went everywhere together, and I did not need my own car. My children all had cars and my grandsons each have their own car. I don’t know about in the city, but in the country this is pretty standard.
Apocalyptic0n3@reddit
I don't know about today since the used car market went nuts after COVID but it was extremely common in my high school. I'd say about 60-70% of students over the age of 16 drove to my high school and I'd bet a good 75% of those owned their car. In most cases, it was a $1500 POS that barely ran. Kids either saved up to buy it or their parents bought it for them.
A few would have newer vehicles that was either a spare family vehicle or they were from a better off family that would lease it for them.
By the end of high school, basically everyone had their own vehicle. For most, it was a necessity for either a job or their plans for college.
Apprehensive-Pop-201@reddit
A lot of them do. I did, my brother and sister did, my kids did. Most of them are used cars. All of ours were used cars. Something safe, reliable and not too expensive. My kids were both lucky in that, family members just happened to be giving away reasonable, cars when they started driving.
Wooden-Variety175@reddit
Driving to school is extremely common. I owned my car but it was a fairly old car that my cousin was just going to scrap when he bought a new one. I'd say it's common for students to get old, used cars through this method and only rich kids would have their parents buy them a brand new car like in the commercials/tv shows.
Turbowookie79@reddit
Yes. I drove my grandmas old Volvo to and from high school, in the 90s.
Aprils-Fool@reddit
Common to have a car they drive (including to/from school), but often the parent is the owner of the car.
SpeakerCareless@reddit
My kids are teenagers. My daughter’s best friend is from a wealthy family. They could easily buy their 16 yo daughter a car. She drives a hand me down car that her teenage brothers drove before her that was probably used when they bought it for her. Having access to a car to drive is common, but having a brand new car in their own name isn’t. My oldest drives a car that her grandmother owned for a decade before it came to her.
DigTheDunes@reddit
If you live outside of a city, it is common for a senior to have a car. I got a hand-me-down from my godfather when I was a junior.
No-Lettuce-5783@reddit
In some states, children get their driver's license at 16. That's the way it was for me growing up in Florida. I got my Learner's Permit at 15. Took driver's education in school. And I passed my driver's test first try at 16.
As far as owning your own car, I would guess that the car was a gift or something. Unless the kid had a good job that paid lots while going to school. I supposed that could have been a possibility.
I'm sure kids got new cars this way. But I got my grandfather's 1972 Buick LeSabre. It was a boat, but man I loved that car. Especially during high school ;)
Redditconvert22@reddit
I'd say fairly common to drive themselves to school by 11th or 12th grade, but depends on the family circumstances and location. My son got a job at 15 and bought himself a beat up Civic. He had to keep his grades up to keep insurance affordable for him since the deal was he paid for the car. He worked hard to not ride the bus so this worked well.
My daughter goes to a tech high school so there are no buses and it's really hard for us to get here there at 7am. So we passed our 17-year old Camry to her at 16 and she drives herself to school now. I will probably transfer the car to her name when she graduates and gets a job to pay for the insurance. In her case it was more for our convenience.
FailProfessional6864@reddit
Only wealthy kids had cars. Most people didn't have cars. School didn't even have enough parking spots for students who did have cars. I didn't have a car until I needed to drive to college.
FailProfessional6864@reddit
For context I lived in a small town where three small towns went to the same school. & in the area there is no public transport & you absolutely need a car to get around. But it was still not common for high school kids to have a car.
Mysterious-Name-3297@reddit
Yes. I have a high schooler and I don’t know any of his friends who don’t. We are not well-off.
pacododo@reddit
Pretty common. Parents usually own the car but often purchased for the child. A used car is more common.
dangleicious13@reddit
I wasn't technically given a car in high school. However, I was allowed to drive my mom's old car and she got a new one. When I graduated HS, the let my sister start driving the old car and my parents bought me a used car to go to college.
vaginawithteeth1@reddit
I grew up in a very middle class town in Connecticut. I’d say probably 50% of the juniors and seniors in high school had cars. A few kids had really nice cars, freshman year my neighbor drove me to school in his new Lexus. Myself and most other kids had either hand me downs or old beaters they saved up for or their parents bought them.
Rudyjax@reddit
Where i live most teens have cars. Either hand me down from their parents or they get bought a car.
EatLard@reddit
I drove my own car to school while I was in high school. Now my daughter does the same. It’s pretty common where I live since public transportation is a joke.
The vast majority of high school students with cars drive a used vehicle.
Tinsie167@reddit
It’s becoming less common, and not all kids have one. With social media, kids today don’t feel the need for a car as much as previous generations did in order to stay connected to friends etc.
Poor families can’t afford it.
Middle class families might help the kid pay for a used car or the kid might get a part time job to save up for his own old used car if they family can’t help.
Rich kids usually get a new car.
myotheroneders@reddit
I graduated high school in 2007, and some people had cars but not nearly the majority. The parking lot where students parked wasn't that big and we had to register to get assigned a parking space. Nobody had a new car, most people had shitty used cars that you could find for like $500. When I got my license my senior year, my parents bought me a car that was 15 years old at the time, but they made it clear to me that it was their car that they were letting me use. A few years later, I bought it from them when I moved out.
Now I think it's more common for teens to get newer cars because it's much harder to find old used cars for cheap.
meltsaman@reddit
The parents usually own the car but, yes, a lot of high schoolers drive to and from school. Much less than it used to be due to graduated driving laws and ease of access to ride sharing.
Only the very rich are buying their teens brand new cars. In rural areas they are still getting used or hand-me-down cars.
marla-M@reddit
Common where I live. Semi-rural. Both of my kids had cars their senior year. Our old cars after we upgraded. We still technically owned them though. My daughter had that car for 12 years until last December when she finally bought a new one
bachennoir@reddit
My nephew is in high school and he got a car when he turned 16. He bought my old one from me. He goes to a school with no bus service for him, does extracurriculars, and got a job after he got a car. It made things so much easier for his family. I, on the other hand, always got rides from friends and family, so I didn't even get my license until my mid 20s.
melonball6@reddit
Yes, where I live in SW Florida it is very common for a high schooler to own their own car. It's not likely to be the majority though, because half the kids in high school are too young to drive. Yes, those that own a car drive to and from school. It is more common to have a used car, but there are definitely some new cars. I live in an affluent city so you might see a lot of BMWs in the school parking lot.
Penguin_Life_Now@reddit
Yes, common depending on where one lives, when I was growing up I estimate about 50-70% of the students in high school had a car by their senior year. Most, but not all had used cars, but some would get new cars, though usually not as their first car.
IllustriousPiccolo97@reddit
I grew up with a lot of kids who drove a parent’s hand me down car. My dad got himself a new truck and I got to drive his old one while I was still at home. Most of my friends were similar, my high school parking lot was full of 10 year old minivans. My parents owned the car I drove, I don’t know of any kids in my high school who actually owned their own car. It was common for our parents to require us to contribute to insurance and pay for our own gas.
GoCardinal07@reddit
Where I'm from (suburban California), most parents own the car but allow their child to be its primary driver. My high school had a parking lot for seniors (12th grade, typically 17-18 years old) and another parking lot for juniors (11th grade, typically 16-17 years old), and the school sold hundreds of parking permits for those lots. All of my friends and I drove to school as juniors and seniors.
AndreaTwerk@reddit
Not uncommon but it’s not like most do.
I didn’t even get my license until I was 19. My brother got his at 16 and used our grandmother’s car. When he went to college that became “his” car. My college was in a city so there was no need for a car for a while.
My best friend got gifted her stepdad’s mom’s car at the end of high school and we thought it was funny that it was older than us.
Lenin_Lime@reddit
Often times the parent bought them a used are, or its the parents old car. Or could be they bought themselves their own car, but that's rare. Yes, a large chunk of kids drive themselves to school, though fewer kids are getting licenses as time goes on.
PaleontologistNo2625@reddit
Yep bought my parent's old jeep for $2k in like 2003, so I was lucky to have that option
West_Guidance2167@reddit
Depends on where you live. Where I live in the suburbs, a lot of juniors and seniors drive to school. But fewer now than 20 years ago when I was in school. But some kids walk if they live close or ride the school bus
norahsharpe@reddit
Depends on where