I couldn't agree more. My oldest son drove my very fast 76 Restomod to two proms. He's extremely controlled with impulse actions. I'm giving him my $60k 76 next year for his 30th b day. My youngest son, 24, has hit everything in our community with his cars. 2 DUI's. I take him to track days with me and he's fast. He's ADHD like me. Never would I hand him the keys to either of my Vettes. Did I mention I wrecked my supercharged Vette in Jan? I'm 56! So, all that said, it's about who you are. I have a kid in my neighborhood who's dad bought him a C4 as a senior in high school last year. Dad said it was because of my garage. Anyway, that kid has been perfect, that I've seen. still, age should give one pause....... Btw, my 24 year old now has a sport bike. That scares the **** out of me.

 

Pure discussion.

 

Totally hear where you are coming from.

However... I think the point of most of the negative comments is the fact that the Vette was GIVEN to him. In other words, he did NOT pay anything for it. This usually leads to (in this case) kids not appreciating the gift, value, power etc of the car. If he had actually paid for the car with earned money (not gift money), chances are better that he may not have crashed.

The above is also a blanket statement but also holds water.

 

Couldn't be said better. I hate to see the young vette crowd get bashed.

 

I agree with you. My car was given to me my dad put gas in it and I started it on the assembly line in early 2000. He put 8k miles on the car and made a deal with me the better I did in school the better the car I could get. I graduated Valedictorian and earned the vette. So I didn't buy the car but I was given motivation and took care of business and got the car I had been riding in since I was 10.

 

I'm a car guy and a Corvette guy and a father of two grown children (25 and 22). My grandfather bought all of his grandchildren cars when they turned 16, new cars but not high-performance cars. I got a '77 Dodge Aspen, my cousin got a '78 Chevy Monza, my sister an '80 Dodge Omni 024 - not sure/don't remember what the other cousins got.

To those younger guys who have chimed in that they got a 'Vette at a young age and they never had a wreck and they were responsible: Well, maybe, but probably more just lucky. Even being mature for that age still means your judgement and experience are still pretty limited. I did a few things in that '77 Dodge that I look back on now and shake my head with how stupid they were. My cousin did wreck her Monza (true, it was in a snowstorm, but she should not have been out on the road so while it wasn't exactly her fault, she could have avoided the accident by making a more mature, rational decision not to drive in the storm).

When my son turned 16 in 2004, we wanted to provide him with a car to drive. I had a '94 Lincoln Mark VIII that I rarely drove but knew that would be a terrible car for a young driver - big V8 with 290 HP, rear wheel drive. Not a Corvette, but it was plenty of HP to get a young driver into trouble. Instead we found a '93 Volvo 940 sedan - nice car, leather, power windows/doors, sunroof, a/c, but a 4-cylinder that would not entice a young driver into any red-light challenges. The first time he drove home from school in a bit of winter weather, he did run off the road coming into our neighborhood, taking out a neighbors' driveway light and yew bush. It was downhill on a curve and he was going at the speed (20-25 mph) that is perfectly safe in dry weather. In his mind he was not going too fast, but obviously not. He was not a risk-taker, very cautious, good student, Eagle Scout, never got into any kind of trouble, ever. Extremely mature and responsible for his age but still young and inexperienced. He drove the Volvo for four years and then we passed it on to his sister and then he got the Mark VIII, which he drove for his last two years of college.

Young guys, yes, you probably were a bit more mature and responsible than many of the other young drivers who got high-performance cars and wrapped them around a tree or something similar, but mostly, you were lucky. You don't see it now, but one day you will look back on your early driving stunts in the 'Vette and realize "Boy, was that stupid!"

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." -- Kierkegaard

K9Leader
Red cars are faster. They did a study on it. That's why the Volvo was silver.

 

Very well stated.

Even if I made $10 million a year, while I would provide some financial assistance, I would still make my kid work a job to pay for his first car.... and his auto insurance. This isn't because I'm jerk but its because I know the car would go much less appreciated and doing so would prevent an "entitlement attitude" for future things from me and the government.