Awesome on you for thinking ahead. Everyone laughed at me when I started making connections at the dealership/bank 6 months before I even graduated. Of course, it's put me on a much better track :)

When I worked at a Ford dealership, it amazed me how many people showed up with NOTHING down and a mid 500's credit-score. It was a joke. No forethought what-so-ever. Just woke up and "decided they wanted a new vehicle". Yeah. That didn't work too well.

I think thats you being bitter.

Stratton.

:roflpuke2:
Excluding actors and actresses it generally comes out to the higher the intelligence the more money. Unfortunately the more money, the worse decisions you make, then that's being unwise not stupid. :tup:

When it comes to winning the lotto or something, okay, but people who attain/maintain that wealth typically don't do it through making bad decisions.

Actually I suppose that was taken a bit out of context. I meant by people who get an extraordinarily amount of money without any real work.

Now you are being a hater! HAHA! Who the hell in this world would not want to make a ridiculous amount of money for not having to work hard?!?

Don't get me wrong. I take pride in serving my country, but if I was handed life on a silver platter and had a money tree I would have never considered this profession :tup:

Did you even read what I said? I said that typically lottery winners, etc make poor decisions with their money. I'm not saying I WOULDN'T want to win the lottery (who honestly would not want that?) but when people have a bunch of money thrown at them they are less likely to make rational decisions than people who put their name out there and worked hard for their millions.

No reason to get bent out of shape :icon14:

I did read what you said: Actually I suppose that was taken a bit out of context. I meant by people who get an extraordinarily amount of money without any real work.

I was going off of what you said about people getting a ton of money for doing very little WORK. Sure, lottery winners make poor decisions with there money more often than some rich fool that blows money on crap they don't need.

Regardless, kids in sports cars = DISASTER! ;)

My first car was a plymoth horizon 1988, second was a 1992 crown victoria, 1998 toyota corrola, 2005 scion tc, 2010 370z....can you tell which car my parents bought for me =p

I dont agree with parents doing this either but what can you do?

Dude, I hope you're not one of those guys who's in college and think that you're going to make bank the second you get your degree. Engineering and the dot com boom have nothing to do with eachother unless you're a network engineer.

I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree in 2000 and got my first job for $43,500. Believe it or not, I was one of the better paid graduates other than a couple guys at the top of the class who got super sweet gigs. Engineering tends to be a really conservative field and they tend to not throw money at people.

As far as giving a 17 year old kid a 370Z, that's just a bad parenting decision. You can't blame the kid. What kid wouldn't want that? To be fair, my first car was a '77 Trans Am (that I bought myself) and my parents let me get that. Being a stupid HS kid, I did everything in my power to try and crash it. I used to go out and purposely spin the car to try and see just how sideways I could drive it.

Like I said, Engineering is a VERY tough field right now. My X gf graduated about a year ago and has moved all over the US chasing a job. She is probably just going to go to Dubai, though, the way things are looking.

Law is another degree that got hurt pretty bad by an overabundance of qualified employees.

It sounds like you were more...reckless...than most in highschool. I never did that with my LT1 Trans Am, nor did my friend with his mustang GT. I did end up crashing the Trans Am, very minor, but it wasn't doing doughnuts. The car downshifted in a corner (screw an auto...) and broke the rear-end loose and, through inexperience, I over-corrected. $1800 in damage, noone got hurt, cheap lesson learned that I am now thankful for!

Nothing is free. You are going to take your lumps. I am glad I took my little lump when I was in a cheap F-body than later in life when I am supposedly "old enough to deserve a sports car"* and wreck something very nice. Take a look at all the people out there who excell in their fields regarding motorcycle/automotive sports. They didn't get where they are by starting when they were 30. They started driving/riding performance machines at a young age, and had plenty of little misshaps. It's called LEARNING. Through experience. Is it the only way? Yes. Yes it is. The only way you are going to learn to control a sports car is by losing control of one now and then in the process.

The rich kids may wreck a $30K car, but who cares? That's like you wrecking a cheaper car like I did. Everything is relative. I don't see you on here bitching about someone throwing half of their un-eaten fast-food out when it cost more than a small villiage makes in a day in Africa and would feed the same villiage for just as long.

It's all just relative to where you are standing when you look at it.

*Where do people get off on thinking that someone is mature enough to shoot and kill other people in defense of their country. Drive an M1 tank. Handle communications that are sensetive to national security...but not drive a $30K car? I don't follow, understand, or agree with them one bit.

I'm not bitching and I'm not talking about the price of the car. I'm just saying that based on my experiences, giving a car with the performance of a 370Z to a high school student is a bad idea.

I can certainly agree with you that I was pretty reckless as a kid. When I was in college, I totaled my friend's '92 MR2 Turbo by driving rally-style down an unknown gravel road and sliding off into the woods. I may have been more reckless than most, but I don't think my experiences were all that dissimilar to other kids my age. Every person I knew who had a fast car drove at least somewhat like a maniac.

I agree with you that losing control of cars is the best way to learn about driving them fast, but I don't think I'd want my own kid doing that every day on public roads. I'd rather buy the kid something cheap like an old F-body and let him learn that kind of stuff in a controlled environment like an autocross.

The 370Z is NOT that powerful of a car that a highschooler can't manage it. What other new car would that parent buy their kid? 330hp is the new 220hp.

I mean, they could buy them a Prius or a Leaf or something, maybe?

You yourself learned that its driving style and not power that often wrecks a car. I don't think the Z is a bad choice at all. Of course, if your kid is an immature, reckless person, then no. However, they will probably wreck anything. Now that you mention it, the only 2 friends I had in highschool who had a wreck, one I don't know the cause of, but his car wasn't that fast ('95 32(something)i?). The other guy was "drifting" his family's stock 4-door honda family car and hit a curb. Neither of these incidents were caused by excessive power. However, nothing was said about being immature in the OP. It was about being rich/privelidged.

Well it certainly has enough power to get the back end out, especially in the rain or cold. I was going around an on ramp with the temp around freezing last week and I was able to put the thing sideways in 3rd gear. Summer tires don't like the cold.

It's a car that encourages you to do those kinds of things.

Any kind of car will encourange a highschooler to "do those kinds of things". My G20 with its anemic 4-banger and slushomatic would spin the tires in the rain in a corner if I was so inclined. Yes, I have seen young people (and old) doing just this sort of thing in slow, slush-box cars like my own. Recklessness doesn't care about the dyno of 1/4 mile times, lol

I think either someone will wreck their car, or they won't, and first cars often-times get wrecked. If the family can afford that being a $30K car, props to them.

However, this conversation started because the OP had to wait until they were 26 and could afford to pay for their own Z before they got one. They are upset that some people didn't.

I think the statements highlighted in red sum the issue up very succinctly.