Were you pig headed as a kid?

[XCwillo]

What the flapper said

Give him the car and he instantly thinks he has a safeguard out of every problem.
Not too long before the Shitrade blows up and he comes to you asking for a new car.
Too which he will be bitterly disappointed.

Too me, It doesn't sound like your son is "into" cars very much.
Trading off an EA for a charade just to practice for a XR6 Turbo when he gets on his opens?
Don't mean to sound a bit offensive mate, but, sounds like your son just isn't into cars, and wants what is cool. There's a few of those guys that chill around where we park up when we cruise some nights. Constantly talking crap about how good their pos is and how mods which i know in and out will upgrade their car into a bloody veyron >_>
You could of easily told your son he can put a manual box in his EA :\

Im 18 and i baught my XC with my own money, fixed it up with no help at all, learnt most things from you guys on this forum and taught myself.
The fact that i have spent thousands on my XC, in both money and hours, means I have more respect for my car then anything else!
Maybe if kids weren't givin everything nowadays we'd see a decrease in the road toll :\

/My2Cents

[GT0132]

My eldest son turns 16 in March at which point he'll go for his L's....The plan is I will buy a car so he can learn in it and I'll use it as my daily driver and put my GT into semi retirement....When he gets his P's 12 months later he can have the car and I'll repeat the process for my other son who is 2 years younger.

When looking at a suitable car all roads lead to a 2002/03 BA MK1 XR6 N/A as they can be had for around 10k private sale and are a good sturdy, reasonably modern car.

If after giving him a BA XR6 he comes home with a 3 banger jap fart cannon I'll disown the young buggar and withdraw all remaining privileges.

I thought turbo cars were a no no for P platers?

[drew`SEVNT5]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

I don't think your son is pig headed, just stupid. You can laugh when the shitebox blows up :

But he got rid of the EA...?


To the OP, not every teenager with a licence wants a grandpa spec/bogan spec (depending on the condition) 4 door Sedan...

Hes probably having a whole lot more fun thrashing around the 3cyl manual Charade, learning how to actually drive, rather than press an accelerator and steer.

I know when I got my licence, I had the option of being given mum's EF Futura wagon. I knocked it back, and went and bought myself a 1985 Alfa 33 Ti for $1200

[tankclare]

Not everyone given a car will flog it and not appreciate it. When i was 15 i was visiting my uncle and he was up at his shed. I instantly spotted an old wagon out the back of the shed and couldnt keep my eyes off it. It was like love at first site. I seen him again a few weeks later and was still looking at the wagon constantly. He walked up to me and said "do you like it..its a 66 i think" I just said "yeah its awesome". He smiled and said "you can have it if you want it, I know you will take care of it". You couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Done some research and sussed everything out. It was a 1967 XR falcon 500 station wagon with the original 200 pursuit motor in it. Obviously in need of a full rebuild but still complete. A week later it was sitting in my yard. We have since moved a few years back and I have trailered it with me where ever I go. I have had plenty of people ask me if I want to sell it and the answer is short and sweet "NO!". Only in the last year have I really dug in and began to work on it..its fully stripped and half in primer at the moment. I already know exactly what I want to do with it and am doing anything I can to do it. I havent seen my uncle in ages so thought I'd talk to him the other day. I mentioned I was working on the wagon and you could hear it in his voice that he was over the moon. He said "I knew you would do something with it thats why I gave it to you". Make me feel good to hear that.

It is one car I will never get rid of as it means alot to me. Alot of people have given me a hard time about selling it to put the money into something decent. All I can say is it's mine and you wait and see it when it's finished. My uncle is old and I plan to drive it to his house within the next few years and let him have a drive. I reckon it would make his day.

[jphanna]

Originally Posted by xrghiawagon

far out.. ******** your son is...

Im 15 and if i got offered an EA with 177xxxkms on it in Immac condition with only one owner, i would snap it up and keep it looked after..

only 147,000! not 177,000.

my dad gave me his VK valiant in 1982 as my first car. i treasured that thing and put charger rims and charger steering wheel on it, and good sound system, KMAC Front anti roll bar, which transformed the handling. i really loved that car and had no intention of replacing it...at a time when owning a valiant was a joke and embarrasing. (these days its now cool)

in 1985, on evening, i got T-boned by a p-plater, who bolted through stop sign, in a small jap car. the car was written off. prior to that smash, the idea of getting rid of that car NEVER entered my mind. but if i ditched that car, my dad would have kicked my azz.

[ltd]

The danger these days is that cars are far more powerful with greater power to weight ratios, and people have greater access to them. For example, years ago if you wanted to buy a car you'd look at the trading post. You'd have to arrange to see the car as no one had photos; getting to the where the car was would be a pain too. Nowadays, you look online and see pictures, and pre-decide before heading off to inspect it.

From the power standpoint, it's not impossible for a tuner to give big power to even the most ridiculous car, and with turbo's etc it's pretty easy to see a young person lose control. Even your family falcon or commodores are getting way up in acceleration times compared to cars 20 years ago where there wasn't a culture of street racing. Now, one wrong move and little johnny/janie/ahmed is dead.

When I was young and on my P's I thought I knew it all because I'd already had my private pilots licence (restricted). Fortunately I didn't have any accidents like some of my friends did.

[Streets]

Originally Posted by tankclare

Not everyone given a car will flog it and not appreciate it.

Good story and I agree. I was given my first car (XF Falcon) when I was 16, and I still have it at age 23, and use it as my daily. I wouldn't say I was a yahoo back then, but just ignorant. What I know about driving now makes me wonder how I survived my early years of driving -- in terms of handling the car, situational awareness, crash prevention etc. And it only makes me wonder how much more I have to learn in the future.

And when I got that car, I knew nothing about cars. Nothing at all. I couldn't even tell whether it was carbed or EFI (how bad is that). I didn't have anyone to teach me about cars so I've spent years learning on my own and my passion for them has increased exponentially. I'm still not savvy enough to pull apart engines myself, but I can do intermediate-level maintenance/modifications and have a surprising aptitude for the electrical side of things.

I took a lot better care of this car than the previous owner. When I got it it had shagged retreads, dropped oil like nobody's business and only ran on four out of six cylinders. Now the engine has just been through its second rebuild and runs like a clock (most of the time); I've got Bridgestone Eagers on it (still with plenty of tread after three years -- they don't make them anymore so I'm keen to preserve them), and a nice modest full exhaust system, to give it a good note without being loud.

I learned enough with this car to be able to progress to a 351, which is my weekend cruiser. I can count on one hand the number of times I've spun the tyres and only two of them were intentional (just little chirpies). I prefer changing up through the gears smoothly rather than thrashing the **** out of the gearbox. Idling along in 4th at 60kph gives you the sweetest sound. And I have immense respect for the power under my right foot -- the 351 isn't as goey as modern-day cars, but being a V8 (and not having any of the safety stops as modern cars), the power can easily "get away from you" so to speak, so you have to keep it in check. The 351 was tired and has now packed it in, so it'll be rebuilt soon too, hopefully to handle low-boost supercharging.

If you take an interest and put some effort into your cars they'll give you years of enjoyment. What I don't get is people who see cars only as a status symbol (which they are, but they're also so much more). People who do up cars just to be the coolest. Doing up cars for their own benefit and not the benefit of the car. They often do it poorly, take a lot of shortcuts, and are hopeless, inconsiderate drivers. Like the Grand Prix champion in everybody's street who has an early 90s model BMW with the custom-built hole-drilled-in-the-muffler sports exhaust and cut springs, who drives everywhere with WOT, thinking he's rocking faces.

Or the clapped-out Sigma with mirror tint windows, HID headlamps, and the car number still written on the rear window in liquid chalk from last weekend just to demonstrate his car went down a drag strip (but not that it was necessarily very quick).

OK this is already a ramble but now it's descending into rant territory so I'll call it quits.

[bananas]

[QUOTE=flappist]I hate to ruin your day but the keyword is "given".

Unfortunately at this time our society is set up so you can get anything NOW and pay it off in 1000 years and most things have a life cycle of about 20 minutes before the begger better gooder one is released.

All people under the age of about 30 have only ever experienced life like this and therefore do not understand any other way.

In fact if this is ever mentioned it tends to create rather strong reactions and a tendency to blame everyone and everything else.
QUOTE]

now i dont think that is very fair. for one who are the people who have brought these "kids" into this way of thinking? hmmm? and also not all teenagers and certainly not even "most" under thirties do not think like this. I do agree that quite a few people think like this, and it is a problem, but not all do. hell, i saved up to buy my first motorbike, no pocket money no job untill i was 10 with no help from mum and dad. I got a new bike after that (from mum and dad) and it certainly wasn't new, or top of the line but i spent quite a few days over holidays just cleaning it and appreciating it. I started working at the age of 13 and i just bought my first car just over a year later, and have loads of friends just like me.

[last fairlane]

No one has ever given me a car
I have had to work to get what I have had
but still Ive still made mistakes
over the last 45 years of driving cars
Ive done some doosies
the first and this still hurts to this day
I bought a ford 1934 3 window coupe
for ten pounds a bit more than a weeks wages
when I was 17 and after about 6 months
I was offered 50 pounds for it
about 6 weeks wages well
I jumped at it I didnt know what would happen
now we all know what they are worth
then we jump forward 12 years
I bought a 327 GTS Monaro for $1750 yes 1.75k
we had it for 2 years and had more kids
so guess what I traded it on a Valiant wagon
and of course Im still kicking myself
when I had the GTS I met a guy whose father
had a GT HO for sale for $4000 this was in 1975
well I told him why would I pay that much
when he only paid $4500 for it 4 years earlier
anyway now Ive got a 66 T Bird which Im keeping
unless I find a cheap Mach 1
thanks for listening John

[flappist]

[QUOTE=bananas]

Originally Posted by flappist

I hate to ruin your day but the keyword is "given".

Unfortunately at this time our society is set up so you can get anything NOW and pay it off in 1000 years and most things have a life cycle of about 20 minutes before the begger better gooder one is released.

All people under the age of about 30 have only ever experienced life like this and therefore do not understand any other way.

In fact if this is ever mentioned it tends to create rather strong reactions and a tendency to blame everyone and everything else.
QUOTE]

now i dont think that is very fair. for one who are the people who have brought these "kids" into this way of thinking? hmmm? and also not all teenagers and certainly not even "most" under thirties do not think like this. I do agree that quite a few people think like this, and it is a problem, but not all do. hell, i saved up to buy my first motorbike, no pocket money no job untill i was 10 with no help from mum and dad. I got a new bike after that (from mum and dad) and it certainly wasn't new, or top of the line but i spent quite a few days over holidays just cleaning it and appreciating it. I started working at the age of 13 and i just bought my first car just over a year later, and have loads of friends just like me.

Shame I was not one who taught punctuation or grammar.

[*Sloxr6*]

Originally Posted by flappist

All people under the age of about 30 have only ever experienced life like this and therefore do not understand any other way.

Now this is just crap. How can you put everyone under 30 in the same basket? I am 26 and have worked my **** off for everything I have since I have been 15. I have never taken any hand outs, sure I have been offered handouts but have always took pride in getting everything I want off my own back. I actually take a fair bit of offense to that statement.

[Ford_The_Win]

Originally Posted by Dellar69

Now this is just crap. How can you put everyone under 30 in the same basket? I am 26 and have worked my **** off for everything I have since I have been 15. I have never taken any hand outs, sure I have been offered handouts but have always took pride in getting everything I want off my own back. I actually take a fair bit of offense to that statement.

Don't take offence, old people have been complaining about the younger generation for millennia. They did the same thing when my grandmother was a teenager in the '50s. That's how they roll. Not all, but most young people are considerate, polite and generally decent human beings. There are quite a few young people on this forum, you and I included, and we're not anything like some of the older posters around here would like to think we are. I've discussed it before, people form stereotypes from experiences they have. Seeing young ferals on TV and in the street ---> young people must be feral and selfish. Then when they experience decent and polite young people, they write them off as an exception to the stereotype rather than the norm that they are. The truth is that the older generations were just the same when they were young, excepting of course that they had to walk 100 miles to school and could buy see a movie for 20 cents.

[*Sloxr6*]

Originally Posted by Ford_The_Win

Don't take offence, old people have been complaining about the younger generation for millennia. They did the same thing when my grandmother was a teenager in the '50s. That's how they roll. Not all, but most young people are considerate, polite and generally decent human beings. There are quite a few young people on this forum, you and I included, and we're not anything like some of the older posters around here would like to think we are. I've discussed it before, people form stereotypes from experiences they have. Seeing young ferals on TV and in the street ---> young people must be feral and selfish. Then when they experience decent and polite young people, they write them off as an exception to the stereotype rather than the norm that they are. The truth is that the older generations were just the same when they were young, excepting of course that they had to walk 100 miles to school and could buy see a movie for 20 cents.

[Falcon Coupe]

I was pig headed as a child, still am actually.
It seems a few here wish to prove they're more pig headed than me !

We can't have that, end of discussion.