I was at my local Mazda dealership today with a friend of mine, he was interested in buying a new Mazda. While he was talking numbers with the salesman I decided to walk around the showroom looking at the new 2010 models, and of course I wondered over to the new RX-8, while I was looking inside the new RX-8 a teenager walked over to the car with his father and told his father he wanted it for prom. I couldn't believe what happened next the father whipped out the check book and paid full sticker price. Are you kidding me!!! How can any responsible parent of an inexperienced driver give them keys to a new RX-8? Hope daddy has good insurance!!!

 

Wow.. Must be nice.. that's all i can say!

 

That's insane!!
I was ashamed to have to ask my parents for $1000 LOAN so I could buy a used Volvo 1800S when I got out of high school. I paid them back too.
Kids these days have no clue, and as long as parents coddle them like this one appears to be doing, they never will either.

 

I couldn't even get a loan from my parents.

 

I denied one.

 

Unbelievable! Talk about irresponsibility as a parent. That's what is so messed up today! That kid is going to grow up always thinking he is owed something because he'll never have know what it is like to work for what he's got. Like a lot of you guys I had to work 2 jobs in high school so I could buy my first car, a used Honda Prelude that needed a lot of work. Unbelievable!

 

i remember those days!!!!!!!! I also remember paying a s**t load of money for insurance, my yearly rate was more than the total value of the car!!!!! But atleast gas was only 97 cents a gallon!!!!!

 

My point exactly. I see it everyday, even by those young people that haven't been spoiled this way. We have some at my work that feel just because they showed up, they deserve a pay check!!
Regular gas was like 0.50/gal when I started driving. A few years later I had to run premium in a car I owned and I ran Sunoco in it, one of the most expensive at the time. The other was Amoco. It was a whopping 0.63 at the Sunoco station.
Here's another: Remember NOT having to pay for air and water? When they were part of the "service" at the Service Station? Now you pay 50 or 75 cents for a tank-less compressor that might barely get your tires up to 30psi, and if you're lucky, you might get to check/fill all four tires before you have to dump in another 0.50.

 

I worked at a BP Sousa Station in Billerica Mass, our gas was .399 for Regular, unleaded was .449 and premium was .499, and of course I ran premium. Then the first Gas shortage came up and gas went up an amazing .10 a gallon.
I do remember paying .299 for Gasohol in Colorado when I first got there, at that time it had the same octane rating as Leaded Premium and that was .619.
As for the parents that go and buy their kids what ever car they want, I have put pools in for some that the kids were driving 7 series BMW's and 1 we just finished gave their Son a 164,000 dollar Audi R8 for Graduating from College.

 

Yeah, that makes sense, right?
I might be willing to do that for my kid if he paid for his own schooling... but I'll bet in this case, he didn't.
Too much money, not enough common sense in this world.