Sad day today (1/7/21), I lost my Mirage...

[Loren]

You want to "sell" a kid a $15,000 brand new car for $3000? Yeah, that'll teach him.

[Mark]

Wanting to help your kid with transportation is noble. But, I'm with the post above.

Kid destroys his car in an at-fault crash that could have killed somebody... you don't hand him the keys to a brand new car. Period.

If you feel the need to help, go straight to Craigslist and find a cheap beater. But, seriously... consider letting him walk/Uber for a while. He didn't die, and nobody else died. But, the pain should involve more than "I'll sure miss that car."

The primary thought for the car you buy him should be "how cheap will the insurance on this car be?"

And all the additional cash you'd be pumping into paying for a vehicle for him... buy him some driving lessons. I'm not kidding.

A bit off topic, but I still chuckle about this. My daughters could probably care less.

When my daughters were in 6th & 8th grade, I shared what a typical afternoon/evening was like for me on a small dairy farm. I spelled out every detail. That including things like climbing a 40' silo and throwing silage. Feeding 28 milk cows, putting them in stanchions, putting milk machines together, milking the cows, carrying the milk by hand in 40 pound pails to the bulk tank, washing the bulk tank, doing the rest of the milk house (cleaning all the milk machines, pails, strainers, etc...), filling the pasture bunks with hay for the evening, sweeping & liming all the floors after the cows were let out, etc... Winter time was even more work, bedding the cows inside, cleaning the gutters by hand every day (full manure spreader load shoveled every day), etc. 4-8 pm was a full time job for a kid like me, & I am not saying I did all these things alone. I really covered everything in great detail for them. For example, I explained all the parts that had to be put together to get one milk machine ready. It took up a good chunk of time.

So later that day my younger daughter asked her Mom - "Why did dad tell us all this?" Her mom replied, "Well, we're leaving the two of you home alone for the first time this coming weekend, & I think your dad wants you to feed the dog!"

I taught in a middle school for over 30 years. I always said, "all 5th graders should be sent to third world countries for a period of 6-months to a year." When they come back, I think they would look at the world differently & probably work a lot harder in school!"

[Dirk Diggler]

You want to "sell" a kid a $15,000 brand new car for $3000? Yeah, that'll teach him.

Meh. There's always a middle ground. Call it $5k? Lol it'll teach him something. We don't know the full picture. His kid might really need a car for work and school?

[Fummins]

I was gonna say take a bus but covid lol and hey he’s in college so light not be a total idiot like drop out guy me who’d run from the cops in moms Taurus lol

[2016 Versa]

Glad no one was hurt. My son was also in a wreck that totaled his '17 Chevy Trax on 1/2/21. It wasn't his fault. A drunk driver making a right turn crossed the center line and hit him head on then left the scene. He was caught less than 5 miles away driving on the rim. I too thank God for watching over my son as it could have been much worse. My son said he saw that the guy was over the center line and had come to a complete stop before he was hit head on. My son is 29 and married but he's been really discouraged about losing the car. I told him not to worry about the car that cars could be replaced and to just be thankful no one was seriously hurt or killed.

[MirageRally]

I'm always scared of getting t-boned... Because that's usually where the weakest parts of the car, are on the side. Sometimes it makes me want to drive a tank... I probably wouldn't get great MPG but at least I'd be protected.

[MacClyver]

At most split the insurance payout with him, it's not your job to keep him supplied with cars (Opinion coming from someone on the younger side myself) If he wants a car bad enough he can buy it himself.

I got a hand me down '98 Chevy Malibu from my parents in '13. While it was a good car, I wanted to learn manual and get good mpg. After a year I posted it on craigslist, split the proceeds with my parents and got a '95 Geo Metro with my half. Best decision ever!

[dspace9]

In the mean time, I'm going to figure out what to do. How far fetched is it that it could be fixed? Should I repair or replace it? Should I just let him take over the Blueberry? I really don't know how this is going to play out, and don't like not knowing. And another kicker is, about 2 weeks ago I bought a 2007 G35 6-speed (red) for my middle son. So now my oldest son is going to crank up a puny little Blueberry, and see his brother's hot red G35 leaving the house. That's torturous. Oh well. Life is ups and downs. Would be boring if it weren't that way.

Call me stupid, throw out your input (what would you do), spin this thread off into a zillion other directions ... I'm fine with anything. Just wanted to vent.


7milesout

Yea eh, gotta be careful with any moving vehicle. Especially fast cars, they can travel like 100 yards a second or more, a lot of stuff can happen in 100 yards, so no point in playing with luck. When your son gets to 85 mph in the Mirage, car is smooth, but you're like second-most likely to not survive a crash in teh Mirage. Tied with the C7 Corvette. Might be 2015 or so, anyway look it up on the Mirage Forum. Mirage is statistically not the safest. That's one of the biggies why I want a better car. I had to buy my own cars personally... anywho

*Winter Dash rattles all over the place though, like an orchestra when you're going above 60 mph. Not much you can do with winter dash rattles. Regular maintenance and hope the plastic lasts.

[Cobrajet]

Glad he is okay, but I am not sure why you should lose your new car because your son wrecked his own car?

[7milesout]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try to explain the accident quickly. It was at a T-Intersection with a traffic light. He was approaching the intersection from the top right of the T and was going to turn left to go down the bottom leg of the T. The thing to keep in mind is that if you were to proceed going straight at the top of the T, the top left side of the T is a right hand curve. So seeing through the intersection is somewhat tricky due to the curve, especially when there's lots of traffic. I've seen many accidents at this intersection.

So, he was turning left. There is a left turn arrow but it had ended and becomes a yield to turn left and he was the 2nd car back turning left. The other trick to this intersection is that the oncoming cars, that are intending to turn right to go down the T, have a yield sign and are supposed to stop to let the left turners (like my son was doing) proceed. But many right turners don't know this as it is not generally the case, so left turners like my son have to watch the right turners to avoid collisions. Anyway, he was 2 deep turning left. There was one oncoming right turner waiting, and another car coming he wasn't sure if it was going straight or turning right also.

The car in front cleared, and as he was just sort of creeping to ensure the 1st oncoming right turner would continue to yield, and the 2nd car was actually turning right also and would have to wait on the one in front correctly yielding, WHAM, he got hit in the right by a teenie bopper girl that was in the oncoming fast lane. I went to the accident scene. Blond headed ditsy looking girl. He fixated on the oncoming yielders turning right, and creeped out into the intersection not paying attention to the other lanes coming around that curve. There was a lady that witnessed the accident and she said the teenie bopper girl never slowed down even though my son was clearly in her way in the intersection ... as if said teenie bopper girl was focused on her phone. Which was not able to be confirmed ... and in any event my son was in the way. It was his fault either way. But I'm guessing the accident could have been avoided or lessened to a large degree if the girl had paid attention to him being in her way.

Seriously, my son is tore up about this. He is going over the deep end about how bad he feels. He crushed his car he loved, he caused ANOTHER car to be probably totaled, almost got people hurt, and is tore up that he wasted so much money. He's beating himself up about it, and knows he screwed up. Makes me feel bad because I told him, if you crash and it is your fault, the car is gone. I stressed that to him, and now it has come to pass.

How I proceed from here, I'm not sure yet. I am going to let a body shop look at it and see if the door mounts can be straightened up so a replacement used door could function. And slap some bondo here and there and then hit it with single stage black. I ain't wanting a show car when all is said and done. Just a functioning door. I don't give a rats behind about the underbody. My son said he was fine with that too. Surely that can be done for less than another used G35. At the accident scene, I saw that the 2 right side wheels were unaffected, so I convinced the poeleece to just let us drive it home. And we did. It drives fine. He likes his car, has a sense for value, and doesn't mind if it has imperfections, even big imperfections.

I'm not rich, but I'm not poor either. If he had been uncaring and nonchalant about the situation, things would be different. But he's got a good heart, he's a good person. And my wife even said if any of our boys were going to crash a car, she would never suspect it would be him. He has been a very careful driver.