Nathan’s been shopping for a car.  If you’re familiar with my other posts, you already know what a deliberate shopper he is.  That’s what happens when kids are in charge of their own money.  It may take some kids a little longer to get to that point, but eventually, they all learn the value of a dollar.

So Nathan’s been shopping for his car for about six weeks.  And in these six weeks he’s learned information that will carry him through the rest of his life.  It’s been painful at times, but a lot of life’s really important lessons are painful.

Facts:

• his dollars get matched dollar for dollar by his grandparents (nice!)
• he’s looking for a Toyota or Honda due to their reliability
• he wants a 2001 or newer with less than 100,000 miles, more or less
• he’s willing to spend $7400 (includes the matching)
• nice rims are a big plus (sigh)

Lesson 1:  Yes, even used cars are taxed.  In California it’s called a use tax, but it’s essentially the same thing as sales tax.  He hadn’t planned on that in his calculations and it caused him a little grief knowing his two choices were to spend less on the car or pull out more than he had planned from his mutual fund.  He decided to pull out more funds.

Lesson 2:  Seemingly nice people can turn out to be frauds.  He found a car on ebay that was the cat’s meow.  I was a little suspicious of the great price but we emailed for more information anyway.  When the seller replied, Nathan was so exited.  Apparently the seller was in the military and needed to get rid of the car.  He made it very clear that he wanted us to be protected 100% so said he would only go through the ebay protection program.  I decided to do a little research and, long story short, the whole thing was a scam.  But it took Nathan a few days to realize it and in the meantime, he wasn’t exactly thrilled with John and me.

Lesson 3:  Always have a mechanic you trust check out the car before you buy.  We had found a car locally and were one step from handing over the cashier’s check when our favorite mechanic said he wouldn’t buy the car.  Do you know how hard it is to drive home with a 16-year old when his dream car, complete with $1200 rims and sunroof, turns out to be a lemon?

Lesson 4:  The car fax is a good thing to get, but don’t rely on it solely/always keep your paperwork.  One car we looked at had it’s original owner.  She had all of the work done by her uncle and told us that nothing major had happened to the car.  She had no paperwork on it.  The car fax was stellar.  When our mechanic checked it out he showed us where he believed it had been in an accident which, along with a few other things he mentioned, made us turn it down.

Lesson 5:  Things often take longer than you think.  This has been a long six weeks for all of us.  But in the end, he’ll realize it was worth it.  It’s hard to be patient, but once he has the car those six weeks will practically disappear.

It’s been a long road…one we’re still traveling along.  But when it’s all over, Nathan will have his first dream car and I will have some peace of mind that he’s better prepared to do these sorts of things when he’s in charge of all his financial decisions.