Car for 21 year old??

[chiptoe]

My son bought a used 2012 Chevy Volt 5 years ago (at my encouragement), and while it has been a good car until now, the battery is going bad and my dealer quoted us $23,500 to replace it (crazy huh??) or I could replace it with a greentecauto refurb battery with 18 month warranty for $7K. I think it is time to cut bait. He is moving to another city, and I don't want to saddle him with a unreliable car. I have been all in on ~electrics (2 Teslas and 2 Volts), but hard to justify any sort of EV at this point given the price and the fact that his new place has no convenient charging options. I told him I would contribute $8K towards a car purchase as well as whatever he can get in trade-in, and co-sign a loan on the rest as long as it has 5 years left on at least the powertrain portion of the warranty. To make it affordable for him, that puts it into the <$21K range.

I am pretty sure EV's are going to decimate the ICE values over the next 5 years - anybody have thoughts on the best strategy/vehicle options that might not be hit as hard? I was actually heavily leaning towards a Kia/Hyundai new or newish base car given their warranty. Thoughts?

 

[RedTesY]

Our son bought a 2019 Leaf "plus" (226 mile EPA rated range) a year ago. I think he paid about $26K. It was a showroom vehicle and had only 700 miles on it and all the options. It's been very reliable and efficient. He and his wife barter for who gets to drive it. They are considering another similar Leaf.

 

[tm1v2]

I would prioritize financial independence and decision making for your son at his age. If he has steady income or sufficient savings, let him select and buy his car on his own. Feel free to give him advice or talk about cars of course, but make sure he has full agency and it doesn't feel like you're telling him exactly what to do.

If you want to contribute to the car financially, make it a lump sum gift, and that's it. Don't co-sign a loan, and don't condition the money on any specific car, because then you're really taking over the decision making and the ultimate financial responsibility.

That's just my thoughts, feel free to ignore them!

 

[EVFamilyGrins]

Given the uncertainty of his charging situation, I would avoid an EV.

Both my kids started out with Priuses and found them practical, dependable and affordable. My daughter switched to a Rogue and then switched back to Prius. My son traded his second Prius for a used Telsa. He has no home charging option so has to rely on Supercharging. While has has free SC and saves money, it is a pain to have to go charge 2-3/week.

Many of the newer hybrids would have similar operating costs to your old Volt, and PHEVs like Ionic and Prius are still eligible for the fed tax credit (and available in many places).

 

[chiptoe]

I would prioritize financial independence and decision making for your son at his age. If he has steady income or sufficient savings, let him select and buy his car on his own. Feel free to give him advice or talk about cars of course, but make sure he has full agency and it doesn't feel like you're telling him exactly what to do.

If you want to contribute to the car financially, make it a lump sum gift, and that's it. Don't co-sign a loan, and don't condition the money on any specific car, because then you're really taking over the decision making and the ultimate financial responsibility.

That's just my thoughts, feel free to ignore them!

I think that is really good advice - thanks. I am thinking about providing a lump sum conditional on amount of warranty - if he buys a car with good amount of warranty remaining he gets X, and if the car has less warranty, I will give him X minus the cost of extended warranty (which I will pay for). My thought here is to give him some incentive to not go for immediate gratification of sportier old car without consideration for cost of ownership. Also to avoid uncomfortable conversation in the future when he cant afford to pay for repairs. And not that the extended warranties are bullet-proof, but seems like with someone like Carmax, they are useable. Thoughts on this somewhat less helicopter-parent approach?

 

[tm1v2]

It's a real dilemma!

On one hand, it's not uncommon at all for young adults with an interest in cars beyond just transportation to buy something cheap, sporty, and unreliable + out-of-warranty...and then build some skills, experience, and a bit of character & future judgement from fixing/maintaining it. In monetary terms I doubt that's often a "good" use of money or time, but I think it can be a positive thing overall! Sometimes they end up as serious car hobbyist but not to any life detriment. Other times they just come out of it with some useful skills + confidence and better judgement from experience.

On the flip side, I know someone who went too far down the cool-old-unreliable-cars route without any real payoff. He always had very cool, very unreliable old cars with enough problems to partially impact other goals in life (due to unreliable transportation, or car unfit for taking certain passengers), and from what I saw he never pushed himself to do enough DIY to minimize the cost. Then he stalled in his career and thus didn't get to a place where the cost of maintaining such cars becomes a non-issue. Eventually he got bailed out by family, both with money and a spare practical car. He seems to be making slightly better decisions now but I think he's being kept in line.

All I can suggest is use your best judgement, and life will be what it'll be. Is an monkeying on an unreliable old car clearly in conflict with his other commitments? Are you concerned he might sabotage himself too much before deciding on his own to change his automotive course?

If he's into sporty cars and driving fun, how about guiding him towards a new or lightly used (with extended warranty available) sport compact (WRX, GTI, Civic Type R, etc) or slow-affordable-fun sports car (BRZ/FR-S, Miata)? They're basically the classic balance of driving fun vs affordable, and while they're not as a reliable or efficient as a Corolla, they're not too bad in those regards either. That sort of car is where I started!

 

[whisperingshad]

Corolla Hybrid or a prius

 

[alexgr]

My son bought a used 2012 Chevy Volt 5 years ago (at my encouragement), and while it has been a good car until now, the battery is going bad and my dealer quoted us $23,500 to replace it (crazy huh??) or I could replace it with a greentecauto refurb battery with 18 month warranty for $7K. I think it is time to cut bait. He is moving to another city, and I don't want to saddle him with a unreliable car. I have been all in on ~electrics (2 Teslas and 2 Volts), but hard to justify any sort of EV at this point given the price and the fact that his new place has no convenient charging options. I told him I would contribute $8K towards a car purchase as well as whatever he can get in trade-in, and co-sign a loan on the rest as long as it has 5 years left on at least the powertrain portion of the warranty. To make it affordable for him, that puts it into the <$21K range.

I am pretty sure EV's are going to decimate the ICE values over the next 5 years - anybody have thoughts on the best strategy/vehicle options that might not be hit as hard? I was actually heavily leaning towards a Kia/Hyundai new or newish base car given their warranty. Thoughts?

We gave our daughter an old Accord Hybrid when she was 16, and we told her that she will have to buy her next car on her own. I suggest you better spend your $8k on your next car full body PPF, or a nice vacation away from kids.

 

[alexgr]

I would prioritize financial independence and decision making for your son at his age. If he has steady income or sufficient savings, let him select and buy his car on his own. Feel free to give him advice or talk about cars of course, but make sure he has full agency and it doesn't feel like you're telling him exactly what to do.

If you want to contribute to the car financially, make it a lump sum gift, and that's it. Don't co-sign a loan, and don't condition the money on any specific car, because then you're really taking over the decision making and the ultimate financial responsibility.

That's just my thoughts, feel free to ignore them!

Totally agree. Conditioning the money on any type of car, like EV or hybrid, is basically keeping control of your 21 yo child. Let him buy a 96' Bronco with his own savings.

Edit 1: Seriously, nothing teaches you responsibility and makes you more mature in young age than an old unreliable car, especially, when you are stuck with broken transmission ... in Vermont mountains... with no phone signal ... on Sunday night ... in a snowstorm ... with pregnant girlfriend ...

Edit 2: People are not nice.

 

[thesmokingman]

For this instance I would get a used late model BMW i3s which can be had for around 20K-25K. W/o the optional ICE, they are relatively quick, sporty, and well built.

 

[Empiro]

I think lack of charging would be the biggest factor to me. I'd go with an efficient hybrid like the Prius for the time being.

However, I'd also encourage your son to put pressure on his landlord. I think the best way to accelerate EV adoption is to let landlords know that EV charging is an important factor in deciding where to live.

 

[chiptoe]

I do agree with the personal responsibility and building character… and really torn about helping at all. But I feel pretty responsible for the Chevy Volt decision. It has been a great car, and was a bargain at the time - but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would cost $24K to replace the battery. I thought it would be like the cost of a transmission or engine (GM listed the battery as a $3000 part around 2012-2015). Pretty sneaky - made me feel comfortable…

 

[tm1v2]

@chiptoe I think a lump sum gift with no conditions attached would be a good recourse for your conscious. That way when his next car has major issues, neither of you feels like you're to blame and there are no relationship issues.

$24k for a Volt battery replacement does seem insane. I think that's at the top end of Tesla service battery replacement quotes, for batteries that are like 5x-6x the size of your Volt battery! Have you tried multiple dealers or escalating to Chevrolet for some assistance?

Going with a 3rd party refurb seems not bad choice for a 2012 car, but even then $7k for a 16 kWh Volt battery seems pricey. Maybe not enough volume or competition to bring prices down further though.