american teenagers and cars

[sam83uk]

Cars are cheaper over there, cars cost less to replace hence premiums are lower too. American insurance spreads the risk a lot more than our insurance. Whilst a young driver will pay less than here careful drivers seem to get rewarded a lot less than here. They have a higher GDP, hence kids are richer.

It's a very aspirational society so lots of images of kids driving fast cars and TV shows like the OC which really don't reflect reality at all. I can tell you for a fact that in the car park of most public day schools you will find many Mercedes and BMW cars belonging to students but we don't have much in the way of TV shows covering 'rich kids', we seem much happier watching Eastenders on TV.

But yes, my American uni flatmate drives a Porsche 911 turbo in Maryland and a diesel Vauxhall Astra we bought for £60 and call the Pussy-wagon in Edinburgh, so yeah, car ownership is cheaper and stuff over there.

thx. cleared that up.

jammy sh**** 's

 

[manoz]

Come on, you must be joking now surely ...something tells me you aren't though, this just seems amazingly unbelivable enough to be possible.

It's true in the area I spent my hols a couple of summer's ago, was working with some American peeps and one of them had to take her grade card to the insurance company one day as she got a new car. It may just be some insurance companies rather then all of them, the choice is there anyway.

 

[Scarfacé]

I thought they, like many other countries have a standard third party insurance fee, so they can drive cheap, high performance cars?

 

[ste_bla]

its even better in New Zealand there is automatically 3rd party insurance, I when I was 17 had a scooby fully comp for £110 a year

 

[Gaygle]

its even better in New Zealand there is automatically 3rd party insurance, I when I was 17 had a scooby fully comp for £110 a year

I don't understand how there can be automatic 3rd party insurance though. Surely that means a 45 yr old woman driver with clean license, no accidents and drives v carefully pays the same amount for 3rd party as the local 17 yr old Gary Boy who drives an Impreza like a loony, with 9 points and who has had 2 fault accidents?

How does that work?!

 

[Killa_ken]

Yes it is true American teenagers run sporty and massively large SUV's. Hell even I for the last year have been running a $60,000 4.5L V8 engined Infiniti FX45, I traded this for a smaller engined Hyundai Santa Fe which is a 3.3L but only because it takes regular unleaded which is considerably cheaper.

Insurance is not based on the car, more the driver which makes things considerably cheaper, basically if you drive a $100,000 car or a $5,000 car, the price difference will be negligible.

Cars are slightly cheaper.

Gas is cheaper, at around 287 a gallon for unleaded and 316 for the good stuff like techron from chevron.

When I used to live in palm beach all I ever saw was young girls in the conertable white BMW's or young black men in their Black Mercedes Benz. My girlfriend drives a Dodge Ram 1500 (5.8L V8) and all her fiends also drive ridiculously pricey cars.

Its nothing unusual to be honest, I had a Ferrari F430 for a bit last month and I wasnt even getting blinked at twice.

Edit: Also kids are taught to drive from much younger age, at 15/14 Driversed classes are taken in school.

Ive also found kids to be more sensible, I have not once seen a 17 year old **** in his chavved up nova racing around like he's got balls.

Im not trying to say every kid is driving around in some sort of luxury automobile, just that it isnt uncommon to see a 16 year old in a nice car.

 

[ste_bla]

I don't understand how there can be automatic 3rd party insurance though. Surely that means a 45 yr old woman driver with clean license, no accidents and drives v carefully pays the same amount for 3rd party as the local 17 yr old Gary Boy who drives an Impreza like a loony, with 9 points and who has had 2 fault accidents?

How does that work?!

Sorry i didnt mean third party my mistake, basically, if your sick or hurt yourself the govt pay your sick and so if you hit a car you only pay for the car damage not whiplash etc. So you can drive with no extra insurance but it is adviced you should get some if you hit a bently/house etc

Not sure what its called though

Does that make sense?

 

[GSDog]

snip, snip, snip, snip, snip

Were you born in America? Or did you emigrate out there from the UK?
You might want to edit the sweary out btw.

 

[Killa_ken]

Were you born in America? Or did you emigrate out there from the UK?
You might want to edit the sweary out btw.

Emigrated from the UK.

 

[Locky]

Yes it is true American teenagers run sporty and massively large SUV's. Hell even I for the last year have been running a $60,000 4.5L V8 engined Infiniti FX45, I traded this for a smaller engined Hyundai Santa Fe which is a 3.3L but only because it takes regular unleaded which is considerably cheaper.

Insurance is not based on the car, more the driver which makes things considerably cheaper, basically if you drive a $100,000 car or a $5,000 car, the price difference will be negligible.

Cars are slightly cheaper.

Gas is cheaper, at around 287 a gallon for unleaded and 316 for the good stuff like techron from chevron.

When I used to live in palm beach all I ever saw was young girls in the conertable white BMW's or young black men in their Black Mercedes Benz. My girlfriend drives a Dodge Ram 1500 (5.8L V8) and all her fiends also drive ridiculously pricey cars.

Its nothing unusual to be honest, I had a Ferrari F430 for a bit last month and I wasnt even getting blinked at twice.

Edit: Also kids are taught to drive from much younger age, at 15/14 Driversed classes are taken in school.

Ive also found kids to be more sensible, I have not once seen a 17 year old **** in his chavved up nova racing around like he's got balls.

Im not trying to say every kid is driving around in some sort of luxury automobile, just that it isnt uncommon to see a 16 year old in a nice car.

sounds like i live in the wrong country tbh.

 

[sam83uk]

AND THEY GET TO SHOOT BURGLERS WITH GUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BruceLee]

AND THEY GET TO SHOOT BURGLERS WITH GUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you can do that here too you know

 

[Nitro_Junkie]

American vehicles generally have larger (and less efficient) engines anyway.

fuel consumption and efficiency are two very different things.....

but yea a lot of them do, I've got a friend in Nor-Cal with an 11second 1/4mile street Camaro, he's 17, and he bought it own money from his job and has done all the work himself, so don't generalise and say they all get given it

we get screwed over here, and it gets worse becuase of chavs basically, one things 3/4 of this country lacks is class, and every American I've met knows how how to carry themselves and has respect - something you'll also find in the American car scene over here...

 

[Jay]

you can do that here too you know

Only if you wish to goto prision/sued or even both.

 

[austinpowers]

Gas is cheap here, $2.66 a us gallon for the 87 stuff, $2.91 for 93.

Pickups seem to be the norm. Oh and here you can have a concealed gun licence

 

[daveyj27]

I get the impression that the average american 17 year old (or 14 in some states ) can afford to run massive sporty looking cars with big engines

It can happen anywhere though Sam, not just over here. You'll probably find that the kid with the sporty car probably lives in the family home still, and as such it's easier to afford a decent motor. Live over here and you'll see that the "average" car is usually a sensible Toyota or Honda, oh, and pickups of course.

please tell me this aint true.. does car insurance exist over there? or road tax?

Yes, me and my wife have a joint insurance policy. There's no road tax per se, BUT we do have to pay a yearly registration fee (click here for details).

this isnt jsut from the movies either,( Marty Mcfly's 4x4) i read american car forums and theres quite a few young people with massive cars

You found people with "massive cars" posting on a car forum? Wonders will never cease!!
For every "decent" car you'll see on the road over here, you'll see twenty "sensible" cars, and a fair few heaps.

 

[daveyj27]

Gas is cheap here, $2.66 a us gallon for the 87 stuff, $2.91 for 93.

Pickups seem to be the norm. Oh and here you can have a concealed gun licence

Where are you AP?
93 hit nearly $3.30 here in NH a couple of months ago, but it's been settling back down again slowly.

I'm pretty sure this state has a concealed firearms permit too.

 

[austinpowers]

Where are you AP?
93 hit nearly $3.30 here in NH a couple of months ago, but it's been settling back down again slowly.

I'm pretty sure this state has a concealed firearms permit too.

Where everything is bigger

 

[sablabra]

So in the US leaded petrol is still widely used?

 

[laissez-faire]

So in the US leaded petrol is still widely used?

It is all unleaded, but in the US they have 'normal' gas that goes in American cars with pathetic bhp/litre figures (literally like 35) which can be as low as 85 Octane. Mid-range cars like Japanese cars can usually run on 93ish octane, anything European needs at least 95 Octane because the engines develop such high bhp/litre compared to American cars. If you tried putting normal American gas in say, a Golf GTI, it would knock like crazy and only develop about 140bhp!

Edit (mk5 gti that is, the one that needs 98 to run properly)

Edit 2 : Americans have been brainwashed by the American car industry that because American cars can run on 'cheap gas' they are somehow better. One of my close friends over there in Charlotte swapped his BMW 325i for a Chevy Silverado Pickup and was like 'gee - it sure it is great to be able to put cheap gas in!' I just thought 'yeah, great, 8mpg, clown'