My son bought his first car with his own money.

He will get his P plate in March and because he is going to be in grade 12 this year and won’t have time to shop around once the school reopens, he decided to buy a car now.

When we were  living in Canada and he got his first job as a news paper delivery boy(he was in grade 3), I had explained to him the need to save money to buy  his car when he gets his license and he has been saving money ever since that day.

About the same, my parsimonious landlord bought a Volvo for his daughter when she got her license. I was a bit surprised that he splurged so much money on a car and he explained that, as a new driver, she is bound to wreck the car and since Volvo is built like a tank, at least he can be assured that even if the car is wrecked, it might still save his daughter’s life. That was a valuable lesson for me, especially because I had always thought of buying the cheapest car(as in an old junk) for my children when they get their license. Cheap cars and not necessarily safe cars for young drivers.

In grade 3, my son wanted to buy his own batmobile car. In grade 5, he shed bitter tears when he found that Pagani Zonda stopped making cars..

So, when it was time for him to buy his own car, I  had two conditions. It has to be a BMW, Audi or Volvo and secretly hoped he would go for a Beemer and that it should have Road Worthy Certificate. I didn’t want the headache to go through the hassles of getting the car registered.  He started searching for his car and reading up about them and finally found his perfect car and that too owned by a lady (he believes that women drivers are safer drivers, even though he is related to me!) He finally made an appointment with her and informed her when we left the house that we are on our way. (She lived in Bribie Island, pretty far from where we lives) Almost and hour and a half in toour journey, she called my son to tell him that there is another person who is interested in her car and is willing to pay 100 more than the asking price. I felt this was a cheap stunt and told my son to forget about the car. He was really annoyed with me and since it is his money, he should counter offer. I refused… He was really mad at me..he felt if we had gone to her place in the morning rather than the evening, before the other person made the offer,he would have been able to buy it. I told my son, if it was meant for him, it would be there and clearly this car wasn’t meant for him.. “I don’t believe in your stupid Indian Philosophy mom” He yelled. I knew he was upset, he had looked forward to owning his own car and was disappointed. When we got back home, I made Dosai for him for dinner.  I always keep few packets of dosai batter in the freezer for moments like this. There is nothing that cheers up my son as much as the sight of crispy dosai.

A week later, he saw his perfect car ad on gum tree.. Chrome rims, modified suspension and exhaust.. what else could make an almost 17 year old boy happy? But it was in Frazer Island, really far from here. The ad had so much spelling and grammar mistakes and even the text messages from the seller were dodgy. I was a bit sceptical. My son negotiated with the seller and he said he would meet us halfway, in Gympie.

The seller was one of those typical surfer dudes, blonde, long hair and young (18 years old). He is passionate about cars and spends all his money on modifying them. He bought a V8 and was selling his old car after spending an enormous amount of money to modify it . When I gave him the money, I noticed that he was struggling to count. So, I told him, let me help you. I counted the money, sorted the currency in to 1000$, so he could check it. Clearly, he has learning disability, yet he is still living a great life. I was also surprised that his parents didn’t accompany him.. you know, your son was driving halfway across the state to meet strangers to sell a car..

And now, my son is a proud owner of a souped up BMW.. and he is now a firm believer of, if it is meant to be, it will be yours.. for  the first car he wanted to buy was just an ordinary BWM… and he would have had to spend an enormous amount of money to get it souped up