It seems like it was less than a week ago Nicholas had successfully earned a regular Class C driving licence and we were testing the waters vis-a-vis a car for him to use with the expectation of being lucky enough to find one by August.
Oh wait, it was!
And now we find ourselves with a black 2011 Toyota Camry LE in the driveway far sooner than we would have ever expected would be possible in a used car market that was quite insane.
To be fair, this car was a unicorn…pretty darned exceptional mechanical condition for the age with only 129,000 miles on the clock and cosmetic flaws that kept the price much more reasonable than expected. It was not a hard decision for Nicholas to take when it was unlikely a better priced Camry in as good a condition would come along anytime soon.
And that’s when we’re looking back at the previous week’s phone calls to the insurance agent and thinking “those were the good old days!”
The “inexperienced driver surcharge” we’re stuck with for the next three years (roughly $100/mo) sucks enough.
But that was underwritten as an occasional driver of my Traverse. With the advent of the Camry, he’s now a primary driver and thus became quite a bit more expensive to insure between the increase for covering the Camry and his change in status.
I’m sure the home offices in Bloomington must have loved all of the churn in the coverage over the past week or so. Mind you, I’m sure they’re going to be thrilled with billing a monthly premium well higher than what I was paying before!
And that’s when Nicholas learns that freedom has its price…and it’s a fairly steep one!
He already forked over a hefty part of the car’s cost and now he’s looking at his share of the insurance as well as paying off the amount loaned to him on the balance and compared to his wages from DQ…there won’t be that much left over for spending as he pleases.
And to be honest, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I think he already appreciates caring for that car far more than he would have had we just got him a car and handed him the keys. That’s not what happened here…he’s put a lot of his money in as a down payment and now his job is keeping that car running and eventually buying out our equity knowing full well that if that car gets buggered, it’s not a guaranteed thing he gets right back behind the wheel of another car and that he still owes the remaining balance on this one.
It seems pretty clear over the first few check rides with him to work and back that he’s actually taken that lesson to heart. To be sure, he’s still getting a feel for the Camry which is a much different experience from the Traverse he nearly rolled over but he’s been far more cautious with his decision making than I was when I first started driving my own car.
He’s also been paying far more attention to the financial aspects of things and I think he now truly believes that successfully completing the automotive programme at Wake Tech will dramatically improve his financial standing.
That gives me hope for his future being a better one than we had imagined…and that’s a good thing! 🙂