When I was 16 my mom gave me her old 1993 ford aerostar minivan. It had about 200k on the odometer but the body was in good condition. I kept it pretty clean and washed it now and again. I'm not any more proud of my current cars as I was that one. It had wheels and it moved.
I was dating a girl at the time that lived in a very poor family. She has a half brother and a step sister that lived with her. Her mom's boyfriend worked in construction to pay the bills but he fixed cars in his driveway for extra cash. Her mom worked at UPS. My water pump went out on the van and Jeff (the mom's boyfriend) replaced it for me for just the cost of the pump. At this time I had just barely $1000 saved up to finally buy a car. The day I dropped it off my dad came home from work and told me someone he worked with was trying to sell a 1995 Z24. I offered him what I had and he accepted it.
When I went to go pick up the van, instead of giving Jeff the money for the water pump I gave him the keys to the van and signed the title over to him for free, making it the first car that their family ever fully owned. They got rid of a rust bucket that they were making payments on and had to pay that much less every month. I felt good about it.
I paid for the cavalier, I paid my own insurance and I paid for all of the mods done to it. My parents are actually pretty wealthy, I wont argue that, but this is how they felt things should be done so I didn't argue it.
I didn't have enough money for what I wanted with my car, so instead of paying shops to do it, I did hours on end of research every night and learned how to do motor and body work all on my own. When something broke on the car, I would go to the junkyard and pull parts to fix it myself. Everything was good. When I got more into cars, I decided to put a sound system in it and fix up the body a little. After I did my reading, I went out and got MDF and vinyls and wound up with an itch that I couldn't scratch without more work!
I taught myself how to mold fiberglass, weld, paint, wire electronics and everything else done to my car by reading on the internet. What I ended up with roughly two years later and only spending about $700 total on second-hand body parts and additional materials was this car right here:
I ended up selling this car a little over a month ago for $3000, making a nice profit. The money I made went into my new car, the sunbird in my signature. I paid $700 for it, The extra $2300 has mostly gone into the engine, but I do like to keep some extra money around for a rainy day.
All during the buildup of the cavfire, I had been building a 2.3 High Output turbo motor to go into it, but I sold it without the motor. With tens of thousands of dollars invested into it, I've decided to make a full drag car and recently acquired a cavalier to completely gut and drop the motor in. All of the tools, parts and machine work was paid for with money I got through doing work on other people's cars in my driveway.
That is pretty much my story. If my parents offered help somewhere along the way, I would have gladly taken it. If they wanted to buy me a car right now I would take it. There is no shame in accepting gifts from others any more than there is to indulge at your own expense. I find it just as annoying to hear "my car is dirty and ugly and falling apart, but at least I paid for it" as it is to hear "My daddy bought me an Evo and it is soooo faster than your car." All of it pisses me off.
The person complaining about not being able to afford brake pads.... what the hell. They are so inexpensive that it isn't even funny. Go to advance auto parts and read the Haynes manual right in the store. Look up installation procedures on-line. Ask someone for help! I would have had no problem telling you hot to install brakes if you asked. So if there is no installation fee, all you have is the $15 that brake pads cost. All be it not very much, I guarantee you have some money. Whether you spend it on food or school supplies, there is money. If you REALLY don't have money, get some. Help old ladies bring groceries to their cars, carry around some rich guy's golf clubs one afternoon, go donote sperm... hell.... sit outside of the parts store and ask for change for a few minutes. Money is there. There is a false sense of dignity associated with each method of collection. It is not your parents responsibility to do anything for you beyond putting a roof over your head.
I graduated highschool at barely 17 years old with a 4.25 GPA (I took some advanced placement classes) and now after freshly turning 20 I'm already done with school. I took some business classes at a local college and went to tech school for cars. I worked full time the entire way through school to for it and all of my spending cash came from those sided jobs I did on cars. For about 7 months I was also working part time at a body shop.
Don't give me the crap that it can't be done and you can't have a nice car on your own. When you really work for what you want, you get it. There is nothing wrong with accepting contributions from anybody. I envy the kids in the expensive cars because despite what I have worked for, they have better at younger ages, but I will have my ultimate car some day so it doesn't bother me that they have what they have. I'd like it, but I don't harp on it.
Let me also say that one guy I knew, Rob, his parents bought him a 2002 Eclipse V6. Later that year for Christmas they got him a supercharger kit for it. Sometime in spring he wrecked it. They took the insurance money and put a down-payment on a 2005 GTO for him. He had it for about three weeks before he hit a pole at 110, drunk, taking three other people's lives with him. My friend Vince, same deal but about two years ago in a turbo B18 CRX his mom bought him. He lived. He's in jail for two counts of involuntary man slaughter (the passengers,) DWI, reckless endangerment., blah, blah, blah.......
Whatever happens, happens. Quit bitching about it because it only gives the situation more exposure, making it that much more of a nuisance for everybody else.
Cardomain|
Myspace
. (...but you know it got great gas mileage ) 
-Chris
pure sex. untill it was totaled.
