>Well, the car is his birthday/high school graduation/Christmas present. He turned 18 on the first of this month, and he's entering his senior year in H.S.

Yeah, and? <g> My kids have gotten some pretty nice gifts (computers, digital video camera for the younger one, digital still camera for the older), but no cars. I'm willing to share my car with a teenage driver, but just can't see why they need cars of their own, especially since all but one of the colleges we visited with the older doesn't even let freshman have cars on campus.

But, different strokes, ...

< George grumbles that his parents never bought him a car, nor sent him on a trip to Spain or Cancun, then remembers that he went to private school while his kids have gone to public schools >

My parents never bought me a car or took me on expensive vacations. I went to public school (which prepared me for college better than some of the private schools some of my college classmates went to). OTOH, they taught me a lot of important things and set my aspirations high.

And fwiw, until there 4 drivers in the house, we had one car. My mom used to drive my dad to work so she could have the car for the day.

Tamar