Which definition of “your own money” are you using? The one where you earned the money at a job that pays more than any job any other 15 year old has ever had in the history of everything? Or the one where the money was given to you and therefore “your own”?
Did you pay the insurance too?
I think a kid’s first car should be a stick shift, used-but-reliable economy car. I wouldn’t buy my (hypothetical) kids anything else.
The former - I did programming work for local businesses, and one of the owners (of a small consulting company) put me in charge of all his software development once he realized I was better at it than his current employee. He eventually dumped the consulting business, and I co-founded another company with him to sell the software I wrote. Five and a half years later, we’re still at it.
I did pay the insurance, which was surprisingly reasonable. And I was 14 at the time, actually. 
For those who don’t think a teenage needs or should have a car, bear in consideration the fact that in many areas of the country and economic situation, neither public transportation nor getting rides from parents is a practical reality. I lived 30 miles away from the high school I attended for 2.5 years, and 60 miles away from the university I took classes at during my senior year of high school. Any kind of work was usually 20-50 miles away, and often in a different direction. Without a car, I would have been stuck at home, in the same ass-end, one horse town full of inbred bigots until I went to college, and its doubtful I would have been able to earn the money I needed to go to school.
That being said, I think it’s definitely true that it’s far too easy to obtain a driver’s license with only a minimal display of basic competency, and that many teenagers are either too inattenive or too aggressive to drive safely. Of course, I could say the same about many adults as well.
No teenager needs a car that can do 0-60 in less than 10 seconds. I had a, well not a friend but someone I knew, whose father purchased for him a Lotus Esprit Turbo (the old 4 cylinder, before the V8 models) for his 17th birthday. It wasn’t two months before he laid it sideways (passenger side, no one hurt, amazingly) into an embankment, and the car was reduced to a single person transporter in width.
I went through a series of Subarus and Volvos as a high school and college student, all quite reliable and crashworthy despite their advanced mileage and variable level of prior maintenance. I think those cars were ideal, and I’d have been hard pressed to get around without them, though I did survive in college for a while sans car, thanks to the forcible adoption of an unreliable GM product which I affectionately referred to as “that baby blue Corsica piece of st rustbucket m*******er”.
Stranger
Indeed. This is why I did not provide a link, even a broken one.
Hey, so did mine! 
I spent my teen years in Lancaster, CA. Public transportation was not an option. Fortunately there was a lot of desert. (It’s pretty full now.) I could ride my Enduro through it to get around.
Try doing that in 0°F temps or 10 inches of snow. Or on a cloudy, moonless night on an unlit country road. I’m just saying, for many, being without a car is not a good option.
Stranger
I’ve been saying this for years.
I think it should be exponentially harder. Like, driver’s ed should be a required class for your entire 9th grade year, or something.
My driver’s ed was Mon-Thurs from 4:00pm to 5:00pm for 2 weeks. I skipped about half the classes and literally slept through the rest and still passed. Then I did like 5 hours of driving which the fucking instructor slept through most of (!), then I took a little 25 question multiple choice test at the DMV which was ludicrously easy and they gave me my permit. When I turned 16 I basically handed in my permit and got a license. I think I might’ve done an eye test and that’s about it.
Highway driving should also be taught thoroughly and practiced, and the driving part of the course should be done in manual transmission car.
When I turned 18, my father bought me a car since I was going to be working a full-time job all that summer while my folks were on vacation. He didn’t want it to be a junker that would break down on me, so we picked out a new Ford Festiva for $5,000 (it was that or a used Escort, and the Festiva had more legroom). I didn’t need it while I was at college, so he drove it everywhere himself since it was more reliable than his old pickup (which may have been another reason he decided to buy it). Both of us loved that car and even ten years later it was running great.
I did stupid things in it, though. Mostly driving too fast, although I only got ticketed once (and that was Connecticut, so it doesn’t count), and driving while I was too tired. I never drove drunk and I never got into an accident, however, so I guess that counts for something.
It was a decent car to learn in. The engine was small and loud enough that it was hard to go too fast without realizing it, and there was no way to go flying out of control because of an ill-considered stomp on the accelerator. It was small enough to be forgiving when maneuvering and had good visibility all around. It was economical enough that I could maintain it on my own meager income without hardship and still put a lot of miles on it. And as for image-consciousness, don’t underestimate the effect of a micro-compact on a generation that grew up watching Herbie; that car got me more positive attention than anything under $40,000 would have.
I think that people should be required to attend driver’s ed before being allowed on the roads. It was fine to have Daddy teach you how to drive on the country roads and then pass your test in ten minutes in the village but times have changed [/understatement]. If kid hasn’t taken a safe driving course, send him. Heck, send him to skid school - it’s something I still have on my ‘to do’ list.
We’ve now seen the studies that show that the prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed until people are in their twenties; meaning their ability to make rational judgements isn’t what it needs to be for them to be driving mega-muscle cars. The numbers of teens dying in street-race related accidents has been rising. Add to all that the whole issue of consumerism and entitlement and I think it’s a horrible idea to buy a kid some hotshot car for high school or even college.
As to kids being ‘image conscious’; to hell with succumbing to peer pressure and trying to ‘fit in’. I don’t agree with training a kid to be another sheep. I fended for myself - worked my way through university (and rode bus or walked to and from) and have worked for everything I have. Result? No steenkin’ self-esteem issues; I’m proud of me for my accomplishments. Fact is, the people you think you need to impress will fall away from you as your life continues; the only person you need to impress is your own self and you don’t do that by becoming another sheep. So if the kid is worried about ‘image’, now’s the time to teach kid to stand on own feet.
I seem to recall you have a red 330ci Performance Package? Is that the car you’re referring to?
The software boom was a very strange time. Nevertheless I have to admit you’re a savvy character.
Actually, despite kids’ love of status, I think most kids are thrilled just to be able to drive. Period. An old junker can be a beautiful thing to a teenager if it’s his or her first taste of independence.
I see teenagers with expensive cars that mummy or daddy merchant banker has bought them brand new, and sure there’s probably more than a little jealousy there, but I do also feel sorry for them in a way. They’ll now never learn to appreciate a nice car. And having never had to nurse along a failing clutch, an engine that needs ten minutes to warm up, dodgy synchromesh, broken wipers, a speedometer stuck fast on 48, faulty starter motors you need to hit with a hammer, etc, etc, it’s also my view that they’ll never really learn how to drive.
My first car, when I turned 16, was a loaded 67 Toronado. Lots of fun!
One of the fellows in my grade had a Mustang for his first car – he rolled it and died.
I think that overpowered cars would be trouble for most kids. I am also a big fan of age and experience graduated licences with restrictions on alcohol, number of passengers, and time of use.
My first car (16yo.) was a 160 dollar Oldsmobile that I drove for years. Not fast.
My first motorcycle (18yo.) was a 900cc Kawasaki that was very, very fast. It saw at least 142 mph at my hands. Surprised I lived.
My buddy’s parents bought him a '89 Rabbit for his first car. It was certainly not fast or glamorous, however, he did manage to average an accident a month with that beast. (He had it for 8 months. One time, while discussing how often he ran red lights, he ran one.) His next car he bought himself; there were no accidents with that one. Same as all his subsequent cars.
Having the person earn the car is the difference between whether or not said person will drive it with responsibility of not. Handing a teenager a car carte blanche is a recipe for disaster. If a teen is responsible for payments, upkeep, insurance, they are more likely to handle themselves in a responsible manner. (There are always exceptions to the rule, but I still believe it holds true.)
FWIW, I never had a collision in my first car.
My first car was a 1974 Dodge Dart, puke green with a white hardtop. I could fit nine people and a Doberman in that car at a pinch. I learned, though, that you shouldn’t feed your Doberman chili the night before. Fortunately my car was a 4 door, so the nine people were able to exit the car quickly before being asphyxiated.
I only had an AM radio and the car wouldn’t have been able to do 60 mph even if I hooked up a hose from the Doberman’s butt to the carburator, but I loved that car. It was given to my by my grandfather, who had driven it for about 8 years. I was responsible for insurance, repairs, gas, and bumper stickers. It wasn’t much to look at, but it was all mine.
My son just turned 16 a few weeks ago. Ever since he was 14 he’s been drooling over the muscle cars in magazines, exclaiming, “That’s the car I want!” whenever we passed a Camaro or Mustang or Corvette or whatever on the road. But when it came down to it, he was thrilled to receive a 6 year old Chevy Cavalier with a slightly crumpled front fender from my mother, who had just purchased a new car for herself. He’s taking over the few payments that are left on it, and just like I was is responsible for his own insurance and gas and whatnot.
Teenagers just want something that moves, something they can put a few friends into (or one, anyway, since he’s only allowed to have one other teenager in the car for the first 6 months) and take off in for an afternoon. They may say they need a Camaro, but they’ll be happy with a Gremlin as long as it’s all theirs.
For a 17 year old? A 911.
A 911 with a big spike in the middle of the steering wheel and blu-tac (or whatever your country uses to stick posters to walls) instead of seat belts, that’ll take care of speeding problems 
I had this conversation with a mother who bought her son a 6 cyl Camaro. 6 cyl engines are more powerful than the 8 cyl high performance engines of the early 80’s. This was truly a “good Kid” who didn’t exhibit large amounts of teenage stupidity. He rolled the car on an icy road soon after he got it. Every single piece of sheet metal was bent (no injuries).
A 6 cylinder Mustang can easily reach 130 mph which is in excess of what experienced drivers know how to handle. Teenagers lack the skill and experience of long term drivers and they lack the reasoning skills of adults.