This last weekend my wife, daughter and I spend some time in Richmond (BC). Richmond, and really most of neighboring Vancouver, are full of rich folk. Here I am driving along in my 2008 Mazda 5 surrounded by vehicles like new BMW 7 series, Mercedes and Austin Martins with the occasional Lamborghini and Ferrari thrown in. Thank god there is also the odd mid-80’s Nissan Sentra, and Hyundai Pony’s around to keep me from the bottom of the food chain.
People have money – they buy nice cars, I get it – I’d do the same, but what get’s me is the parents that buy their kids half million dollar cars as their first vehicle. What’s up with that??
For those who are unfamiliar with BC law etc, The graduated licensing system in BC requires student drivers to have a red “L” on the back of their car (it’s a little 5 x 7 inch magnet), and new drivers, in their first 2 years have to display a green “N” on the back.
On this trip I saw many green N’s on BMW’s and other fancy cars, but there were two that really caught my attention. One was on a new Audi R8 – cost, about $160,000. The other was on a new Lamborghini Murcielago, cost about $450,000. Are you kidding me? Really? What on earth has a 17 year old done to deserve his parents buying him a $450,000 car! New drivers should have to drive cheap little beaters till they learn how to properly drive – I seriously doubt that any 17 year old can truly handle a 631 horsepower V-12. But I could be wrong.
Perhaps I am just jealous. When I first got my license I was stuck driving my dads 85 Ford Bronco II. For a 16 year old it was great to have access to a car, but still, it’s no Lamborghini.
I have had some nice cars since. My Mazda 5 may be a mini-van, but it’s practical for my family, and still kinda fun to drive… Fun to drive? A mini-van? Did I just say that? Man I must be getting old. I miss my 07 GTI, and old 72 Datsun 240z.
