Car Kits

[Slache]

My son's dream car is several hundred thousand dollars, but I stumbled across a knockoff car kit. What would be the negatives of buying a kit? I assume insurance is an arm and a leg? It's slightly more expensive than I think I would want to spend. He's 11 so I haven't put much thought into it. It's so purty though. It only seats two. Tell me all the things. 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Slache

[Drama Llama]

. . . .

Edited October 26, 2021 by BaseballandHockey

[Spryte]

Oh! I have some advice! Don’t build it inside!

Seriously, relative built a glider plane in his huge walkout basement. Awesome plan, great space. But getting it out of the basement was not so fun.

[gardenmom5]

3 hours ago, Slache said:

My son's dream car is several hundred thousand dollars, but I stumbled across a knockoff car kit. What would be the negatives of buying a kit? I assume insurance is an arm and a leg? It's slightly more expensive than I think I would want to spend. He's 11 so I haven't put much thought into it. It's so purty though. It only seats two. Tell me all the things. 

I can't find it - but Lego made a *full-size*, driveable Porsche 911 Carrara.  (they used real seats, real steering wheel, real tires, and the "motor" from a kids electric toy car.

[Slache]

36 minutes ago, Spryte said:

Oh! I have some advice! Don’t build it inside!

Seriously, relative built a glider plane in his huge walkout basement. Awesome plan, great space. But getting it out of the basement was not so fun.

Oh my gosh. Did he work for the government?

4 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

I can't find it - but Lego made a *full-size*, driveable Porsche 911 Carrara.  (they used real seats, real steering wheel, real tires, and the "motor" from a kids electric toy car.

So cool!

[gardenmom5]

51 minutes ago, Spryte said:

Oh! I have some advice! Don’t build it inside!

Seriously, relative built a glider plane in his huge walkout basement. Awesome plan, great space. But getting it out of the basement was not so fun.

He needs to get tips from Gibbs.  Gibbs, who was always building boats in his basement.  That wasn't a walkout . . .

[Miss Tick]

Well, by the time it is drivable he might be paying his own insurance.

13 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

So, one disadvantage is that you can't make him drop his siblings all different places, and pick up all the groceries in a 2 seater.  

Good point. Perhaps @Slache should see if they sell a minivan starter kit.

[Spryte]

12 hours ago, Slache said:

Oh my gosh. Did he work for the government?

So cool!

Ha! You’d think so! Some research lab, I think? Engineer. My family is full of completely brilliant engineers with limited, errr, common sense.

They had to remove a wall to get the stupid thing out. Seriously. It was a mess.

[Dmmetler]

When I was growing up, one of my neighbors bought his son a (in very rough condition) 1970's Triumph Spitfire when he was about your DS's age. IIRC, he finally got it really working and drivable about his senior year of high school, so it ended up being about a 5-6 year project (and it ended up being traded for his Dad's car when he went to college, because the little sports car was a lot more able to cope with a short daily commute to covered parking than a several hour interstate drive and sitting in an open parking lot. Which might have been Dad's ulterior motive....). He's now an  engineering professor. I suspect that building a kit car would be similarly time consuming. 

They did have a big double garage that had basically become his workshop, and I think added a lift and hoist so that he could work on a car more effectively. 

 

His nephew graduated last year with his high school diploma and a trade school certificate in auto repair, and similarly rebuilt and fixed up a truck while in high school. He went straight into a repair tech job which almost certainly pays more than his mom makes as a high school computer applications teacher :). 

[Slache]

20 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

When I was growing up, one of my neighbors bought his son a (in very rough condition) 1970's Triumph Spitfire when he was about your DS's age. IIRC, he finally got it really working and drivable about his senior year of high school, so it ended up being about a 5-6 year project (and it ended up being traded for his Dad's car when he went to college, because the little sports car was a lot more able to cope with a short daily commute to covered parking than a several hour interstate drive and sitting in an open parking lot. Which might have been Dad's ulterior motive....). He's now an  engineering professor. I suspect that building a kit car would be similarly time consuming. 

They did have a big double garage that had basically become his workshop, and I think added a lift and hoist so that he could work on a car more effectively. 

 

His nephew graduated last year with his high school diploma and a trade school certificate in auto repair, and similarly rebuilt and fixed up a truck while in high school. He went straight into a repair tech job which almost certainly pays more than his mom makes as a high school computer applications teacher :). 

I knew a family that on their children's sixteenth birthdays they all got $500 to buy a car. This meant they had to fix and maintain it themselves. I really don't want that much work. I wouldn't mind the initial work of building it, but the constant fixing would make me insane.

It always bothered me that it was the 16th birthday, too. It's not going to work the day they get it, it's not even going to work a few months afterwards. Make it a 15th birthday gift.