The car above is a much nicer version of my first car. When I received it from my parents, it was 15 years old and had 500,000 miles. It was on its 5th engine. Seat belts were not standard, I could not run the radio, headlights and windshield wipers at the same time.
Why do I tell you about this? Here in the Raleigh area, a teenager was recently given a speeding ticket for 198 in a 55 zone. Trust me, he was not driving a 1962 VW Karman Ghia. He was driving a brand new Dodge Daytona Hellcat. It begs the question, what were his parents thinking when they gave him a car that goes 200 MPH?
I think parents have this inner debate of "Do I give my teenager an old car that does not go very fast or a new car that has all the current safety equipment"? I think more times than not, parents go with the new car because we think we can control our children but we cannot control anyone else on the road so we put our children in a car that will protect them from everyone else even if it will not protect them from themselves.
I do not know if there is a correct response to this question. I just think we need to be aware of the fact that we do not have as much control over our children as we think we do.