I learnt to drive when I was seven in a $30 FE Holden with three on the tree. I needed a booster seat, and my father put wood blocks on the pedals so I could reach them. By ten I could get and hold that FE in to four wheel drifts at any speed. By 18 I had years of driving experience in car control that most people never even get in a lifetime of driving.
I used to practice driving without using brakes or the clutch in city traffic. You should try it, it will save you a heap of fuel drag racing to get to the next red light like the rest of the suburbanite sheeple.
The only time I had a car written off was while waiting at the lights and a driver three cars back failed to notice that the traffic turning right was stopped at the lights, and the impact drove the taxi behind me in to me. I saw it coming, but I had nowhere to go. So I stood on my brakes as hard as I could, which stopped the driver in front of me recieving any damage (when stopped in traffic always leave enough gap so you can see the rear tyres of the car in front).
In 27 years of driving I have never crashed a car, never lost points, never had a speeding fine, and never had to lodge an insurance claim for or against.
I'm glad my father was such a wise man and good teacher to begin my education at such a young age. And that $30 has probably saved me many thousands of dollars, and maybe even my life.
In contrast a mates son wrote off the $6000 Ford his father bought him the same night his son got his licence. He was out with his friends and thought doing fishtails down a dirt road would be fun, till he lost it and wrapped it around a tree. His next car he didn't crash, just got 12 speeding fines in 6 months and lost his licence. His father had to drive him to work, and pay all the fines, or his son was going to prison.
Some kids never learn, because they get everything given to them, and it means nothing to them.
My advice is let him walk till he can buy his own car, and he might be a little more careful with it, after he has to walk in the rain to get around.
