Okay... heard this today, had to share it here.
One of my friends/co-workers has a 16-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother.
He went to visit her one weekend, and saw a brand-new 2013 Cadillac CTS in the driveway.
He asked her "Did your mom get a new car?"
His daughter said "No, granddad (my friend's dad) bought it for me to drive back and forth to school with."
A $60,000 car. Leather, all the options, chrome package, brand spanking new. She didn't have to pay a dime for it.
I mentioned the guy's dad was insane to give a $60K car to a teenager, and he started going on about how responsible she was, and so forth... I just had to shake my head. I explained to him how much maintenance on that thing costs, and so on, but he just kept saying "If I had the money, I'd have done it..."
*disclaimer* the grandfather has his money from family casino investments... he has tons of money. I just think giving a car like that to a teenager (and a new driver, at that) is probably the most ridiculous waste of money I can think of, not to mention what it's teaching them about materialism.