There are plenty of 18 year olds that could drive that car safely.
Also, it sounds like he didn't even crash it himself ("one of my brother's friends...") -- of course he could be lying.

Sure, he was an idiot for putting his car in that position -- but we have all done idiotic things. He just didn't get away with it.

This isn't all on the parents shoulders (though I don't agree with buying your children that as a first car by any means).

 

500k miles and the only unintended vehicle-to-vehicle contact I ever had was a lady hit the back of my old pontiac with a minivan while I was stopped at a light(19' long '71 catalina with 17k miles). My hitch pulled the lady's front bumper off the plastic GM van when she backed up, but no harm done. It was in 91 and I found that car in incredible shape, garaged and parked since 73 and used it to tow my boat, the tag frame said 'my other boat is a Stingray'.

Oh, and some lady cut me off once then 'brake checked' me when I got on her ***(she was a nitwit and did it a few times when I wasn't even close to her) Being a gentlemen, I obliged her apparent request by ramming the top half of her trunk on her Corsica with my jacked up jeep(which also broke her back window and both taillights. She pulled over but I didn't think she was cute enough and kept on going to Tower Records. She did seem fully satisfied for a woman who apparently wanted to be 'hit' in the rear though, so another happy customer... I did have a smidge of gold paint on the brush bar/winch mount, so I guess thats damage....

I've been in a few demo derbys and raced a hobby-stock car for my friends gas station a few times, not to mention flipping vehicles like my jeeps doing hard core off road or of course wrecking dirtbikes(if you don't come off at least 3 times on a ride, you aren't riding hard enough)...me and my buddies would also occasionally bump each other in traffic leaving school with our junkers. I had an 81 corolla with big black rubber bumpers that you could bounce into all kinds of things with it.

 

^haha, driving clunkers is fun, hit a buddy at a stop sign..."sorry, these brakes suck!"

I think a kid should have at least a year driving experience before getting anything decent. I had a small pickup, loved it, beat the junk out of it pushing the engine to it's 127hp max a few times, but it served it's purpose. It's not all drivers around my age (19) that suck, just most, but when you think about it, really, almost the same percentage applies to all drivers, cuz most people just cant drive worth two cents.

 

I let my ex-brother in-law ride my motorcycle (1984 VF1000F Interceptor). I got off work and couldn't find him drove around and nothing finally drove back by my house for the 3rd time and there's my bike with grass and weeds sticking out the side with some visible body panel damage. I was pissed but had no one to blame but myself. Two weeks later the bike looked good as new and my brother in-law paid for all the repairs. In the 8 years since that day I have let zero people ride my motorcycle.

 

Off topic: Why is a thead about a pontiac in the S197 section? Does everyone know that this forum DOES in fact have a general chat section? This section if for S197 Mustangs. Not Pontiac's.

 

Stupid people shouldn't breed

 

My first vehicle was a 91 F-150 with about 12 HP. I wonder why I never got any speeding tickets in that thing...

But that thing was a tank!

 

My first car was a 1989 Buick LeSabre from grandma. Then when that one didn't work anymore, I got my dad's 2000 Ford Lightning (that was awesome). Then some dam lady ran into me and my truck was ruined. A few months and a bank account balance of 11 dollars later, I have my car...