When your child heads off for college, you know they’re in for a lot of learning. For many new college students, this is the first time they have ever lived away from the comforts of home and away from the watchful eyes of their parents.
When purchasing a vehicle for your college student, you will want to ensure that you find them a reliable vehicle at a bargain. This can be difficult to ensure without being with them physically when they make a purchase.
If you can ship them a car instead of expecting them to buy one when they arrive, you can save your child and yourself some tough lessons. You want your child to have a safe, dependable car that they’ll love.
Remember that this is a new and overwhelming time in their life, which can lead to scattered thoughts and a lack of focus when it comes to making smart decisions about purchasing transportation for their college years.
Here are some tips on how to purchase and ship a car to your college student.
Invest in Something Trustworthy
If you choose to buy your child a student vehicle locally, you can enjoy more confidence in the buy. You can
- buy from a reputable dealer
- get it checked out by a mechanic you trust
- take it for a test drive
- talk to your insurance agent about the best choice for your child’s risk group
Whether your child is on your car insurance or their own policy, the vehicle they drive will have a huge impact on their insurance costs.
Protect Your Child from Distractions
If you’re planning to utilize car shipping services to get a car to your child from Ohio or any other state, you can have some control over the timing of their vehicle delivery. There are many companies that offer affordable rates and professional coverage of the vehicle while it is in their care.
Even if your child already has a vehicle they drive at home, utilizing these shipping services allows them to fly to their college campus while shipping companies take care of the transportation of their vehicle and possessions.
This is ideal to keep your college student well rested for their first week of classes without having to risk a long drive across the country.
Keep in mind that the first year of college will expose your child to many distractions. You can protect them from making bad decisions by offering them their own car in their second year if they will skip using a car that first year.
This can be used to incentivize them to work hard at their studies and give them something to look forward to if they stay focused and disciplined on their studies.
Unless your child has to have a car in their first year to get to and from work, going car-less on campus may be the better choice.
They will have fewer parking worries and fewer choices in where to spend their time when they’re not in class. Distractions can be the difference between going back for their second year and dropping out.
Avoid Maintenance Worries
If you can convince your child to wait for a vehicle in their second year, you can buy something reliable. To your child, this may read as “boring” and that is fine. For many parents, a brand new car for their college student is not financially possible.
Additionally, college parking lots are not always friendly to new vehicles; door dings and theft are a concern that will be lower if you can provide your child with a durable, less than a flashy used car.
Once you find the right car, you can take it to your favorite mechanic and get the following checked out:
- brakes
- seals
- pumps
- radiator
- battery
If your child is not mechanically inclined or dealing with a very tight budget, these are the factors that may start to fail and be ignored by your child. They are also the biggest hazards to your child and the vehicle if they fail over time.
You can’t ever be sure that a vehicle won’t fail or need repairs, but you can have more confidence that the car will start when they turn the key if you get the chance to have it properly inspected before giving them the vehicle.
Be Confident in the Quality of the Vehicle
If you’re going to ship the car, you can spend a month driving it before you send it out to your child. You can check the tires each weekend to make sure there is no slow leak.
You can make sure the brakes don’t squeak, the steering wheel doesn’t pull due to poor alignment, and the power steering pump isn’t moaning because it’s getting ready to fail.
These factors are especially important if your child grew up in warm temperatures and is going to school in a climate prone to freezing and snow.
One poorly maintained radiator or power steering pump that has gotten too low may not survive in extreme cold, and proper tires and tread are crucial in these environments.
Your child may be incredibly responsible. However, a busy student may miss conditions such as a slow drip from a radiator. They may miss a small oil leak on a crowded college campus parking lot.
These are the risks that can leave your child stranded after a late-night shift at their job or study group. If your child has a tightly packed schedule, one minor setback can affect academics severely.
Shipping a car to your child gives you both control and a bargaining chip. If you can keep them car-less for that first critical year so their time and effort are spent on campus, staying focused on their schoolwork, you can guide them to making the best choices.
About The Author:
Taylor Haskings is a freelance writer born in Denver, Colorado. She graduated with a bachelor’s in English from the University of Colorado, Denver. She enjoys hiking in the Colorado Rockies and loves the fine arts, such as playing the violin. Her true strengths include networking with others and expressing herself through the written word.
