I'm a 21 year old college student who drove a '94 buick skylark till January when I bought my 2002 Xterra. Key phrase there is I. My parents helped me in NO way with the purchase of this car other than co-signing. There are a lot of kids like me who save there money and then can afford big items like this car. It also helps that I started my own DJ company. Through hard work and marketing I'm making $1800/month on average. Not bad for a 3rd year college student. And why shouldn't I spend money on some fun stuff right now. This is the time to do it when I don't have to worry about bills or a lot of the nasty things life can bring. So anyway there's my thought on the whole thing