Make the kid pay for it...Yard work, car washing and waxing, general slavery type stuff.

:D

All these opinions, but you are very vague about what happened.
Was he driving recklessly?
Maybe the truck had crappy brakes?
$500 truck or $5000 truck?

And why can't there be a middle ground so the kid has to pay something (he "wants to") though it may not be the whole thing.

that is not allowed. All or nothing. Black or white. Compromise is a sign of weakness. In this time of islamofacism, the boy must pay...otherwise the terrorists have won!

I'll bet he uses a towel at home too...

Jawol mein Herr! Sieg Heil!;)

Or Allah Akbar!

I wrecked my uncle's truck when I was 18. We estimated the difference in it's pre-wreck value and what he got for it and I spent the rest of the summer paying him half of my paycheck until it was paid off. That's only fair.

He says he wants to pay for it. Let him. Let him pay a little at a time. If he's like me, it's the right thing to do, and I would feel awkward not paying for damaging your property.

Let him pay for it, he knows what he and his mother need to survive.

Have him make affordable payments. Good lesson for him, good for you, easy on his family.

Thanks one and all for your thoughts and opinions. Here's a few more facts. My truck was a 96 Explorer which I could have sold for possibly $2500 on a good day. Ran well, but had a lot of hail damage. My nephew was at fault and was ticketed with 3 point offense, failure to yield. I'm sure he was distracted, but there's no indication he was driving recklessly. He will be learning about traffic court and will have to deal with the penalty they will give him. He's still working for me and I'm sure we will come to some kind of reasonable accomodation. I still want him to head back to school in the fall with a little money in the bank. I sold the wreck for $750 so my loss is about $1800. In the big scheme of things, a stubbed toe.

I'm looking for a new daily driver, something that uses a little less gas. Who knows where that will take me.

I liked the ideas of selling parts of the wrecked truck on ebay and/or helping fix another replacement truck. In both cases, the kid would learn some very useful skills. Hey, if he is good, he might even be able to make enough money with the parts to buy a used truck, and then fix it. This sounds like a nice little project that involves both business and mechanic skills...

Aurel

Read above- wreck is already sold.

Did you tell him that the truck was not insured when you handed him the keys?

I thought about that little issue of personal irresponsibility; makes it sticky. I think this falls in the category of "do as I say, not as I do," as any lesson teaching would be negated, in fact reversed, if that was brought to the table...What do you say, "my irresponsibility relieves you of your responsiblity?" The lesson and responsibility is still the kid's and him realizing this responsilibity is, I think, the most important issue at hand...I, therefore, do not think the issue of insurance necessitates revelation.

but, mull.."wwld" (what would a liberal do?)

steps away from now freshly-stirred pot.. ;)

Blame a non-guilty party, somehow enable the child, or attempt to sue the other driver or the police department for discrimination...If these things fail, they would blame Bush and complain about how bad the economy is while watching their brand new 1,000 inch plasma screen that they brought home in their gas-guzzling SUV, right next to the brand new Prius in their garage.

edit: The Prius would have a "Free Tibet" sticker on one side and a "War is not the answer" sticker on the other.

lol.

what i would do is this..

I like the idea of getting him to take you out, or make, a nice dinner for you.. spend some bonding time, etc...
but go about it the other way around..

set a value on the truck, whatever you want it to be.. couple hundred.. whatever..
when he's done paying it off, then take HIM out... use the money he gave you. that way he pays off his debt, and you show him that it's water under the bridge...

my first winter driving, I took my mom's car to school one morning (with permission).. I didn't even get it to the end of the street. I went around the bend, hit a patch of black ice, and slid off the road hitting a fence. I was doing 30 in a 40 zone (km/h).. my parents understood it was a learning experience...

every once in a while i'll be reminded of it (17 at the time, now 23) but not in a demeaning way.. but *just enough* to remind me how easy it is to slide on ice.

anyway, as far as punishment... I really think that's up to the insurance company/police (with the ticket)... which is a pretty traumatic experience on a child of 19 (depending on character of course)... you're family.. if you want him to make it up to you in some way then great.. but the best thing to come out of this is to show him that you love him regardless...

just my 2 cents..

Now go out and do the right thing, lol.

I'm surprised this thread is still alive, but thanks for the thoughts. I am taking the water under the bridge tack. There's no point in doing anything else. This wasn't a new Escalade for Pete's sake. The insurance thing is irrelevant. I chose to drop collision, so I'm essentially self insured. The other party is getting their car fixed, so I did have insurance just not on my old truck.

My only problem now finding and paying for a replacement. My beater was a known quantity, somebody else's beater just doesn't appeal to me. So I'm looking at new and newer cars and dealing with some bugetary trauma and sticker shock. I want something smaller and a little more fuel efficient.