Hi Tina,
To me, this indicates that he's not that interested in the car and doesn't respect what you give him (ie. braces). I made the mistake of helping my son, age 19, buy a car last year. This was after he had been working in a job as a security guard for about 6 months and seemed to be doing well. The job wasn't on a bus route, and we were playing chauffeur at midnight to take him to work. For a month or so, he was paying the payment, insurance, etc. and then the car broke down (likely due to the way he drives). He decided it would cost too much to fix it, so we sold it to his older brother to take over payments.
Then I, while wearing my rose-colored glasses, took my son to the dealership and ended up co-signing for a new car! To this day, I don't know what I was thinking, as I never in my wildest dreams would do that. I hadn't been drinking, so I still can't explain it. Again, I thought this was just what my son needed to prove to the world that he was finally a responsible person. He begged and pleaded, swore he'd pay for everything plus expenses, and I believed him. He looked so grown up in his security guard uniform.
Within a few months, he had worn the tires down to nubs, and had a speeding ticket for going 65 mph over the speed limit. He's still working through his court fines and community service, and it's a misdemeanor on his record. He also quit his job suddenly (somebody "disrespected" him), and stopped making payments on the car. It has since been repossessed, and now my credit and his are in the tank. The other car, by the way, was totaled by my older son (my other difficult child) and I'm still paying the loan off for that one.
The moral to this long story is that young irresponsible men can wreak havoc on a lot of things with cars. Please think twice about the car, especially if you were planning to co-sign or buy it outright for him. My son (younger) isn't on drugs, so he didn't even have that element in the mix of his bad behavior and decisions. When he gets a car again, it's going to be one that he worked for himself when he's more appreciative of the cost and responsibility involved.
