u/SingleArt1831

like i’m sure most, my parents are on my back to get my first car. they say if i have at least half saved up, they’ll pay the other half for me (pretty sure i’ll be paying 3/4 though, but i don’t mind). but i have absolutely no knowledge on cars. the only car ik by name is a volkswagen beetle but my dad has already put a hard no on that (much to my disappointment)

i’m 17, first year uni student. i’m commuting to uni because i can’t afford a dorm (about a 20 minute commute). i currently have 1000$ in my savings and put 115$ in every paycheck (every friday). i currently work two jobs at the same restaurant. i make 12.50$ hourly for one of those jobs, and tips for the other job. i average about 50-70$ for tips for a 6 hour shift.

as for the car stuff, i don’t really have any hard preferences. color doesn’t matter to me, neither does make or model because i genuinely don’t know anything about cars. i’d prefer if it would be able to last about 4-5 years so it can last until graduation. i already know ill be on top of it with maintenance because im just that kind of person, so that shouldn’t be a worry on if it’ll last. the only real preference that i have is that its one of those cars that is short and not big and clunky. i’ll include a drawing that i hope makes sense. wants that i have are preferably white outside, bluetooth available, and something that i can definitely rely on because starting in august, ill have two jobs and uni, so i don’t want to have a bad car to worry about.

the questions i have:
how much should i aim to have saved up before starting car searching?
how would i go about searching, like what websites are reliable and what should i look out for when looking at cars? (like the mileage, the year, crash history, etc?)
what are some good cars i can possibly look into and what models and/or years are best?

i’d really appreciate any help because i have no idea where to start with this, and my parents aren’t really open to helping me. they just expect me to know how to do this.

this has happened multiple times to me and it’s very irritating but also i don’t know how to stop it. i’ve had multiple talking stages and situationships, yk like normal high school relationship stuff (im 17). but every single time, as soon as it turns into official boyfriend girlfriend, i almost instantly lose feelings. like right now, this guy ive been talking to for a couple months finally asked to make things official two days ago, and by now, ive lost almost all feelings for him entirely. i don’t know what causes this or why it’s happened every single time ive been in a relationship, but it’s so irritating. i’ve graduated now (a year early, i just turned 17) and im going to college in august for a double bachelors. i feel like i should be getting serious about relationship stuff, but i can’t if this keeps happening. my mom knows a bit about this situation, and she told me that i’ve always rushed myself to grow up, but this doesn’t feel like that. this feels like something is wrong with me.

for a while, i figured it was because i might be aromantic. but that wouldn’t really make sense i think because if i was aromantic, why would i like them romantically during the talking/pre-relationship stage? i don’t know much about the aromantic spectrum, but i think i need to look into it. am i mistaking friendship for romance and that’s why i lose feelings once things are officially labeled as romantic?

and another big thing, how do i break it to my current boyfriend if i am aromantic? he asked me over a call late at night while i was doing job applications (trying to leave my current food service job lol) and i kinda froze before mumbling yeah. i didn’t even really want to, but he had stuttered and muted the call for a moment to collect himself. he’d spent all that time building it up, and now i feel like im leading him on badly. he’s already put my initial in his instagram bio and dedicated a highlight to me and it’s only been two days. he’s in this deep, and i feel like im not in it at all. i’d hate to hurt him, but i’ve genuinely lost everything i felt for him.

kinda just ranting but open to advice on what to do or why this is happening. has anyone else experienced this? can anyone explain if this is part of being aromantic or am i interpreting that spectrum wrong?

first year uni student and 17, not sure what car to get

might be aromantic but i’m not sure