My parents never paid a single penny towards the purchase or insurance of any of my cars. I bought my 200SX SE-R when I was 20 and saved and saved for that car and took great care of it.

I was actually talking about this the other day. If I have the money when I have kids old enough to drive, I would probably buy my kid a decently nice car.. but under very strict conditions. They would have to behave, take care of it, do great in school, never abuse the car or get in trouble with it and have to pay for part of it, at the very, very least the insurance. Get tickets, wrecks, do bad in school, act up and it's gone... no exceptions.