What to buy for 18th birthdays?

The £3K was a gift from GPs. It was supposedly for her 18th, but we asked for it earlier to pay for the car - which they were happy to let her have.
Saving just £50 a month will give well over £10000 to a grandchild at 18.
I suppose a lot depends on the amount of children/grandchildren one has.

I cannot understand why cars are considered a suitable gift for teenagers.

Surely we should be reducing car dependency and encouraging public transport.

I love the idea of commissioning a portrait.
If they have a love of anything from animals to sport, music to art, there are endless ideas that don't have to involve large sums of money.

I've decided to go down the experience road for both dgc with a small token gift each as well. Dgd has a Pandora bracelet so a nice charm for that is on order. Dgs is assembling a full Highland dress outfit with pieces coming from assorted relatives. Decent kilt outfit is well over a £1k so we're buying the two sgian dubh. There are loads of fantastic outdoor experiences around Inverness so I think we're going for a day's climbing instruction - they're both very sporty/physical as are most of the family(except myself and Grampy!) Dil has just completed her 200th Munro!!
I'd love to encourage use of public transport Grammaretto but we only have a bus service every 2 hours and you can either go north or south. That's it! Most of the kids here learn to drive at 17 out of sheer necessity, all of ours did.

Grammaretto

I cannot understand why cars are considered a suitable gift for teenagers.

Surely we should be reducing car dependency and encouraging public transport.

I love the idea of commissioning a portrait.
If they have a love of anything from animals to sport, music to art, there are endless ideas that don't have to involve large sums of money.

If you’re living in a rural area a car for getting around is pretty much essential and an old small car (or motorbike) makes life bearable because there’s is no alternative. However there should be strict rules when they can use it and who they can carry, they need to get experience and it is no different wether they are 17 or 21 they are just as likely to have an accident.

I thought my comments would annoy some people and they weren't aimed at anyone in particular.

When I hear of teenagers being given a car for their birthday it just reminds me how everytime we have the COP conferences, and Paris agreement about Climate change, there are commitments made to reduce car use and we ignore them.

Driving lessons by all means but why not share a car?

DGS was 18 last August. He is already saving in an ISA so I knew cash would be safe with him. He has now bought a car - with a bit of advice from his Dad (my DS2). I think he did quite well in A-level Economics and Business Studies!