What the...? The guy was 19: i.e. he is a legal adult and she has no business making rules about his conduct beyond "house rules" that apply to everyone living with her, period. Plus, she had given the car to him (yes, it was in her name, but she was still describing the car as "his"). That means that morally, she has no right to control how he uses it; if she wanted that right, she should have told him, "I'm buying this car that I'll let you use under these conditions", not "I'm buying you this car". Who REALLY owns a car like that is something that needs to be clearly defined.

I'm with your friend on this one, *edit* unless the mom would have been legally culpable for the alcohol being in the car, in which case she should never have described the car to her son as a gift. As I said before: if it was a gift, she had no right to control how it was used or to take it away at will. If it was still hers, and she wanted to maintain control, she shouldn't have ever described it as his.