5 Ways to Spot a Dad Car

There are over 25 million passenger cars registered for use on UK roads; some large, able to seat seven or more like a small minibus; some are small seating just two with a boot seemingly big enough for a laptop and nothing more. Many are new with still gleaming paint jobs, others are older but considered classic, at least by their owners. Britain’s cars come in all shapes and sizes but it’s often not hard to spot the type of person who drives them. With Father’s Day just around the corner here’s our top 5 ways to spot a car driven by a Dad!

1. Choice of Vehicle

Having kids makes you reassess a lot of things in life but notably it makes you think a bit more practically. Gone is the year 2009BC (Before Children) when all you ever dreamed off was owning your own sporty cabriolet with a soft top roof for summer ‘cruises’, there’s nowhere to put the child seat for a start. No, when Dad chooses a new car he needs to consider if there’s plenty of boot space for the buggy, how many doors it has (have you tried putting a baby in a 3-door car with a rear facing child seat?), and are there enough cubby holes and cup holders for all the inevitable baby and child gear you’ll need to take on every trip. A reliable runner wouldn’t hurt either. For this reason look out for models like the Ford Mondeo, the Volkswagen Passat or the Skoda Supreme or even SUVs like the Volvo XC90. The added space and practical features means there’s a good chance there’s a Dad behind the wheel.

2. The Soundtrack to Dad

Stuck in traffic, windows down, you can tell a lot about the other drivers from what they are listening to. But Dad’s car is unmistakeable, belting out rock classics from Dire Straits to Status Quo. To him, The Chain is: “the seminal driving anthem from Fleetwood Mac’s iconic 11^th album Rumours”, to you it’s: “that song off the Formula One”. Younger Dad’s have slightly different taste but can be identified just as easily from their collection of 90’s Indie including Blur, Pulp, The Verve and of course Oasis.

If it’s the radio they’ve got on, listen out for Radio 2 or Planet Rock, all good Dad material playing ‘proper music’ rather than ‘that noise the kids listen to these days’!

3. Window Suckers

It’s my theory that no one buys any of the myriad signs available to display in your car until you become a parent. Starting with the obligatory ‘Baby on Board’ sign, this one at least has a purpose in that you hope the driver behind you may be a little more considerate and, in the event of an accident, the emergency services do actually use them as an indication that a child may be in the vehicle. But then there are others, the funny ones like ‘Dad’s Taxi’, ‘My Other Car’s a Porsche’ and for the Dad struggling with hair loss, ‘Slaphead on Board’. No Dad ever buys these signs themselves but, as gifts from their kids and other family members, they feel obliged to display them in the window for the world to see.

An extension of the window sign is the sun shade that suckers on to the windows to stop direct sunlight glaring into the kid's eyes in the back seats. In my own experience these visors are fairly ineffective, block little light and only serve to promote the kid’s TV franchises printed on the mesh. Nothing says Dad’s car more than a Peppa Pig or Frozen sun shade in the back windows!

4. External Paraphernalia from the year dot

What better way for Dad to show a little national pride than with a set of clip on flags for the car? These things were big a few years back when England would actually lose on penalties rather than in the group stages and the fad seems to have died down a bit since then. But it’s the Euros and Dad can’t resist. Plus with the Olympics this summer, the market traders are bound to be selling all manner of Union Flag versions and other patriotic car paraphernalia like wing mirror covers and bumper stickers.

Love them or hate them, when the nation has a sporting event, these things are everywhere. The problem is, Dad’s a busy man and long after the event is over the flags and other gubbins still remain on the car. Flags aren’t the only outdated items classically found on cars belonging to Dads; look out for faded giant red noses that have been attached to the front of the car since around Comic Relief 2003.

5. The Beaded Chair

Dad’s not as young as he wishes he was anymore. But with age comes a new outlook on life and a preference for comfort over style. That’s when you decide you need a beaded chair cover.

As a young man you wouldn’t be seen dead adding one of these things to your driver’s seat, but Dad is older and wiser now, realising that while they might not look all that, on a hot day the beads allow air to circulate between your body and the car seat so you don’t get hot, sweaty and uncomfortable. Perfect for long drives and the reason why you see so many taxi drivers with them.

The lower back rest is no different. Dad’s friends would have laughed at him back in the day for having one of these. Now they want to know where they can get one too for a bit of added support.

Dad’s car might be quirky but regular preventative maintenance has never been more important especially now the car is being used to ferry the kids around (Dad’s Taxi remember?). At Kwik Fit we provide a range of vehicle service packages to keep your car in a roadworthy and safe condition, including a combined service and MOT. We also provide a number of free services like our thorough 40-point brake check.

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