My mum clearly shouldn’t drive as she is 80, but sure seems determined to do so.
She currently has the use of my dad’s old car, a 2020 Toyota CH-R. She doesn’t want to drive it because it reminds her of him.
We went out today and test drive an Aygo-X, which was simply dreadful. It was made of tin foil, limp and just sitting in it made you give up on life.
We then sat in a few Minis and they seemed fun. Could buy a convertible for the lols or just have the 3 door with nice light leather interior and sun roof.
So spending £16k on a shit Aygo is out, spending £26k on a fun Mini is in.
Are there any good options that people can provide?
While I tend to be the one chauffeuring my 80 year old mother around, I feel safe when she is at the wheel. If I didn’t, I would tell her so.
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She hasn’t driven for almost ten years, due to illness. That illness is now resolved, but I don’t think that 80 is the time to start driving again. Especially when you can afford to get Ubers (and indeed, she has my uber account on her phone, so it’s free to her).
She told me to fuck off.
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Bit of a pet peeve of mine. Driving is a privilege not a right. After 10 years of illness and not driving she should be taking refresher lessons again at the very least.
We had to intervene with my dad who refused to manage his diabetes and was a total nightmare. The doctor was useless and refused to stop him driving. In the end it took him getting totally lost on a journey he did very regularly for him to realise he was being a tit and give up his keys.
As always the answer is MX5 if she can get in and out of one at 80 then fair play.
Seriously though Uber is the way.
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Is future mobility is a consideration? i’d perhaps look at cars with a higher driving position easier to get in and out of. Then again its been 5+ years since I’ve driven a mini so can’t remember what they’re like tbh.
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Get to buy something completely impractical, hard to drive, and even harder to get in and out of - that way she’ll be disinclined to use it so much…,
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Seriously Dave’s car.
Will do 60+ mpg. Cheap to tax and insure. Easily capable of long motorway journeys . Big doors easy access.
My mechanic mate who does all our cars after driving ours bought one for his Gran he thought it was so good.
Easy to park and light to drive
Or go MX5!
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Dave’s car looks great, but I think she needs an automatic
Not sure about the new ones but the steering is quite heavy on mine
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that’s not a possibility with a Mini
PAS pump faults were very common in the initial series of Mini - most obvious symptom is heavy steering. They were designed to have a very positive centre feel, give an impression of robustness, and low vibration - but heavy, no (unless you were comparing to something with very light turning and consequent reduction in road feel).
