The in-car motoring activities that could be lost to history revealed
Classic in-car games and arguments over directions could be a thing of the past.
Some classic family car memories could be consigned to the history books, according to a new study.
Research conducted by TV show Top Gear – which commences its new series this Sunday (March 14) – questioned 2,000 adults over the age of 40 about the in-car activities they believed were becoming a thing of the past.
Bygone experiences highlighted in the survey included unfurling a map accompanied by arguments between parents over directions, or having one CD or tape in the car that had to be listened to on every single drive.
This was followed by pre-planning routes, using a coat hanger as a radio aerial and classic in-car games such as ‘eye-Spy’. The cry of ‘are we there yet?’ was deemed by 24 per cent of respondents to be a thing of the past, too.
Experiences that just missed out on a top-10 place included changing your own spare tyre, discovering new radio stations when travelling through a hilly area or going out for a Sunday ‘leisure drive’.
Top Gear presenter Paddy McGuinness commented: “Kids now will never witness the delights of an A to Z or the games of eye spy in a very warm car. It was great to take a drive down memory lane in our old family cars for the new series. One thing we all recalled with huge affection was the heartfelt chats we had with our parents on those long car journeys when we were growing up.”
The survey also found that more than half of respondents had experienced heart-to-heart talks with their parents while on a car journey, while 47 per cent of those questioned said that they had experienced deeper conversations with their fathers, too.
In the first episode of the four-programme series, presenters Freddie Flintoff, Chris Harris and McGuinness drive their old family cars and reminisce about their childhood motoring memories.
