For the first time in our survey we threw in a couple of wildcard questions, intended to get more personal responses from Irish motorists, to help us understand the Irish motorist in more depth. The level of response was overwhelming. Over 1,300 survey respondents told us what was the most fun they had ever had in a car and it’s a shame there isn’t the room to print all the answers here, as it’s highly entertaining. They can be split into several distinct categories. The first we’ll not label, but here are a few of the quotes:
“Driving to Clare from Cork with my girlfriend, the engine overheated a few times on the way. When left it cool down we were able to drive further. Fun times waiting for it to cool down...”
“That would be unprintable.”
“Lowering the passenger seat…”
“Courting”
“Getting frisky with my husband and being caught by the guards!”
“You would have to ask my wife that one!”
It seems a considerable number of Irish people have ‘courted’ in their cars!
A massive number of people recalled great trips with family and friends and clearly time spent in the car with other people is considered quality time - and not just on holiday. Here are a few great quotes:
“Driving to see Munster win a Heineken cup in Cardiff.”
“Bringing back my little daughter from her first day in play school. She never really talked before that day, and she never stopped after that.”
“Had an unreliable car. Had a deck of cards and blanket and radio. Every time I broke down we sat on the side of the road playing cards until the car was fixed. Met some lovely people. God be with the days.”
“Driving on a Beach in Donegal with friends on a lovely summer’s day. My seats got ruined with dripping ice cream cones and crisps but everyone chipped in to clean up next day... Totally worth it.”
“A few weeks ago went on a road trip to Athlone but went on the wrong road nearly got to Cork. Four of us never laughed so much and we got talking about 50 Shade of Grey and it went downhill from there.”
We also asked people what’s the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to them in a car. A lot of the answers tie in neatly with our ‘learning to drive’ theme, as they involve stalling the car, not being able to select first gear, selecting reverse instead, flooding the engine, etc.
Our favourite is this gem: “When I was doing my test, my instructor went to close his door and the handle came off in his hand. Luckily he laughed about it but just made me more nervous driving him around!”
Others involve driving blunder that caused damage and not just embarrassment:
“Rolling backwards and running into another car but thinking they ran into me.”
“Took my eye off the road and went into the car in front of me.”
“Clipped a mirror when I was overtaking in traffic.”
“Reversed into fire engine that was parked with lights flashing.”
“Crashed in to a school bus. All the kids were laughing at me out the window.”
But there are plenty of humorous answers that we can all cringe at: “The roof on my first car leaked when I turned to the left when it rained, but only on the passenger side. So picked up my new girlfriend at the time to head out one night and it lashed rain and I was turning left a lot and she got drowned. This relationship did not last long as you would expect.”
“I hit my face off the window trying to look for oncoming traffic.”
“Breaking down at a toll booth on the Autostrada in Italy, in August (holiday time) causing a 200-car tailback...”
“I was pulling out of a parking space when I saw a very attractive young lady who started pointing at me and smiling. I wasn’t sure if she knew me or why she was doing this so I stopped the car thinking (or hoping) she might have been interested in chatting to me. She was interested in chatting to me alright… to tell me that I had left a litre of milk, some bananas and a chicken curry on top of my car while I proceeded to drive away! Oops!”
“Driving on a Garda’s foot at a random check point. Thankfully he was ok and saw the funny side.”
“Getting pulled over for speeding and I was wearing a fancy dress outfit… tarts and vicars and I wasn’t dressed as a vicar.”
“Had extension ladder resting on the dash and protruding out the back of my estate. I carefully reversed car towards garage wall using my wing mirrors, forgot ladder was in car and put ladder through windscreen. (To think I clicked for people not to be retested in earlier question).”