Choosing a new car for the family can be an exciting experience – it’s also a great excuse for a day out with the kids! While they get excited climbing into the front seats and pressing all the buttons, it’s easy for us to get distracted from the things that should matter the most to us. However, over the past decade, have our primary concerns changed at all?
A recent study conducted by All Car Leasing – a UK based contract hire and leasing firm suggests that safety and reliability are still the most popular necessities to have in a new car. 30% of the parents surveyed in the study said that Safety was their primary concern, which really comes as no surprise if the car is mainly going to be used to chauffer the kids around, this is even further bolstered by the fact that (according to the study) one in four parents surveyed had been involved in a road traffic accident while their child was with them in the car!
Speaking of safety, there’s now a lot more to consider than back in the day – it used to be a case of how many air bags the car could deploy or how badly the car crumpled in a serious accident, but today there’s all sorts of new safety systems such as:
Autonomous Braking, which activates if the car senses a potential collision with a person or vehicle in front)
Lane Keep Assist, which alerts you if you are drifting out of your current lane without indicating (and on some vehicles, automatically apply steering to keep you within your current lane).
Blind Spot Detection, which is a little yellow/orange light on the car’s side mirrors which lights up if there is another vehicle driving in your blind spot.
Driver Drowsiness Detection, which often uses a small camera/sensor to monitor you as you drive and make sure you haven’t fallen asleep – if the camera sees signs of this it’ll often try to make you feel more alert by turning the air conditioning on or directing you to the nearest place that sells coffee, amongst other bings and bongs which safety features are known for.
All in all though, this study is a good sign that parents attitudes towards their choice of car hasn’t changed much for the sake of vanity or status! Be sure to check out the infographic on the full study below.
Baby Driver by All Car Leasing
*This is a collaborative post