It’s interesting how the mindset changes over time. I refer to cars and kids. Anyone and cars for that matter. But when my kids were younger, I do remember having animated and quite fun discussions about safety and cars and learning to drive.
What I thought, was this, - and it makes me shake my head just the littlest bit. Kids should learn to drive in basic vehicles. There’s some chance I included no power steering in that ‘basic vehicle’ category because that’s what I learnt to drive in and it was fine. Fun, even.
But then I remember going a little further and thinking all first cars should be pretty basic cars because there’ll be scrapes and dings and why would you waste a fancy car on a freshly minted driver who might not respect it, or worse, control it.
The Kids Learning to Drive
When the kids got closer to driving my mindset started to change. Not just for learning to drive, but for when they’re out there on their own on the open road or in the cut and thrust of traffic.
For the record, our youngest drives a Subaru. She did have an old Outback and upgraded to a newish (2015 or so) Forester. We own a Subaru Outback and have since new, purchased in 2018 – long before I became an ambassador for Subaru – just saying. The reasons we bought that first Subaru Outback were firmly rooted in safety, family and being quite cool. Thankfully, the tech and safety features have served us well. Of course, the car has blemishes, stories etched in the duco from silly things like descending garage doors or parking lot scrapes against shopping trolleys. Annoying but expected.
Having said that, I do look at the new Subaru Crosstrek with wonder. It’s like a how-to guide for looking out for your family when you’re not actually with them. Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive underpins majority of Subaru’s, and it’s a feature that ensures the right amount of power goes to the right wheel at the right time to ensure the car responds the way it’s meant to, especially when cornering.
Safety of the Crosstrek
The Subaru Crosstrek, a mighty yet smaller SUV does take it up a few notches in the safety stakes. Some little treasures include the Driver Monitoring System – Driver Focus (DMS)*Driver Monitoring System performance and capability dependent on environmental and technical conditions. Refer to Owner’s Manual for full details. which recognizes when the driver is showing signs of fatigue – good for all drivers, but for newer drivers who are out there and possibly long-hauling for the first time, a brilliant feature keeping a gentle eye on them. That’s how it feels, anyway.
The Blind Spot Detection and EyeSight® Driver Assist come together to work like we probably would as parents if we were riding along with them. In fact, lots of the features help to do the job we would probably do if we’re driving with our kids, but in a nicer tone. We’d go, “Look out, there’s a car in your blind spot!” The side mirror lights up with a light, that gently reminds the driver to “look out, there’s a car back here in your blind spot".
So, back to that younger self and the driving mindset for new drivers and how they find their feet on the road. He’s a bit of an idiot, that bloke...
Andrew Daddo
Subaru Ambassador
Paid Partnership
