Don’t Lend Grandpa Your Car

We’ve all been there: A relative asks to borrow the car, and reluctantly, we agree to let them use it (after buying temporary insurance, of course). That shouldn’t always be the case, however. There are some relatives that you absolutely should never lend your car to: your grandparents.

There are a few good reasons for this. For one, your grandparents are old. Really old. More than likely, their license is expired, and they’re too old to realize it or even remember what a license is for that matter. Their eyesight is terrible, and let’s be honest, they’re liable to kill somebody. Sure, you can get temporary car insurance and hope for the best, but that’s only going to protect your car. If they kill someone, you’re going to feel like it’s your fault forever, and there isn’t any insurance to protect you from that. Not only that, but your grandparents are so old they won’t even know what’s going on. They’ll think they’ve just gone through the drive-thru at their favourite diner and hit a speed bump along the way. Just think to yourself about how many accidents you’ve heard of in the past few years that involved old people forgetting where they were, and flying their car into a crowded restaurant. How many of these accidents were there? Answer: a lot.

If you must lend grandpa your car make sure you buy him some temporary car insurance from here or visit this site for short term cover.

Secondly, even if they don’t wreck your car, it won’t be the same after they’ve been driving it. You’ll start finding hard candy everywhere. In the glove compartment, in the cup holder…everywhere. Then there’s the smell that you’ll encounter. The scientific name for it is “old person smell.” It’s hard to describe, but if you remember the fact that your grandparents wear adult diapers, you’ll get an idea of what it sort of smells like. You’ll think that it’s just a temporary thing, but trust me, it’s permanent. Then you’ll find that all of your radio presets have somehow been set to Polka stations that you didn’t know existed. Trust me, after your car has been driven by your grandma or grandpa, you’ll want to just crash it yourself and collect the insurance money (but don’t…it’s illegal).

The final and perhaps most important reason for not lending your car to your grandparents is because they will slow the rest of us down. It is a well-documented fact that old people only have two speeds when driving: pedestrian-crushing fast as discussed above, and more commonly, slower than molasses. More often than not, the reason for that big traffic jam on the highway is due to a granny going about half the posted speed limit. Due to their advanced age, time has lost all meaning to them. They don’t care when they get to the store, they’re just grateful that they made it there alive.

As much as it may hurt you to do it, don’t lend your car to your grandparents, even on a temporary basis. It hurts all of us in the end.