How to Prepare Your Car for Your In-Laws

Your in-laws are visiting. You have cleaned the house, hidden anything you do not want questions about and confirmed exactly how long they are staying. Everything appears to be under control.

Then someone announces that you will be driving.

Suddenly, the car you happily use every day looks completely different. That coffee cup in the door pocket has apparently been there since February. There are crumbs between the seats that may now qualify as an ecosystem. Something unidentified is rolling around underneath the passenger seat.

Worse still, your father-in-law knows cars.

It is time for emergency preparation.

Making Your Car Survive the In-Law Inspection

Start with the interior because this is where your passengers will spend most of their time. Remove takeaway containers, receipts, empty bottles, children’s belongings and everything else that has gradually become part of the vehicle’s permanent collection.

Vacuum the seats, carpets and floor mats before wiping down the dashboard and other surfaces. Pay particular attention to the passenger side. Nobody notices a slightly dusty dashboard until their mother-in-law starts drawing shapes in it with her finger.

Next comes the smell test.

You may have become accustomed to whatever your car smells like, so open the doors for a while and let fresh air circulate. Remove anything responsible for unpleasant odours rather than attempting to overpower them with enough air freshener to make everyone dizzy.

Now inspect the exterior. You do not necessarily need professional detailing, but a proper wash can transform a tired-looking vehicle. Clean the windows carefully because good visibility matters far more than impressing relatives.

Then move onto the genuinely important checks.

Check your tyre pressures and inspect the tyres for obvious damage or excessive wear. Make sure your lights and indicators work, top up the windscreen washer fluid and check important vehicle fluids according to your manufacturer’s recommendations.

If there is a warning light glowing on the dashboard, now is probably not the ideal time to explain that it has “been doing that for months.” Investigate warning lights appropriately before transporting passengers.

Do not forget passenger comfort. Check that the air conditioning or climate control works properly, especially before a warm South African journey. Make sure everyone has access to a functioning seat belt and remove anything occupying the rear seats unnecessarily.

Finally, prepare for the actual journey. Make sure you have enough fuel, know where you are going and allow sufficient travelling time. Nothing destroys the illusion of automotive competence quite like announcing that you are lost while the fuel warning light illuminates.

Will all this stop your father-in-law from commenting on your driving?

Absolutely not.

But at least when everyone climbs aboard, your car will be clean, comfortable and mechanically prepared for the journey. And when somebody inevitably says, “You know what car you should have bought?”, you can simply smile, indicate correctly and continue driving.