3 Reasons Why Dad Life Made Me Appreciate 'My' Skoda Estate More Than Ever

Becoming a dad has made me appreciate the little things in life far more, including the car I drive. Here's why...
3 Reasons Why Dad Life Made Me Appreciate 'My' Skoda Estate More Than Ever

On June 21st, my life changed forever when I, Ethan Smale, became a dad for the first time. My son, Charlie, is my greatest achievement, but there are a lot of challenges my wife and I have had to overcome - like lack of sleep, no free time and trying not to vomit while changing a nappy.

Alongside a five-year-old Honda Jazz that we use as a family runaround, I’ve also been driving a Skoda Superb L&K estate for nine months. We’ve used it for various CT shoots, hypermiling trips, and as of lately, a dad-mobile, which has made me appreciate the Czech wagon more than I thought possible.

Here’s why…

1. Everything always fits

3 Reasons Why Dad Life Made Me Appreciate 'My' Skoda Estate More Than Ever

I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate the Superb’s massive boot, because once you have a child, trust me when I say that you won’t believe how much stuff you suddenly have to take with you.

Pre-Charlie, all I’d ever check were the classic trio of keys, wallet, phone. Now, though, the classic trio has morphed into a cumbersome octet of keys, wallet, phone, buggy, car seat, moses basket, changing bag, …oh, and son.

Fitting these things in the Jazz is always a time-consuming game of Tetris, while the Superb simply swallows the lot in any combination of your choosing. What’s more, there’s always loads of space to play with, which came in very handy when - sorry Skoda - Charlie decided to go for a wee in the boot as my wife was changing his nappy (it went everywhere!).

The large rear passenger space of the Skoda also help cut out wasted time, because getting Charlie in and out of his baby seat is far easier than in the far more cramped Jazz.

Speaking of baby seats…

2. Isofix win!

3 Reasons Why Dad Life Made Me Appreciate 'My' Skoda Estate More Than Ever

Before I became a father, my knowledge of baby seats was non-existent. Maybe not as limited as Alex’s, though. Anyway, one method of anchoring a baby seat to a car is by strapping a seatbelt around it. The other, more modern method is to use an Isofix base which attaches to two points on the seats. This offers you a quick release system, which is handy to get the child in and out.

Both the Skoda and Honda have an anchorage feature, but I can’t put into words how much easier the modern version of Isofix is. In the Jazz, for example, the anchor points are so deep-rooted into the seat that getting the yellow attachment bars to click on to them is near-on impossible. And this means I’m reluctant to move the base around from car-to-car as I know that I’ve got a 20 minute job on my hands just to get it back in.

In the Superb, however, the Isofix process takes no more than 30 seconds; just pop the caps out, click them in and that’s it!

3. Superb safety

3 Reasons Why Dad Life Made Me Appreciate 'My' Skoda Estate More Than Ever

Being a dad has also made me appreciate the Superb’s safety features. This includes the car’s automatic braking system - that takes over braking in case you don’t spot a hazard before the car does - as well as something I’ve only discovered recently - electronic child locks. Now obviously Charlie is currently far too small and weak to open a door by himself, but in a few years, I’d certainly be making good use of the system.

3 Reasons Why Dad Life Made Me Appreciate 'My' Skoda Estate More Than Ever

Over the past nine months, I’ve clocked 8000 miles in the Superb. It’s taken my family and I to Devon and myself and the production team to Edinburgh, it’s been a great crew car and has made my new dad life so much easier. The car’s since gone back to Skoda (as all longtermers do), and with an estate-sized hole needing to be filled, I’m seriously considering buying a Skoda estate of my very own.

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Comments

Anonymous

aeb is stupid
you should be paying attention to the road, not your phone or something else

09/08/2019 - 08:37 |
2 | 8
🎺🎺thank mr skeltal

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

So making a car safer is a bad thing? The biggest part of an emergency braking maneuver is your reaction time, which can’t possibly be faster than the sensors of the car. Even if you pay attention to the road, a lot of pedestrians don’t and will just walk over the street without looking either way.

09/08/2019 - 08:43 |
7 | 2
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

You clearly don’t have kids

09/08/2019 - 09:16 |
2 | 2
jaffakitty

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

My dad recently bought one of these; only reason that the AEB could be considered stupid is that it’s much too sensitive when pulling out of a parking space on a street or something, otherwise though it’s likely saved many lives even when people are fully concentrating, a worthy compromise tbh

09/08/2019 - 10:57 |
2 | 2
Johannes Beutel

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Stop kidding yourself! As if you’ve paid 100% of your attention on the road 100% of the time.
Of course you should pay attention yourself, but the emergency braking system is for those times that you aren’t at 100% attention and when there are things that are just out of your control.
Also it’s not the braking systems fault if people just blindly rely on it.

09/08/2019 - 13:38 |
2 | 2
That_1_Guy

well thats superb

09/08/2019 - 08:39 |
25 | 1

I actually find that funny, smh

09/13/2019 - 12:31 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Welcome to parenthood! 3 years time, you’ll be looking forward to them going to bed…

09/08/2019 - 09:18 |
5 | 1
Anonymous

The best estate for a reasonable price🙌

09/08/2019 - 09:48 |
7 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

No, Vesta SW or Octavia

09/08/2019 - 10:04 |
2 | 6
Lord Saucius The Divine

I agree, the Superb is quite a superb car. I wish they sold them in North America.

09/08/2019 - 10:40 |
0 | 0

the joke has already been made

09/13/2019 - 12:31 |
0 | 0
Dave 12

Oh yeah! It was a happy accident I bought my w focus ST wagon pre-child. It just appealed to me for reasons I’m not sure of but It’s an absolute hero for dad life. So glad I didn’t have something I would have needed to sell.

09/08/2019 - 11:15 |
2 | 0
......

Can you start making dad jokes now or are you michelin or borla already?

09/09/2019 - 03:33 |
1 | 0