When your life is full, you need a car that can fit everything and everyone. That’s why we handed the keys of the all new Volkswagen Tayron to award-winning content creator and busy mum-of-four Cliona O’Connor for a spin around her home county of Cork.
With her trademark honesty and down-to-earth charm, Cliona has built a loyal online community by sharing her love of fitness, healthy snack foods and the realities of parenting a busy brood: Caoilinn, Fiadh, Ollie and Jacob.
Between school runs, kids’ activities and creating content for her popular Instagram page (which has more than 100,000 followers) she’s always juggling a packed schedule around family life, and the increasingly busy schedules of two teenagers and two tweens.
With its sleek design, smart tech and flexible space, the VW Tayron might just be the perfect fit for her fast-moving lifestyle – and her growing gang of four, with all their schoolbags, sports equipment and friends in tow. With the choice of up to seven seats or up to 850 litres of luggage compartment volume in the TDI version, or five seats and 705 litres of space in the plug-in eHybrid model, the sporty VW Tayron is built for family life and retails from €54,925.
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Like anyone whose portfolio career includes the job title “mum taxi”, O’Connor spends a lot of her time behind the wheel, so she needs a car that is spacious, reliable and packed with all the latest smart tech to make driving a fun and friction-free experience (apart from fights over who gets to ride shotgun of course).
Here she shares her life in cars.
What’s your earliest car memory?
“My mum had a little red car in the 1980s and when we went to school on a hot sunny day she would have to put towels on the back seat of the car because the seat was so hot it would burn us.”
Do you have a favourite Irish road trip?
“I love a road trip to west Cork. We have a caravan in Eagle Point, so I adore anywhere down there: the drive out to Mizen Head, the drive out to Schull, when you go out past Goleen. Any of those little hidden secluded bays in west Cork are stunning. We do that with the kids in the summer.
“My husband is from Kerry and if the two of us were going on our own for a road trip, I love the Conor Pass and over that direction. I know it’s cliche but there’s a reason everyone loves it.”
What do you listen to when you’re driving?
“Podcasts, all the time. Now it depends who is in the car. If the kids are in the car I obviously can’t listen to all my usual true crime podcasts. I like Kylie Kelce’s Not Gonna Lie, Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place, and Vogue and Joanne [My Therapist Ghosted Me] are always good for a laugh.
“The kids want to listen to things like the soundtracks from Game of Thrones or Star Wars. Taylor Swift was on repeat for about 12 months – it was a form of torture – but now they’re big into Gracie Abrams and Maisie Peters.
“If I’m putting on music I like to listen to American folk – Ocie Elliott. I like Amble as well at the moment, they’re mellow.”
What are your go-to car snacks?
“Whatever I can get my hands on – whatever’s left over from the kids. No, seriously, I do try to have nuts and there’ll always be jellies somewhere in the car. I’ll always try and have water in the car, or coffee, or both. I love lentil chips and Popchips.
“I’ll always have snacks because my heart would be broken otherwise – for me and for the kids. I’d never go on a long journey without having snacks for everyone. I’ll hoover my car and an hour later when we get there it’s carnage.”
Be honest – how clean is your car?
“I remember years ago, when the kids were really small, I was in that fog and I’d lose something and my husband would joke that the council would come to clean out my car and find it.
“But now – I don’t know is it an age thing – but I just exhale when I get into a clean car. With kids it doesn’t stay clean for long though. I wish I could be that person who has a no eating in the car rule, but I can’t. My kids would starve to death because they’re reared in the back of the car.”
Do you like a solo trip, or do you prefer company on long journeys?
“I love a solo trip. All day every day. I love if I have to go up to Dublin for work. I’ll put on a podcast, turn it up loud, have my coffee, make a phone call. I’m just in heaven. I’ll do the first leg of the journey on a podcast, and come home listening to music to unwind after a long day. I’ll try and think of songs I haven’t heard in ages – songs that remind me of my J1 or my Leaving Cert.”
What are your favourite comfy clothes to wear for long drives?
“If skinny jeans come back in fashion I’m not driving anywhere in them. Leggings are good, tracksuits, baggy jeans. I would never drive in a heel; I am that person who changes her shoes to drive. I’d always drive in my trainers.”
Have you any road trip horror stories?
“One time we went to France in the car and got a puncture on our way to the ferry. We pulled in at this random, middle-of-nowhere place and they didn’t have a tire so we missed our ferry. It was a bank holiday weekend, five o’clock on a Friday, not a single hotel in the whole town and the mechanic had to find us a campsite. There was mould on the pillows and chewing gum on the mattresses – so we only stayed there for one night. Three days later we got a new tire, after the bank holiday, and got to go home.”
With up to seven seats, the all-new Tayron is the perfect companion for every situation in life, offering flexibility for the everyday as well as for those special moments and is available in diesel and eHybrid petrol models. For more information, visit volkswagen.ie
