Last Minute Gifts for Car Lovers: What Still Arrives in Time

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It is the 22nd of December. You know it is the 22nd of December. You have known for some time, in the way you know about a dentist appointment, and you have dealt with it the same way.

Somewhere in the house there is a man who likes cars and there is nothing under the tree with his name on it. The handmade thing you were going to order has a six week lead time. The thing you added to a basket in November is now showing a delivery date in the second week of January.

Do not panic. Panic is what produces the mug.

What still works on the 22nd

Experience vouchers, which is the real answer

Here is the thing nobody tells you about buying late. The best present for a car enthusiast was never an object in the first place.

If he has been doing this for twenty years he owns every tool worth owning, and the one you buy in a hurry on the 22nd is going straight to the back of the shelf to live with the others. What he does not own is a day.

And a day can be bought at eleven o’clock at night, printed on the kitchen printer, and put in an envelope.

• A track day. His own car, a real circuit, an instructor for the first few laps so that he discovers everything he believed about himself was wrong. Nothing else gets talked about for as long.
• An off road driving day. Half a day of being told, politely, by somebody who actually knows, that he has been doing hill descents wrong since 1998.
• A performance driving course. Skid pan, car control, the lot. Genuinely makes people better drivers, which is more than can be said for most things bought in December.
• A hot lap with a professional. Four minutes long, eye watering, and he will describe it to you corner by corner every Christmas for the rest of your life.
• A classic show ticket. Check the date. Most of the good ones are in June, which makes for a thin Christmas morning and an excellent summer.

Buy two tickets rather than one. Going with him is most of the present, and it costs less than the guilt.

Get the Defender Sightings stickerEighty millimetres, weatherproof, dark green and gold. It goes on the back, and somewhere a stranger spots it and knows exactly what it means.

Get the sticker, € 5.00

Things that still arrive if you order now

Next day delivery still exists in December, but the cut off times move and nobody announces it. Order in the morning, not at midnight, and check the date on the basket page rather than the product page, because they disagree and only one of them is telling the truth.

• A lithium jump starter pack. The size of a paperback, holds charge for months, and converts a completely ruined morning into a ninety second inconvenience. Nobody buys one for themselves. Everybody needs one. The best panic purchase on this page by a distance.
• A rechargeable magnetic work light. It clamps to the wing and stays there while both his hands are busy. He has been holding a torch in his teeth for years. End it on the 25th.
• A proper 12 volt tyre inflator. For the slow puncture he has been ignoring since August, and to end his relationship with the machine at the petrol station, which is broken, has always been broken, and costs a pound to confirm.
• A box of a hundred nitrile gloves. Cheap enough to be a stocking filler, useful enough to survive the shame. Empty by March.

Click and collect, for when delivery has given up

The motor factors and the big chains will let you buy online and collect the same day, right up until they shut on Christmas Eve. It is not glamorous, but neither is an empty stocking.

• A decent socket set. If he is still using the one in the blow moulded plastic case, where the sockets round off the first time they meet a bolt that matters, this changes his Saturdays.
• A trolley jack and axle stands. Heavy, awkward to wrap, and the thing standing between him and a genuinely terrible afternoon.
• A battery conditioner. If the car sits for weeks at a time, this is the difference between turning the key and standing in the cold saying words.
• Good hand cleaner and a stack of microfibre cloths. Dull, available everywhere, used immediately.
• A workshop manual for his exact model and year. The right one. Not a generic one. He will find the difference in four minutes.

Presents that cost nothing and land harder

These are not consolation prizes. Two of them are better than anything in this article.

• A day of your labour. Written down, with a date on it. You will hold the torch, you will pass the spanners, you will not complain about the radio. He has wanted this for years and has never asked.
• A good photograph of the car, framed. Sounds soft. Is devastating. Take it properly, in decent light, and get it printed rather than sent.
• The garage tidied. Risky. Ask first, because there is a system and you cannot see it.
• A booking made. Find the green laning day, the show, the autojumble, and actually book it rather than suggesting it.
• A written list of everything you have broken on that car and never mentioned. This is a joke. Mostly.

What not to panic buy

• A novelty mug. This is where every panic ends and it must not end there this year. He owns eleven.
• A model of a car he does not like. Bought in a hurry, chosen from whatever was left on the shelf, and now it has to live somewhere visible forever.
• A generic car care kit. The plastic caddy with six half sized bottles of something blue, made by a company that has never washed a car. It exists purely to be bought on the 23rd.
• Parts, unless he sent you the number. Well meant, almost always wrong, and returning them in January is a saga with chapters.
• A subscription he did not ask for. He will forget to cancel it, pay for it until April, and quietly blame you.
• Anything from a service station on Christmas Eve. You know this. It needed saying anyway.

Last minute gifts for car lovers: common questions

What is the best last minute gift for a car enthusiast?

An experience voucher. A track day, a driving course or an off road day can be bought at eleven o’clock at night, printed at home, and put in an envelope. It is also, genuinely, a better present than almost any object on this site.

What can I buy on Christmas Eve for someone who likes cars?

Vouchers and click and collect. Motor factors and the big chains stay open and will let you collect the same day. A socket set, a battery conditioner or a trolley jack all work and all beat a service station mug.

Will next day delivery still arrive before Christmas?

Often yes, but the cut off times move in December and nobody announces it. Order in the morning rather than at midnight, and trust the date on the basket page rather than the one on the product page.

What should I not buy at the last minute?

A novelty mug, a generic car care kit, or a model of a car chosen from whatever was left on the shelf. Panic buying is how those three things exist at all.

Is a voucher a lazy present?

Not if it is a specific one. A gift card for a shop is lazy. A booked day on a circuit, with a date on it and two tickets rather than one, is the opposite.

What can I give if I have no money and no time?

A day of your labour, written down, with a date. You hold the torch, you pass the spanners, you do not complain about the radio. He has wanted this for years and has never once asked for it.

More gift lists

• Christmas gifts for car guys, the full list, for next year when you are organised.
• Gifts for a car mad dad, for the man who says he wants nothing.
• Stocking fillers under 25 euros, if the big present is sorted and the stocking is not.
• Gifts for Land Rover owners, if there is one on the drive.
• Defender gifts specifically, if that is the badge on the back.

And if he spots something worth photographing over the holidays, it belongs on the map.

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