Panel 1: Mike makes the mistake of telling John that since Driver's Ed is a cinch, he'll be driving the Mom-mobile in no time. This is foolish of him because he's forgotten something important about his dad. Said thing is that John's default attitude is that Mike has a bad attitude and needs to be taken down a peg or too.
Panel 2: Mike's deluded belief that his dad is ever going to take him seriously or treat him like an adult blinds him to the warning sign implicit in John's telling him that it's a great time to familiarize himself with the vehicle. Any major dude would warn him that John wants to punish him for overreach.
Panel 3: We next see Mike washing the car and feeling angry and frustrated that for some reason, his dad thinks he's got a swelled head.
Summary: A leopard can't change its spots. A tiger can't change its stripes. John can't be anything other than a small-minded, shit-heeled yokel who sees his son as unpaid labor at best and an ungrateful leech at worst.