Eating in the car
 

As a kid we went to A&W Root-beer for many meals and ate in the car when dad was away on TDY.

As a car owner I honestly can not remember the last time I ate a meal while sitting in my car. I know I have eaten some jerky or cheese sticks on road trips, but never a meal.

Last Friday I had to drive 850 miles to Montgomery, AL and I decided to rent a car to do it for reasons that are not relevant to this post. 11 hours and 15 minutes of engine run time plus the necessary stops to feed the car and the occupants and other biological needs makes it a 12 hour trip each way.

Most fast food places have the dining room closed, so drive through is the only option. Eat in the car is necessary. So for the first time that I can remember I ate a burger and fries in a car. I am pretty sure I don't want to do it again, certainly not in my car. In a rental, who cares, but it is still not a great option.

So do you eat in YOUR car, or you spouses car?

Disgusting, no. smells, things wind up all over the place, undignified. In fact, food smells while I'm driving kind of grosses me out.

Only possible exceptions: things stored in baggies, served cold and long road trips.



rjp

Never! I consider that to be a big key to keeping a car nice. With kids we allow them to have non-staining drinks and snacks like beef jerky that don’t leave crumbs or smell weird. We never grab fast food and let anyone eat in the car.

Only BBQ ribs .... nothing else :D

best thing about driving junk cars is never worrying about little **** like this.

It's a car, like anything else, it can be cleaned. No big deal to me.

The rental we had only had 6,400 miles when we picked it up. It had zero new car smell, just the disinfectant smell of the clean up crew. The windshield was covered in a film of something and had at least 10 GPS suction cup marks.

One of our early dates, Cindy & I were at the coast. She wanted to buy a cooked crab from a roadside stand, take it back to the Valley. "Nope. not in my car!"

C'mon, Man, don't leave out the crawfish!

_

Akron to Chicago commute for seven years. 420 miles. Very seldom ate in car for Randy P's reasons above but my car is still cluttered with stuff.

I guess I work on too many cars where I have to brush the french fries out of the way to get under the dash. Grosses me out.

I will..if it's something easy to contain...maybe a few crumbs to clean-up is ok.

I also draw the line at french fries with ketchup from those squeeze packs...or anything that needs to be dipped in sauce.

And it also makes a difference which car.

I do. If I need a snack I can usually find a fresh fry or two between the seat cushions to satisfy the craving.

^^^ esp the furry ones?

I was highly pissed off.

Some house/cat sitters who got to use my near new car - who I had a falling out with because they turned my house into a party house, spilled food and drink all over the place in the front of my car. They really summed themselves up - pigs.

I will make exceptions of course ... peel & eat Cajun shrimp & crawfish ... absolutely!

Funny, people who do that usually have nothing kept nice.

rjp

Eating in the car is not the end of the world.
You guys that don't eat a thing in the car don't know how to clean a car would be my guess.

And you'd be hard pressed to say I ever ate in my car if you were to inspect it now.

Eating while driving is a highly developed skill that takes practice to pull off successfully.

Wife and I each ate a Krispy Kreme (me glazed, she jelly) this am at the KK bakery store. Yum, right off the conveyor belt.

Heck I don't even allow napkins to be left in my car. I think all I have literally is a red rag to check oil, maybe an ink pen in the console. I do allow iced coffee etc. tho. Even that gets tossed the moment I enter the garage.

rjp

Please.

I do it all the time, especially the last six years driving all over the East Coast.

There is no way I am sitting down to have lunch on the road, especially if I am driving alone. My wife packs underway snacks for the love of god.

That is why the vacuum was invented. Oh, and I keep this thing in the car called a plastic trash bag. Yikes!!!

Looks like I just lost a sale on my FJ:D

Only finger food that can be grabbed without looking and that won't produce crumbs, spill, or melt.

Years ago, I was on my way to a business conference, where I was slated to make a presentation. I was dressed for this in suit and tie. I got hungry, pulled off at a Dunkies, got back into the car...suddenly finding myself weaving around high speed rush hour traffic...with this huge scary muffin to somehow scarf down before my arrival.

Long story short...the muffin exploded all over me, after which I nearly crashed a number of times as I tried vainly to pluck at the suit fabric, attempting to "projectile" the crumbs away. Never again!

^^^ stop...take suit off and shake it...problem solved.

I'm not quite as black/white/absolute as the poll options, but I don't generally eat in my car. If we do find ourselves in a situation where we want quick food, then we don't drive and eat. We will park and eat carefully, and then move. We do try to keep eating in the cars to a minimum.

I find it much easier just to take the meal home and eat. Yea, the 911 long road trips sometimes has me eating jerky or peanuts as a snack but no full on meal with the chance to spill something like ketchup or BBQ sauce. I never use a drive thru under normal circumstances. I go inside to eat.

With the recent pandemic I do go buy my beer at a drive thru instead of going in and risking more exposure unless there is a line at the drive thru. I had not been through a drive thru in years before the pandemic. If I see no line at all at the drive through I use it only to reduce expose to me and from me. If I go in, I part at the far end of the lot and go in.

Eating a burger and fries in the car is not really that big a deal. They almost always come with a big paper wrapper. It's not that tough to eat carefully.

I don't generally do it in my car, but maybe once every year or two. It's not going to kill me or trash the car.

I never used to. I hated the potential for a mess and I never drive and eat at the same time for the sake of safety.
But since Covid I don't go inside restaurants, so I eat out at the Tundra Cafe when I'm on the road and want a quick lunch.

I've been known to even cook in my car. Well, heating up a foil wrapped burrito on the engine of the work truck anyway

You know that KK makes all the jelly and all non glazed for the Yankees.

Just like on My Cousin Vinny with instant grits... No self respecting Southerner eats anything other than original glazed at the KK. SmileWavy

This is generally how we operate BUT the Mrs is a lot more lax in her approach. When almonds were the snack de jour for women, I used to find them all over the car. Now it is sanitizer and face masks.

A few years ago she tried to mount a phone mounting device to a vertical service in her car WITH GLUE!!!!! I was mortified. Obviously, it didn't work but that wasn't about to deter her. Now there is glue residue spot about 4 inches long that is where the mount slowly slid down before it fell off.

If I do eat, I clean. No reason to find a petrified French fry under the seat. Also, I don't see a reason to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a vehicle and treat it like a trashcan.

https://youtu.be/Bd2YLgZqf3A?t=17

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Depends on the car, the food, and the situation.

Never a new car, and never a 911. Can't shift and eat.

10yo beater, not messy food and I'm in a hurry, not a problem.

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I was being generous. The glue mark is closer to 7 inches.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1612385641.jpg

ROLFMAO. Wow!

The place is mobbed on the weekends, Yankees getting jelly and creme filled backed up all the way to the horizon. Actual North Carolinians are like unicorns around here, Yankees here in great numbers. Even starting to see west coast plates, makes me worried.

Yeah, but how do you feel about cup holders in your P car?

I aye this for lunch sitting in the family ****box 4 hours ago, I don’t see what the big deal is. Both the car and I survived it with no major emergencies.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1612393104.jpg

I eat in the Westy all the time. (and cook, and do the dishes, etc.)

You ever notice how its always the germ freakoid people who consistently get sick?

Same idea.

When I bought my 86 turbo many years ago, it was not well cared for. The tan steering wheel was black from the oils on the p.o.'s hands, the white paint was chalky and the leather Recaros were in need of new leather. The first thing I did was to bring the paint up to snuff, then attacked the interior. I found some loose change under the seat, a few petrified fries and dessicated kalbi.

I do not even allow passengers to eat salty snacks in my cars, as I cannot bear the smell
I will not collect takeout fish & chips, KFC, or Chinese food( we never eat Indian food) as I don't want the smell lingering in my cars . If I have to collect takeout food, it will be in my wife's car as she isn't so fussy about her car, and I drive home with the windows open or the Aircon on full depending on the weather .