I’m no sociologist, but it feels like eating in the car is one of the most American things a person can do. From nostalgic drive-ins to omnipresent drive-throughs, the car and food have long shared a link. While Kirby’s Pig Stand pioneered the concept of four-wheeled dining, In-N-Out’s introduction of a drive-through two-way speaker system laid the blueprint for grabbing a bite on the road. However, without a tray, eating in a car can be messy. Before the fold-out armrest table in the Ford F-150, before the Fisker Ocean’s taco tray, there was the fourth-generation Toyota 4Runner and its clever pair of little tables.
It’s no surprise that some foods are easier to eat on the go than others. A couple of years ago, we ran a test of the best and worst foods to eat while driving, and it shouldn’t be surprising that say, a McDonald’s cheeseburger fared a lot better than biryani. Really, eating anything behind the wheel is a bit distracting, so the safest way to grab a bite in the car is to park up. However, depending on what you’re eating, you’ll want room to spread out, and Toyota thought of this.
The fourth-generation 4Runner was a landmark model in many ways. It was the first and only 4Runner to be offered with a V8, the first 4Runner to feature available third-row seats, and the first 4Runner to offer hydraulically interlinked dampers. However, the real innovation we’re talking about today is a pair of elements that enhanced everyday quality of life.
If you look carefully at the lid of the center console, you’ll notice a horizontal gap running across it. Subtle, but if you fold the front section of the console lid towards the front of the vehicle, you reveal a modestly sized flat surface. Textured to provide a little bit of grip and about the right size for a Whopper, this little touch meant owners didn’t have to eat their fast food out of their laps. Sure, a maximum rated capacity of 2.2 pounds isn’t enormous, but it should be enough for a regular slop bowl or even a KFC Double Down. That’s a huge deal in the realm of in-car dining.
Even better, rear seat passengers weren’t left without a tray of their own, provided there was nobody in the middle seat, and the 4Runner in question wasn’t equipped with a third row. Tucked away beneath the armrest-mounted slide-out cup holders sat a slide-out tray, built mightier than the one up front. This tray was rated to support 4.4 pounds, which meant it could take the weight of even an enormous burrito.
Of course, the second-biggest challenge to eating in a car beyond preventing bits of food from getting everywhere is having a tidy place to store any leftover packaging. Unsurprisingly, Toyota thought of that too. On the back of the center console sat this fold-out hoop with a couple of hooks in it, which seems strange until you approach it with a plastic bag. Yep, it’s a trash holder, and the handles of a plastic bag are meant to fit in the hooks of the hoop. This way, you should be able to avoid having a McDouble wrapped with a melted glob of cheese on it slide deep beneath the front seats to the point where it’s smelled before it’s seen. Oh, and the requirement of a plastic bag prevents any weird residue issues the little bin in the later Volvo XC40 might invite.
So, shoutout to the 2003 to 2009 Toyota 4Runner for its contributions to the act of dining on the go. While I’d still choose a picnic blanket and a scenic vista whenever convenient, a tray or two does sound nice when it’s absolutely pelting down with rain or snow and the nearest dining room isn’t exactly a place you’d like to be.
Top graphic images: Cars & Bids Bally/Midway
A friend of mine still brings up how much he misses his 2015 Hyundai Sonata that he sold. Not for the car itself, but the convenient little pockets the center console had for holding Whataburger ketchup cups.
Back in the day the Dairy Queen on route 17 in Paramus NJ had a BurgerTime arcade game. There was often a fellow there that played for hours. What was particularly memorable was that he had no arms, so he used his feet. He was quite good.
I don’t eat in the car that often, but I don’t eat out often in general, so there’s that. When I do, my main concern isn’t spills (I have no kids) but rather the redolent vapors from the double double permeating the interior. Yes, I keep the windows open on the way home, but there’s a cumulative effect over time.
I gather some use an ionizer in the car to help w/long-term smells, and they’re less than $100. from you-know-who, but haven’t taken that particular plunge yet.
I’ve never driven this particular gen of 4Runner, but do like them. 🙂
You’re just going to casually drop “The Fisker Ocean’s taco tray” into an article without any further context? We need to taco-bout this!
Why eat in the vehicle, you could get a CR-V with a picnic table as a rear cargo floor
I still prefer the not-fold-away taco table of the current Lancia Ypsilon.
Because you never know when the urge for street tacos will strike.
We also need more built-in sushi-boards such as the one in the BMW i3.
I put a stop to eating in the car after we moved to Hawaii and a family of roaches moved in. All it took was some crumbs and they figured out how to break in and set up shop. Once we got a new car and started fresh the problem never returned.
Gives the term Roach Coach a new meaning.
When I excitedly showed my brother those chicken nugget sauce cup holders that clip into my truck’s vents, he said “that’s not something to be proud of.” Also, I’ve been carrying around the same red InNOut tray in my truck for 20 yrs.
OMG! I had no idea that was a thing! I may have to order some from Amazon, LOL. Nuggets are one of the few things I eat on the move, but the sauce is definitely a dilemma.
Sorry Thomas your entire thesis is ruined by the fact that Toyota doesn’t have a cupholder that can fit anything larger than a 12 ounce can of soda.
I had one for years and never clocked the trash bag holder behind the center console. The dog hung out back there whenever we did road trips though, so we’d have never used it anyway.
My neighbor has one of these exactly like the one shown in the top photo.
She also weighs around 250 lbs.
Maybe you’re on to something with this article.
Thanks to this article, I just realized the sole, useless cupholder in my C5 Corvette might actually be able to fit 1 White Castle slider in it. I knew it was there to serve some purpose. Now I just need to find a White Castle.
Some heroes don’t wear capes
Eating in the car. Using Drive Thru. Going to the toilet in the car.
These are activities I don’t partake of.
Look at Mr. Fancy-Pants not shitting in his car.
Fortunately, this comment section was available for you to shit in.
Now if only they’d put that much thought into the cupholders in the 5th gen. Any 5th gen owner knows the struggle of which I speak.
What the fuck is up with the abject failure of modern car cupholders? We have a 2024 Tuscon that has a total of FOUR cupholders (not counting the useless ones at the bottoms of the doors that can only hold bottle and only small ones) and the ones in the back seat won’t even fit my kid’s water bottle. My 2013 Veloster has more usable cup holders.
My 2022 Mazda 3 only has two. Maybe four if you fold down the center of the back seat, but I haven’t done so in so long I don’t remember. And the two up front are below the dash/head unit, so a large drink from most places barely fits. And then you have the shift lever to worry about.
I don’t have much of an issue with the cup holder themselves but I hate the way the cell phone slot becomes useless when anything is in the passenger side cup holder. We end up sticking stuff in the t-case shifter boot, which then rattles like crazy.
That’s funny.. I end up using the transfer case shift boot as a storage spot too! I also like trying to find a use for the little coin holder spot. So far, the best use I’ve found for it is holding Babybels on road trips, otherwise it’s pretty useless.
Maybe it’s just the bottles that I use, but everything is either too big or too small for the cupholders, and those goddamn rubber liners always end up getting stuck to the bottom of the bottle. If I use a smaller bottle, then it’s too small for the cupholder and it ends up flopping around.
I don’t mind the layout of the 5th gen center console. I do however mind the fact that my wife insists on bringing approximately 25,000 cups on any trip.
Mine usually only brings one, but it’s like one of those 25 gallon Stanley cups that doesn’t fit anywhere.
That’s one of her 25.
Toyota really had our backs in that era. For example, my 1st gen tundra extended cab has 8, count them, 8 cupholders; and 4 of those will fit a Nalgene bottle. Only 4 seats are usable when all cupholders are deployed (honestly only 2 seats are usable for most people). Thanks Toyota for the beverage-receptical-owning people’s truck. Bonus points if you swap in the 5-sunglass holder overhead console from the same era Sequoia. No thirst unquenched and no eyes unshaded.
took an Uber the other week…it was a new RAV4…. cheap plastic, ugly interior, stupid loose fabric on the doors that was already looking dirty and worn in a relatively new car…. I was disappointed because they are everywhere and that is what people drive. to me previous generations had better quality of interior materials.
We ditched our recent Rav4 for those exact reasons. Also, the 7 speed transmission programming is terrible. It hunted for gears constantly. It always tried to get back to a high gear.
My dad has a newer Rav4 and I am so mad every time I get in it for those same reasons. Maybe if they brought back the removable top I’d change my tune but until then, it’s definitely a rav4someone-else-and-not-for-me.
My dad went out and bought a used 2017 Lexus RX450. What a boring and crappy waste of money. “Heated” steering wheel, but only at certain spots where there was no trim. I was amazed at how anti-enthusiast it was. The sloping rear hatch meant that when we inherited it, the hatch would close on our large dog’s heads. It had less cargo space then passenger sedans and wagons we used to own. We immediately traded it for a manual Civic Si.
I also talked to the owner and checked out 2012 Rav4 (last year of that generation). I got interested because it is the one that does not have a spare tire on the trunk door anymore and it has 3.5 V6 in it too…. that is probably pinnacle of Rav4
Last year for the V6 was 2012, and it had the spare on the door. 2013 model is the first without the spare on the door. I had a V6 RAV4, and while it had a great launch that could surprise many a sports car, in the end it had too many negatives and a surprising amount of problems in the short time I owned it. I sold it after about a year.
Just gonna say I fully support in car trash disposal. I got a cheap little thing on Amazon and it’s been great. I mostly use it for the receipts I don’t want that stores don’t want me to throw away (probably bc they don’t want them either). Now they just go from my hand into the little bin in my car.
It’s shocking to me how little attention this gets from automakers. Especially in large (family) vehicles. Kids produce trash! Give us places to put it!
It takes a particular kind of personality to make this work. Is the average driver (esp stressed parent) going to remember they need to do something about that half eaten banana their kid handed them on the way to soccer?
My kids are teens now, but when they were small I had a simple rule – no food in the car. In fact, only water. Amazingly they didn’t succumb to malnutrition and die even once! And my interiors remain fit for human habitation.
The only time we got to eat in the car was at A&W, while parked with the trays in the windows. Now I have to go back to yelling at the clouds, there’s a lot of them today and they need to be told what-for.
If it’s any consolation your parents were still more lenient than I am. Even at Sonic, we’re gonna eat at the sad picnic table and no I don’t care if it’s raining.
That IS consolation, my parents are pretty cool in a ” Leave it to Beaver in Purgatory ” sort of way. Also sympatico with Fairmont Longroof as that first A&W memory was in a Catalina longroof. No 3rd seat, we just rolled around in the “back in the back”
We had a mattress! Back window down of course to inhale the hydrocarbons! Never did me any harm… ( ꩜ ᯅ ꩜;)
Yeah we have the same rule. The only exception is road trips. Which is sort of dumb b/c 3 hrs in the car = appearance of 3 months of around town driving. Pro tip: limit road trip snacks to chewy candies. Yeah they still get lost but I’d rather find a petrified swedish fish in 4 years than deal with cheerio dust, melted m&m’s etc.
My rule was especially for road trips as my wife would insist on packing all manner of crumb, gelatine or cocoa based snacks.
I’d wager no child had died by not eating for 3 hours! If they absolutely had to snack, we pull over. Simples.
You must have been channeling my parents. If I had kids, I would have the same rule. Heck, I have adult friends I won’t let eat or drink in my cars.
I don’t understand people who let their kids completely trash the interiors of their cars. But that seems to be the norm today.
I think it’s the equivalent of plugging the dam with your finger. You hold out as long as you can, but once it breaks, there’s no going back.
I keep thinking of my friend who was transporting gallons of (milk-based) hot chocolate for some school fundraiser in the back of his minivan and, well you know how this ends. Can’t remember if it was days or weeks before they realized their spare tire was totally submerged.
I hope they traded that on a very cold winter day with all the windows open! Ugh.
Someone needs to invent a clamp that extends from your sun visor and holds your hamburger at mouth level.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
I’ll be two quarters.
Oh, that name is already taken…
Introducing The Meat Spike™!
The Meat Spike™ simply sticks to your windshield, extends to your mouth and skewers your burger, sub sandwich, nuggets and more, all for easy, hands free food enjoyment!
Imagine the mess the cops have to review when they come up on that car owner after an accident…
“Hey, uh Chief, there’s still a half a Baconator on the meat spike in here.”
“That’s some mighty fine police work, Lou, mighty fine.”
at least they get themselves a tasty treat.
Maybe a Chinese auto manufacturer will put in a robot arm that will pick up the burger and feed you. When you issue the right verbal command to the AI.
Dude. We’re more than halfway there: https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2025/05/roborock-saros-z70-review-11.jpg
here’s the full review for anyone interested in seeing how that’s working out: https://gizmodo.com/roborock-saros-z70-review-this-robovacs-robotic-arm-is-a-swing-and-a-miss-2000607909
My neighbor has one of these he’s had for years. About a year ago his teenage son saved up and searched all over to find one and finally brought one home. It was pretty fun watching him meticulously detail the thing and learn some basic maintenance and upkeep stuff with his dad.
He added some gold wheels and chunky tires and the pair of them in the driveway (one red, one black) looks pretty damn good.
Unfortunately, a couple weeks back I noticed the front of the son’s is smashed in. He wasn’t paying attention and rear-ended someone at a light. I assume it was cell-phone related distraction, but now I wonder if it was a juicy burger.
This is a strength of the (Chrysler) van. The center console is basically a tiny, flat table that’s great for placing a sandwich.
I get annoyed when some manufacturers opt to try to make the van center console into some weird swoopy thing out of a sedan. The large, flat center console is great. I just wish it were easily removable.
Agreed! Our Odyssey has a nice, flat, slightly recessed center console tray (unfortunately it’s usually covered in everything from pens to fidget toys) that’s perfect for storage. Plus the whole thing is easily removable for cleaning — or just to add walk-through access to the rear. Very similar to our old late 80s Caravan.
These new vans doing the full buttress treatment to pretend to be an SUV or sedan is just giving up function in exchange for form — and why?
When kids are really young, the ability to get into the back seat quickly can be a lifesaver. And even when you get older, just being able to change positions quickly is so nice.
Are you talking about the articulated cover that you slide backward? Trying to keep that thing clean drove me crazy.
Strangely enough, mine sort of looks like it might be a cover for a storage bin? But it isn’t.
https://www.ourismancdjalexandria.com/assets/stock/expanded/transparent/1280/2019crv09_1280/2019crv090045_1280_43.png?timestamp=0001-01-01T00:00:00&bg-color=FFFFFF&width=400%20400w
oh wow i’ve never seen that. This is what I was thinking of. anything and everything gets stuck in those little grooves. Once I figured out a brush and hand vac could do the job it became less of a hassle:
https://blogmedia.dealerfire.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/893/2018/02/2018-Chrysler-Pacifica-center-console_o.jpg
Hamburger time! Perfect!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msGvEtmR970
I’d love to have a V8 one of these if my 3rd gen ever dies
I’ve often (sorta) joked that eating in the car is the main reason manual transmissions have fallen out of favor in the US.
I think there is truth in that. Especially if you include the popularity of drinking coffee and texting (ideally simultaneously) along with eating.
I was still 16 when I learned how to successfully hold a 32oz beverage in my legs and still drive and clutch without pushing it off the seat on to the floor. I recall impressing my older brother driving a manual with that drink safely held, legs only. But yes, I’ve definitely eaten a burger, 2 fingers of my left hand, other fingers holding the wheel, while shifting with my right hand.
I mastered that technique in my Vega too.
If you can’t open a can of Mountain Dew, light a cigarette, and take a bite of an apple while starting out from a red light in city traffic with a manual, you have no business driving at all.
I loved Burgertime. The music still occasionally loops in my brain rent-free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zwAHPge3Ok
Oof. A company I worked for way back when did games for Mattel Intellivision and would have the arcade versions of the games sitting around for the programmers to play to make sure they were getting the game play correct. So another sound loop that lives in my head rent free, occasionally popping up, especially when reminded by things like this.
Yep. They were planted there by the years of me running an arcade route.