The Autopian‘s writers are known for doing some profoundly dumb things, but I think I might have just taken the crown of stupid decisions. On the last night of my 4,050-mile journey in the Autopian‘s Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet, I decided to sleep in the car. I could have purchased a blanket, but then I saw it, a car cover. I slept for seven hours under a car cover. It might have been the worst sleep of my life, but it got worse, as I was informed that the car cover was doused in cat pee and gasoline at some point. Yet, I think I just discovered something awesome. Car covers, at least when they aren’t covered in cat pee, are secretly great blankets!
Now, some of you might be questioning my motives here. Clearly, I had to do this for the clicks, right? Surely, nobody would voluntarily subject themselves to such abuse. Well, while I am technically paid to do stupid things with cars, I am not paid to hurt myself. Weirdly, or perhaps stupidly, sleeping in cars is a sort of road trip tradition of mine. So, I do this to myself for free.
It started back in 2016 when I bought my brand-new 2016 Smart Fortwo in Los Angeles, then proceeded to cannonball my way home back to Waukegan, Illinois. There was a point in my journey where I became so tired that it was dangerous to keep driving. There was only one issue, as I was in an area rural enough that my only real choice for lodging was a run-down $35 motel. I didn’t even know such cheap motels existed! The motel looked properly sketchy, and I decided that a brand-new car was probably better lodging. After all, I had seen plenty of hotshot drivers sleeping in trucks and other travelers napping in their cars at rest stops. So, I reclined my seat back and started sawing some logs.
That sleep was surprisingly restorative, even though I wasn’t in a bed. Since then, I’ve sort of become obsessed with the idea of sleeping in a car. If I am on a long enough trip that there’s at least one overnight halt, I will sleep in whatever car I’m driving at least once, just to see what it’s like. I can’t be the only one who runs into the issue of either sold out or bad lodging on the road. Besides, if your vehicle is comfortable enough, who cares about paying extra for a hotel room?
I have developed a sort of internal ranking system of the best cars and the worst cars that I have slept in. My ranking system is based on how good the rest is, and what modifications need to be done to achieve said good rest. I intentionally exclude vehicles with built-in beds like RVs and conversion vans.
Based on this, my favorite vehicle to sleep in thus far is the 2025 Ford F-350 Super Duty Platinum Plus. The rear bench was so big and so soft that all I needed was a $7 truck stop blanket to have a really good sleep.
In second place is the Chevrolet HHR. The beauty of the HHR is that it has a flat roof, and seats that fold perfectly level with the cargo floor. As a result, all I need is a blanket and a yoga mat to have a great sleep in it.
Third place would be a cargo van. An air bed and a blanket goes so far here. The only reason I don’t rate it higher than the HHR is because the HHR is more of a normal passenger car. I have slept in all sorts of cars, from Ski-Klasse and more than one Smart Fortwo to a Volkswagen Touareg VR6 and a Ford Festiva without doors or windows.
Anyway, the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet rates dead last on my list, and you’ll understand why in a moment.
Running Out Of Energy
My journey home from the Lone Star/No Start Lemons Rally in Texas began at around 10 pm on Sunday night. That’s when I dropped off our excellent photojournalist, Griffin, at a location in Houston. According to the GPS, I had a 1,100-mile, 17-hour drive ahead of me. This was a problem. There was no way I could do this drive straight through after having been awake for all of Sunday already. I also had to manage my time just right so I would arrive home at a reasonable time on Monday. So, I decided to drive for a few hours or so before sleeping.
I made it about 200 or so miles north of Houston before my energy ran out. Unfortunately, I found no hotels I was willing to roll the dice on, but there was the occasional truck stop. Well, now was the time to continue my old tradition!
I examined the CrossCab’s interior, and things looked bleak. The front seats didn’t recline enough to sleep in, and I didn’t think they were comfortable enough, either. The photos I’m providing here are what the interior looked that night, junk littering the floor and all.
The rear bench looked promising. I am not very tall, so a small backseat isn’t a big deal to me. I became determined to sleep there. In the worst case, I thought, I’d just curl my legs. Thankfully, I had a whole week’s worth of luggage with me, so I had more than enough material to fashion a pillow.
The problem was the cupholder. The CrossCab has a hard plastic cupholder in the center of the backseat, and I imagine it’s there, at least in part, to prevent three people from trying to fit back there.
I felt around with my fingers, and it seemed like the cupholder was hard-mounted to the backseat’s frame in some way. I bet there was a way to release it, but it was two in the morning, and I didn’t have enough energy to take apart the backseat to find out.
The other problem was that I didn’t have a blanket. This had an easy solution, as truck stops often have decent blankets for less than $20.
Here’s the truck stop blanket I bought when I slept in the back of the F-350 press loaner.
What Was I Thinking?
But I’m a cheapskate who tries to get by with whatever I have. So, I popped the trunk and went digging. I did not find a blanket, but I did find a massive car cover. That caused a dim lightbulb to glow above my head. Not only could I use this car cover as a blanket, but there was so much of it that I could also use it as a bed base. Brilliant! I thought.
Granted, seeing a full gas can next to my “blanket” should have been a red flag:
So, I piled the car cover into the backseat. Sure enough, it did make for a decent enough bed base to hide the hard plastics of the backseat. But there was also so much of it that I was able to wrap myself up like a big burrito and achieve surprisingly nice sleep.
I had to sleep at an angle to avoid getting cupholder-d to death, but I did fall into a deep sleep. Amusingly, I did think the car cover smelled a little weird, but I thought that had to have been coolant or some other engine fluid. Either way, the smell wasn’t pungent enough to stop me.
What amazed me the most was that a car cover worked as a frankly awesome blanket. The thermometer claimed it was only 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside when I went to sleep. I did not run the engine, and, in fact, I kept a window cracked for ventilation. It was freezing in the CrossCab. Yet, so long as I kept myself wrapped in the car cover, I felt darned toasty.
The car cover also felt pretty nice on the inside. Remember, a good car cover at least tries to prevent itself from scratching your paint, so the insides often have a felt or suede-like material. It was great!
I got about seven hours of sleep while wrapped in my car cover burrito. Honestly, I was surprised when I woke up and felt pretty restored.
Now, I felt restored, but the rest of me hated that night of sleep. My shoulders felt sore, both of my arms felt like they had been pummeled, and my back was ready to leave the chat. I had energy, sure, but my body felt like it had gotten hit by a bus. I’m not sure I have even woken up from a car sleep in so much pain, and I’m positive I shortened my lifespan by a few years. That wasn’t the car cover’s fault. It was my fault for trying to turn the CrossCab into a no-budget hotel room.
But I kept returning to the car cover. I watched a sunrise from the backseat of the CrossCab with the car cover keeping me warm. I could see my breath in the air, but I felt nice and hot!
Wait, It Was Covered In What?
I was so impressed with the performance of the car cover that I excitedly told the Autopian’s Slack channel and our Discord server. Matt, probably in shock, asked me why I didn’t get a hotel room, and then told me that the car cover had been absolutely drenched in pee from Los Angeles cats. Oh, that “coolant” smell wasn’t coolant, after all. Matt also told me that the gas can in the back of the CrossCab also spilled onto the car cover at least once. Oh my.
[Ed note: If you haven’t become a member yet, please do. If we get 100 more members, maybe I can convince these ridiculous people to stay in a damn hotel and not sleep under pee pee blankets – Matt]
Also, if you’re curious about where my wife falls into all of this, well, she knows that I have a propensity for sleeping in cars. She wasn’t mad at me for sleeping in the car. She just wants the best for me at all times, and she does not see a car as being suitable lodging, which is fair:
Alright, so I slept in a chimichanga of Mercedes, cat pee, gasoline, and a car cover. I don’t regret it! Okay, I regret the cat pee part, but not the car cover part.
I am being absolutely serious when I say that the car cover was legitimately awesome as a blanket. It was warm, it felt nice and weighted, and it was even reflective for, you know, bedtime safety! Dare I say, people might be sleeping on the latest innovation in sleeping technology. The giant cover that keeps your car safe can also be a blanket in a pinch. Honestly, now I sort of want to see a real comforter blanket set that’s styled to look like a car cover, complete with the reflective strips and all.
Of course, I am only half joking, I think. Car covers are decidedly not blankets. Also, there are lots of different car covers out there, and I’m sure many of them are not breathable. So, I reckon there’s possibly some real danger there, especially for little ones. So, don’t be like me.
But if you’re as dumb as I was and think “blanket” the next time you see a car cover, just make sure that you sleep in something not as miserable on your body as a CrossCab. A car cover blanket in a cargo van? Oh yeah, that would be decent.
Maybe I just discovered the new “killer app” in sleeping technology. Why sleep under a truck stop blanket when you can rock a car cover? As it turns out, the same tool that keeps your car snug in the winter can also keep you snug! Or, maybe I’m crazy from inhaling whatever was on that car cover for seven hours. Yeah, maybe it’s that.
Top credits: Mercedes Streeter, DepositPhotos.com
As a long time cat owner, I can confirm their penchant for peeing on car covers, grill covers, and any other sort of cover they can aim their urine at.I’m guessing that you’d have a better than 50% chance of encountering cat pee on any used car cover of unknown provenance.
And of course, we all know how much they enjoy squirting your tires.
I’m hoping that widespread L2 chargers in decent spots to sleep in a car become a thing. Once I figured out how to configure the Bolt to nicely fit a twin folding mattress, the ability to stop late at night, plug in the car, sleep overnight inside, and wake up in the morning fully charged beats hotels when traveling alone almost all the time.
I’ll stick to sleeping bags though, instead of car covers…
This is really smart — in fact, you might not even need level 2 if you’re there for 12+ hours, so that gives people some options on how to price the service based on need.
I’m already picturing something like a drive-in theatre with all the cars plugged in and showing movies. Basic security, amenities. This could be the next 1950s motel trend, just for EVs.
That sounds fun enough to make me consider an EV.
I should try this with the car cover for my race car bed!!
Hi Kirk!
Back when I had two infants at home, a two hour commute, and finite sleep time I would regularly opt to sleep in my Outback for lunch. Crack the windows, recline the front seat, pop on Car Talk, and saw logs in the parking lot for 45 minutes or so. Kept me from nodding off at my desk.
When people asked me why I kept driving a minivan even when our kids were old enough that we didn’t need it…I realized that all these hour-long activities and practices were a perfect time to sleep on the second row. One of the many, many reasons I will always say that split benches beat captain’s chairs in almost every case.(Also, I think one of the only things keeping me from membership is the slow comment interface. For some reason, this is the only site where my typing builds up in a buffer, like a 2-5 second delay. It makes it hard to type and edit, very strange.)
Alas, Mercedes’ career writing ad copy was brief.
Also: for 100 more members Jason will downgrade to a 18-hr work day, see his family for 2 hrs and sleep up to four hours, with six on weekends. I will upgrade the membership now.
The Nissan Cross Cab feature list includes a hostile architecture interior.
Even its designers didn’t want anyone to spend more time inside than absolutely necessary.
They knew the top would fail, so they didn’t want homeless hopping in to catch some sleep.
“If we get 100 more members, maybe I can convince these ridiculous people to stay in a damn hotel and not sleep under pee pee blankets”
Matt, you’ve changed. You used to do membership initiatives to force your staff to sleep in cars for a week, and now you want them in a hotel?
Cat-Pee Chimichanga is my new Punk band name
Edit: GDit – to the tune of The Smiths “Girlfriend In A Coma”
Cat Pee Chimichanga, I know
I know it’s really odorous
Cat Pee ChimiChangli
Okay, I’ll have to give you co-writer credit.
This needs to be Torch’d up & put on a t-shirt, immediately.
“If we get 100 more members, maybe I can convince these ridiculous people to stay in a damn hotel and not sleep under pee pee blankets”
Not really a selling point. It should be “If you want to see more…”
Wow; I can actually smell this article.
My Dad grew up in rural Montana back when cars were a lot less reliable, and he taught me to always have a good blanket in my car just in case.
Here in New England, the dailes all get a blanket, jumper cables, rug scraps for traction and fluids. I’ve used everything but the blankets but 6 foot me avoids sleeping in cars.
I’m picturing the car cover being like one of those emergency hiking blankets. It was a good idea, Mercedes, except for the smelly part
I’ve used tarps in the covered bed of my pickups over the years. Never tried using a car cover. Thanks for the idea!
“Wrapped in my car cover burrito”
and “Alright, so I slept in a chimichanga of Mercedes, cat pee, gasoline, and a car cover. I don’t regret it! Okay, I regret the cat pee part, but not the car cover part” are worth the cost of subscription. Don’t even change!
was it truly that comfortable or did you just succumb to the fumes?
Well, she did wake up. It might have been more of a problem if she hadn’t had the window cracked.
The car cover was comfortable…but nothing else was that night. I’d take another test drive of the car cover blanket on a real bed, but Matt thoroughly scared me off with the cat pee talk.
Possibly the greatest headline in automotive journalism!!!! Thanks so much for this!