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
I absolutely LOVED sleeping in my 4Runner. The seats folded perfectly flat, and there was enough headroom for me to sit up in it. I’d go camping and really look forward to bedtime because I’d sleep so well. I even bought some custom fit window blackouts; it reminded me of sleeping in a blanket fort as a kid.
I have a fullsize crew cab p/u now, and I expect to be able to sleep comfortably on the rear bench. I think it’s even possible to make a nice sleeping platform with it folded up.
I’ve grown up now and sleep on road trips involves either a hotel or a campsite. But when I was young I slept in the car at a rest stop a couple of times during long trips. The best car is a sedan as long as it has folding rear seats. Fold down the seatbacks, stick your legs in the trunk, and there’s plenty of room to stretch out.
Also, I took a blanket with me any time this was a possibility. If you routinely sleep in cars on road trips, why would you go on a road trip without a blanket?
When I read this headline, I was expecting the article to be written by David Tracy, or maybe Jason Torchinsky.
Mercedes knows her wife will read this. As someone with less sense than hair, I usually hide/play down to my spouse the Darwinian things I do to tempt fate – so I can only assume Mercedes is sugarcoating the experience. I bet it was at least 30% more dangerous, 60% more self punishing and 5% less embarrassing (over play shame is a tactic to shift focus), and now I wonder what the hell actually happened during the whole “lost fob” saga…
I, for one, desire even more pee pee blanket content. This, I shall maintain my non-membershipitude.
As someone who makes the trip from Houston to Fort Wayne and back multiple times a year, there is basically nothing in northeastern Texas until you hit Texarkana. Plenty of small towns with gas stations and a couple fast food places, but nowhere you’d want to find a decent place to sleep. As they get more of 59 expanded/done that might change in the future though.
I have grown to hate that drive and will be flying in the future. Decided this last time I am too old and have too many concussion-related issues to make the trip safely in one go, and I’d rather pay for a plane ticket and be sans car than make it in two days.
I have always kept a pillow and blanket in the car just in case. I really should have slept in the car at a rest stop in Arkansas on the way back a few weeks ago, but I powered through it to get home. Which was a really stupid idea and why I’m just going to fly.
Probably good training for anyone looking to make a career as a journalist in 2025…
I can’t sleep well even in a sleeping bag on an air mattress in a tent. The only decent car sleep I got was in a Peugeot 504 with the seat fully reclined. And it was only decent. Not luxurious. And that was more than 30 years ago. 750 miles is about as far as I want to drive instead of fly. And now it takes two days, and I reserve a room somewhere in the middle. I know it doesn’t make for interesting stories, but it’s better than waking up feeling like I’ve been in a car wreck or actually having one.
Cat pee and gasoline sounds like a terrible album
Better album than cocktail.
I’ve slept in both of my velomobiles before in Walmart parking lots as well as a Mercedes-Benz 300 SDL out in the boonies. All of them were suitable for the task, but the Benz was especially comfy thanks to its reclining leather seats.
Back in the 70s I was young and poor and slept and even lived in cars on occasion, never paid for a motel, and when I got my first VW Golf in ’78 it was like I’d moved up to the luxury suite! Now in my 70s and retired with more money than I knew what to do with, I still sleep occasionally in the car, but now I’ve upgraded to a minivan. Minivan camped a week at Road America for the SCCA runoffs while working Tech, great view and a short walk to the restrooms WITH showers, no hotel room can beat that car camping experience!
I was half expecting something about drugs, since you know, narcotics is Latin for sleeping technology.
A car cover is technically a blanket, albeit the same way a flower bed is technically a bed.
Cat Pee and Gasoline sounds like the best Tom Waits song you never heard
Tom Waits was on Iggy Pop’s radio show, but I didn’t know and assumed my radio was broken at first because of the growling noises coming from it. After a second my brain picked out words and I realised it was just two gravelly voiced men chatting, but it did take a few seconds.
Jerry Jeff Walker, maybe?
I’m singing “Cat Pee and Gasoline” to the tune of Jenny Lewis’s “Red Bull and Hennessy” in my mind right now…
I went to Road Atlanta one year in the early aughts and got there kind of late at night. I was camping at the racetrack and had my tent with me. After a nine hour drive though and with my late arrival, I couldn’t bring myself to set the tent up in the dark. I slept in the passenger front seat of my RX-7. That was not good at all. At one point I think I somehow curled up on the floor hard and rested my head on the seat. I would have been so much better off setting up the tent, which I did first thing in the morning.
Worse car to sleep in: 2-seater.
Worst kind of car seat to sleep in: FIA bucket seat bolted to the floor.
It was a couple of degrees above freezing, and the other side of my MX5 was full of spare wheels and tyres. It was horrible. But I was working three jobs to pay for my drifting habit and had no spare cash for hotels at competitions.
“Sleeping technology”… so almost a life hack then? 😉
I know it’s satirically meant, but yeah, I’m finding it harder and harder to function in this century…
I’ve slept horribly in my 356, W111coupé and Figaro on drive-them-home trips, so now I’ve bought another old VW bus 😎
> I am technically paid to do stupid things with cars
This is about as pure a distillation of the Autopian’s mission and sales pitch as one could make
When Jerry Pournelle was writing his Chaos Manor column for Byte Magazine, the motto of the column was “I do stupid things so you don’t have to”.
That’s journalism in a nutshell.
I’d say the gasoline was less a contaminant and more a cleaner.
Mom folder up a blanket and put in into a pillow case with added snaps to close the opening. Works like a pillow in this form, but is a blanket when disassebled. I have it now that she is gone.
If you know it’s your tradition to sleep in the car one night of a long enough road trip, why is it not also tradition to pack a blanket? I get the truck stop blanket the first time, but ever since? Wanna be a real cheapskate, bring that original truck stop blanket on all subsequent trips. Don’t buy more.
I forgot to pack it. I also forgot to pack my sleeping clothes. I brought like six dresses, two hoodies, a tire pressure gauge, and a shirt I like to swim in, but no blanket and no sleeping clothes.
I always miss something!
OK, that’s hilarious.
Mercedes, I implore you, treat your body even SLIGHTLY better in your 30s.
My last insane road trip (4400mi in 73 hours) I went to Walmart and spent high roller money on a $20 sleeping bag and $16 oversized lounge pillow (CAD, so about $26 EagleBucks). My co-pilot and I swapped seats every 6 hours (when the car needed fuel) and we got real rest with that pricey setup.
I know, not everyone can afford TENS of dollars on a luxury sleep setup, but your spine and appendages will thank you long term.
I’ve seen the hotels some of y’all pick. I had the misfortune of staying in a Torch pick one year that should’ve been condemned. I’m not sure this is an upgrade over the pee-pee blanket.
I’m a big car sleeper, but I’ll bring or buy actual camping gear to make it comfortable.
My dad’s favourite feature of his Honda Odyssey is that he can fit a queen size air mattress in the back when camping.
Damn! That’s fantastic. Chalk another one up for the minivans.
I think if you take that cover down to a laundromat and wash it in the biggest tumble washing machine they have with detergent, borax and vinegar on the gentlest cycle possible it should come out smelling like new.
Nope Cat pee is forever
Not with THAT attitude.
Cat pee can be washed out. I’ve even gotten it out of couch cushion foam. Keep the water copious and cold and let it drip dry. It.costs almost nothing to try.
That is why I don’t have cats.
Oh don’t be pissy.
Touché!
Apparently, that’s the cat’s job anyway.
Did that when they were cutting ceramic tiles next to my car and covered the inside and outside in ceramic dust. Laundromats usually have one or two monster sized comforter machines and it’s well worth the $3 to run it.
The headline sort of describes how I spent last weekend, expect I think it was raccoon pee
“Since then, I’ve sort of become obsessed with the idea of sleeping in a car. ”
That’s because sleeping in your car is the new American Dream!
Oof, I didn’t expect a coup de grace on a friday.
Well what WERE you expecting? The Spanish Inquisition?
In this cause I’ll take the exquisite torture of the evil ‘Comfy Chair’ over the lavish luxury of a cramped back seat, and of course no one expects The Spanish Inquisition, no one does!!!
First you get…
THE RACK!!
Then…
THE PILLOWS!!
Only once you have proven yourself to be made of stronger stuff will you get…
THE COMFY CHAIR!!!
(With a cuppa tea at 11).