I’m not going to try a poll because Yes/No is boring and there’s no way I could imagine all the rules people might have, so just share, please. Do you have rules when people are in your car, and what are they?
We just bought a new car - a Hyundai Sonata - and we agreed there would be a no-eating-in-the-car rule. Drinks are OK, since it’s almost always a soda in a capped cup with a straw. But food opens you up to crumbs, grease, smears, upholstery stains, and ancient french fries under the seat. This was spawned by the memory of the first time my husband drove my then-new car and dripped frosting on the seat between his legs - in MY new car!!! :eek:
Another rule, but I doubt that it’ll come up, is no smoking. The few folks we know who do smoke are very courteous about keeping outside and away from the rest of us.
When we were kids - there were 5 of us crammed into a big ol’ station wagon - our parents had rules about who got the window seats and who got the hump. I don’t remember them now, but they were vital 50 years ago!
What are your vehicular “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not” requirements?
I do the driving. Blackjack says he knows how to drive, but I think he’s lying. Maybe an automatic, but he definitely can’t drive a stick. I don’t believe he caught a mailtruck either.
No eating, except for me. The rule really applies only to my kids, because they’re less concerned about dropping their snacks on the seats, which they then forget about and weeks later I’m cleaning off the leather after scraping something sticky off of it after it got wedged in the crack. Back in the days of their sippy cups and Cheerios and raisins, my wife’s car took on the smell of a wet dog (we don’t have a dog), and it persists to this day. So no eating.
I have no-smoking. But I have a large dog, and any other rules are pretty much a drop in the ocean of the smell and mess he makes in the car. There’s not much point having them. It’s a dogmobile, and it looks and smells like one.
Buckle up. The more you complain about the song on the radio, the more I’ll turn up the volume. You may not touch your sister for any reason whatsoever.
I do not put the car into gear before you put on your seatbelt. If my nieces can do it, so can you.
Music is the driver’s choice. Generally, I try to meet you halfway but really you can deal with something that is not your first choice for the duration of the ride.
We can talk the entire ride if you want but I will never make eye contact so don’t get pissy about it.
All of the no-smoking people are kind of surprising. As a non-smoker, not a single one of my friends has ever even asked to light up in the car.
They aren’t posted or anything, but mostly just the obvious stuff like no smoking. I wouldn’t even care so much about seat belts if my car didn’t “BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” for 5 minutes when the passenger isn’t buckled in.
Seatbelts required. Smoking prohibited: years ago a guy refused to ride a mile with me because I wouldn’t let him smoke in the car :rolleyes:. When my wife starts kibitzing about what I’m doing, I tell her: If you want to drive, get in the back seat.
My husband used to have a bad habit of leaving crap in my car. Like newspapers; he would read the paper while I was driving and then toss it in the back, and when we got out, it was as if it had never existed. Or fast-food bags on long trips. My car isn’t a model of cleanliness, but when you stop for gas or the next time you stop for food, you throw out the crap that has accumulated since last time. He has acceded to my wishes. His car is his own business.
My car radio does not play certain “artists.” There’s just something wrong with the reception.
No smoking. Wear seatbelts. I get to pick the music. Nobody drives my car but me and the spouse.
The no-eating rule is situational, and depends on the potential messiness of the eater. For example, the spouse is allowed to eat in my car because he’s quite fastidious about it. My mom wasn’t, because she wasn’t.
This one is for the spouse only, since we have different levels of clutter tolerance: Complaining about clutter in my car is not permitted. You keep yours the way you like, and I’ll keep mine the way I like. You want to take my car, you put up with my mess (which isn’t actually all that bad, but he’s a major neat-nut and hates to have anything extraneous in his car.)
Oh, one more (this one’s mostly for the spouse too): Never, ever throw away anything in my car, even if it looks like trash (unless it’s clearly obvious trash, like a McDonald’s wrapper or something). Always ask first.
The copilot is in charge of temp control and of music. This includes paying attention to other people’s opinions, and ensuring that we don’t get stuck with the same tape (what?) for 6 hours.
It’s derived from the system my parents came up with when we first got a car with a sound system. I didn’t realize how important and useful it was until I first found myself in a car in which the rule was “the owner is in charge of the music”. Dad bought a 24-tape box. We defined two groups, “parents” and “children” (I think I was 11, I’d noticed that Elvis’ movies had horrible stories and good music but that was about as far as I’d gotten in “getting my own musical taste”). Each group could select up to 12 tapes before a trip, and I was in charge of ensuring that we cycled to them (1 parents, 1 us, 1 parents, 1 us…), taking the last tape from Mom and handing her the next one. Eventually it became 3 groups, later 4, but the basic system to make sure that we all got to hear music we liked and nobody had to put up with 3 rounds of In the Mood (Smurfs version), survived all the way into our adulthoods.
If you talk to the driver while the driver is parking/pulling out, the driver has the God-given right to curse you into the next century.
Any car I’m driving does not move until everybody is wearing a seatbelt (or properly sat in a baby chair). It’s both a legal requirement and a “I’m the one with the keys” requirement.
