Sleeping in cars

[Richard_FM]

Someone I used to work with used to have a VW Minibus, once he & 5 friends slept in it overnight, & the air was none-too-fresh in the morning!

[AnthonyG]

15 hours ago, Sham said:

A week sleeping in a 1985 Metro, as the girl I was seeing was in hospital in Cambridge and I couldn't afford a B&B. It was OK. Front passenger seat reclined, and a sleeping bag. 

 

After a week sleeping in a Metro I’m surprised you weren’t in hospital, or at the very least urgently needing the attentions of a physiotherapist or chiropractor!

[warren t claim]

13 hours ago, grogee said:

I would like to add to the list of sleeping in a Vauxhall Omega but I do remember it wasn't comfortable. Can't remember if I was across back seat or in driver's seat but there were two of us in there. Mid-spec velour I think.

We'd been imbibing vodka jelly the evening before and were so pissed we couldn't even begin to try and find some floor space inside the house let alone a bed. 

I used to regularly have a snooze in my Omega Elite taxi. I used to call it a button 2 moment as I had the electric seat and mirror preset to the perfect position. 

[DSdriver]

It is possible to get the front seats of an Austin A30 to recline by removing two bolts in the back rest. I didn't do it for sleeping mind

[warren t claim]

Sad to say but I sleep better in my Ioniq than I do at home. I put the electric blanket (heated seat) on low, tune Classic FM on quietly and drift away for a few hours. I suppose it comes from sleeping in trucks for many years.

[RayMK]

In 1964 when I was in my mid teens, brother about 4 years younger and Mum and Dad in their early 40s, we set off in the family Vauxhall Victor FB estate for Lake Garda in Italy. Starting point was near Wendover, Bucks.  The car was rammed full with camping gear. Dad, rather optimistically, thought we could do the trip with one overnight stop.  We made reasonable progress but it was too late to find a campsite in the dark as we approached the Brenner Pass.  Dad found a lay-by and, after a tense discussion with Mum, it was agreed that we'd sleep for a few hours in the car and continue again at first light. I can still remember almost every minute of that night. Cold vinyl seats, no room to stretch because we had so much clobber in the car, parents getting stressed because they were getting cold and uncomfortable between brief engine runs to warm everyone up, then feeling more tired the next day than if we had continued driving overnight.  I avoided sleeping in cars for many years afterwards...  until in 1975 I took my recently acquired wife to Scotland in our brand new 2cv.  She had never been to Scotland before.  The journey to Glen Nevis campsite was uneventful, though the weather did not look good.  We pitched the tent, had something to eat then turned in for the night. Around midnight the heavens opened, accompanied by strong, gusty wind and the tent broke a pole and started leaking.  I removed the 2cv's seats, threw them in the tent and we put the lilo and sleeping bag in the car and had an excellent night's sleep - still with a fabric roof overhead but it did not leak.  As far as I can recall, that was the last time I slept in a car.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

My Dad tells the story of falling asleep on the steering wheel of an Austin Metro around 1982 in Central London.

At traffic lights.  During his second driving test.  He failed.  Apparently the steering wheel wasn't very comfortable.

He realised afterwards that scheduling his driving test after the 72 hour weekend hospital shift (Junior Doctor) was a bad idea.

I've gone for a kip many, many times in my Golf.  Usually when Lady Grumpius is in the supermarket as going in with just leads to arguments about why it's taking so fucking long.  Electric blanket, armrest down, reclined seat.  It's not bad, even at 6'2" and size fat.  Did the same in my Fiesta too but that was nowhere near as comfortable.  Never tried it in the Ka.

If it was for a whole night, I'd fold the rear seats down and it would be ok (Estate) but the load bay isn't quite long enough really...

[Coprolalia]

Many many times.

As a kid when we were away racing with my dad he would either stick an air mattress on the back of the VW LT tipper truck, or in the back of the T3 work van.

In my late teens when going to house parties in our rural part of the world I kipped in the back of my Mk3 Golf across the seats. Comfyish flat seats (especially after a bottle of JD), but not big enough for my 6'5" rugby frame. Think I also slept in the passenger seat of my mates 306 D-Turbo once. 

Most comfy is the current mk1 Octavia. Back seats lie flat and you can fit an airbed across the boot up to the front seats. Crack the sunroof, and me and the wife have kipped in comfort (again racing or at parties).

 

[groovylee]

slept in the back of a 2014 focus estate. length wise it was ok, but the rear seats fold at a bit of an incline, so my slippery sleeping bag meant i found myself curled up in the boot where i had slid down the slope 😂

[iainrcz]

I remember sleeping in the back of a J60 Land Cruiser a few times. That was alright.

[big_al_granvia]

had to post this

 

[omegod]

1988 , 8 lads in a Toyota Hiace van parked overnight in a layby in Conway, lots of weed and some tipping over of sleeping cows in fields  ( not me) 

I tried to sleep in the driver seat.....worst night ever as no contortion allowed comfort 

 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I have slept a lot in a Volvo 740 estate

And slept well in this was just that it got a little hot in the summer possible it had a bit with the roof was roll painted black. And it could get a little cold in early spring.

[sutty2006]

Friday nights into Saturday mornings used to be a bugger for breakdowns. Finished shift at 10pm, half an hour drive home, called out at 2am, finished breakdown at 3:30am and thought what’s the point driving 30 mins home, to get potentially 30 mins sleep to be back up for 5am for a 6am start. Drove the call out van (2005 Vauxhall vivaro) to the workshop and parked in front of the main doors. Got it steamy hot on the way down, and put myself across the 3 seats. NEVER again. Fucking horrible. Probably got the 30 mins sleep bit by bit. Grim. 
 

then in 2017 we came back from Benidorm banger rally in the V70 T5 and got to Bilbao dock around 2am. Ferry wasn’t till 9am so all three of us attempted to sleep in it. I slept across the back, brother and frank slept in the front. Not as uncomfortable at the vivaro but for a 6”2 bloke, not ideal. Got woken up by Spanish customs digging migrants out of the truck parked 2 bays over. 

[howe]

Spent a long while (over a month) living out of a Citroen AX in Belgium with my partner at the time, I had a fold out IKEA mattress that I used 2/3rds of, with my head in the very corner of the boot and my legs on either side of the folded forward passenger seat I could JUST sleep comfortably,  gf was small anyway so tucked into the space that was left.
Cut out cardboard to fit the windows, bit of board from a Brico shop propped up on a cupboard door to make a flat sleeping surface, it was suprisingly cozy.

[JimH]

Beyond compare: Citroen BX

Beyond the pale: Mazda MX-5

[Crackers]

5 minutes ago, JimH said:

Mazda MX-5

Plank of wood across the boot rack, sleeping bag over the top, cushty. Just like a 1970s lorry driver. 

 

I realise that's more like sleeping on the car than in it, though. 

[paulplom]

I used to work for a firm 20 odd years ago who maintained nursing homes. Based in Durham I could be sent anywhere in the country to do a plumbing job. I remember getting sent to Liverpool to change a tap washer. Sheffield for a non working radiator (it was actually a trv turned off). After travelling time that was my days work. Anyway much further a field and I'd have to stay out. They used to give us £50 to book somewhere once we got there.

I had a '99 new astra van.  I'd park in the corner of the nearest large services, have a burger king, get stoned and sleep in the van pocketing the £50. It was a bit cramped but I'd leave it ticking over all night with the heater on and play snake or whatever on my nokia. 

I got promoted with a pay rise and they bought me a '00 X reg vito in burgundy. It had windows and a middle row of seats that I was able to stretch out on. Total luxury. I did 55k in that van in it's first year without a service. I used to write it on the van sheet every morning and keep telling them but it was a waste of time.

Another time in the astra I took it up to Edinburgh to see oasis with three mates. We parked up in Leith iirc and went on the piss in the city. Taxi back to the van and three of us slept in the back with one in the front. I remember waking at 3am with freezing condensation coming down like rain.

We never got to see oasis the next day. We went to the satadium and they let us in at 3pm and the concert didn't start till 8pm. We found no drink was allowed in the staium or grounds and if we left we wouldn't be allowed back in. We fucked off back home and went on the piss in our local.

[AnnoyingPentium]

8 hours ago, Coprolalia said:

Back seats lie flat

Fabia is the same. Quite a nifty feature in itself. Plus you can yank the seats out entirely if you're planning to have some storage doowhacky in the footwells.

[brownnova]

A night in a hospital car park in the Pontiac is my most recent car Kip. As all the seats where present it was a sleep across the back seats Jobbie. Was actually fairly comfy.

Won’t be the last time I sleep in it I imagine. 

[chaseracer]

@Inspector Morose and I once kipped in the Blingo in an autobahn rest* area somewhere near Lübeck.  

Not through choice, mind you.  We'd driven 15 hours and 720 miles from Birmingham and the hotel I knew in Bremen was full.  The alternative on the edge of Hamburg looked like the 'after' set from a bad remake of Assault on Precinct 13.  

So we gave in for a few hours before I started hallucinating, and cracked on to Malmö in the morning.

[paulplom]

I once drove 800 miles to France one year. My idea was to have a four hour kip on the ferry but it didn't happen. I pressed on in the v70. We had 80 miles to go when I decided to pull over for fuel in my v70. I let my partner drive the last bit as I was starting to hallucinate. 

The v70 would have done the 800 miles on one tank but I didn't want to risk it on less than quarter left.

[chodweaver]

Three door metro. With three friends. On the Gower when the summer storm made it preferable to the tents we'd pitched in a swamp. We were young and drunk but it was still sub optimal

Mk1 MR2 Multiple times for mid journey naps, and once overnight with a half decent sleeping bag. Far comfier than it has any right to be. 7/10

Xantia Multiple mid journey naps, but the one that sticks in my mind is the 8pm arrival at Reading MWSA. I was hungry and tired - too tired to drive on, so the plan was: Sleep first (alarm set for an hour), then burger, then hit the road again. Because i never took the keys from the ignition and because the car park is well lit, I didn't notice I'd left the lights on dipped beam and i killed the battery, so the plan became:
Sleep, call for breakdown, get a burger, wait, get jump started, hit the road again. Even without the inconvenience of a flat battery, it was not a relaxing experience.

Mk1 Polo. With three mates, though one was sensible enough to realise he would be better off outside the Polo with the flysheet of his tent hung from the side of the car as a makeshift bivouac. Would have been much less bearable if we had not been stoned. 3/10

Mk2 Astra with one friend. Seats reclined, one of us each side. After settling down, it boded ill, so when spare beds in a nearby crash house came up, we took them instead. Driving there, still in my sleeping bag, with zip undone at the bottom to put feet on pedals was... odd

Chrysler Grand Voyager. Multiple weekends away. Always better than adequate, but best with middle and third row seats folded away, a double inflatable mattress, two duvets and real pillows. Oddly free of condensation in the morning (it collects on the roof, above the headlining. Ask me how i know)

Annoyingly, despite many adventures in my Maxi, I don't remember sleeping in it, though friends have done so, with the back seat folded down, while i was driving. They reported it as being awesomely comfy.

[LessThanEqual]

Three of us "slept" on a French motorway layby/parking/something of the sort in my 2010 Mazda 2 one late July night. I'm 6'4, my mate is 6', other one more average height. I reclined as much as I could in the driver's seat without crushing my friend in the back and leaned my head against the B pillar. Not much sleep was had and I have never experienced so much condensation on the inside of a car before or since. The smell was also something else. 1/10, would rather sleep on the grass.

[meggersdog]

First time a Ford Capri in the mid 80's.  We all went to Skegness for the weekend. It was supposed to be two to a car. My mate, Mick was driving and we stuck to the two per car. Rear seats folded, front seat forward then reclined and heads under the parcel shelf. We'd had a drink so the keys were under a rear wheel .If we got a knock the keys aren't in the car.

Second time a Mk5 Cortina saloon around about '86-87. Another mate, Richard and I decided a bank holiday weekend in Great Yarmouth would be a good idea kipping in the car. It wasn't . Maybe it was the long weekend in Great Yarmouth rather than kipping in the car but although it was a laugh it wasn't pleasant.

The last time, my mate Richard, myself and another friend Paul in Pauls Seat Malaga in 1988. We went on a camping trip to France and got a late ferry. It was late at night and dark so we just found a car-park and tried to sleep where we parked. I had the back seat so not too unpleasant.

 

[MJK 24]

I did 14 nights in this, but I’m not sure it counts! Shame I didn’t have photos of the inside, I was quite ingenious.  Little kitchen at the back too.

[MJK 24]

More in keeping with the thread…

I got a job to move an old Fiat 500 from Norfolk to Newton, Wales to be converted to electric.  I delivered it approx December 19 and it was ready for collection perhaps May 2020.

 The truck shown doesn’t have a sleeper cab.  Unlike our other similar trucks, it doesn’t seat three in the front either so no chance of sleeping across the seats.  

On that basis, I usually factor £35 into the price for lodgings.  Only they were all shut because of Covid when the return leg came up 5 months later.  I decided I would buy a camp bed and sleeps on the back.  Putting things on the long finger, I left it too late.  Plan C was to sleep in the back on cardboard.  I’ve never been so uncomfortable or cold in all my life.  It really made me think just how awful it must be living on the streets and I had the benefit of a roof over my head 😔 

[catsinthewelder]

I once slept under a car.  The VW forum I was on had a meet called Tech Ender's where the old hands would teach the newbies how to service the vans and do other bits and bobs.  It was my first one so I was doing a basic service, on a steaming hot day, with a bit of a hangover.  I was lieing under the back doing the valve clearances and it was nice and cool and quite comfortable on the grass and suddenly it was a few hours later and the rest of them were taking the piss for weeks. 

[mat_the_cat]

Many times. In 2009 I did a 3000 mile trip round France (named the BXagon in reference to the hexagonal shape) in the BX. Didn't have enough money for fuel AND hotels, so spent nights in the back. Not too bad, with my head under the parcel shelf to stop waking at the crack of dawn. Although none too comfortable as the temperature rose, especially with (usually) a heavy night before...

Prior to that I would often sleep in the back of the Stellar after a night out, as I lived a good way from the town centre. Never been bothered by the police, and surely if the keys aren't in teh ignition then you aren't in charge of the vehicle and can't be done for anything.

One particular night stick in my head though, for all the wrong reasons. Copied & pasted from my Stellar thread:
While I lived in Sheffield it was a sunny day just before the Easter weekend. I was just becoming mates with a girl who I rather liked, so I had the great idea of trying to impress her taking her to the seaside (Bridlington) in my car. Why I thought she would be impressed with a trip to a seedy seaside town in my Grandadmobile Stellar I'm now not so sure of, but at the time it made sense.

Anyway, it was such a lovely day that we were both wearing shorts. I had the foresight to bring a pair of trousers with me, which, as we decided to stay into the evening was a wise idea as the temperature dropped. Being the chivalrous kind of guy I am, when she got cold I donated my spare trousers to her - still hoping I would be able to get her out of them later.

In one of the pubs we met a massive, muscular guy and his girlfriend. We got chatting and it turned out he was a bouncer at the local club. They suggested we came along, so later that evening we did. Bearing in mind this was a strictly shirt and shoes kind of place, the fact that I was still in T shirt, trainers and shorts made me feel a little self conscious. Especially as I was sober so I could drive us back afterwards! We met up with our new 'friend' and fortunately he let us in, much to the surprise and displeasure of those that were being turned away because their shoes weren't shiny enough!

After a while she explained to me that she was actually gay, and not only that she fancied the girlfriend of the bouncer we met earlier. To make matters worse, this girl was also in the club and obviously of a similar persuasion as I caught them snogging passionately. It's not a turn on when she chooses the girl instead of you...

After a while they both disappeared but I stuck around in case they were still there. I needed to give her a lift back as I couldn't just abandon her! I saw the bouncer furiously looking for someone, so I kept a low profile (not easy being the only one in shorts!)

At the end of the evening it became clear that they had both left the building, at which point I became rather nervous that the bouncer would blame me for it and give me a beating. I managed to leave via a window in the Gents and got back to my car, where I spent the night in some woodland.

Not having a sleeping bag or indeed any warm clothes I did not sleep too well, so was listening to Radio 1 early on Good Friday morning. They asked people to phone in to say if they were having a good Friday or a bad Friday - I phoned in (although was not mentioned on air for some reason) to say that I was having a very bad Friday, being over 100 miles from home, having slept in my shorts alone on the back seat of my car, after the girl I fancied turned out to be the other way inclined and had disappeared with another girl. Whilst she was wearing my bloody trousers!

 

[groovyboovy]

Slept in my Saab 99 Turbo Saloon 3 times, once after tent got blown down in rain and a Gail, I had the back seat down which is not very flat in a sleeping bag, so much better than the ruined tent

One, after throwing up in a tent, I just got in passengers seat threw a towel over my head, then was woken up in the morning.

And finally after driving from Geneva, over the ferry then north of London, I think about 5am, stopped to rest, slept in front seat, as rear was full of my camping gear

Rob