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i always keep a few granola bars in my car, the chewy kind that dont crumble and make a mess on my lap.

I'll usually open it before i start driving and peel down the wrapper enough where i dont have to even worry about it.

eating anything more involved than that seems pretty hazardous to me (well, if you are the driver). Generally I try not to eat all all while driving, but if im starving I figure its safer than being distracted by hunger.

If someone else is driving anything thats finger food goes!

There is NO eating in my car - even for me :)

My rule: always eat in the car. (although I don't have a car...)

"Hey, self, am I allowed to have a candy bar in the car?"

"No! It's against the clearly posted rules!"

I try to avoid stuff that smells or leaks. this is a self-imposed restriction after I ate a particularly drippy and oniony/vinegary sub that made a big mess and left my car smelling like onions for ages!

I also try to avoid chocolate in the summer--melted chocolate is very difficult to get out of upholstery.

eating in the car horror story:

a friend had a borrowed pickup for the day. I asked as a favor for help moving a large item that wouldn't fit in my car. I gave him a few bucks for gas. the friend then returned the car, and later that night I got a phone call. he missed the train back to town (completely because of my errand that took all of five minutes, not because of all of the places he went). he asked me to come pick him up, about forty miles away, at 10 at night. I was annoyed, but did it. then, not only was he late arriving to the designated pick up spot, he was carrying a fast food bag. eww. I don't like food in my car, particularly smelly food, but I sucked up my annoyance. we get home much later, and he simply gives me back the few dollars I gave him for gas (even though I drove about 80 miles total, and he drove me five minutes). I was already amazingly annoyed. then, the day I went out to my car. what the #### is that smell? after searching my car I found, wedged under the seat, the packet of gnawed chicken bones. what a nice thank you.

sorry, I had to vent.

I only eat in the car if I'm starving, stuck in horrible traffic, and have a Larabar on hand. I hated vacuuming crumbs and the occasional soy nut out of my old car's interior.

Eating in the car is disgusting and messy. It never happens in my car, by anyone, ever.

I prefer not to eat in my car, especially if I'm driving. I have a manual transmission, and nothing sucks more than having to choose between wearing your snack or stalling out on the freeway.

If I'm really really hungry (I'm EVIL when I'm hungry), I'll eat a granola bar, but I make the Fiance unwrap it and hand me bits small enough to fit in my mouth in one go. If he's not with me, then I don't really care if I'm nasty to an empty car, and wait to eat until I stop driving.

If I'm not driving, I'll eat anything that isn't likely to drip or leave a foul smell. I do NOT appreciate it, though when others eat in my car and leave their trash!

I don't mind eating in the car.

However, I will think twice before hauling large amounts of food. Friends who cater or have restaurants have the worst car food stories. Catering pans filled with curry opening in the trunk and, the very worst: several poorly wrapped, raw legs of lamb dripping in the back seat. That friend never managed to get the lamb smell out of her car fabric. Every bit as gross as you imagine.

Besides the obvious as stated above, no citrus fruits (always leave everything sticky) and no chocolate, EVER. I always end up with a crumb or two dropping between my legs, staining either my pants or the car seat, and no one thinks of chocolate when they look at those stains!

I try not to eat anything more complicated than an apple or a granola bar while I'm driving...

I once left a case of Diet Pepsi in the back seat of my car overnight because my hands were full and I didn't want to go back out in the cold to grab it. Bad idea. Temperatures dropped to -20 degrees that night and the whole case exploded. Believe me, trying to scrape frozen Diet Pepsi off the upholstery on your car roof is no easy task...

azuki_bean; Surreal... My sister has almost the exact same story, only with Diet Coke and the temp went UP. Her car still smells like soda.

I eat in the car all the time - I drive a lot, and my car has become somewhat of a second home. I try to keep napkins and water bottles and purrell on hand to avoid too much stickiness, and I try to stick with finger food - chick fil a sandwiches are great in their little foil packets, burritos work well too, as long as you are careful not to let them get overstuffed. That said, I'll even eat chinese food if it means I can listen to the radio in the parking lot of the restaurant before I hit the road.
So I guess I do have two rules: No dipping sauces, ever, and anything that will spill is for when the car is parked.

I hate eating in the car, but it has to happen once in a blue moon. I like to focus on my food and enjoy it, and driving is not conducive to this. For me I feel like I disrespect myself when I don't plan well enough and have to eat on the run. Perhaps my only exception to this rule is crisp apples that are small enough to fit in my hand while I steer. However I can't let the part I chewed on touch the wheel.

Would you eat a twinkie while holding a semi-automatic rifle? Eating while driving is a don't! You are endangering others when you don't give the act of driving the attention it deserves.

i don't eat anything in the car that involves utensils.

I don't eat while driving, but I'm all for dashboard picnics for things like drive-in movies, watching sunsets on really cold/hot days, and even before freelance jobs that I have to run to right after work. I won't eat food that's really crumbly and whose mess is hard to contain, either.

Like Joan Crawford in a closet rage, "No food in the car!!!!" Soda? Coffee? Yes, but take it with you when you get out. No matter how careful you are, crumbs drop, and that brings out those gnat-like little flying bothers...I call them fruit flies, but I know they aren't. Even on a long road trip, pull to a rest stop or, off the Interstate, to the side of the road and snack.

I'm much better at driving while on the cell phone than I am when eating but still do both. I guess I'm just a good multi-tasker.
But...
As if it wasn't bad enough that my mother made me drive her through the McDonald's drive-thru, she actually left an egg mcmuffin in the door compartment of my car, I found it a week later, kept it and left it in her car the next time we hung out. She laughed, I didn't.

I don't have a car, but back in university I was so hungry after studying at the library all day that I went to Wendys. I ate a chicken burger combo on the way home. That was a 30 minute drive but I got stuck in traffic because of the Christmas parade.