ogrisker
Ready to race!
- Location
- California
Absolutely NO EATING FOOD IN THE CAR 
7
How did you "kid proof" your car?
- Thread starter koalb
- Start date
My daughter likes to kick front seat and touch everything with her feet while I am driving. The main thing is not to have any liquid food in the car, crumbs are fine, you can clean it later. I already have bunch of dents from seat belt caught between doors. They don’t care, I try not to either.
Charlotte.:R
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Charlotte
- Car(s)
- '18 Golf R 6MT
Absolutely NO EATING FOOD IN THE CAR
Pretty much this. And only water to drink.
We never really take my car on trips because my wife can't drive manual, so it's easy to get around the "we're hungry" complaints.
those are the very high value, high return items--probably the top two on the list.
I would let some eating happen on long trips--but baked Goldfish only, nothing fried, nothing crumbly like bread, nothing else. Goldfish crumbs vacuum out easily and don't cause lasting damage.
Water only--not only is it a good thing to teach for in the car, it's a great thing to teach for life. My kids drink water only; they will drink milk or apple cider now and then, but only at a meal. And my daughter will make and drink hot herbal tea. But overall they drink nothing but water. No soda, nothing else. They *hate* soda of any kind.
It's all in how they start out life, I guess.
My parents owned a restaurant years ago. Soda was a few cents worth of cola syrup, a little CO2, water, and the cup. It was their top revenue stream.
Charlotte.:R
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Charlotte
- Car(s)
- '18 Golf R 6MT
We're a little more flexible in the wife's car, especially during our annual Disney vacation or on a longer drive. But even then, yeah, dried foods like goldfish, nuts, pretzels, apple sauce squishy etc.
I'm an aquaholic, and my kids are turning into the same. They both keep count of how many times they refill their water bottle each day. My oldest is 7, and I could count on my hands how many times shes had soda lol.
Which is why, when you go into a restaurant, the drinks are $3.29. Sure, you want the $5 lunch burger special with the unlimited fries. But you will, without thought, also buy the drink.
(It's not unlike the camera sales business.)
If I get a drink out, be it restaurant or convenience store, I'll skip the ice and at least get 3-4 times the overpriced product for my money. (Do yourself a favor: get a drink at the convenience store, maybe a 32 ouncer; fill the cup brimming with ice, then fill it with drink. Then pour the liquid into a measuring cup.)
Chinese buffets spent A LOT of time and effort making sure your water glass is full. It fills you up, and is much cheaper than chicken.
Etc, etc.
takemorepills
Ready to race!
- Location
- USA
Recently turned in my leased GTI SE (leather interior).
We didn't do anything special to care for the car. Took long road trips, ate whatever we wanted in the car, got it very dirty. At lease turn-in, the car looked like brand new. It's not that I didn't care about the car, we treated it like that because the interior seemed very durable.
The GTI has one of the best wearing interiors of any car I have ever owned (except for the steering wheel leather, that seemed too delicate)
Oh, and the paint was very strong too, I drove fairly aggressively and never had any rock chips. Already have 2 rock chips on the Q60 that replaced the GTI, and I drove the Q60 less aggressively than I did the GTI.
We didn't do anything special to care for the car. Took long road trips, ate whatever we wanted in the car, got it very dirty. At lease turn-in, the car looked like brand new. It's not that I didn't care about the car, we treated it like that because the interior seemed very durable.
The GTI has one of the best wearing interiors of any car I have ever owned (except for the steering wheel leather, that seemed too delicate)
Oh, and the paint was very strong too, I drove fairly aggressively and never had any rock chips. Already have 2 rock chips on the Q60 that replaced the GTI, and I drove the Q60 less aggressively than I did the GTI.
STL11
Ready to race!
I have rear seat protectors under my kids’ car seats and kickpads on the front seat backs. Other than that, I just try to avoid giving them anything crazy messy. Regular leather cleaner and vacuuming. We mainly roadtrip in my wife’s Outback, so my GTI stays basically clean at all times.
