The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The solution to this problem, clearly, is to come up with the worst-laid plans as a way to guarantee that they’ll work out. At least, that’s the excuse I’m going to use to explain why I thought shoving a 48" TV into a Camaro convertible was a good idea.
Like many of you, I went to visit family for Thanksgiving. My parents are in Florida, slowly fixing up and furnishing a house to retire into, and I was conscripted to make the place a bit more suitable for entertaining guests. Specifically, the place needed a kitchen TV. They’d picked one out, I just needed to help buy it, bring it home, and set it up. Simple, right?
Not quite. My mom’s practical, spacious crossover was otherwise occupied tracking down some last-minute Thanksgiving ingredients, so my dad and I were left with his Camaro. Crucially, his Camaro is a convertible — meaning the trunk is largely decorative and any box would have to fit across both back seats.
We had a plan: Move the passenger seat as far forward as possible, level out the uneven rear seat bases with pillows, and place the box diagonally behind the front row. Did we have any real measurements? Not at all. Did we have unearned confidence in the capabilities of this car? Absolutely.
I, with my Sailor Moon leg proportions, don’t really fit in a car where the seats are shoved up against the dashboard. That left me with the driver’s seat — trying to keep the overstuffed Camaro away from bumps, hard corners, and bored cops who may have had opinions on what we’d done to the car’s already limited visibility. The box art looked very pretty in the rear-view mirror, which was convenient given that it was the only thing I could see.
Was this a dumb and bad idea? Probably, yeah. Was it inherently unsafe? I mean, I won’t say no. But, did it work? Yes! It’s entirely possible, and not even particularly difficult, to carry large objects in small vehicles like this. I wrote last week about using your fun car for your holiday travel, and here’s proof that I practice what I preach.
Next time you’re car shopping, and you’ve convinced yourself that you need a crossover or station wagon or medium-duty vehicle because sometimes you go to BJ’s, remember this: Even a Camaro, with a trunk full of roof and visibility like a Daft Punk helmet, can carry what you need. Give the little car a chance. Who knows, it might surprise you.