There comes an inevitable point in a road trip when you feel the need to shut the drive down for the night and get some rest. Most people do the cushy thing and get a hotel room, but if you’re a cheapskate like me, you’ll find a rest stop and lie down in your car.

I’ve noticed that some folks take this pretty seriously. If you hang around a rest stop long enough, you’ll find hotshot drivers with beds in the backs of their crew cab heavy-duty pickups. I’ve also seen families in minivans with curtains, string lights, and most of the bits you’d find in a camper van.

I’m not like that. I pack extremely lightly for a trip, so the only sleeping gear I bring is a pillow and a blanket. The vehicle’s seats function as my bed. This had led to both great and horrible sleeping experiences on the road.

The worst sleeping experience I’ve had is, without a doubt, the Scion iQ.

The iQ has a couple of problems working against it. The car is too small to actually lie down in, but that’s not surprising because, well, it’s super tiny. The little Scion makes up for it with front seats that recline pretty far back. However, these seats are about as comfortable as the ones you’ll find in a city bus. The only times I ever catch anything resembling sleep in the iQ is when I’m a drunk passenger.

Weirdly, this isn’t an issue for the Smart Fortwo (below), because the Smart has a fold-flat passenger seat. If you’re traveling solo, bring a couple of pillows, a yoga mat, and a blanket, and you should be able to achieve something resembling okay-ish sleep. Or, bring a tiny inflatable mattress and have surprisingly decent sleep.

I’m usually driving a big truck of some kind when I pick up a car from across the country, so I typically just lie down in the back seat with a pillow and blanket and achieve a decent night’s sleep.

I expected the 2025 Ford F-250 Super Duty XL regular cab loaner that I have right now to be no different.

It doesn’t have a back seat, but it does have a 40/20/40 bench seat that looks like it could be a decent bed. Unfortunately, the center part of the bench folds, but it does not recline. It also doesn’t move back. So, if the center of the bench is in the way, there’s not much you can do about it. This makes the regular cab F-250 one of my least pleasurable sleeping experiences.

My favorite road trip sleeping experience yet was in the 2025 Ford F-350 Super Duty Platinum Plus. Ford went through a lot of work to make its flagship Super Duty as comfortable as a luxury car. The F-350’s seats do an amazing job of soaking up huge bumps. A byproduct of this is that the rear seat is almost as comfortable as the bed I have at home.

I was able to get a full eight hours of sleep in the back of the F-350, and I felt as refreshed as I would have sleeping at home. That was with nothing more than using my clothes as a pillow and a truck stop blanket.

Here’s where I turn things over to you: What car has the best seats for snoozing? For the purposes of this exercise, the cargo areas of vans and wagons don’t count, we’re strictly talking seat-sleeping. Recline and relax, stretch out across the rear bench … what cars are most comfy for a night?