I had reason to be in the back of Audi A6 the other day.
They have rather swish taxis in Denmark, I would say. Seeing a fully functional ashtray in the door of the A6 made me raise my eyebrows and I had the time to take two slightly blurred shots of the design. I don’t much care for door mounted ashtrays. They are positioned so that you must make some funny movements to get the smoking hand by the window to the ashtray or else switch hands and cross over your lap with the burning baccy. Not that I have actually smoked in the back of a car in about fifteen years, mind you. It’s quite theoretical.
I can’t imagine what it would take to get to sit in the back of a car and smoke. First I need to find a driver who doesn’t mind risking second hand smoke and then I need a trip to go on. A canter around the neighbourhood is not really a valid reason to fire up a Montecristo.
What I really want is to go on a long cross-continental trip and find myself gazing at the blurring night-time landscape of Belgium or the Ruhr and then think about having a smoke. I don’t imagine I want to be chatting at nineteen to the dozen either. Rather I feel the moment should be contemplative and calm. So I need a driver who can tolerate the silence. I can already see the problem with being driven at 150 kmph and having the window slightly open (which is essential). The negative pressure around the window will drag out the smoke but create a fairly awful whoosh.
The last time I smoked as a passenger in a moving car was when I was seated in a Jaguar heading to London. The smoke was not sucked out of the car due to the odd aerodynamics of the vehicle and the cabin filled with agitated fumes and bits of ash. Also, everyone was talking.
Who is the smoking passenger? Is it a senior executive? Are they smoking in Audis in Italy or Romania?
Driven To Write 
Richard. I am a lifetime non-smoker, who is completely bemused at the appeal of actually smoking. Nevertheless, I’ve always appreciated the fetishistic appeal of the paraphernalia of smoking, ever since I played around with my father’s collection of pipes and cigars as a kid.
So I’m quite tolerant, I actually like the smell of tobacco and I’m old enough not to fear the effects of passive smoking. I also have an old Audi. I’ve just looked (because I didn’t know) and for some reason the rear ashtrays sit at the very bottom of the door, almost at floor level. However, if you fancy a smoke in the back, next time you come in to Stansted you’ll find my rate to Central London is very competitive.
The Japanese are perhaps the last bastions of the smoker’s art. As a consequence, even as smoking becomes deeply frowned upon in Europe, Japanese cars still come equipped with the full set of paraphernalia (lighters, ash trays) as standard. I often wondered why Japanese imports always come specified with wind deflectors on the side windows; it is to prevent buffeting when the driver is nonchalantly flicking ash from the car. When I see the cigarette lighter style electrical port in the boot of my wife’s CX5, in my mind I always picture a Japanese father who cannot make it to the boot and back without lighting up another cigarette.
That is obvously the reason they had the electrical sockets in the boot. As recently as 1999 the Toyota Full Eagle Laser (a variant of the Boogey Aristocrat coupe) had two ashtrays in the boot. They were mounted on the side panels. It was also possible to get the XL and XLi versions of the car with three ashtrays in the back. Two were on the pull-down armrest (one opening left and one opening right) and one suspended from the headliner. Or maybe I made that up.