Driving in a suit or sport coat: Jacket off or on (and buttoned or un-buttoned)?

[Widebrim]

I'm sure that you gents have read/been told many times that while driving, your jacket should be removed and (preferably) placed on a hanger. However, there may be some of you who, despite the wisdom of the above (e.g. avoidance of wrinkles, supposedly less restriction), choose to keep your jackets on. After all, in vintage movies do you ever see someone take off his jacket before driving? (Okay, I know movies are not real life...) And if your option is the latter, do you keep it buttoned, or not? So please take time to vote, and add your reasons as to the why of it.

 

[BR Gordon]

I always remove my jacket before driving, to avoid the dreaded wrinkles.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I have never had, and hopefully will never have, a driving license, or the need to drive. I keep my coat on in the passenger seat on the very rare occasion I'm in an automobile. It must be a good 2 years since I've been in a car, though.

 

[redheads'n'truckbeds]

I'd have to say I do both. It depends on the length of time spent driving, and the material of the garment (wrinkle-wise).

 

[MisterCairo]

I keep it on but un-buttoned. I don't drive around with my clothes hanging up in my car. I need to see out the windows, not display my closet to other cars! Unless I'm driving cross country, in which case I'd dress more appropriately, I'm not in the car long enough for major wrinking to occur.

 

[Lensmaster]

I've never heard of putting a jacket on a hanger every time you drive. I don't have time to do that every time I get in the car. In the winter I have an overcoat on and besides it's to cold to take anything off. I will take my jacket off in the summer if the car is real hot, then I lay it on the seat next to me. Actually when I wear a suit or sport coat I hardly ever take the jacket off during the day. I take naps in them because I forget I'm wearing them.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I always take it off before driving and lay it in an empty seat.
HD

 

[davestlouis]

I keep mine on all day at work, and generally just leave it on for the ride home too...

 

[The Good]

I have never put a coat on a hanger in the car, I just unbutton the jacket. It is probably the most efficient method however, to hang the jacket due to wrinkling while seated. When wearing an overcoat or raincoat, I just leave it on, or if it gets warm, put it on another seat.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I just unbutton the jacket, so that gut of mine has some room to breathe, and call it good. It's a pain to take off an overcoat, then a sport coat, put the sport coat back on, drive where I need to go, take the overcoat back off, put the sport coat on, the overcoat back on, go inside, and take the overcoat back off.

 

[C44Antelope]

Most of the times when driving, if I am wearing a sport coat, I'm likely not driving far. If it were further, then the jacket is coming off.

 

[esteban68]

I wear an old tweed car coat I got for a fiver in a charity shop, being longer you can sit on the tail and it doesn't seem to wrinkle...problem solved...if I do have a jacket it on I always take it off!

 

[Widebrim]

^^Says something for tweed...

 

[Cobden]

Short distances I leave it on (but unbuttoned), long distances it comes off

 

[Wally_Hood]

On chilly mornings I wear a overcoat buttoned up, over the suit coat which is unbuttoned. In southern California, chilly mornings are rare, so the rest of the time the suit coat or blazer is doffed and laid in the back seat.

 

[Tomasso]

I usually hang mine up, just like at home or office

There are plenty of unobtrusive coat hangers on the market:

Some cars come from the factory with hangers integrated into the seat:

 

[Chasseur]

Depends on the jacket and how much of a rush I am in. A linen or lightweight jacket will get wrinkled on a drive, heavy tweed not so much. Also it depends on how well the jacket fits and how much of a hurry I am in.

AC: those are some neat hangers!

 

[Doc Smith]

In hot weather, it's jacket off, sling it on the hanger suspended from the driver's side rear window hook, and grouse about it being too damn hot and I can't wait for fall.

In cold weather, it's jacket on (often with a vest underneath and a topcoat above), and grouse about it being bitterly cold and I can't wait for spring.

I expect this to repeat until my widow and/or kid dump the old Dad-clothes at the same thrift shop I got them from.

 

[TarHeel1911]

Depends on the coat fabric and how far I'm driving. I'll always remove a suit coat, where I'll keep a blazer or sport coat made of heavier material on (never buttoned). Same thing applies on airliners and public transit.

 

[Talbot]

I always take mine off for comfort.

I can wear it all day long at the office, but don't like it on when driving.

T