Tailgating is awesome; every August Jimmy Buffett comes to our local stadium about five minutes from my house to perform. Tickets sell out instantaneously, though not solely because people go to see Jimmy sing about girls and booze; people want to tailgate. 

People dress up their cars, show up the night before, and party for hours on end. Some miss Buffett’s performance entirely. It’s a huge event on the south shore of Long Island. I have never been, but it came up in my feed the other day, and it got me thinking about tailgate parties. Are they worth the time and effort? Are they even that fun? While speculating and humming “Margaritaville” to myself, I was thinking, what are the best in-car features for tailgating?

Tables

Every tailgate party needs somewhere to house all the dogs and burgers, right? Here are some good options for that.

Honda CR-V Table

Enter my dining room and you’ll see… a table from the second-generation Honda CR-V. Every Honda CR-V included this fold-out picnic table. It acted as the cargo floor piece to hide the under-storage compartment. To access the table, you had to remove everything from the cargo area, lift the table out, and the thing magically reveals itself to be a fully functional picnic table. It’s even cleverly designed to be aligned with the rear bumper of the CR-V, allowing tailgaters to eat on their table at a comfortable height. There’s plenty of room to lay out some hotdogs and hamburgers! As long as our food spread isn’t larger than 33.5 cubic inches, we’ll be okay.

Dodge Grand Caravan/Chrysler T&C Table

If you grew up in the 2000s like I did, you knew at least five families with a MOPAR minivan. My family was an Odyssey family, but I had plenty of friends with the Caravan, and one friend even had one of my favorite features: a built-in table. While you could not remove the table and use it outside the van, the second row swiveled and faced the rear third row. This was a great “indoor” tailgate solution for grandma or grandpa or someone who wants to enjoy the party but stay out of the sun.

Seating

You’ve cooked your food for the tailgaters. Do they sit on the cement? Absolutely not! They need to be pampered. No one should sit in one of those awful sports chairs from Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Range Rover Tailgate Event Seating

What happened to the good-ole days of throwing down some lawn chairs? If you prefer to drink your Coors Light and eat your hotdog in elegance, luckily the full-size Range Rover has you covered with its “Tailgate Event Seating” package which integrates into the vehicle’s rear tailgate and sets you back over $800.

Rolls Royce Cullinan “Viewing Suite”

In case the Range Rover’s seating is too cheap and hard on your arse, Rolls Royce has you covered in the Cullinan SUV. The “Viewing Suite” (yes that’s actually what it’s called) electronically slides out, providing two rather measly-looking seats to let you sit and watch men ride around on horses. Oh, and this option costs $40,000.

Honda Odyssey Magic Seats

In case you don’t have $350,000 to spend on a Cullinan, and then another $40,000 for the seats, you can buy a used Honda Odyssey for a few grand and fold the third row like this. Honda is known for making buttery smooth and comfortable leather seats in the early 2000s, so this would be a swell place to hang out. Trust me, I know from experience.

Music

If there’s one thing all Jimmy Buffett fans need, it’s to hear his voice over and over again before seeing him actually perform. Need a car speaker? I’ve got you covered.

Rivian Speaker

Every good tailgate party has to have some nice fun music, right? Thankfully the Rivian R1T comes with a built-in speaker that you can take out of the truck’s center console and use while you’re “adventuring,” or in this case, standing around in a parking lot. If you opt for the Adventure Package on the R1T and the R1S, Rivian includes the “immersive Rivian Elevation audio system by Meridian with removable Bluetooth speaker.”

Toyota 4Runner “Party Mode”

A personal favorite of mine, as a 4Runner owner, is the “Party Mode” button found next to the steering wheel. Party Mode does not unleash a strand of balloons or confetti from the ceiling of your 4Runner. Instead, it diverts sound to the tailgate-mounted speakers. This feature makes for a great setup if you’d plan to hook a TV into the back of your 4Runner, as the vehicles come with a household-style outlet. Just make sure your battery is in good health, and don’t forget to run the engine here and there! Sadly, Toyota ditched Party Mode for 2020 and is now using the button for the heated steering wheel found on Limited trims. Boo.

Jeep Patriot/Compass Flip-Down Speakers

While we are still on the topic of rear speakers, how could I fail to mention the Jeep Patriot/Compass flip-down tailgate speakers? It looks like a little face with a mouth open or an old-school boombox. While they seem to be disappearing from the roads altogether, next time you’re at a pick-and-pull, find one of these little Jeeps and swipe those speakers!

Food and Beverage

Pontiac Aztek Cooler

Although I am technically under 21, who doesn’t enjoy a beer, seltzer, or soda at a tailgate party? The Pontiac Aztek’s got us covered.

This strange center console can be used to carry CDs and cassettes or apple juice boxes for your precious backseat cherubs. Our very own David Tracy managed to squeeze some of the beers into his, making this the perfect tailgate cooler ever known to exist.

Mercedes R-Class Bottle Opener

But wait! Before drinking beer, you have to open it somehow, right? Good thing the Mercedes R-Class came with a removable bottle opener. That’s right, you were provided a bottle opener on the holy grail of minivans, the R63 AMG.

The center console cupholders had a piece of removable plastic between them that was removable. Upon further inspection, you’d discover that it was in fact, a bottle opener. Sure, it’s a bottle opener and not a wine opener but cut me some slack. I’m still under 21!

Honda Ridgeline In-Bed Trunk

The Honda Ridgeline is a great family pickup that can do just about anything. Honda cleverly designed an in-bed trunk that has a conveniently located drain plug, allowing it to be the perfect beverage holder. If the Aztek’s cooler is too small, it might be easier to spend $40,000 on a Ridgeline rather than hunting down one of these coveted coolers.

Editor’s Note: Don’t forget the speakers!-DT:

Volvo XC90 Excellence Crystal Glasses

If you prefer your tailgate parties to be “classy,”  Volvo’s got you covered. The Volvo XC90 Excellence is an inconspicuous Swedish Maybach, offering “two crystal glasses for when you don’t want to sip directly from a bottle” as our Thomas Hundal writes.

The champagne flutes found in the Mercedes-Maybach are too showy. We’re balling on a budget here, folks. The XC90’s crystal glasses are handmade in Sweden and if are crafted anything like the 240 Swedish brick, these glasses will never break.

There are a bunch of other fun tailgate features built into automobiles, so feel free to mention those in the comments, because I know I’ve forgotten some great ones.