Glove box!

Like you - "glove compartment" - never thought about why - it is suppose to hold driving gloves???? Funny.....Based on what I keep in mine, it should be called mystery junk compartment :)-like that junk drawer in the kitchen!

glove box

glove box

glove compartment! And my mother explained to me when I was little, it was where a lady put an extra pair of gloves in case she left the house without them.

That said, I agree that it should be renamed the mystery junk compartment since there is everything from maps (pre-gps days) to all the service records from the vehicle, extra mini packs of Kleenex, bandaids, Tylenol of questionable age, flashlight, and other detritus. Gee - sounds a LOT like my handbag (or is that pocketbook?)!

Alexa

Glove compartment....containing maps, a history of mainatnance of the car, tire gauge and band aids and old tissue packs as well as a pair of pruners in case I should run across a lovely stand of something I might neet to snitch a sample of....
Hating the link I see in the preview to an advertisement!!!!
Linda C

I call it the glove compartment but how odd is it that I keep a pair of knit gloves in the console?? I better get them outta there and put them where they belong, in the glove compartment!

Now just in case you're wondering why I even own a pair of gloves is that our Thanksgiving was warm. I spent the night down at my daughters house and the next day we got up to go Black Friday Shopping and it was COLD out! So we bought these knit gloves. After we shopped I stuck mine in the console.

There now, you can all stop wondering why a girl in Florida has gloves in the car. hahhahah!

Glove compartment! Contains car manual, kleenex, road maps, no gloves.

Funny that you should ask because the other day I was sitting with some British folks having coffee and talking about cars, namely that my central locking needed repairs because I couldn't lock the trunk. They said to me...'you must be from over the pond....because you called the boot the trunk.'

I answered ...'yes but a boot is something you wear on your foot, it's not part of a car.' We had a good laugh!

(In Spanish it's the maletero or luggage compartment, as 'maleta' means suitcase.)

SharonCb

Glove compartment. And it's always far to small to carry everything I need to put in it.

Yes Sharon and the hood is called the bonnet across the pond. LOL

Glove compartment. Never heard it called anything else until a few years ago. Then I noticed that the car manufacturers were writing "glove box" or "glovebox" in their promotional materials. I think that was the creation of advertising people who thought it sounded cooler.

Yeah....well we must be cool, right?

I wonder if this is leftover from the early, early days of driving when people (men) actually wore special coats (dusters I think they called them), hats, goggles, and yes, gloves to drive a horseless carriage? I never heard this container referred to as a place for a lady to keep an extra pair of gloves - and - I remember the time when women did indeed wear hats and gloves when they left the house to go just about anyplace, except maybe a picnic.

SharonCb, do most foreign cars have a glovebox/compartment? And did anyone keep theirs full of straws, napkins, wet wipes, catsup packets, etc. when you had young kids? I know I did.

Mine is now home to 10 years of registration and inspection reports.

We always called it the glove compartment, and kept it full of maps. Mine is now like Teresa's.

glove compartment..
Now we have the console to fill with junk!

Teresa oh yes foreign cars have glove compartments, airbags and all the bells and whistles but the cars can be a little smaller.
My (big to me) Renault 4 door sedan would be called a compact car in N.America...lol.

But we never kept food such as ketchup, sugar or napkins in the glove compartment as there were no drive-in/drive-thru fast food places, so people even today don't usually eat or drink in their car. Nor do they walk around with coffee mugs in their hands or take them into their cars.

Of course I can't speak for young people nowadays with small children who could easily have a pkg of cookies or similar in their glove compartment, but when my kids were small here in Spain we didn't eat inside the car. I guess we had more time then.
We did sometimes pack a food basket to put in the trunk for a picnic but we got out of the car and sat outside on a blanket to eat.

SharonCb

Glove box and glove compartment...I use both.

My Grandmother always told me to keep an extra pair of underwear in the glove compartment...or is that panties? lol

Mmmmmmmmmm??? RR, when was the occasion that the extra pair of undies was to be used??? Interesting.....LOL!

Teresa, I know! Grandmother told me to do alot of strange things that cause me to walk away shaking my head. LOL! Maybe her thinking was that in case I got in a car accident I would be prepared!?!? LOL!

Glove compartment and it is filled with most of the above. Another thing, the lid to the glove compartment used to open down and made a convenient "shelf" for a drink if you were eating in the car. My lid opens up, the dash is a little slanted and the console is useless except as little spaces for not much of anything. It's (the console) the one "big" complaint I have about my car, a Toyota Highlander.

jude

Glove compartment. But that's no surprise since I grew up not far from you. I've also heard it called a map box.

Glove compartment for me, too, and yes, it has maintenance history, a flashlight, maps, I think, and I don't remember what else. I used to have a tube of hand cream in there, until one day last summer I opened it up, squirted it into my hand, and out came a stream of clear liquidy, oozy, oily, messy goo - not cream at all. The heat had ruined the cream. So, no more hand cream in the glove compartment. lol.

Sally

I guess I use both and I don't know why. LOL There is all kinds of stuff in there but no gloves.

David

Glove compartment. But here in Texas, it's where we keep our gun. ;)

Glove compartment. Has the car manual and a couple other things I rarely use. Maps are in the door compartment. Console and cup holder as well as those open shelves in the dash board hold most of my frequently and infrequently used junk.

Here on LI I was taught glove compartment. I have heard the term "glove box" and have surely used it once in a while. When I posed the question to my wife who's from NJ she looked at me funny and said, "Glove box? I've never heard that."

glove compartment here in Michigan too, and it has my owner's manual in it, along with a swiss army knife, always have one with me to cut the twine on bales, or to cut seed potatoes for planting or to remove the plastic from a mineral block or cut apples for treats for horses and cattle. It has a cork screw that's been used a couple of times too, LOL.

The Jeep also has a center console, so deep that I'm up to my shoulder if I reach to the bottom. It has hair ties and clips so I can put my hair up if I take the top off the Jeep, and it has change and a county atlas and the ratchet required to remove the bolts to take the hardtop off or put it back on.

There is also bandaids, antibiotic wipes, Advil, Tums and usually some sunscreen and snacks for The Princess and Bruvver. Lots of stuff in the console.

Gloves? Those mostly get tossed into the back where I keep the hammer, fencing tools, staples and other "necessities", LOL.

Annie

Glove box!

My little jeep that I take lunch to the field in, and sometimes take the evening meal and go to the garden in has my owners manual, insurance papers and usually a pack of cigs for DH and snacks for grandsons.

My car has owners manual, a little dusting mit and my security system opener and snacks for grandsons.

So it appears that the term is really not regional in any way? I thought maybe glove compartment was sort of southern speak but looks like not! Or maybe it is an "age" thing? Those of us that are older think compartment and the 30/40 yr. old group think box?

I've never thought of it before, but I use both.

Ann

Glove compartment. That's where my grandmother kept her driving gloves, and she never drove without them. She was appalled that her daughters and granddaughters didn't wear them and were ruining our hands. We also went outside without hats and other atrocities.

Growing up in the north, it was a 'glove compartment'.
Down here in South TX, it is a 'glove box'.
Grandma, (who would be 110 if she were still here) called it a 'car pocket'.
She grew up in the OK panhandle, I think.
Regional terminology?
Who knows!

Rusty