Tell you what, this one made me laugh. Some YouTubers out there got their hands on an 1886 Benz, about as close to the literal birth of the automobile as you can get, and decided the natural thing to do with it was drive it to McDonald's. According to Yahoo Autos, the plan fell apart before they ever got a burger.

An 1886 Benz isn't like anything you'd see on a road today, and I don't need a spec sheet to tell you that. It's a machine from an era when the automobile was a brand-new idea, closer to a motorized carriage than anything you'd call a car in the modern sense. Whatever the folks at McDonald's saw coming down that lane, it clearly wasn't what their drive-thru was built for.

And that's exactly why they got turned away. From what the reporting says, the vehicle didn't meet the drive-thru's requirements, which tracks when you consider what rolled up to the speaker. A machine from the 1880s is a long way from anything with modern safety equipment, no matter how good the camera footage would've been. So the crew got denied, and the whole dream of collecting a sack of fries from the seat of a 140-year-old machine died right there in the parking lot.

I'll admit part of me sympathizes with the crew. Every gearhead gets an itch to test a machine against ordinary life. I've hauled feed in a truck that had no business carrying that much weight and floated a creek crossing I probably should've walked first. You want to know if a thing works, so you use it. And by all accounts this old Benz still runs, which is a marvel in itself. It just wasn't built for a queue of SUVs waiting on a Big Mac.

Still, there's a lesson in it that applies to any vehicle, whether it's a showpiece or a work truck. Running is one thing. Belonging where you're taking it is another. My old four-wheeler runs fine but you won't catch me taking it down the interstate. Everything has a place it was made for.

An 1886 Benz belongs on a quiet road or a lawn at a car show, putt-putting along while folks lean in and marvel at it. Getting denied was probably the safest thing that happened to those YouTubers all day, even if it didn't make for the video they wanted.

Anyway, next time just walk inside. The fries taste the same either way.