Are you putting him in a car seat or are you holding him? From your post it sounds like you are only holding him while your brother drives. It is against the law not to have a child in a carseat, and you could be harshly fined for not having him in one....even investigated for abuse.

If he is in a carseat, which I hope he is for the safety of all, he probably just doesn't like the restraint on himself. The only thing I can suggest is that you give yourself a little more practice in the car than only family functions. Take him for short rides where he knows that the destination is going to be fun (such as the park) and the ride is going to be short...about 5 minutes. Make sure you don't take him right before or after a meal or when he needs his afternoon nap. Any toddler will be fussy in those circumstances.

Otherwise, dealing with a fussy toddler is a part of life. They have to get used to tough things in life that mean they can't have everything they want, and the sooner they start realizing that, the better.

My son screamed from the time he was an infant until he was a toddler whenever we put him in his car seat. We drove all the way from Florida to NJ with him too. It wasn't very pleasant..We tried everything but you can just do so much while driving in a car and you can't take them out of the car seat. Around 2 years old he had to have tubes put into his ears. The strange thing was that once the tubes were placed in his ears he stopped crying in the car. I'm sure there is some kind of explanation but I always wondered if it was something simple like the radio bothering his ears or something along those lines. Another suggestion, maybe he's gotten used to you fussing with him in the back seat so he does it automatically for the attention. Toddlers do a lot of strange things.

We did put him in a car seat at the back. I am also at the back seat with him. It's dangerous to place him at the front seat even their are seat belts. We do take him before lunch around 10 to 11 am when we go to the beach to attend family functions. Maybe this is why he is fussy. Sometimes I think he has motion sickness. A friend of mine suggested to let him watch children's stories at a portable DVD.