Best Road Trip Car

[nissangirl74]

What's the best car you've ever taken on a road trip? For me, I can honestly say, the Frontier. It's unbelievably comfortable and it rolls effortlessly down the interstate. The only draw back is the cost of fuel. Close second would be the Vette, pre-mods. It was smooth as silk and got phenomenal gas mileage.

What's your "dream" road trip car? If money were no option?

[Jesda]

I have yet to take anything across the country that outdoes the 4th and 5th generation Seville:


300hp V8, 24-26mpg, a flat and steady ride that turns the road into glass, a bright and clean audio system with a wide soundstage, and gobs of passing power. The only negatives were maintenance costs and sensitivity to tire and wheel vibrations. The road-sensing suspension really does work, controlling body motions over undulating pavement and stiffening predictably in tight maneuvers. You arrive at your destination feeling clean and unrustled, the way first-class travel ought to be.

So quite honestly, money being no option, that's -the- long-distance car for me. I've traveled in older and newer Escalades, a Range Rover, a Lexus LS400, a couple LS430s, a Navigator, Town Cars, and a couple of Q45s. Few cars or SUVs can match the Seville for comfort, efficiency, and all-around performance. The BMW E38 7-series is on par, however, and the Chrysler 300M, believe it or not, is up there in driving dynamics despite inferior build quality.

Additionally, I believe the Seville was a complete accident. Looking at all the disposable trash that GM churned out in the 90s and early 2000s, the C5 Corvette and Seville seemed like they came from entirely different manufacturers.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0BSC7E4MYU[/youtube]

I have yet to do any long-distance driving in a traditional Jaguar XJ (X300, X308, X350, X358) but I imagine that might also be at or near the top. Same goes for the Lincoln LS, Audi A8, and Jaguar S-type -- driven them but haven't driven them far enough to evaluate them for long-distance travel.

The current Mercedes S-class is a technological world standard (I recently drove an '09) but it lacks the pure driving enjoyment of its competitors, feeling more like a German answer to the Lincoln Town Car than a well-rounded multipurpose sedan. The S-class's unresponsive electronic throttle and lazy steering are annoying.




Having said all that, I have a feeling that if I had the chance to drive one for a few hours, this would become my money-no-object top pick:

[frapjap]

The most enjoyable long haul car I rode in was my mom old Mark III full size fan.

Awful gas mileage (though gas was 1.04/gallon at the time), but with 4 captains chairs, a huge bench that turned into a bed, and storage for an entire house it fit our family of 5 in its bowels with no issues. It was smooth, quiet, had thickly piled carpet which was perfect for bare feet, track lighting, a color television, VCR, a superior A/C system (vents everywhere, like a house), real wood grain all over, and fantastic seats. Being a pre-teen at the time, I was also able to stand up in it. I think it was the first engine I changed spark plugs in, from the cabin none the less. It was a fantastic vehicle to drive 14 hours to camp in. Easily the best vehicle choice my parents ever made.

Seconded by a newer Eddie Bauer Volvo XC70. Super comfy seats, heated seats that didn't just click on and off at will, smooth ride over frost heaved snowy roads. It was a pleasure to ride and drive and I'd own one in an instant.

[Kompresshun]

The best car i've personally taken on a road trip so far has been my Five Hundred. It has tons of room, is extremely comfortable, gets great fuel economy, and surprisingly has excellent passing power on the highway. For what it is, it's an excellent trip car.

If money were no object and I could have whatever I want, i'm pretty sure i'd be going for one of these:



Mercedes E63 AMG Wagon. Sexy, loud, plenty of room, and scary powerful

[elwesso]

Honestly the best road trip car I've been in was a Lincoln town car. It was unbelievably smooth, had plenty of room for people, and a huge trunk for all your stuff.

One thing that makes a road trip car good is that it can hold enough stuff for all the people in the car.. I really enjoy my Q on the road, but there's really not enough space for more than 3 people to go on a trip in terms of back seat room and trunk space. Me and 2 of my friends took an 1800 mile road trip in my Q and that thing was packed to the brim, I could only imagine if there was a woman thrown in there..

A really nice car too is a 95-96 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, but the suspension is pretty floaty so it doesn't really lend itself to hills and turns so much, but there's enough space for 6 people and all your stuff, and they get 25-27 MPG on the highway all day long, AND can tow 5,000 lbs.

[Bubba1]

Best road trip car?

Depends on the type of road trip, and if you own it. Most comfortable highway cruiser in which I went on a road trip was a fairly new S class Mercedes. I wouldn't want to own it though. Way too expensive and complex, but I have to admit, 25+ individual power adjusting, airconditioned comfy leather seats with shiatsu massage FTW..

[AZhitman]

Gonna go with Bex on this one - Our Frontier gobbles up miles and is comfortable and smooth at illegal speeds. The most "untruckish" truck ever.

Money no object? Surprised no one mentioned a Maybach. However, I'm gonna go with a mid-00's 7-series or an LS460 for this imaginary cross-country jaunt.

[Jesda]

Unless you have a hired driver in this fantasy scenario, you have to consider more than just passenger comfort. That's why the S-class and Maybach are less than ideal.

[Jesda]

If money were no object and I could have whatever I want, i'm pretty sure i'd be going for one of these:



Mercedes E63 AMG Wagon. Sexy, loud, plenty of room, and scary powerful

Awww yesssss

[gmac708]

My wife's 04 530i. It is so comfy on the long highway trips. Lots of trunk space too.

[nissangirl74]

Mercedes E63 AMG Wagon. Sexy, loud, plenty of room, and scary powerful

That's sexy

[Bubba1]

Mercedes E63 AMG Wagon. Sexy, loud, plenty of room, and scary powerful

That's sexy

If price were no object, I would love to do a road trip in a customized Prevost motorhome...

[nissangirl74]

Motorhomes do not appeal to me. At all. I appreciate them for what they are but trying to manipulate traffic, park, set-up, clean a motorhome has ZERO appeal. If I'm going on vacation, I want someone else to pick my towels up off the floor. I don't want to have to clean ANYTHING.

[nissangirl74]

I also believe that your destination, and those that you are traveling with are directly related to your comfort level. If you are going on vacation to a place YOU want to go, and not somewhere someone else decided on, the trip there and back will be a lot more comfortable / enjoyable. My dad and I took a road trip out west when I was 13 in a Honda Civic. Not exactly a road trip king but I was so excited about where we were going that it never occurred to me to wish we were driving something else.

[Bubba1]

Motorhomes do not appeal to me. At all. I appreciate them for what they are but trying to manipulate traffic, park, set-up, clean a motorhome has ZERO appeal. If I'm going on vacation, I want someone else to pick my towels up off the floor. I don't want to have to clean ANYTHING.

Keep in mind, we're talking price is no object here. I'd have no problem hiring Inga from the Swedish bikini team to clean, set up, or even drive my $250K motorcoach (pulling the trailer containing my Ferrari).

[gmac708]

My funnest road trip car was my friends 67 Buick Wildcat convertable. The shocks were gone and it was a handfull in the corners, but man did it like to cruise on the highway. We would go everyware in that thing. Awesome ride. HUGE car by today's standards.


Gord

[BusyBadger]

What's the best car you've ever taken on a road trip?

This car (well, one like it)...



...on this trip.

Sadly, it could be the end of an era.

My funnest road trip car was my friends 67 Buick Wildcat convertable. The shocks were gone and it was a handfull in the corners, but man did it like to cruise on the highway. We would go everyware in that thing. Awesome ride. HUGE car by today's standards.

Growing up we had a hardtop '67 Wildcat, we called it the beach car since the family wasn't so worried about the interior getting messed up with sand, spilled drinks or anything else that found its way inside. That thing was a monster!

[Repo Man]

However, I'm gonna go with a mid-00's 7-series or an LS460 for this imaginary cross-country jaunt.

The 7 I drove to Carlisle last year was stellar. It's definitely up there for me, but I don't want to own it. Honestly, my 325Ci was a lot of fun to drive there and back this year. The road feel is excellent. Not a bad autocrosser either.

[JTR32gtst]

What's the best car you've ever taken on a road trip? For me, I can honestly say, the Frontier. It's unbelievably comfortable and it rolls effortlessly down the interstate. The only draw back is the cost of fuel. Close second would be the Vette, pre-mods. It was smooth as silk and got phenomenal gas mileage.
:

I had the priveledge of driving a friends C5 Z06 procharged making 560 rwhp for 4 hours bringing it to my house. He lived in Colorado and bought it and since he knew I was a car guy, he asked if I could hang on to it and drive it for a month or so before he picked it up. It got close to 26 mpg and was a blaaaast on those long empty straights. It was even more comfortable than i had thought it would be.

[flohtingPoint]

The 2008 Toyota Tundra we tow with. 25, 000 miles since the start of the 2011 season, and the thing has kept on pulling without skipping a beat. Tows like a champ and with the four door version we have, plenty of room to sleep in the back seat while were driving in shifts to Lincoln/Blytheville/Adel.

[gwoods]

My best road trip ever in my best road trip car.

After 8 months of lusting after and shopping for the perfect 2011 Jaguar XF supercharged. I was looking for liquid silver paint and the 'spice' interior. I wanted a car that went into service late in the 2011 model year (mine was July 14th) and had less then 20k miles all while being in my price range. XFSC are low production I have heard less then 300 per year no idea but my car was very hard to find.

My exact car with 14,538 miles on it popped up on a Sunday night at an AutoNation Dodge dealer in Denver Colorado. I bought it Monday AM via wire before the dealer had even posted photos of it. I even talked them down $1000 off the asking price because they didn't know what it was and had just taken it in as a trade. Photos came later that day and I had zero regrets. I booked a flight to Denver for that Thursday. The salesman picked me up from the airport in it and took me to the dealership to sign the deal off. I landed in Denver at 9am and had eaten lunch and was on the road at about noon. This car was so fast it was addictive to floor it and run through 3rd gear (135mph) on the freeway. Jaguar rates it at 461lb of torque but they also rate it at 470 hp and my car dynoed at 448 RWHP (didn't get a torque reading). Huge amounts of torque everywhere in the RPM band making picking up speed so easy and fun. 70-130 take about 7 seconds. The seats are cooled and heated the softest leather you could imagine. The 5.0 supercharged V8 sounds perfect and makes pops and cackles on deceleration I could listen to sound tracks of the car being driven as if they were the best music in the world. I set the cruise at 90 something after a few runs up to 135mph. In my mirror I saw another car I had considered a red E63 Mercedes barreling down on me. I had enough time to put the Jag in dynamic mode and switch the ZF transmission into sport before he caught and passed me. I ran him down, he was limited to 155 mph and I was not limited by anything.... already going 150+ I decided to see if the Jag would go off the 185 mph speedometer. It did it was the fastest I have ever been in a car and felt insane I don't know if I went 200 mph or not but 6th gear starts at almost 170 MPH and is a .6 overdrive, the car can pull it. A few moments later I pulled off in Raton New Mexico for gas and to calm my nerves after going to fast I was shakey.

I stopped in ABQ sat down and ate some New Mexican food (blue corn green chilies!) around 6pm.

I pulled into my garage a few moments after midnight. 926 miles in a little over 12 hours including stopping for gas and food. The car averaged 24 MPG on the trip including going off the speedo. I can't think of a better way to get to know your new dream car then a 12 hour nearly 1000 mile solo road trip.

[gwoods]

Mercedes E63 AMG Wagon. Sexy, loud, plenty of room, and scary powerful

I like it too but the trapazoid headlight version is very blah. 2007-2008 is the best year for the E63 wagon from a enthusiest point of view. My beef with this car is two things, very German not really interested in falling in love with you but if your going to drive the car it supposes it will not protest too much. It feels hard, cold but efficient. The second issue for me is you can't swing a stick in Scottsdale but that you have hit a E class Mercedes or two and the idiot at the light next to you can't really tell the difference between your $120k E63 Wagon and his $40k E350 becaused damed if they don't look almost exactly the same from the outside. I want some exclusivitiy for that kind of money and Mecedes and BMW are too mainstream to offer it.

However if you get the current generation with the bi turbo for about $11,000 you can go from 518 hp to over 800hp using Renn Tech bolt ons. Imagine a 200+ mph WAGON with 0-60 in 3 seconds or less.

833 HP @ 5500 RPM; 980 LB-FT @ 3800 RPM

It cracks me up the the E210 chassis with a 5.5 l V8 was a E55, then the E211 chassis with a 6.2* V8 became a E63 and now to save gas Mercedes brought back the 5.5l V8 and gave it two turbo but left it a E63. Only Audi is more confused where a 3.0 T might be supercharged


@Jesda and the XJL Supersport.... two things make the XJL SS a better car than the XFSC (same drive train nearly same weight) The XJL's have massage seats front & back and heated and cooled rear seats. The massage seats are as good as one of those chairs you sit in at the mall they really roll and kneed your back.

The leg room, I have plenty of leg room in my XF but no one could comfortable sit behind me with the seat back as far as it goes... although I can barely reach the pedals (6'2") with the seat back as far as it goes. The XJL rear seat is huge, limo huge on leg room. The XF actually has a wider back seat and I know this because 3 car seats fit my XF no problem but in the XJL the middle seat seatbelt is under the seat to the side of it because its back seat is narrower than the XF.

[gwoods]

What's the best car you've ever taken on a road trip?

This car (well, one like it)...

Your dream road trip car can be yours for under 10k make it happen risky bizness

[MinisterofDOOM]

No contest:



XJL-R. YET ANOTHER step up the already insane ranks from the XJL SuperCharged and XJL SuperSport. Of course, mine would be black.
There is not one inch of that car that is not weapons-grade sexy. And it supposedly DRIVES EVEN BETTER THAN IT LOOKS.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

Best car I've taken a road trip on?



My old yet rare E34 540i Sport 6-speed. Arguably the best 5-series made, this thing ate up miles at high speeds just like it was built to. Drop it down into 4th on the highway and you can rocket past cars with ease. 300HP in a 4 liter V8 made it rev happy and the gearing was just spot on. At 80mph I wasn't even close to 3K rpm. Handled like a sports car for how big it was and didn't have the "active suspension leveling" like some others. Comfy seats and exceptional stereo, what more could you want?

I did take a brand new Acura TL Type-S (2007) from AZ to Chicago and back too. Although it was pretty fast and loaded with options, the seats were way too "sporty." My a** hurt even after just a couple hours sitting in that car.

Best road trip car?



Probably this 458 or something similar and absurdly expensive. Why WOULDN'T you want a convertible?

Best road trip vehicle?



As unreliable as Land Rover is known to be, they sure are pumping out some BALLER SUV's.

[szh]

My "dream" car would be a 1964 or 1965 Ford Mustang in a red color - hardtop, not convertible (although I show one below)! In perfect running condition, of course, since I would not want to spend time repairing it - I am too old for that!



My reason is totally silly: at 9 or 10 years of age, it was the car that made me "into cars". I appreciated the radical designs (for its time) compared to what was available then. I loved its looks, its sportiness, and its clean lines.

Z

[szh]

Now, my "dream road trip" car? I am not sure ... could be any large V-8 SUV or sedan. One that is quiet and capable of soaking up the miles without road noise, discomfort, or any strain. For road trips, I am usually not looking for high-performance necessarily (although I have been known to do some insane speeds in the past )

So, I'd consider the 2003-4 Infiniti Q45, any recent Mercedes Benz S550, the Lexus LS460, Infiniti Q56, a Land-Rover LR3, Cadillac STS, Lincoln LS-8, as possible candidates for this purpose.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

The C6 LS3 Vette I drove to Omaha was surprisingly good. I never really felt "bored". Amazing fuel economy, and plenty of go juice when you fancy a drive.

That being said, if I'm going cross country, I want to SEE, so that means a 'vert.

I've always liked the way Mercedes E-class convertibles look, and the tech they have to keep you comfortable through a wide range of temperatures is quite nice.

Motorweek did a pretty thorough review on one a little while ago and there were a lot of things that I found really interesting and thought "I wonder why more car companies don't do that".

I definitely wouldn't want any type of SUV. I just hate driving them and feel like more energy is spent keeping the thing between the lines and trying to figure out where the hell the thing is on the road. Trying to navigate through New York (or similar) would just ruin the trip.

[nissangirl74]

... In my mirror I saw another car I had considered a red E63 Mercedes barreling down on me. I had enough time to put the Jag in dynamic mode and switch the ZF transmission into sport before he caught and passed me. I ran him down, he was limited to 155 mph and I was not limited by anything.... already going 150+ I decided to see if the Jag would go off the 185 mph speedometer. It did it was the fastest I have ever been in a car and felt insane I don't know if I went 200 mph or not but 6th gear starts at almost 170 MPH and is a .6 overdrive, the car can pull it....

That would be the most awesome combination of thrill and scared-s***

[AZhitman]

James - That E-class looks like a gussied-up Sebring / Solara.

Christian - I kick myself sometimes for not buying your E34 540i.

As far as long-haul comfort, for cars I've actually driven, our C5 takes the cake. Those seats were spectacular, even after 4+ hours.

The MINUTE I get more storage space for our classic Datsuns, and have an open garage bay, I'll own another C5.