The Romance of the American Road Trip

[Sanctimoniously]

3a) Cars are often smaller, less conducive for road trips.

I think I agree with this point. When I had my big Buicks (and even my Jeep, actually), driving 1000+ miles in one sitting was no big deal, the car just drank up the miles while I was coddled in their La-Z-Boy seats. Then I got a compact car and even though I was getting 40+ mpg at times, I was having a lot less fun and each trip seemed to get longer and more tiring. The smaller car was much better to drive around town, and objectively better in many ways, but for long trips, I'll always miss my big, cushy Buicks.

I also agree with the point made earlier about how most people tend to have less vacation time than in the past, which makes making the most of what time you have even more important. Both times I went down to RTX in Austin, I flew, because I wasn't making any vacation or personal time at all at my part-time job, so any time off I took was unpaid. Flying in early meant I was able to meet up with friends and go straight to the Tex-Mex and margaritas my first day there.

[formulanone]

3a) Cars are often smaller, less conducive for road trips.

I think I agree with this point. When I had my big Buicks (and even my Jeep, actually), driving 1000+ miles in one sitting was no big deal, the car just drank up the miles while I was coddled in their La-Z-Boy seats. Then I got a compact car and even though I was getting 40+ mpg at times, I was having a lot less fun and each trip seemed to get longer and more tiring.

I think it all depends on personal taste. I find the soft ride on many large cars to dull my senses after an hour or two, which isn't very inspiring and seems to make a long journey a bit more unbearable. I want my car to keep me attentive, at least to a degree where I'm not concerned about it. That's not to say some medium-sized sedans like the Mazda 6, the Ford Fusion, or going a little bigger, the Dodge Charger, seem to offer a good combo of ride and responsiveness without sapping my attention. We have a minivan (Mazda 5) that's great for 12-hour hauls because it doesn't feel floaty.

One's form and seat positing also matter; I've driven some large and/or luxurious vehicles which were uncomfortable after 30 minutes. Or that I'd drive all week and can never quite get comfortable. Some others just seem to have the worst type of headrests, or pinching points in my upper or lower back.

I'm quite comfortable after 8-9 hours in my own little car, and could drive a Ford Focus/Fiesta all day long. I prefer a somewhat sharper-turning vehicle and a compliant ride with a narrower range of damping, and sometimes a smaller car has that built right in.

It also depends on the type of roads you like to drive on and what kind of surfaces you'll be dealing with over long distances. To each their own.

[AsphaltPlanet]

^ I definitely agree with that sentiment.

My previous car was a Pontiac Vibe 2.4 L with a manual transmission.  I now drive a larger Ford Escape, which is a much nicer appointed vehicle with a larger cockpit, and a higher centre of gravity.  While the Escape is a much, much nicer car than the Vibe was, the Vibe was much, much more fun to drive, even for long trips.  The low centre of gravity and manual transmission made it far more of a nimble car than the Escape, which made the driving experience more favourable in my opionion.

[Max Rockatansky]

I wholeheartedly agree, Max! If my budget had allowed it, I would have taken five or six days each way to Missouri and done more in the way of back roads to see the total eclipse, rather than three each way and sticking primarily to the interstates. I did fit in a few back roads, such as Missouri 76 west of Branson where it winds and twists through the mountains.

I'm hoping to open some eyes up to some friend this November.  I'm basically leading a small convoy of cars to the Grand Canyon from the Central Valley in California.   Basically they all assumed we would be taking I-40 but really we'll be on US 66 pretty much from Ludlow to Ash Fofk.  There is some skeptics in the group but really all the fun stuff is off of I-40, I would never consider this trip if it was straight Interstate.

Did you know you can drive your car all the way down to the Colorado River? IR-6, from Peach Spring, on old US 66.  You need a permit from the tribal office and it's best to have a higher clearance vehicle but I made the trip up and down in a rental PT Cruiser.  The road crosses low and slow Diamond Creek a few times near the bottom.

I did, never took it all the way to the river in a vehicle but a couple of my off-road buddies did do BIA 6 over a decade ago.  There are some really good dirt trails and roadways up there in that part of Arizona, Arizona Desert Dog is covering a lot of them on his Youtube channel as of late.

[Sanctimoniously]

If I was going to take the road less travelled, I would definitely prefer the nimbler vehicle with the manual transmission. But if I'm pulling 12-15 hours on the open interstate in one sitting, I'll take the couch on wheels. But YMMV.

I know that, to me, (mumbles) mph was just as comfortable and effortless in my 3800 Buicks as the posted speed limit...but doing those speeds in a much smaller vehicle (the Focus) felt flat-out, especially with the engine turning about 1500 rpm more than it was in my V6 cars (even with a sixth gear). If I kept to two over the posted limit, I could easily get 40 mpg, but then my little red hatchback became a rolling chicane on I-20 and I-85. 

I recently drove my 2014 Fusion from my house in Virginia to GingerMan Raceway in Michigan, about 700 miles, and it was pretty fine, although it was a tad stiff-legged on rougher stretches thanks to the 18-inch wheels and 45-series tires, and the fuel economy with the 1.5 EcoBoost and six-speed auto was disappointing. I think my best tank was 34 mpg, my overall trip average was closer to 31-32 or so.

Next year I would like to find an entry for the West Coast LeMons Rally, driving from Virginia to California for the rally start, doing the rally, then driving back for it. The classic American land yacht seems to be the perfect candidate (I found a '76 Coupe DeVille with the 500-ci V8 on Craigslist the other day), but perhaps I ought to try something a little unconventional, like a stone-base-model Toyota pickup!