QOTD: What Road Trip Car Are You Picking?

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

We have a story today about two of our contributors taking an epic road trip.


Before I got into this business, I always loved reading about trips like this in the buff books, and I'd love to do something like what Andy and Mercedes did someday.

But I don't know what car I'd pick.

What about you? If you had a big road trip planned, what vehicle would you pick?

You'll note that an EV was the ride of choice in the earlier story, and I initially thought about setting up this QOTD as which EV would you pick for a road trip. And if you want to, you can do that. Let's keep it broad, however.

Keep in mind that this doesn't have to be a trip as epic as the one Andy and Mercedes took -- it could be a relatively easy cross-country drive, or maybe just a few hours between cities.

Yes, we've done one like this before, but it's been a while and the criteria today are slightly different.

Sound off below.

[Image: ABCDStock/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Tylanner Tylanner on Sep 23, 2024
    1996 Chevy Caprice Wagon
  • Nicolas Nicolas 4 days ago
    General answer: Something with good seats, enough ground clearance to drive dirt roads, soft suspension, good view out, an automatic gearbox, preferably with six cyclinder Diesel engine, enough space for stuff, but "socially compatible".More specific answer (not necessarily in line with my general answer): Eastern Europe - Dacia Duster with all wheel drive and Diesel engine. Southern Europe - had some wonderful trips with a BMW 2-series cabriolet. Western Europe - Mercedes SL. Rest of the World: Toyota Landcruiser.
  • TheEndlessEnigma Some of the PHEV's out there boast CHADEMO connectors, chargers accepting that connection method are almost nonexistent in North America. That has more than a little to do with the issue. That and PHEV's as a whole are offered on only very limited models, not necessarily desirable models either.
  • KOKing I owned a Paul Bracq-penned BMW E24 some time ago, and I recently started considering getting Sacco's contemporary, the W124 coupe.
  • Bob The answer is partially that stupid manufacturers stopped producing desirable PHEVs.I bought my older kid a beautiful 2011 Volt, #584 off the assembly line and #000007 for HOV exemption in MD. We love the car. It was clearly an old guy's car, and his kids took away his license.It's a perfect car for a high school kid, really. 35 miles battery range gets her to high school, job, practice, and all her friend's houses with a trickle charge from the 120V outlet. In one year (~7k miles), I have put about 10 gallons of gas in her car, and most of that was for the required VA emissions check minimum engine runtime.But -- most importantly -- that gas tank will let her make the 300-mile trip to college in one shot so that when she is allowed to bring her car on campus, she will actually get there!I'm so impressed with the drivetrain that I have active price alerts for the Cadillac CT6 2.0e PHEV on about 12 different marketplaces to replace my BMW. Would I actually trade in my 3GT for a CT6? Well, it depends on what broke in German that week....
  • ToolGuy Different vehicle of mine: A truck. 'Example' driving pattern: 3/3/4 miles. 9/12/12/9 miles. 1/1/3/3 miles. 5/5 miles. Call that a 'typical' week. Would I ever replace the ICE powertrain in that truck? No, not now. Would I ever convert that truck to EV? Yes, very possibly. Would I ever convert it to a hybrid or PHEV? No, that would be goofy and pointless. 🙂
  • ChristianWimmer Took my ‘89 500SL R129 out for a spin in his honor (not a recent photo).Other great Mercedes’ designers were Friedrich Geiger, who styled the 1930s 500K/540K Roadsters and my favorite S-Class - the W116 - among others. Paul Bracq is also a legend.RIP, Bruno.
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