QOTD: What's Your Preferred Spring Break Chariot?

When people are forced to interact with each other via a common employer, it’s only a matter of time before the what-if games start up in earnest. We’re frequently guilty of it ourselves — a discussion about one author’s automotive preference naturally encourages everyone to contribute two cents of their own.

The sad truth is that not a single TTACer is the correct age to properly enjoy Spring Break or the associated wooing, though we are excited about warmer weather. This, plus various airline controversies, prompted the question of what vehicle we’d select for a week-long vacation, were one handed to us. It provided a good springboard for a QOTD, too. Unfortunately, the main takeaway from this exercise was that TTAC’s staff is comprised mainly of people with rather humble tastes.

The rules of the game were simple. You could choose any new vehicle currently available in North America, take an entire week off, and would only be responsible for fuel and lodging costs. It should have provided ample opportunity for people to pick a Ferrari GTC4Lusso, but that’s not how things played out. Here are our choices, in no particular order:

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  • Thomas Same here....but keep in mind that EVs are already much more efficient than ICE vehicles. They need to catch up in all the other areas you mentioned.
  • Analoggrotto It's great to see TTAC kicking up the best for their #1 corporate sponsor. Keep up the good work guys.
  • John66ny Title about self driving cars, linked podcast about headlight restoration. Some relationship?
  • Jeff JMII--If I did not get my Maverick my next choice was a Santa Cruz. They are different but then they are both compact pickups the only real compact pickups on the market. I am glad to hear that the Santa Cruz will have knobs and buttons on it for 2025 it would be good if they offered a hybrid as well. When I looked at both trucks it was less about brand loyalty and more about price, size, and features. I have owned 2 gm made trucks in the past and liked both but gm does not make a true compact truck and neither does Ram, Toyota, or Nissan. The Maverick was the only Ford product that I wanted. If I wanted a larger truck I would have kept either my 99 S-10 extended cab with a 2.2 I-4 5 speed or my 08 Isuzu I-370 4 x 4 with the 3.7 I-5, tow package, heated leather seats, and other niceties and it road like a luxury vehicle. I believe the demand is there for other manufacturers to make compact pickups. The proposed hybrid Toyota Stout would be a great truck. Subaru has experience making small trucks and they could make a very competitive compact truck and Subaru has a great all wheel drive system. Chevy has a great compact pickup offered in South America called the Montana which gm could make in North America and offered in the US and Canada. Ram has a great little compact truck offered in South America as well. Compact trucks are a great vehicle for those who want an open bed for hauling but what a smaller more affordable efficient practical vehicle.
  • Groza George I don’t care about GM’s anything. They have not had anything of interest or of reasonable quality in a generation and now solely stay on business to provide UAW retirement while they slowly move production to Mexico.