I've had this car for about a year and a half now and finally had the opportunity to take it on a good road trip. I live 35 miles southwest of Louisville. First jaunt was to Laconia, NH and to Pittsburg, NH from there. Took I-86 through southern NY on the way there, and went I-91 south to Hartford onto I-80W going home. I wish I had thought to bring my passport because going through Canada on the way home would have saved a lot of time and been a lot more interesting. I've made the journey many times and have seen all I want to see of the usual US routes through NY/PA/WV, etc.
If there exists a better car for road trips that balances comfort / storage / power and MPG, I've yet to find it. At normal highway speeds >65, I can probably count on two hands how many times it had to leave 8th gear, it pulled up the hills pretty effortlessly. It did some serious gear hunting through the mountain passes in VT (where speeds are ~50mph or below), annoying enough that I used the manual shift mode. I was surprised at the shift logic being pretty smart at using engine braking going downhill on steep grades.
Overall it was a very pleasant drive. Car readout put the 2500mi trip average at 32.4. Hand calculated it was very close to 31mpg average for the whole trip. The portions of the trip where speed limit is only 65mph (which means I was going 70-75) yielded the best MPG. I had two people with me (probably 450 lb of humans with a trunk full of cargo). Fuel used was premium (93) at all stops.
If there exists a better car for road trips that balances comfort / storage / power and MPG, I've yet to find it. At normal highway speeds >65, I can probably count on two hands how many times it had to leave 8th gear, it pulled up the hills pretty effortlessly. It did some serious gear hunting through the mountain passes in VT (where speeds are ~50mph or below), annoying enough that I used the manual shift mode. I was surprised at the shift logic being pretty smart at using engine braking going downhill on steep grades.
Overall it was a very pleasant drive. Car readout put the 2500mi trip average at 32.4. Hand calculated it was very close to 31mpg average for the whole trip. The portions of the trip where speed limit is only 65mph (which means I was going 70-75) yielded the best MPG. I had two people with me (probably 450 lb of humans with a trunk full of cargo). Fuel used was premium (93) at all stops.
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