My road trip car? Yours?

[Korean_redneck]

1999 Hyundai Tiburon FX 80k miles 5 speed. 4 banga Michigan to Virginia (vice versa)-10 times Michigan to Canada to Michigan to Virginia- 1 time Virginia to New York- 2 times Virginia to Atlantic city- 1 time Virginia to Illinois-1 time

 

[MarkC]

1996 Cherokee. 97,500 miles Carolina Beach, NC-Blacksburg, VA 15 times (loaded with about 300 lbs of big dogs) Blacksburg-Corning, NY twice Carolina Beach- Vancouver,BC Vancouver--Seattle Seattle--everywhere else around the NW The mighty 4.0 inline Six.

 

[Matt89]

1992 Chevy Cavalier - 90K when I sold it. CT/NY to Florida and back at least 4 times. FL to VA and back twice. FL to Charleston SC and back twice. FL to Michigan and back twice. Northern MI to Syracuse and back a dozen times. Man I loved that little car. Biggest problem I ever had was a rusty fuel filter and an alternator/battery at 80K! I wish I knew about synthetic oil back then...did 30 Jiffy Lube oil changes in 4 1/2 years

 

[T-Keith]

1987 Buick Riviera 192,000 miles. She does great and gets 30+ mpg on road trips. Never left us anywhere. -T

 

[JR]

I have a 1986 Dodge 250 Van with a 318 and a 4 speed automatic. She has 581,250 miles on her. Have had the motor replaced three times. Well it would only be two engines but the second jasper reman. that was put in was a lemon and was replaced ii months after purcase under warenty with 35,750 miles on it. several of the piston in that motor had broken rings. It used oil like a son of a gun. Like a quart every 100 to 300 miles. This van still has the factory transmission and it has never been touched. The rear end is origanal to. Both actually still has factory fill in them. The driveshaft has been replace a few times. The front end was almost completally replaced when we put in the third engine. Body is sort of beat up but there is much rust on it. Thanks for that there is plenty more use planned for her. I wouldn't be surprised that she will roll to 750,000 miles before I retire her.

 

[Patman]

I found my 98 Corvette to be a great road trip car. I've only taken one road trip so far, a 350 mile trip to Michigan but it was very comfortable for the 5 hour journey, and got 27.5 MPG too. I would have no hesitation taking it on a 15 hour road trip to Memphis like I did two years in a row, once with my 95 Trans Am and once with my 98 Formula.

 

[pscholte]

Audi A6 2.7T...what a pleasure to drive on long trips! California once Texas once Denver/Boulder CO many times

 

[ALS]

Mine is 1987 Volvo 740 Wagon. 4 cylinder Turbo with a 5 speed manual. Can't beat Volvo seats for long rides. Slapped on some 25 mm sway bars, Bilstein HD shocks and struts, upper & lower chassis braces, and lowered her which made the highway a lot more fun. With a CD of .39 and fully loaded she gets 29 mpg at 70 mph and 30.5 mpg at 65 mph. She has gone 312K miles, with at least 3 trips a year to Naples Fl, 1170 miles each way. I'm heading down to Jacksonville NC in a few weeks 9 hour ride and 585 miles each way. I'm going to Naples for Christmas. I love the ride just me, the road and the radio.

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman: I found my 98 Corvette to be a great road trip car. I've only taken one road trip so far, a 350 mile trip to Michigan but it was very comfortable for the 5 hour journey, and got 27.5 MPG too.

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I so about the same with my 96 Corvette. Just right about 27 mpg on a trip. The seats are comfortable enough and the stability good enough that it's very comfortable to drive on a long trip. The seats and stability make up for the firm ride in comfort. So far my longest distance in a day is just over 600 miles, which was easy.

 

[moribundman]

My road trip cars were a 1985 Chevy Celebrity Wagon that I bought in '92 specifically for a 10 week continental USA trip. The car had about 80k miles on it when I bought it, and after those ten weeks it had 15k more miles on the clock. In '94 I bought an '84 Buick Century, which I used for about 6 week-long trips through the western US. I really didn't want a wagon after that and my Audi A4, which I bought in '96, has doubled as my road trip vehicle since. I've learned to travel light.

 

[Matt_S]

This is my road trip car. http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=45;t=000011 I find the seats just right for me and plenty comfortable enough for an 8 hour trip to Marquette to see the inlaws. I average about 31 mpg on the highway with a 200 hp, 3.8L V6. On one trip, I got 36 mpg with the wind behind me.

 

[moribundman]

I find it the gas mileage some of you guys get out of relatively large engines amazing. While my old VW Scirocco (1.8l 95 hp) got about 33 mpg, my Chevy (2.8 V6) and Buick (3.0 V6) got maybe 20 mpg. And my Audi (2.8 174 hp V6) rarely exceeds 28 mpg. Do you all coast in 5th gear at 40 mph or what?

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by moribundman: I find it the gas mileage some of you guys get out of relatively large engines amazing. While my old VW Scirocco (1.8l 95 hp) got about 33 mpg, my Chevy (2.8 V6) and Buick (3.0 V6) got maybe 20 mpg. And my Audi (2.8 174 hp V6) rarely exceeds 28 mpg. Do you all coast in 5th gear at 40 mph or what?

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Why limit yourself to 5th gear On my 96 Corvette LT4 6 speed, the engine only turns about 1600 rpm at 70 in 6th, which is a 0.49:1 overdrive! It's strictly an economy cruise gear. Gearing makes a big difference in economy if your engine has broad power range and can pull the gearing. I run right about 27 mpg on a long highway trip at about 70 mph. I have to go to take me directly to jail speeds, or run in too low a gear to get below 25 mpg on a long highway trip. On my last highway trip I tried running in 5th (0.74:1) a couple of times at 70 mph and about 2400 rpm and mentally averaging the instantaneous mpg readouts. 5th looks like it gives about 3 to 4 mpg less than 6th under those conditions. I'm not a GM fanboy, but GM has done a very good job at getting fuel efficiency out of some of their engines. At 1600 rpm, friction loses are lower, and the engine is only trying to pump 2/3 as much air. As long as they can tune it to run right at those speeds, the engine is acting like it's only 2/3 as big in 6th as in 5th. It also helps that Corvette is relatively light car at 3200 lb, has a small frontal area and low coefficient of drag. Those economy features are partly off set by the steam roller width tires .

 

[oldman]

The ultimate cruiser. Several trips Md-Fl 26 mpg at 75. Great seats, rarely get tired after 600 miles per day.

 

[Matt_S]

I don't know how GM does it, but they do. I think it's a combination of a very efficient ignition system with a large plug gap (0.060 in most cases), efficient A/F ratios at cruise and a fairly tall final drive ratio. My engine loafs at about 2,000 - 2,200 RPM at 70 mph. If I set the cruise there, I'll get 30+ mpg every time. At 75 - 80, it starts dropping to about 26 - 27 mpg. If my foot starts getting heavy, though, oh boy! I can watch the needle drop every time I plant my foot down. By the way, my car is EPA rated 20/29 with the 3.8L and 20/32 with the 3.4L. Most W-bodies (Monte Carlo, Impala, Grand Prix, Regal) are similar.

 

[moribundman]

XS650, 1600RPM in 6th gear at 70? In a sportscar? My A4 Quattro weighs in at 3228 lbs (1465 kg), so it's actually heavier than your Vette. At 70 I'm at around 3k RPM in 5th, Sorry, no 6th gear. Top speed is electronically limited to 130 mph. The CW air resistance coefficient is about 0.28. [ October 20, 2004, 04:29 AM: Message edited by: moribundman ]

 

[Bogatyr]

Our current road trip vehicle is a 1997 Toyota Rav4. She's got 93k on the clock at the moment and we've driven her to Maine and Wisconsin this past year. On the Wisconsin trip, we weren't too loaded down as we weren't camping, so no roof rack etc and we got almost 30mpg, never touched 30, but the max was 29.82 IIRC. The trip to Maine was pretty bad gas mileage wise, but we had the bikes on the back, tent etc in the roof rack and 4 people aboard...I don't think we got about 22mpg that trip. The RAV is a 5 speed. From what I gather, vehicles like this and the CR-V get such bad gas mileage when in manual transmission form because the cruise needs higher revs since it can't kick down. At 70mph, the little bugger is pulling about 3600rpm. Personally, I'd take a much taller gear to drop that down to around 2000-2400 for highway cruising...then 32mpg would be easy. Bogatyr

 

[bdkrma]

Before it got struck with an as yet undignosed electrical problem, for which it hasnt moved in a year or so... San Diego-Miami R/T 6 times Miami-Toronto Canada R/T 15 times Miami-VA Beach 3X Va Beach-San Diego 3X Miami-Acapulco 1X
Miami-Vancouver 1X Miami-NYC 3X and prob several more...just can't remember them! 1990 Acura Integra, 275K miles

 

[ALS]

quote:

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Originally posted by moribundman: XS650, 1600RPM in 6th gear at 70? In a sportscar? My A4 Quattro weighs in at 3228 lbs (1465 kg), so it's actually heavier than your Vette. At 70 I'm at around 3k RPM in 5th, Sorry, no 6th gear. Top speed is electronically limited to 130 mph. The CW air resistance coefficient is about 0.28.

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My 87 Volvo 740 Wagon with a Turbo 2.3 liter runs at 2450 rpms at 70 mph in 5th. It weighs in around 3150 lbs. At 3000 rpms she is cruising between 86 - 87 mph.

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by moribundman: XS650, 1600RPM in 6th gear at 70? In a sportscar?

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A 0.49:1 overdrive ratio will do that . It's strictly an economy cruise gear. The first 5 ratios make for a good performance transmission. 5th is just right for the 165 mph (actual) top speed. It's a ragtop, the coupes are faster. Not bad for a stock 9 year old Chevy.