Best roadtrip cars?
Discussion
Done an annual 2500-3000 miler in a few cars, two up and more recently with our young'uns. Audi A4 v6tdi, Rover 600, Mercedes 220cdi, Z3 3.0, E39 3.0i, Citroën C5 Tourer and an Amarok. Whatever the car the journey has been the winner. Many great moments in them all, perhaps least of all the Citroën and most perhaps the E39. But there are places we went in the Amarok that made that the ideal car, and others in the Z3 that made that ideal too.
Seriously?
A boring comfortable saloon that is great for slogging the motorways.
That's what you will be crying out for, at any rate.
All the exotic stuff, great for an hour, two, then you must get down to business and they are a pain.
There's a reason that big Mercs and BMWs are designed the way they are.
A boring comfortable saloon that is great for slogging the motorways.
That's what you will be crying out for, at any rate.
All the exotic stuff, great for an hour, two, then you must get down to business and they are a pain.
There's a reason that big Mercs and BMWs are designed the way they are.
Fed up with the beach and swimming pools, never really liked them, its her thing, next year 90 percent sure shes gonna agree to a road trip. I pretty much have my dream cars, elise or integrale, hmmmm....... one is reliable, the other has space and relative comfort.
Gonna be a big decision.
Gonna be a big decision.
I did a recent Euro trip with a few others and did not feel disappointed at all driving my Boxster S compared to the other cars. It is small and light with great handling for the twisty passes but also on the faster mountain stuff uphill and downhill it really flowed and the brakes never moaned (much). There's enough power to do some of the motorway stretches and when you are driving round Monaco and the coastal sunny parts and the tunnels the roof down is great. 2 boots also gave decent space.
996TT02 said:
Seriously?
A boring comfortable saloon that is great for slogging the motorways.
That's what you will be crying out for, at any rate.
All the exotic stuff, great for an hour, two, then you must get down to business and they are a pain.
There's a reason that big Mercs and BMWs are designed the way they are.
Surely there would be exotic stuff that would be perfect for a roadtrip though? Like a DB9, Ferrari FF, Porsche Panamera? A boring comfortable saloon that is great for slogging the motorways.
That's what you will be crying out for, at any rate.
All the exotic stuff, great for an hour, two, then you must get down to business and they are a pain.
There's a reason that big Mercs and BMWs are designed the way they are.
TheCarFather said:
Surely there would be exotic stuff that would be perfect for a roadtrip though? Like a DB9, Ferrari FF, Porsche Panamera?
Well Panamera tends to fall in the practical and comfortable rather than exotic class (forget the price) so I would seriously hope so.By exotic I meant the supercar type.
Every car is a compromise, and a long journey is a specific task, so you want a car that is designed for that sort of thing, as an ideal.
Certainly you can cross Europe in anything else, including a Model T, but that's not the ideal.
I use my 911 quite a bit on the continent and generally do around 3k in Summer in one hit, but I would not call it the ideal vehicle. It's the perfect choice for around 30% of that mileage, for the other 70% I'd prefer to have an option.
And those figures only apply because I choose my route carefully, avoiding motorways like the plague.
I've done three roadtrips of 2000-3000 miles each. The first two were in my Clio 182 which was really rather good. The fuel economy at 80+mph is a bit alarming split between two people but it has cruise and a decent CD player for the motorways and can blast up a mountain pass like few other cars. There is a decent amount of boot space for a small hatch too.
This summer's roadtrip was done with 5 people in my Landcruiser 80 4.2td which was just superb. Piles of space for camping gear, comfy seats for 5 full size adults, a good view and 30mpg on cheap diesel split 5 ways. In the mountains they seem to do roadworks differently too, they dig up the road but don't close it and you just off-road through if you can so the big knobbly tyres came in handy. The plan for next summer is to take a big 4x4 again as it works really well.
This summer's roadtrip was done with 5 people in my Landcruiser 80 4.2td which was just superb. Piles of space for camping gear, comfy seats for 5 full size adults, a good view and 30mpg on cheap diesel split 5 ways. In the mountains they seem to do roadworks differently too, they dig up the road but don't close it and you just off-road through if you can so the big knobbly tyres came in handy. The plan for next summer is to take a big 4x4 again as it works really well.
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