SW17LS

So I had to drive about 500 miles yesterday to visit a family member in the hospital, 250 miles there and 250 miles back, about 7 hours of driving give or take. Left early in the AM, sat around there all day, and pulled back into my garage about 8:30, a long day. It got me thinking, what is the best road trip car I have ever had and figured it might be a good thread.

So, without a doubt for me its my 2020 Mercedes S560. My LS sedans would rank a close second, but the additional high speed stability of the S560 coupled with the autonomous driving features and the massaging seats set it apart. Great ride, quiet inside, good audio system. Apple CarPlay and the wireless hot spot built into the car gets GREAT signal which means uninterrupted streaming of lossless audio anywhere. It has so much power just a quick tap on the throttle and you're in the 90s and able to pass anybody or anything else on the road. Charges up any highway grade with confidence. The distronic really reduces fatigue by doing the bulk of the driving, and you can take your hand off the wheel and open a soda bottle or change the music or something without fear. I will never buy another car without a good iteration of this technology. And massaging seats are the greatest gift to road trips since cruise control. I wish they would stay on longer than 10 minutes at a time. AWD is a big plus too, with the confidence of whatever kind of weather you encounter you can deal with. But, having it turned what could have been a VERY long and painful day and made it not so bad. I sat back, the car drove itself mostly and I listed to 4 live albums with the volume up and basically had concerts with a seat massage. Not bad lol

The big downside is the small trunk. The car has a really small trunk for its size, and seeing that I have a subwoofer in mine because of the base Burmester lacking that mine is even more small. In the LS we could take it for a trip the 4 of us for a weekend, really we couldn't do that in the S560, even if we took the sub out and left it behind. Thats a pretty big downside...

Thinking of other cars, my Pacifica is a pretty good road trip car also. It doesn't have a lot of driving comfort but its reasonably comfortable. My back is ready to get out after 3-4 hours. But, its so enormous inside we literally can take all 4 of us, the dog, and anything we want without thinking about what we are packing and still have visibility out of the rear windows, which is pretty great. Hard to go back to an SUV and deal with loading it up to the roof, etc..I just wish it was AWD.

So how about the rest of you, what are the best road trip cars you've had or taken a road trip in, and why?

Jakerin

Most recently my 06 Corvette soft top, my 06 STSV and now my GS350 F Sport. All fine road worthy cars.

LexBob2

My best road trip car, to date, is my current '19 BMW 5 Series. It's well equipped including the Executive Pkg. which includes Multi Contour seats, upgraded LED headlights as well as all of the driver and safety aids that were available at the time in '19 models. The ride is firm but compliant, very quiet with double pane side glass, good sound from the Harman Kardon system (no Bowers and Wilkins). It's been great on the several 1500-2000 mile road trips that we've taken in it.

Stroock639

overall it's of course the LS, but there's times when i was glad to have been in the E55... like the time we took it to six flags and i quite easily went faster on the way to ride kingda ka than actually riding kingda ka itself lmao

JDR76

Probably my Tundra. I do love the GS on a road trip, and the GS has great seats, but the Tundra has more room, floats along, and the front seats are huge and soft. Our longest drive in it was about 6 hours and we were all comfortable for the entire drive, and arrived feeling fine.

I will add, though, a close runner up, would be my '86 MR2 which I no longer own. It was a bit rough and noisy, but the seats were great, and the low, sporty seating position was fun. Dang, I miss that car...

Margate330

I would have to say out of all the cars I've ever owned, hands down the MB Cl500.
Bought it used and what a tremendous value for an awesome car.

All day driving on holiday was easy but problem is I have to use cruise or I look down and doing 90 mph.
Since 90+ mph feels like 55 mph I can imagine it's very easy to get a big fat juicy ticket in it too.

patgilm

For me it would be my X7, quiet, seats are very comfortable and has a massage function, great sound system and sort suspension for long trips even with 22” wheels. I personally would like a little stiffer suspension with less floatiness but it’s only noticeable going through mountainous/winding roads.

ABC

I keep my cars 10+ years, so i probably have not owned as many as all of you. But our new '23 MDX is great and i could see rolling for a few hours with no probs at all. I wish lane keep assist worked a bit better, but other than that, this is it for me.

UZ214

with 2 kids, hands down Ls460 for long highway travel...I used to drive a-lot in it. Very close is the LX570, absolutely I can go anywhere with this. I just did a 2 week camping trip to the outer banks NC with 3 kids and wife. Alot of beach driving and hwg miles 8 hours each way. Everyone was comfy and suv is unstoppable. I have also taken it to Dallas TX and back home. I want to go to glacier national park, next.
I wish it was somewhat larger and got better MPG.

Margate330

I'm drooling, I'll stop now. lol
I bet that thing rides nice, my 4 Runner was good on the highway but with the cloth seats trim package it didn't make "honerable mention. lol

geko29

With cars continually advancing, I suspect most people's answer is going to be "whatever car I have now."

And so it is for us. The Q7 we bought 4 years ago is positively lovely for road tripping. Super comfortable and quiet, loads of space, great UI, semi-acceptable audio system (totally should have sprung for the B&O). Adaptive cruise control works very well, and the traffic jam assistant is a lifesaver when an accident or road construction turns the expressway into a parking lot. Tons of space in the cargo area for lots of luggage without eating into the backseat (our 14x14" canopy requires one seat section to be laid down if we bring it along).

In June/July, I drove it on three out of four consecutive weekends to out of state tournaments that were 4-8 hours each way, plus a fair bit of driving around while there. Very happy with how well it did.

mmarshall

Best road trip cars I ever owned?

My two big Buick sedans, hands-down.....the 60s-vintage Electra 225 I had in college, and the 2018 Lacrosse I recently had. Nothing else could equal them for absolute comfort, although the big 1967 Chrysler Newport I had in the mid-70s and my late Father's 1965 Thunderbird were also very nice on the road.

SW17LS

Do you find that putting it into sport mode helps with that? This trip I was out I-78 to 68 through the allegheny mountains. 68 is very curvy and has lots of up and down grades. I found that when I would get into a curvy section I would put it into Sport mode and that took almost all of the floatiness and lean out of the suspension. I actually adjusted the individual mode to use the sport suspension but maintain the comfort steering and engine for fuel economy (usually I have that set to sport engine and comfort everything else.

To me the issue with the LX is driving range due to the small-ish tank and poor fuel economy. What kind of range do you get on the highway? Can't be over 400. What I like in the S560 (and the LS) is the range is well over 500 miles on the highway.

In fact I ran afoul of that. I left with 3/4 a tank, which meant I needed to get gas about an hour after I left Washington, PA on the way back. I usually only use name brand top tier fuel, and I had a hard time finding it, I stopped at two Exxons that were out of fuel, and all the exits were all no name stations I had never heard of. I finally had to settle for Sheetz. I like never having to worry about finding gas when I'm on the road.

1111GS

For me, it's the GX. It's not a great around town vehicle like my daily but I never had a hesitation heading out. Once it's on freeway, it's very nice. If I needed some more responsiveness, I just switched to "manual" mode and it seemed to do the job just fine. Mileage isn't good but getting gas never was an issue for us. The only thing I wish it would improve is how to control cruising. I really like how German make their cruising control. Now every time I'm on long distant drive, I'll be on cruise control. This way I can get my foot off the pedal and just use my hands. This is really what that makes the long drive more enjoyable and less tiring IMO.

SW17LS

Just wait until you have a car that you only sorta have to use your hands too. Those big BOF SUVs are really nice on the highway.

The best way to describe the distronic is, your input tells the car where to go, and it works out the mechanics of getting it to go that way. Gone is any focus on keeping it in the lane etc. Having a car with and without it, the impact on fatigue of long distance driving is huge.