Vacation Car Dream Features

After more than 1,500 miles in four different cars, I asked the wife and kids for features they’d like to see automakers add for future road trips. Here are their suggestions (patents pending, of course):

Voice-activated navigation/entertainment options: After getting a taste of this in the Flex, we’d definitely like to see all cars add this functionality. It’s a great way to let drivers keep their focus on the road. Of course, when drivers are trying it out for the first time they may be distracted, but they’ll get used to it. I did.

Chairs that turn into beds: Like the ones the airlines have in first and business class. It would make sleeping more comfortable when you drive overnight.

Little Things Add Up for Honda Pilot

There were no “wow” factors for my family in the 2009 Honda Pilot, but there were a lot of little touches that were noticed and appreciated.

First off, the third row splits 60/40. While that may not seem like a big deal compared to the 50/50 split in the other third rows we tested, it was a huge help. We returned home in a 14-hour trip over two days, and giving the kid in the third row that extra 10% of space made things much more comfortable. In addition, as my 11-year-old pointed out (and his siblings agreed with him), the Pilot had the most legroom of any of the four cars we tested. That meant a lot more peace and quiet for my wife and I up in the front row, I can tell you.

Vacation Bonus: Free Car Wash!

It’s been a great vacation so far, and now I want to share some of that good fortune with you. Actually, it was my bad fortune that could work out for you.

At Cars.com, we like to return our fleet cars filled with gas, and when we travel long distances, we like to also run them through a car wash and vacuum them out. When it was time to trade the CX-9 for the 2009 Honda Pilot, I took the CX-9 to a Texaco on Huffman Mill Road in beautiful Burlington, N.C. I filled it up ($3.79 a gallon) and, when prompted, said yes to a car wash. Oddly enough, the computer didn’t ask me which car wash I wanted, so it charged me for the most expensive wash they offered. Still, with the gas discount, it was only $5.

I drove the CX-9 around to the open door of the car wash, and it was …

In. Pieces.

Mazda CX-9 Packing and Gas Mileage

Three legs down and only one more to go. This was the shortest leg of the four, and the CX-9 fared all right. Packing it was far easier than packing the Journey. First, the damage for Leg 3:

• We drove a total of 495.9 miles, split between 268.5 miles of mostly short trips and 227.4 miles of wide-open interstate driving.
• 8 hours (split over three days) with the wife and three kids
• We averaged 15.61 mpg in short-trip driving, 20.14 mpg on the interstate, and 17.77 mpg overall
• Roughly 28 gallons of gas consumed
• Average cost of $3.79 a gallon
• Total fuel cost of $107.90
• Highest gas price seen on this leg: $4.39 a gallon in Washington, D.C.
• Lowest gas price: $3.49 a gallon in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

The CX-9 wound up with the worst mileage (by far) so far on the trip. The CX-9 certainly felt sprightly, albeit noisy, and felt a lot roomier than the Journey.

As for packing the CX-9, it was much easier than the Journey.

Mazda CX-9 a Little Roomier

While I enjoyed driving the 2009 Dodge Journey from New York down to Burlington, N.C., the kids were a little more, er, compressed. Yes, the Journey has three rows, but it’s a relatively narrow seven-seater, and there’s not a lot of storage space behind the third row.

So when we picked up the CX-9, everyone breathed a little sigh of relief. Part of that was because the CX-9 is a little wider, and more than 6 inches longer. Getting into the back was a little more difficult without the Journey’s easy access lever, but once back there the kids were definitely more comfortable in the CX-9.

Mazda CX-9's Nav System a Mixed Blessing

Starting the third leg of our trip, we headed from Mechanicsburg, Pa., through Gettysburg and down into Washington, D.C., before arriving in Burlington, N.C. The navigation system was crucial for this part of our trip, given that we were driving in an area we’d never driven in before. How’d the CX-9’s nav system perform?

It was a little Jekyll and Hyde. On the positive side, it was a touch-screen, which we at Cars.com always prefer. On the downside, it was apparently in the employ of the oil companies, since it kept sending us in circles (some of which we were able to avoid, some of which we were not) instead of making a left turn. Let me repeat that: The CX-9’s system twice asked us to make a circle — including one that was nearly a mile long — rather than force us to make a left turn. Now, I’ve been driving for nearly 30 years, and I’ve gotten pretty good at those left turns.

Dodge Journey: Gas and Packing

OK, with Leg 2 of the four-leg vacation done, we’re halfway through the trip and have just finished up with the Dodge Journey. We didn’t drive nearly as far as we did in the Ford Flex, and, overall, fared a little better on mileage. Here’s the damage for Leg 2:

• We drove a total of 516 miles, split between 276 miles of mostly short trips and 240 miles of wide-open interstate driving.
• 12 hours (split over five days) with the wife and three kids
• We averaged 18.1 mpg in short-trip driving, 23.3 mpg in interstate driving and, through the power of math, 20.51 mpg overall
• Roughly 30 gallons of gas consumed
• Average cost of  $3.92 a gallon
• Total fuel cost of $119.26
• Highest gas price seen on this leg: $4.22 a gallon in Honeoye, N.Y. (south of Rochester).
• Lowest gas price: $3.49 a gallon in (of all places) Mechanicsburg, Pa. 

The Journey’s mileage was not terribly different from our first car, the Ford Flex. Some noticeable differences: The Journey accelerated much more quickly, drove like a lighter car (at least until I loaded it up), and it liked to coast at higher speeds than the Flex did.

Travel Tales: When Features Attack

Whenever I’ve got a new car and want to surprise the kids, I get them to try out one of the features that I think are cool in order to see what kind of reaction I get. This is a transcript of one of those moments. It may not be word-for-word, but it’s close.

Suburban Dad to 15-Year-Old: Hey, check out that latch on the floor by your feet.

15-Year-Old: I’m not kicking your seat.

The Wife, after looking back over her left shoulder: He’s not kicking your seat!

Suburban Dad: No, no, take a look at the latch on the floor by your feet.

15-Year-Old: Yeah, what about it?

Suburban Dad: Try lifting it up and see what’s underneath it!

15-Year-Old: Hold on. (Pause) Owww!

Suburban Dad: What’s the matter?

15-Year-Old: Leg cramp!

Suddenly, a painful throbbing noise fills the car. The left rear window has gone down, and because it’s the only window down, it’s creating a horrible pressure in all of our ears.

Whole Family: Aaahh! That hurts! What is that! Close that window!

15-Year-Old: I’m trying! 

(He finally gets window closed.)

15-Year-Old, laughing: When I laid down my arm on the armrest, the window opened up.

And… scene.

This is something to keep in mind if you get the Journey: the lock-windows button just behind the driver’s seat window switches may turn out to be your best friend. And don’t spring new features on kids while you’re driving.

The Suburban Dad's Vacation blogging

Dodge Journey: That's Entertainment!

When you leave one car and get into another, it’s impossible to not judge the second one against the first. In the case of a 2009 Dodge Journey on the heels of a 2009 Ford Flex, that’s a bit of an unfair comparison: The Flex is larger, has more options and just feels more affluent. Of course, that’s because it is. It costs roughly 10 grand more than the Journey.

Entertainment is a key concern when you’re on the road for as long as we’ve been on this vacation. The Journey’s system helped keep everyone entertained, but not quite in the way I’d hoped — my kids were amused with my inability to handle the Journey’s joystick-managed nav system. If we’ve said it once at Cars.com, we’ve said it a million times: No more joysticks with nav systems! We definitely prefer the touch-screen approach, and I’m personally very much in love with the Flex’s voice-activated nav system, despite the flaws that come with being a new system.

Dodge Journey Built-In Booster Seats Interest Mom

Leg 1 of our vacation is over. The Ford Flex has been picked up, and a brand-new 2009 Dodge Journey has taken its place. We don't hit the road for another day, but one feature has already gotten some attention.

One of the advantages of testing cars while on a family vacation is that you can tap into the different life situations of your relatives, in my case my in-laws. I asked one of my wife's cousins, who has three kids (7, 5 and 3) to take a look at the just-dropped-off Dodge Journey's built-in booster seats.

This cousin spends a lot of her driving time carrying around booster seats, switching them from car to car when necessary, trying to remember them when she needs to, trying not to leave them behind when spending more than a day at one location.

She was impressed with the Journey's built-in boosters. "They're very easy to use," she noted, pulling on the strap and sliding the booster seat up and into place with only a motion or two. "This would be a lot easier than hauling around my boosters."

But she noticed something about the boosters that I hadn't: When the seat moves up and into position as a booster, the kid's legs dangle below that shelf — how much depends on how tall the child is. Those legs can then bang against a thinly covered edge; that worried my wife's cousin.