Just got back from a 2,000-mile round trip to Sunriver Oregon and have a few thoughts and photos to share. Things got off to a rough start as we were to enjoy a three-day rafting/camping excursion starting in Happy Camp, Calif. As the moody photo above shows, the wild fires still raging in Northern California put a kybosh on the Klamath trip. We discovered the Veracruz's recirculation mode on the HVAC system was up to the task. We didn't smell any smoke until we popped the door open to phone the rafting company (there's no cell service in Seiad Valley). With only a grey-white sky and an orange sun at noon, we had no choice but to push on.
After a single night in oh-so-cute Ashland Oregon, we made a bee-line up Hwy 97 to Sunriver. Interesting side note: As our Veracruz is without sat nav, we relied solely on printed Google Maps for our A-to-B reckoning. Hey, guess what? Google Maps are not fool-proof, just fool-resistant, as one set of directions told us to use a road that the gentleman behind the counter at a General Store said was for "Serious off-roaders -- y'know, like 4-wheel drive thrill-seeker stuff." Ah, nope, not us.
It was still a very long day for our 4-year old in the second row. She discovered Mary Poppins (and now has practically memorized it from start to finish) thanks to the Veracruz's rear entertainment system. Can you say Supercalifragilisticexpyalidocious?
Truthfully, I wouldn't even have attempted such a long drive without some sort of child-mellowing device. Side note: I didn't discover the set of I.R. headphones concealed in the armrest until I flipped the other part of the second-row seat back up this morning for the major vacuum job at the car wash. Toppins a Bag! We could've simultaneously listened to XM channel 51's 30 Days of Coldplay(ed to death) all the while.
Sunriver was beautiful and restful, and I'd recommend it to anybody for a family vacation. On the way home, we stopped in Old Town Sacramento, Calif. With most of the tourists put to bed, and most of the flamboyant signage obscured by night, those couple of city blocks do a convincing job of portraying the wild west beginnings of California.
Neat, huh?
In the end, the Veracruz racked up 2,002 miles and averaged 18.8-miles per gallon while running the AC full time with at least 200 pounds of luggage, and about 300 pounds of passengers. The best tank took us 402.2 miles on 19.968 gallons for a 20.1 mpg best. Only after looking up the Veracruz's fuel capacity here at my desk (20.6 gal,) did I discover we were a mere 9.1 miles from running out of fuel. Also, the on-board "Range" indicator stops giving an estimate at something like 30 miles, but the self-generated average it supplies is nearly spot on. Our experience showed it varies by between 0.1- and 0.9-mpg to the true mpg we later calculated.
Chris Walton, Chief Road Test Editor @ 14,900 miles
2003expo says:
05:44 PM, 08/ 6/08
OH MY!!! I just discovered XM channel 51's 30 Days of Coldplay today and drove the long way home....I was soooo excited! The Veracruz seems like a great truck btw.
smrtypants44 says:
05:56 PM, 08/ 6/08
now i have heard things about fuel pumps being not accurate due to temperature variations and such, so could it be possible that your mileage calculations are the wrong part and the car is correct?
ahightower says:
06:03 PM, 08/ 6/08
Oh no! I would scream if I'd listened to kids' DVDs for 2000 miles only to discover the headphones after the fact. I'm opposed to in-car DVD players in general, but if I was borrowing a car that had one, those headphones would be the first thing I'd look for.
ahightower says:
06:05 PM, 08/ 6/08
...but at least it was Mary Poppins and not some obnoxious SpongeBob or something.
bradyholt says:
07:46 PM, 08/ 6/08
That's "tuppence."
stovt001 says:
10:33 PM, 08/ 6/08
Funny, my parents took my sister and I on roadtrips almost exclusively when we were kids and I can't imagine missing out on those by being engrossed in some stale movie I could see any time. We of course brought books if we needed entertainment, but for the most part roadtrips were all about seeing stuff. To this day one of my favorite sights is driving through northern Arizona. Kids these days don't know how to live.
[out of crotchety old "I walked twenty miles uphill both ways to school when I was your age" grandpa mode.]
The trip looks like fun. My wife is from the Sacramento area, so she approved of your choice of stops. Old Town Sac is a cool place.
Bummer about the fires taking some of the fun out of the trip. It looks like a pretty fun trip otherwise.
And since I only like Coldplay's newer material, I've avoided XM 51. 30 days of Coldplay is a little more than I can handle.
sumimasen says:
07:27 AM, 08/ 7/08
Your daughter may be different of course, but I wouldn't count on the headphones being the godsend you think. My daughters can't stand them (in general, no experience with the Hyundai ones), there's barely room for them between the head bolsters on their Recaro booster seats (or on their old Britax child seats), every time they move their heads, they get pushed out of position (this would happen even without the bolsters), the power switches are often too easy to inadvertently bump and turn the headphones off, and they eliminate any remaining vestige of child/parent interaction. Without the headphones I can at least still point out interesting things outside and hold pop quizzes even if they are watching a movie.
wobbly_ears says:
08:31 AM, 08/ 7/08
One thing I like about newer Hyundais is that they are very comfortable when you have to take a long trip & your butt needs to confy, not sore.
The Hyundai Azera, Veracruz and Genesis all have soft touch materials everywhere a human body might come in contact with. Not having hard plastic parts where you rest your arm or lean on your shoulder etc, makes for a very comfortable drive.
Unfortunately this aspect is something most other manufacturers miss out. They would have hard plastics to be 'trendy' rather than confortable.
The germans are really good at this nitty-gritty of passenger cabin comfort. Glad to see Koreans have also got a hang of things. It is a pity that Toyota has gone the other way (cost-cutting?).
Chris Walton says:
08:37 AM, 08/ 7/08
@ smrtypants44: Our usual fill-it-until-it-shuts-off, plus one-more-click on slow-fill technique is less than scientific, so I wouldn't doubt it's slightly off. At least the whole staff has been instructed to do the same.
@ bradyholt: So noted, and do you have any suggestions to get that song out of my head -- and don't get me started on "Step in Time." Talk about an annoying ditty.
@ stovt001: Believe me, the DVD was always the last resort. She also had a bag with 20 library books next to her, as well as 6 dolls, snacks, and two enthusiastic and willing parents to keep her busy.
@ sumimasen: No need to apologize, and we tried the head phones briefly yesterday, and the results were sort of weird: my daughter sat motionless and wide-eyed as if spooked by the experience. Getting the volume right was a trial-and-error experience, but she still yelled when she was trying to tell me what she was hearing. Cute but creepy.
-Chris
jahfakin says:
10:23 AM, 08/ 7/08
smrtypants44,
"now i have heard things about fuel pumps being not accurate due to temperature variations and such, so could it be possible that your mileage calculations are the wrong part and the car is correct?"
You are correct....