Suffering from big city burnout (chronic crowds and traffic), my girlfriend and I decided to take a little road trip. The destination? Solvang, CA, which is about 130 miles up the coast (and about 15 miles inland) from Santa Monica. A quaint Danish town located in Santa Ynez wine country, Solvang makes for a nice one-nighter get-away. We sampled Danish pastry, visited the Solvang motorcycle museum and checked out the Gainey vineyard. The long-term car choice was between our two Mazdas; I opted for the MS3.
Follow the jump for notes and pics of the trip.
The 'speed 3 had most of my basic requirements for a road trip vehicle -- firmly supportive seats (especially for my lower back), navigation, satellite radio, Bluetooth, generous cargo capacity, effortless power and a decent ride. Although its display is rather small, the navi worked fine with clear visual and auditory prompts. We left L.A. at 10 am to minimize traffic and were able to cruise at 70-75 for most of the way up there on the 101. My only notable gripe with the MS3 was the abundance of road noise that had me cranking the stereo's volume to 30 (forget "11"). To be fair, said noise was/is "optimized" via the grooved concrete superslab that makes up much of the freeways around these parts.
The MS3 averaged 24 mpg for the trip, not too bad considering ambient temps were 90 to 105 degrees, the A/C was on if the car was, I enjoyed the curvy parts of the 154 and the EPA highway estimate is 25 mpg.
John DiPietro, Automotive Editor @ 16,978 miles
f1ndler says:
11:17 AM, 08/26/10
How is it possible? Every time you take a picture of MS3, it's super clean as if it just rolled off the assembly line. Does it shake the dirt off on its own? Or you just wash it every time before taking a picture of it?
thegraduate says:
11:19 AM, 08/26/10
@f1ndler,
Zoom-Zoom, brought to you by Teflon.
feloniousmonk says:
11:36 AM, 08/26/10
True story, I once had some Dutch guy threaten to beat me up in Solvang. I still don't know what I did, exactly. Someone said that he thought I was hitting on his girl.
Anyway, it's a very pretty town that doesn't fit well with the speed3's maniacal grin.
sherief says:
12:32 PM, 08/26/10
Solvang is a lovely little town. There is also the added benefit of having to drive the winding roads through the beautiful Los Padres National Forest to get there.
Did you have Æbleskivers with breakfast? mmm...
jederino says:
01:06 PM, 08/26/10
@sherief, I loved visiting Solvang as a kid, and Aebelskivers too!
johnnyturbo says:
01:20 PM, 08/26/10
@sherief,
Agreed -- the drive through there is fantastic, what with the aforementioned curvy sections of 154 and the beautiful scenery near Lake Cachuma. And yes, I had me some AEbleskivers!
liquoredonlife says:
02:09 PM, 08/26/10
Even more impressive is that every time a shot of the rear hatch pops up on the site, I can never see the specks of soot that typically collects on there. In case anyone's curious, it's the design of the exhaust tips that are the biggest contributor. Not a big deal if you wash and wax your car on any sort of regular basis or get some new tips welded on.
toxic_science says:
02:23 PM, 08/26/10
I love the gainey vineyard! We once did a department wine tasting "Teambuilding" event to Gainey, Firestone, Bridlewood, and couple of others.
My most favorite winery from that area is Sunstone (organic). They have a great Syrah.
teflon says:
07:07 PM, 08/26/10
Did you get a chance to drive the back roads over to the little town of Los Olivos? That's a nice drive through ranches and wineries. If you haven't been there, check out this scenic tour.
http://www.intownlive.com/california/los-olivos/downtown.aspx
stovt001 says:
07:28 PM, 08/26/10
Next time go the Paula's Pancake House for breakfast. I go up to Solvang at least once a year. Some great aunts and uncles used to be the Royal Scandinavian Court for the Christmas parade.
thomasbarker01 says:
09:09 PM, 08/26/10
I am a fan of hatchbacks, and the more of these I see (and hear), they bring a smile to my face. Good looks, practical, fun to drive, good gas mileage, what's not to like?
eldaino2 says:
04:42 PM, 08/31/10
ah solvang! i used to go there with my fam all the time as a kid, and several times when i was older visiting cali after we moved to nc. gotta love those abelskeivers! (we bought the little pan thing to make them.)
paula's pancake house is awesome too. as is the dagger/knife shop.
the gti would have fit in better there ;)